Sunday, June 17, 2012

the stars are not wanted

So. Red's funeral. It was...good. If that's possible. I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen for a long time. Some of them not since Afghanistan, some of them longer than that. Years. None of them since I got back, though a lot of them have been home longer than I have.

His mum sang Bonny Portmore. She used to sing professionally, and she still has a lovely voice. She told me afterwards that she used to sing it to him when he was little.

Wore my dress uniform for, I think, the first time since the last funeral I went to. That's probably 90% of the reason I don't like it.

L was wonderful. Held my hand through a lot of it. Stealthily. I think he wasn't sure whether I'd want to tell people about us. I probably should've reassured him beforehand, but I just didn't think about it. I wasn't much use that week generally.

Sorry. I'll do a post about the visit with my parents soon and then I'll stop being so bloody depressing for a while, promise. I know this isn't what you signed up to read. 

137 comments:

Greg Lestrade said...

This is meant to be your blog. All that matters is you blog about what you need to write about.

I'll try and cheer up too. It's catching, right? Miss you. Don't know how long I'll be. Not too long, hopefully.

pandabob said...

we signed up to read about your life John the good, the bad and the ugly ;-)

I'm glad the funeral was a positive experience. I don't think Lestrade would have behaved differently if you had reassured him beforehand to be honest he'd still have done things as stealthily as possible to ensure your optimum comfort :-)

I hope you had a great day the four of you :-)

Anonymous said...

I know what you mean about funerals. I hope that you can get an evening off to go spend time with your friends from the Army sometime when it isn't a funeral now that you've seen them again, but I know how hard it is to be the instigator of coming together without on occasion for it. Feels like pulling the shell off.

As for the rest of it -- I didn't sign up to read anything in particular. I just stumbled across the blogs and found myself caring about the people. Whatever you write is okay.

rsf

John H. D. Watson said...

L - miss you too. I hope it's not too bad.

Small Hobbit said...

I signed up for the Good (you and Lestrade and the boys and the fun things you do), the Bad (because life goes that way at times) and all the innuendo that can be squashed into a couple of blogs.

Greg Lestrade said...

It's...not as bad as it could be. In the Tube, too, so race against time. Can't have a dead person getting in the way of people's important travel plans.

Would you do me the honour of coming on a date with me this week?

Maz said...

John, we're your friends, or as close it as is possible over the internet. I know we don't really know you, truly, but even so we're still friends, I think, in the little circle of the blog community. Friends stick it out in all sorts of times; good, bad, or marmite-covered.

REReader said...

As everyone else, I signed up to read your blog, John, so whatever you want or need to write is what I signed up to read.

Yes, it's possible for a funeral to be good. I'm glad Red's was a comfort (if that's the right word).

Take care, L!

John H. D. Watson said...

L - I would love to. Just tell me when.

Everyone else - ...thank you. Really. I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating: you're very kind people.

pandabob said...

kind people attract kind people I always think John :-) you are a better man than you ever let yourself believe and the little community you have allowed to grow up here will be with you through good or bad for as long as you'll have us :-)

Anon Without A Name said...

What they all said.

I'm glad you found the funeral useful (not the right word, but I'm sure you know what I mean). I always think funerals should beabout the dead, but for the living.

Anonymous said...

My mom always said that funerals were more for the living, and I've found this generally so. They're about honoring the dead and reconnecting with those still with us. I'm glad his funeral was able to help you do both.

And as others have said, I'm here to read about your life, the good, bad, and ugly. Life takes you by surprise, no matter how well you're prepared.

I remembered this when Thursday night the apartments next to mine caught fire. Things happen and we handle them the best. It seems like a lot has happened to you recently, and you're doing the best you can.

I hope you have a good date this week!

Greg Lestrade said...

I will. Give me something to think about. I'll ask Mrs H if she can mind Sherlock.

It's bloody hot down here, but shouldn't be too much longer, I hope. Sherlock go off to bed okay?

John H. D. Watson said...

On funerals being for the living...yeah, sounds about right. You have to mark these things somehow, births and marriages and deaths. I can't stand ceremony most of the time, but it helps, for the important things.

L - he is...in bed. Finally. I don't know if he'll stay there yet.

Greg Lestrade said...

Good luck with him then.

