There is. And it appears to be bottle-shaped....



Wrung-Out-Bag x

Let's hope for a non-bottle-shaped upturn...

Cyrilla-World has just taken another downturn .

Off to bed, I think...

Hope things look better in the morning.

I am bugged by the thought that tomorrow I have to take my parter on a motorway drive and then fight my way through town traffic, one way systems and road works in order to arrive at the dental clinic on time. Last time we did it we took one hour on from home to the end of the motorway and then nearly two hours to find the place.

We have bust our satnav and the Google route didn't seem to be up to date. I'm sure I shan't remember the way there and as for the way home - well I was once advised that when you are lost the best thing is to simply drive round until you bump into something you know. I don't wish to take that advice too literally .....

If I don't appear on the forums by mid-week please send out a search party!

Just found out that Alpha Male Jazz Cat's half term is different to mine!!!!!!!!!!! BAH HUMBUG (never too early)

This is all HIS fault for teaching at some blasted posh nobby school where you aren't allowed to work unless you have at least a triple-barrelled surname.

Mutters crossly.

Bah Bag x

I hope you're OK, Cyrilla and Bagpuss.

ARRRRGHHH! Nearly Monday. (That was my scream for today.)

We are just SPLENDID..............

Bath, wine, big plate of food and c*rap tv await....

Bx

I have to say I've had better times . But there is one potentially cheering bit of news regarding the venue for next year's BKA Summer School...

Ah - you have got to get yourself in a place where you don't dread Mondays any more. I did this several years ago and it is HEAVENLY.

This is my dream!!

Doesn't his blasted posh nobby school have a two-week half term? I know some of them do, so it might be worth double checking just in case you overlap. If not, then BAH HUMBUG is fully justified

Er, yes...he does get two weeks as do I but because his school only runs a ten-week term his half term is earlier than mine.

Pretty hacked off to be honest so I'm going to bed in Bah Humbug mode.

Long-Term (no pun intended) Bag x

Very sympathetic. It sounds suspiciously like you're feeling much as I did when boyfriend-one announced he was doing a PhD at somewhere in the country where I didn't have a hope in ###### of getting a job. Cue long distance relationship for the next 4 years.

Maybe we need a society for pining forumites.

(Grump grump, and he's never around to Skype me when I'm feeling sad and lonely and like Monday has snuck up on me.)

I resisted the temptation of gardening for the weekend.

However two small hand-forks still mark the spot where I got bit last week.

I couldn't understand my husband's audacity! He suggested I picked them up off the lawn!

I'm now wondering if I have any alternate uses for a pair of secateurs, a pruning saw and pair of sheers (other than cutting back the lavender, pruning the roses and getting control of the other shrubs).

I don't care what the forks do to the Lawnmower!

Ooh, I await to hear about this with interest... (It would be good if 'twere the big posh school opposite my flat, though I guess the chances of this are fairly slim!)

Ah...it is a Big Posh School but sadly not the one opposite your flat!!

After having had a joyous weekend at which my daughter was licensed as a lay reader, I got a puncture on the A1 yesterday, with 87 year old mother in law on board, and a boot so full, I couldnt have got anything else in. Had to unload to get spare out, then had to get a new tyre (unload a second time) as I didnt want to drive 120 miles on the temporary spare limited to 50 mph

I commiserate with you on this one. I think those temporary spare tyres are on of the most dangerous things ever invented -as is the idea that everyone should drive with their lights on. I daresay it is fine for anyone living near the Arctic Circle but making it complusory for those of us living in the sunny south is the height of stupidity. One scientific magazine is already claiming that it is causing accidents rather than preventing them.

Can anyone tell me why I'm seeing posts listed as a sort of tree diagram, and what I can do to reset this? Thanks.

On the top left hand side of the topic, you'll see an options box.

Drop this box down, and change your display mode to "Standard" and you'll be back to normal.

Thanks!

Btw, it's actually on the top right hand side... (Thought I was going mad for a few minutes there! )


As this is such a long term, could you take an extra week at half-term to coincide with AMJC and make it up at the end? Or, failing that, create two extra surnames for yourself and find a job at his school?

