PAT M

Good for you Indie, good luck with the meeting.

indiebird

Thanks Pat I've told OH that I expect him to be there at the school this arvo when I pick the kids up in case Miss Sparkly corners me then! He said 'No point. I don't understand a thing they say... can't believe you understand it all either.'
'Well that's where you're wrong' I said. 'I got into the zone on wednesday night and I understood it all and went to our Italian lesson and understood all that too, didn't you notice?' No reply. He really doesn't like it when I can do something he can't.... it was the same when we went swimming when we were first going out. We went once, he saw that I could swim waay better than him. He's never been near the water since! Men can be funny sometimes can't they?!

Lorna at Vicenza

They can be a right royal PITA.
The swimming story reminds me of my swingball one. I got my sister to bring over portable swingball for the kids last summer and he challenged me to a game. I haven't played tennis for donkey's years but I beat him hands down so he had to turn it into best out of three! I didn't tell him my poor shoulder was killing me the next day

Poor man has only been home for a week and I'm already biting my tongue. It's nice of him to empty the dishwasher but why he can't put stuff in the same place where I have been putting stuff for the last 10 years is beyond me.

Great work on your Italian Indie and best of luck for today's meeting.

indiebird

Meeting is on Monday at 2pm with the Presida, but Miss Sparkly will either a) corner me and get in my face after school or b) make a big show of her displeasure with me when I wave at H at the end of school. I just wanted a bit of moral support. I know it sounds stupid but I get paranoid if I'm on my own!

Lorna at Vicenza

Doh - I knew it was Monday so why did I say today? I've just thrown away the weekend

If Sparkly does corner you today just keep saying "scusi non ho tempo ora" and make a dash for the nearest exit.

Wish I was a bit closer for the moral support and I'd probably feel paranoid as well if I thought they were ganging up on me.

TestaRossa

My OH won't sledge when we go ski-ing 'cos I can do it and he can't!!

Anyway, good luck today and Monday!! Just remember there are worse things in life....

indiebird

yeah you are so right Testa. Enough feeling sorry for myself (for today)!!! Miss Sparkly did the zero eye contact thing so my fears were unfounded! Ho hum and both teachers just signed my note in the diary. H's class went to a project in a nearby town today. It's about encouraging kids creativity and striving for excellence or something. Anyway they all wrote stories a few weeks ago and these had all been printed out and displayed there and other schools and classes had done similar things. H said a lot of the other things put their stuff to shame but I do know that he really enjoyed writing his story so I told him that he should be proud of his work. He also came home with a pop-up card they had made and he's showing me how to make one tomoz! ...he wants oil pastels now though... I suppose a bit of creativity never hurt anyone....

TestaRossa

Lol! Glad your fears were unfounded! Get your ducks in a row for Monday! Shame you couldn't come to Siena tomorrow, it probably would've helped hearing face-to-face what others thought you should do.

indiebird

What?? Sue the lot of them!!??

I am a bit gutted about not going tomoz.. would have liked to have met Annika and just have a general nice laid back day.... got a lesson with a girl who just needs to memorize a piece on Violence against women to get her to pass the English module of her course! Yawn!

TestaRossa

I'm not actually sure how laid back it will be - but maybe that's me! I get a bit stressed meeting new people - why I like the internet, I can stress without you all seeing me! I'm also stressing that Antonia will behave - I'm trying to convince myself that it doesn't matter, as long as she doesn't hurt herself, damage property or hurt anyone else or their property, it doesn't matter!!! You can tell it's working can't you??? Just how much will I have had to drink by the time I get back on the train then?!

indiebird

No, good point... !! Hope she does behave for you though. Do you have problems?? or are you worried about when she gets with other kids or when you get with other grown-ups?? Must admit that mine can either be angels or a complete disaster! Depends on how kid friendly the peeps are that I'm with too... we have a friend who has thankfully gone back to UK now but he was good with Julia but hated H and thus H played up when he was with us... which just went to highlight (to him) what a little git H was....

TestaRossa

Lol! Know what you mean! Just finished packing a bag for tomorrow. No clue what the weather is going to do, so that is a pain too, plus I need to take Antonia's booster for the car we are going in.... Anyway....She's on a "points" system at the moment. Being with her 24/7 means I get everything....So it builds up. I've explained to her that's why I sometimes blow up over what must seem like nothing. I demonstrated yesterday by saying that day she had made me cross 5 times since the morning and the fifth time was when I exploded...Now I have started counting "incidents" for her so she can see exactly what I mean, since yesterday we are on 27!! I've told her if she hits 100 by Monday she has to go to school while I pick the kittens up.... I think I am going to have to practice restraint too as I want her to go!!! Good exercise for both of us!! She is, slowly, getting it though. And yes, she is worse when there are other kids and adults around as she knows I don't like her showing me up or making me look like a "mean" mum - she is very good with the tears, so they are incidents too....Will let you know how many we end up on tomorrow....

indiebird

yes Julia is like that. To be honest she can be worse because she is so stubborn and had no qualms about 'showing me up' in front of other people. Especially Italians! She does the tears thing and then other people say 'awww poor little thing, go on, let her have the toy/ magazine/ sweet' Drives me mad. It's her manipulation of the situation which is the most annoying though!!

Hope she's good for you today and you do have a fab dayxxxx

TestaRossa

Had a great day, but ended up on 30 points! Didn't help that she was rude and yelled at Cristina who owns the other site!!! Luckily it was over something and nothing, but I jumped on her as it pretty unbelievable! She also managed to get completely soaked going out in the rain without a rain coat...As she already has a cough, it has now got worse....good one Antonia!! A few of us were chatting about it afterwards though and the conclusion was that it was normal Italian manners for a child but when done in English it just doesn't translate well! I don't like it in either language, and nobody there did either, but we all agreed it was Italy rubbing off on her!!

indiebird

Well 30 was better than 100 I know what you mean about Italian manners not translating well and I don't mean that as a criticism. I actually think our kids get a hard time of it all really. I've watched H act exactly the same way as an Italian kid but because he is English people are expecting him to say 'please' and 'thankyou' and he often gets told off at the swimming pool for banging his card on the counter to get someones attention just the same as the Italian kids do... they say 'your English, you should be polite.' I've also noticed that the pleases and thankyous are not always there when we're in the UK either and then they get told off for that too.