Sherlock, please, please, be good for John. If you really don't want to sleep, you can always read a book.

Anonymous said...

Sorry that this is rather completely off-topic, but what is the title of the post about/from? It is kind of poignant and I'm just curious.

(Ditto to what everyone else is saying).

~Cylendelmar

John H. D. Watson said...

It's from a poem by Auden:

http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cooneys/poems/auden.stop.html

Anonymous said...

Yes, of course, John, we only want to know your cheerful, just like you are with us.

Seriously, that's been a damned peculiar fortnight or so and even if it hadn't been you've a right to feel how you feel and to share those feelings.

Also respect is due to Red's mother, that must have been difficult but I suppose it's the last thing you can do for them. Makes me glad that all my sibs at least hung on until after my mum and dad died.

Lancs. Anon

Anonymous said...

L, as someone who is completely dependent on a subway system for most of my transportation, I will admit that I would want you to work quickly if you were here. But I also know perfectly well that I'd survive being on shuttle buses and so will the people there, even if they're grumpy about it, so take the time you need.

rsf

Anonymous said...

<3 i love you nanny john

REReader said...

I hope you managed a reasonable amount of sleep in the end, L.

I expect you're not awake yet, Sherlock, but since I hope I'll be asleep when you do wake up--I was just wondering how the newts were doing. Maybe you could make a report for us on the newts and tadpoles this evening?

Anonymous said...

I was going to ask whether you were feeling better, but that might imply that you were somehow required to. So I'll go for just saying I'm thinking about you!

Hope that Sherlock manages school all right

Lancs. Anon

Greg Lestrade said...

Got in about half two, showered, went to bed, John let me have a lie in and now we're both going to drop Sherlock at school before both heading off to work.

pandabob said...

Good luck with Sherlock and I hope all 3 of you have nice days :-)

Small Hobbit said...

Why do weekends never last long enough? Not that I have any reason to complain, not having mine brought to an untimely end.

Best wishes to all Badgers for a good week, and especially L, J and of course, Sherlock.

Greg Lestrade said...

Well, he went to school, and will now stay there (sometimes it is good to think he not only has the school watching him, but security too... Although he has given them all the slip before, so...)

I'm at work and nearly asleep.

John is, I hope, healing the sick and performing minor miracles as usual.

Hope you're all having a nice day.

Anonymous said...

Caffiene. Caffeine? The stuff in coffee. Sounds like a good idea, even if I can't drink coffee.

For the security people too!

Whyisitmorning?

rsf

REReader said...

I've been asking that since I woke up at 5:25 and couldn't fall asleep again, RSF! (And it's the second spelling. :))

Here's hoping everyone has a pleasantly uneventful day. (Aside from--I hope!--the latest on the pond denizens later today... :))

Greg Lestrade said...

Coffee is always a good idea. I've had five or six mugs. Lost count.

REReader said...

I'm still on my first cup of tea, which I think I might have accidentally made decaf out of habit...

Do you really have to work a full day after working half the night? That seems fairly outrageous. (As in, give me a chance to fully wake up and I'll easily work up some genuine outrage on your behalf, L!)

Greg Lestrade said...

I'm not really working a full day. Was two and a half hours late in, and will try to leave early.

But yes, basically, being on call doesn't mean you get the next day off.

Any ideas of how the Met could do it better, send them in. I'd certainly prefer not to have to!

REReader said...

:(

I can think of several ideas offhand, and all they'd really require is adequate (not munificent, just adequate) budget. Which I gather the Met is decidedly not allotted.

I hope you are able to get away a bit early.


(These captchas are getting blurrier and blurrier, and I'm already a bit frantic about unexplained blurries in my left eye. Stop it, Blogger!)

pandabob said...

I guess if they could afford to give you the time off they would employ more staff and you wouldn't need to be on call in the first place!

I hope you get out of there early and home to a hopefully happy house :-)

Maz said...

Bzzzzbrrrrrrshsh;blhe.

Or something. I've been up since 4 am with anxiety over the start of summer camp, my new glasses are heavy and are giving me a headache, and the coffee hasn't kicked in and I'm barely awake.