Right.....left.....one of these days I'll get it err ....correct.

So... which way do you hold your flute?!

The right way, of course!

(Used to have this problem with my driving instructor a lot:

Him: "Turn right at the next junction."

Me: "Right?"

Him: "Right. Then turn left."

Me: "Right."

Him: "No. Left."

Me: "Right."

Him:"NO!"

etc...)

Opposite side to the violin, of course

Please don't ask me about left and right.

When I'm navigating hubby and I will frequently have a conversation that sounds a bit like this:

"At the cross-roads turn left"
"Is this a real left or a Jo left?"
"Erm a Jo left, which is really a right, I mean my side (the car is left-hand drive and I've lost my normal reference point)."
"I thought so!"

I really can not tell the difference except when I'm driving!

Knowing that I have no sense of direction, Mr Willobie wrote out a schematic plan of our journey to make it easy for me to navigate for him. The final straw came when I was faced with a left-pointing arrow labelled "Turn Right"...

W

For two hours this afternoon I thought I was on the way to sorting things out - not it's all gone pear-shaped again!

W

hahaha, my OH is a brilliant navigator I absolutely HATE navigating, don't have a problem doing it as such but I'm not a good passenger at all, so when I am a passenger in a car I have to completely switch off or I get unbelievably agitated, you have to be able to pay attention without actually driving to be a good navigator.

A few years ago, Bag and I were on a river holiday with a very funny old college friend of mine (he is a primary head teacher).

We were coming up to a lock and the conversation went something like:

Friend: Which side are we going in?
Me (steering): Port!
Friend: Which side's that?
Me: Left!
Friend: Which side's that?

I did laugh the other week when I told my friends 4.5 year old to turn right when she looked up at me and asked 'do you mean right or Mummy right?'

A long time ago a friend of mine was going out with a new-ish boyfriend and, after travelling with them as a passenger during this conversation I somehow felt the relationship wasn't going to last:

Friend (navigating): Take the next right

BF (driving) took next right turn.

Friend: What did you go down here for?
BF: You said next right!
Friend: You knew I meant left

My scream is to do with my search for a new home to buy and more specifically having someone else in charge of my money that I will use to buy my chosen property!

It is causing issues.

I think there is a need for a 'I can't tell my left from my right club' However it can have advantages. When jumping into a left-hand drive car for the first time in Madeira, I sat at the controls and knew that the pedals were the same way round. I instantly switched and automatically looked in all the right places, even turning anti-clockwise around roundabouts felt completely instinctive. I'm absolutely certain that the same faulty wiring that meant I can't tell left from right made this easier for me than it did for my husband who is continually frustrated by my left/right confusion. I also can read and write mirror writing as quickly and easily as normal text. Can read the Newspaper of the person sitting opposite me in a train, can read upside down writing (and little things like that!).

It may be a real pain in some circumstances and given time to prepare I usually get it correct. However as anyone with this problem knows just as you think you've sorted it, you make a blunder!

I don't know who is worse off the person who knows where they are going but can't get left and right or the people around them who are stuck interpreting the random wrong directions!

I am having a very stressful time at work at the moment - I didn't realise quite how stressed I was until I was trying to practise earlier. I had decided to work with a metronome to make sure a tricky passage was perfectly in rhythm and started a few bars before the passage in question to get the feel of a piece. Three times I found myself forced to stop because I couldn't remember how many crotchet beats I needed in my minim I decided there was little point in even attemping the "tricky" bit

I lost my keys this morning. Took DS2 to school having locked up with the spare keys after a cursory scout around where I might have dropped them. Was VERY pleased that I decided to come home for one last look as I found them in the recycling bin which was all ready for collection.... I suppose I should be grateful that it was just the recycling not the icky rubbish! And even more grateful that I checked! FYI tipping the bin contents over the lawn isn't fun in drizzle. Still, all's well that ends well.

I can't see (well)! I'm going to uni this weekend and had my eyes tested last week - apparently they haven't changed but they offered to replaced my lenses as they were a bit scratched and it's the last time I'll get this for free. All seemed well.

