Rowan Tree and Red Thread

We had my daughter's school's winter fair yesterday and had a good time of it, with plenty of baked goods, Christmas decorations (see previous post) and sundry stuffing of faces. My M&M cookies all sold so I'm pleased.

After the chaos of the fair we had friends round on Sunday night for a board game. We had our first play of Trias, and found it an interesting game, though one with potentially painful end conditions that may screw the player to the left of the one who draws the comet. I loved the little dino pieces (Meenosaurs I suppose, if the little fellas in Carcassonne are Meeple) and the gradual separation of Pangea that the tile movement rules produce.

Final scores were Myles 29, sammywol 27, irishkate 19 and alaimacerc 17.

From October 2008

It's time for dressing up at my daughter's school, as they have their Halloween party before next week's mid-term break. She's gone dressed as a devil ('a fire fairy!' she insists) and the school yard this morning was full of ghosts, witches, skeletons, axe murderers and one Dalek.

I'm waiting in the car outside Rowan's school. At 1.30 I'll collect her and return to work for the hand off to Sam, who is currently holding a consultation hour in college for her students.

I'm listening to a mix of David Sylvian on the iPod and the gentle snores of boychild in the car-seat behind me. They combine surprisingly well.

Back at work I've fiddly stuff to do with a user who wants Blackberry service but doesn't want a Blackberry. He's got a shiny new Nokia e90 that's much nicer, it seems. More of a pain to get working too. Sigh.

Christmas hols are coming. Just keep focused on that.

Today the whole family are off to Rowan's school's winter fair. I'm under instructions not to spend all my cash buying back the lovely marzipan treats my wife made for the fair.

Bah.

sammywol and I had our first parent-teacher meeting today with Rowan's new teacher. It went fine, we learned some useful things, passed on some of Rowan's feedback and generally were all grown-up and parental.

I don't know why, then, I touched my face or held a hand up to my face defensively several times during the meeting. I must have residual 'teacher issues'. Thankfully, Rowan's teacher does not appear to resemble any of the teachers of my primary school days at all.

A couple of pics of Rowan's first walk to school from last week.

Well, we survived.

Rowan was excited as anything but managed to keep to the schedule and we arrived in good time. We couldn't really get Oscar's buggy into the classroom so Rowan said her goodbyes to Sam in the school yard and I saw her into her class and settled her down.

The playschool has obviously had its benefits as Rowan got quickly into the swing of things and waved me goodbye without a bother as I left.

Sam and I, somewhat shellshocked by the whole business and doubtless surprised by the relative ease with which it passed off, rewarded ourselves with a trip to the Libery Grill for french toast, pancakes and bacon. Yum!

We mooched around town until 11.30 when the kids were let out early. (Usually they'll finish at 1.30 but they're eased into the first week gently.) We collected Rowan, rewarded her with a trip to Waterstone's bookshop (can't start the indoctrination too early; a trip to the bookshop is a treat for me too) and then gamely slogged our way home.

Day 1 done only another 12-15 years or more of education to go.

Just this evening I met up with an old school friend whom I haven’t seen since a holiday in Canada back in 1988 (that's nearly 20 years ago for those of you counting), and whom I haven’t seen regularly since I graduated from high school in 1986. He’s now working in Leamington Spa and holidaying in Ireland for a couple of weeks with his girlfriend. It was great to see him and chat again after all this time, and pleasantly nostalgic to share old war stories from our gaming youth. He’s living the dream and now works with a computer games company designing games for a living.

I'm feeling all warm in the glow of role-playing memories from the distant past. The couple of pints of Guinness help too, I guess.

'cos I was at a school meeting for the first time. Last night I went down the Cork School Project, where Rowan is enrolled to start in 'junior infants' in the autumn. It was the registration and basic meet and greet sort of thing. I was really impressed with the principal and his team, all organised, all enthusiastic. It's a little school in the middle of the city, multi-denominational and co-ed.

There's an open day on the 8th of June when we can bring Rowan along to meet the teacher and look around. She's already talking about 'big school' and she's quite excited that a couple of kids from the crèche are going to be in her class, including one kid who's just left the Montessori, so there'll be a reunion soon.

Rowan's going to school in September. Wow.

Me am smart!

My daughter has been attending for the first time this week the creche provided by the university I work at. She's taken remarkably well to it, excitedly talking about "playdu" (play group) in the mornings and not too upset to be left to the tender mercies of the horde of 2-3 year olds and harassed staff.

Of course, last night she had a fever of 39.7 deg C (103.5 deg F). She didn't even make it to the end of the first week without catching something. I supose this is a good thing: she's getting the immunities she'll need to make it in the rough and tumble world of the play group. It's a bit sad to see her sniffling and sore, but in general she's responding well to infant paracetamol and ibuprofen and still active and upbeat.

In fact, despite having caught a cold I think she's in better shape than either of her parents after the first week. See my wife's (sammywol) posts here and here for her take on all this.