HOWEVER. I would like to report the new installation of a furry friend - a winter white hamster named Humphrey Luna, after his hamster book hero and the sadly-gone hamster Luna. Talk about a tiny, tiny thing. She's smaller than a mouse, I think, with dark grey stripes down her back like a chimpunk right now, but she will turn silver in winter.

As for scheduling - Hard to say, L. We do flex-time a lot here, which is basically you have a certain number of hours you have to put in, however you get there. So if you work over or are called in above normal shift time, you take off those hours later. I'll be working late Tuesday and Wednesday so long I'll probably end up with part of Thursday and Friday off. But with your job, I don't see how you can do it other than to do comp time - bank the hours you work over your normal weekly shift and take them off as vacation some other time.

Greg Lestrade said...

I think flexi time in the Met would mean no one ever worked nights or weekends.

And right now I'm accruing more holiday than I'll ever have time to take.

AnonyBob - exactly :)

RR - no, we're not.

REReader said...

Yeah, L. *frown* (I'm horribly tempted to go the unfairness route, but I know it doesn't fix anything.)

Maz, Humohrey Luna sounds adorable! Does she change color in winter even if she's kept indoors and warm?

REReader said...

HumPhrey Luna.

(For now I'm going to blame my blurry eye. Just spoke to my eye doctor--he can squeeze me in. Next Tuesday. At 7:15 am. Tell me again why this "health care" system is superior?)

Maz said...

Yes, RR, if I understand correctly. It's more to do with the changing light than anything else. I'll get a picture sometime soon and post it. She really is adorable, with big black eyes and furry little feet.

REReader said...

Neat! And I'll very much look forward to a photo. :)

Maz said...

Oh, here. She looks like this now: http://www.theanimalfiles.com/images/winter_white_russian_dwarf_hamster_2.jpg

And should look like this in winter (I think):http://www.hamsterific.com/images/hamsters/WinterWhiteBobWhite.jpg

REReader said...

That's just the cutest thing! *makes cooing noises*

Greg Lestrade said...

Superior to what, RR? Or just generally superior?

REReader said...

Well, the argument for keeping everything the way it is seems to be that "the US has the best health care system in the world", so I guess generally superior.

NOT.

(Unless you are a large health insurance company. Or a drug manufacturer.)

Small Hobbit said...

Aw Maz the picture of the Humphrey Luna lookalike is very cute. Very pleased to hear about your new addition.

pandabob said...

Hows the early finish looking Greg?

I hope you had a good day at school Sherlock :-)

How's your day been John? productive I hope :-)

(If you happen to read this Mycroft I hope you've had a nice day as well.)

Anonybob

Anonymous said...

Maz - I think I should send pictures of Humphrey Luna to my nephew, who has been sadly hamsterless for a while now. I may have to check with his mother first.

L - I think the Met should look at the effects of shift time a little harder, since it's worse for your health and efficiency to keep switching than to keep a steady schedule over a longer period of time. I grant you, people would push back at six months on nights, but I bet there's a few folks who would find they preferred those hours.

RR - I hope your eye doctor can figure out the blurriness. I've had some odd effects lately, too, but only when I'm walking up to the train station on sunny mornings, so heaven knows what that means.

Mycroft and Sherlock, I just remembered this game and thought you might like it:

http://gambit.mit.edu/loadgame/poikilia.php

You can play online as well as downloading it. So far every kid I've introduced it to has gotten farther their first try than any of the grownups.

rsf (who really wants to go back to sleep now)

Greg Lestrade said...

Hoping to be out of here in the next 10-20 mins. So not that early. But better than nothing.

Danger, if you want anything apecial for dinner then speak, or text or comment. Otherwise I'll be making a flan.

Anonymous said...

Flan is a dinner? I thought it was a dessert!

REReader said...

Thanks, RSF--I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's either allergies or the eyed tops I've been prescribed for the allergies. (And I got stuck at Level 11 in that game--and me a designer!)

An hour early...is an hour early. I hope you get a good night's rest tonight at least!

How was your day, John and Sherlock?

pandabob said...

A few minutes early is better than no minutes early I guess ;-)

I hope you have a nice evening planned :-)

ryo said...

rsf, that game was kind of interesting though I can't say I really learned anything from it. :) Fortunately they kept putting the color wheels up there so I didn't have to remember them.

enjoy your flan, L.

ryo

Sherlock said...