Got them back yesterday to discover that they're completely different - turns out they had written down my prescription wrong 18 months ago and I've been wearing useless glasses so damaging my eyes! Now I've got the right prescription, it's double the strength in one eye and quite frankly I can see better without the glasses. And they're trying to pin their error on me by saying I shouldn't have taken the prescription somewhere else to get glasses made... When I am perfectly entitled to do so! Gah...

This sounds awful! I don't know if you actually damaged your eyes this way, but you probably suffered the discomfort of a number of headaches and could well have felt the effects of eye-strain for a period of time.

As you say you did something that was quite legal and it was your original optician who made the mistake. It may be worth your while discussing this with a General Practioner either today or tommorrow or once you have got to Uni. (Find out from other people in higher years on your course where the best practices are in the Town/City you are moving to and if necessary get a referral to a consultant Opthalmologist to see if any long-term damage has been done).

Only then will you see if there is a case for medical negligence. Then have a word with your parents over how you all want to proceed. Do not rush in and use a company that advertises widely on a 'no-win no fee' (pro bono) basis even if this your best option. There are solicitors and solicitors!

I'm sorry that this has happened to you. It is important to ascertain what, if anything has happened first. Then deal with it in the best way you can (which is not alone, and in a timely fashion, but without rushing).

Lots of sympathy as I know how wrong or useless prescriptions for glasses can be really awful. Don't let them get away with it.

I hadn't realised it was possible to get a wrong perscription and not notice. Don't they normally do checks after you have them fitted to ensure that you can read okay? I often find that its a bit of a jolt after a new pair of glasses, if my perscription has changed a lot, but I've always adjusted to them within 24 hours. Perhaps you'll find your new glasses okay after a day or two.

Mind, all this is based on my experience with a -11 shortsightedness perscription. If they only gave me lenses half the strength I needed, I'd be walking into objects...

Broken guitar strings, children turning up with dusty old guitars retrieved from Great Uncle`s attic and expecting to be the next Jimi Hendrix in one lesson! Fitting lessons round school timetables-the staff don`t want them to miss the core subjects and the children don`t want to miss PE or playtime! Children who are not sure whether they want to sign up for lessons or not. Pet dogs and little cousins who eat tutor books and twiddle tuning pegs......oh the life of a Peri.

Did anyone see Waterloo Road last night for the most ridiculous representation of music teaching in a television drama?

No - but I will make a point of watching it now

I did! Offset the protests in my mind with another conversation something like 'ooo I want that flute and a 'cello and a .........' etc! I'd cry if an orchestra was set up like that! He's also the drama teacher O_o dunno how that works... (or at least he did both when he was last on in series 3-4, me? too much Waterloo road? never! )

Not nice to come back straight into to stress at work after the summer break... hope it gets better soon and stops interfering with musical endeavours.

I've just heard that a boy (Y10 I think) that I taught at primary school has died suddenly. He was very musical - loved my choir, played clarinet...and his gran was the very first 'Maria' in the West End production of 'The Sound of Music' (before the film).

This is the third death I've heard about in a week - plus hearing that an old friend has cancer, (and his cat died yesterday), and another problem too...

You really are not having a good time of things at the moment Cyrilla are you?

Especially as you are already going to a funeral today. Year 10, that's 14/15. Death is always sad when it is somebody you know. (My paternal grandmother died a few weeks ago) and in somebody so young when you would like to think they had the rest of their life to lead it is very tragic.

As far as friends having cancer, it isn't always terminal anymore and I have been inspired and amazed by the courage of the friends and relatives I have known who have suffered including those who have died. It still does not make it pleasant, but I'm trying to look at things in a more positive light.

My whinge: I have the most appalling completely intractable back-pain. It affected my sleep and is nagging all the time. I'm doing my best to just keep plodding on, but it is extremely difficult to try to keep a smile on my face or my concentration levels up.

However compared with some of the rest of you...

So sorry to hear that, even worse when they are so young. My thoughts are with you.