We had a wonderful visit from granddaughter Poppy on Tuesday. She was definitely in teacher mode. I know I'm totally biased as you would expect but remember she's only eight years old as I relate the following.
We started by writing her 500 words for the BBC's competition. When I said we, she wrote it and I typed it in and filled in the forms as instructed by the competition.
It's all about a zebra that has a zebra father and a rabbit mother. The Zebbit teaches a dazzle of zebras (yes that's the name for a group of zebras). It all ends with the zebras appearing on a television show called Strictly Come Prancing which features a judge named Anton Du Beak who is a duck and a piggy man by the name of Craig Revel Hardboard.
Poppy loves writing. Can't understand where she gets that from.
I then had to have a French lesson with You Tube videos on the television. This involved dancing around whilst singing strange counting songs and songs about feelings.
Then we did sudoku, played chess and backgammon. She made tea and an apple crumble with grandma and we did some more frontal adverbials ( don't ask).
I wrote a number of sentences as instructed. "Could you just put a comma there for me," Poppy instructed and remember she's only eight.
Eventually the visit had to come to an end as we swapped granddaughter Poppy for grandson Elliot to go to watch Norwich lose to Middlesbrough. The fact they were going to lose was inevitable. It's what happens at the moment. I won't comment on the football other than to say that the most enjoyable part of the whole evening was the Bovril drink at half time.
"Pie" said Elliot and to make sure I heard, he repeated it three times.
"Pie, pie, pie."
I think this suggested he wanted a pie. So we slunk out five minutes from half time to avoid the rush and came away with a pie and Bovril.
We are very proud of Elliot as well as he got an outstanding report at a recent parents evening. He is the oldest pupil in his school. Just a day older and he would already be at High School.
I have always said to him "be a leader and not a follower."
This is something I feel strongly about. I remember from my own schooldays how some kids just followed the pack and were led into areas they shouldn't have been led into.
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This seems like a week of having things cancelled. Yesterday I mentioned turning up at Hethersett Library to celebrate the first birthday of the community post office only to find the date has been changed. Yesterday we were going to How Hill on the Norfolk Broads for a craft fair. Luckily I checked before we set off and found that due to flooding in the area the event has been postponed.
Postponed, cancelled and abandoned are three distinctly different things that are often muddled. To my mind postponed means called off temporarily with the event being rescheduled for a later date. Cancelled means it has been called off and won't be rescheduled. Abandoned means an event has started but then been called off. Abandoned events may or may not be held at a later date.
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I sometimes think this country has gone mad. Actually I often think this country has gone mad. I refer to the current spate of flooding. One man on television who has had his property flooded pointed out that local residents had warned planners what would happen if they built on a flood plain. Guess what? They built on a flood plain and guess what, the locality flooded. But of course what I always refer to as men in grey suits as usual knew better. Talk about arrogance.
There was a very interesting piece on the television with Government minister Therese Coffey who has scarcely covered herself with glory over the past couple of years.
She was visiting one of the flooded areas and telling local people that everything would be ok and sort itself out.
A resident was having none of this.
"This will all come down to us. We will be expected to do all the work and take all the stress. We want you to do the work," was something along the lines of what was said to Ms Coffey who just looked away in embarrassment as the television cameras rolled. For the MP this was something that went horribly wrong. I suspect she or somebody from her department had been keen to have the cameras there but it didn't go how they wanted it to. In fact in football terms it was a bad own goal.
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I have always tended to trust people too much. My mother did the same. On Breakfast Television yesterday was yet another warning about avoiding being the victim of scammers.
I have well documented my problems early this year with scammers. I was one of the lucky ones who pulled out before I lost too much money and then managed to get back everything I had lost through the good work of my bank.
But now I feel I'm at the point when I have become so suspicious that I assume every telephone call, every email and every piece of mail is a potential scam if it comes from someone I don't know. Of course this can pose problems as I avoid answering queries that are kosher and which could be costly if I avoid them..
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When famous people die, the praise is always fulsome and very often I suspect false. In the case of Bill Kenwright I suspect all the comments were genuine.
I have been aware of Kenwright ever since he was Gordon Clegg in Coronation Street - the son of Betty Turpin - her of the hotpots.
Gordon was the son of Betty when she was Betty Williams and unmarried but I'm sure you have no interest in that fact.
Bill Kenwright always struck me as a friendly and genuine character and this has been borne out by genuine comments following his passing. He has taken lots of stick in his position as chairman of Everton Football Club but there is no doubt that he was a passionate, friendly and kind man loved by many.