I DON'T WANT STUPID FLAN AND SALAD

REReader said...

No? What is flan, anyway? I thought it was a custardy dessert.

pandabob said...

good job you're having intelligent flan then isn't it Sherlock?

John H. D. Watson said...

Intelligent flan...worrying concept.

I just spent really far too long playing that game.

REReader said...

Did you finish it, John? (I have the feeling I'm going to be only one who hasn't!)

Greg Lestrade said...

Flan is just pastry case with whatever you want in it, with a milk/egg/cheese mix poured in. Same as a quiche. And same as a fruit flan or something...except savoury pastry and savoury filling.

Anyway, Sherlock, you can pick what goes in it, but you're having it, because I've made the pastry now. So either choose the filling or get what you're given.

John H. D. Watson said...

I did. The last level was hard though.

Sherlock said...

Octopus?

Greg Lestrade said...

Right... you can only pick things we have. Asparagus? You usually like that... courgette? Some blue cheese, as well as cheddar?

Sherlock said...

Do we have anything purple?

pandabob said...

Intelligent flan is a worrying concept indeed John but slightly better than stupid I feel ;-)

The flan sounds lovely I hope you all enjoy it :-)

Greg Lestrade said...

err... we've got beetroot. Which is...about as close as I can manage.

REReader said...

That actually sounds quite yummy, L, thanks for explaining.

And I see I'm going to have to try again with that game--only first I have just got in the EIGHTH set of corrections on a book. (2 or 3 are normal. 8 is rewriting, not corrections!)

Does anyone else have the comment boxes disappeared on their computers? I still have it on my Touch, but on my computer there's just a blank space on all the blogger pages I looked at. :?

Sherlock said...

Beetroot and blue cheese!

Small Hobbit said...

I am currently stuck on level 16 and need to get tea!!!

REReader said...

(Never mind about the comments question--I figured it out. It seems Blogger is now using Java script for the comment boxes, and I had Java script turned off as it's a security risk.)

Aha! Blue + red = purple! (In color terms. Not so sure about food. :))

Greg Lestrade said...

what's this game supposed to be teaching me?

ryo said...

L, I think the game is supposed to be teaching you about colors and light reflection and absorption. But since you can just look at the handy wheel on the screen to see how they combing, you don't actually have to learn it to play.

John, the last level was tricky!

I really cannot express my reaction to the idea of beetroot and blue cheese. But hopefully it'll be better than it sounds to me. :)

ryo

John H. D. Watson said...

Have to admit, I did a lot of it through trial and error.

Beetroot and blue cheese flan is...interesting.

REReader said...

That's what's killing me, ryo--I KNOW additive and subtractive colors, and how they work (otherwise known as Speech to Clients #4--why what you see on the screen will never match what you see on the page), I got stuck figuring out how make the game work!

Is "interesting" the same as "intelligent" in flan terms, John? :)

John H. D. Watson said...

It wouldn't surprise me if it turned out to be intelligent.

REReader said...

:D

Greg Lestrade said...

Stuck on the last level too. But I just don't care enough to keep trying. Got pretty much straight through this far, with the odd one or two trial-and-error-restarts.

It was fairly interesting, the flan. Just remember not to panic if your pee turns pink...

John H. D. Watson said...

I'd eat it again. It was just...surprising.

Greg Lestrade said...

I'd currently eat anything provided Sherlock also eats it. I'm waiting for him to go on hunger strike or something. I don't want to get into arguments at the end of the day.

REReader said...

My mother used to tell us that if we didn't want what she made for dinner, we could have a sandwich. (What she cooked usually smelled a lot better than a peanut butter sandwich.)

Greg Lestrade said...

If Sherlock doesn't want what I make he can go hungry.

pandabob said...

I'm glad your tea was nice if a little interesting ;-)

The hunger strike thing is horrible when it happens but sometimes you just have to let them do it sadly :-(

Anon Without A Name said...

Heh - you sound like my Mum, Lestrade ;-)

Anonymous said...

I'm stuck on level 11. Been too long since I played it, and I never remember to look at the color wheel. I think the point of the game was for the person who designed it to learn how to design games, actually. MIT has a class in games design and several of them are online.

I'm going to have to figure out what your kind of flan is too, though, as the only flan I've ever eaten was a kind of custard with caramel over the top. Being able to add things like blue cheese sounds... er... um... odd. Let's go with odd.

rsf

Nony Mouse x said...

When I was young and feeling rebellious, it was always "You get what you're given" if I didn't like it then I could go to bed hungry, only ever bothered a couple of times! I'm up for trying most things but I think I'll have to pass on a beetroot and blue cheese combo, lol! :)

Greg Lestrade said...

Nameless - well...tell your mum she has a very deep, commanding, voice, albeit one that sounds like she's smoked forty a day for far too long ;)

pandabob said...

we plan the meals for the week and write a shopping list while eating friday dinner, everyone gets a say in what goes on the list and what meals we have, obviously I get final say because I have to be able to cook them in the time I have but I can fit most things in. After that if they eat the meals they eat if they don't they go hungry! we do not fall out over it and I don't bother with arguments. I hated meal times as a kid because my mum and brother were falling out about what he would eat and what he wouldn't and it was always so stressful :-(

Sherlock gets enough say in what you cook that hopefully it won't be a problem Greg :-)

Anonymous said...

My brother didn't eat for four days once when he was little. My mom was worried but my grandmother said as long as he wasn't in pain or sneaking cookies at night he'd eat when he was hungry. And he did. An entire box of Frosted Flakes with milk!

Anonymous said...

Well, at least Sherlock isn't too picky an eater. My sister used to make herself vomit if she didn't like what was given. Can't really fight against that, try as my parents did.

I hope you all have a good night, and tomorrow is slightly less exhaustive.

REReader said...

1) I finished the game! (The cyan/yellow/magenta part was much easier for me, probably because that's what I work in--ink.)

2) Your house, your rules. :)

Greg Lestrade said...

AnonyBob - yeah, mealtimes in our house was like world war three some days. I'd often decide I'd rather have quiet than food and go outside instead.

John H. D. Watson said...

Pip - I'm deeply grateful we're not raising your sister (though I'm sure she's now a lovely woman!); I have no idea what I'd do about that.

REReader said...

Suddenly my mother sounds so lenient! On the other hand, we never had any say in what she was cooking or serving--and there were four of us, all with very different likes and dislikes in food.

Kholly said...

We ate what mom cooked or went hungry. Though mom usually wouldn't make things she knew we really really didn't like. I can't stand green peppers (still) and if mom was making stuffed peppers for the family she'd make stuffed tin foil for me. It's nice to be loved.

Anonymous said...

We were pretty good about eating most things when I was a kid. Except for my sister, who could not swallow a raisin to save her life. My mom's rule was that we had to have a "Girl Scout helping" which was three spoonfuls of any new foods, and then if we said we really didn't like it, we didn't have to eat any more.

The only other rule was that if we dished it to ourselves, we had to finish what was on the plate, and that was only instituted after a day when my mom threw out way too much food.

rsf

Anonymous said...

My mum and sister had battles royal about food. My sister says that she actually was convinced that it was impossible for her to eat it especially if it was stew (she doesn't like food touching other food). One night after a couple of hours my mum ended up rubbing Nel's face in the stew. After that we went to this is what we're having if you don't want it I won't dish it up, but you don't get anything else.

She didn't often lose her temper but when she did it was spectacular!

Lancs. Anon

Anonymous said...

Also to be fair she didn't make me eat fish, it was the only time she would cook two meals, everyone else having haddock and mushroom, me having bacon!

Lancs. Anon

pandabob said...

I'll quite happily substitute stuff or not put them on their plates so they don't 'contaminate' anything else as long as it is hardly any more work and I'm asked rather than shouted at. My eldest doesn't like bacon or chips so she gets extra veg instead just as I don't like sweetcorn or melon so I substitute other things but it is all arranged on friday night so we all know what we're doing :-)

Greg Lestrade said...

Lancs. Anon - Yeah, we had massive fights in our kitchen. I mean, looking back, we were all horrible and unreasonable. Shouting, throwing stuff, storming off, being generally ungrateful and I don't know how Mum ever coped. More than once plates or pots got thrown.

pandabob said...

It is often awful to look back on what you did as a kid!! there are one or two things I feel rather guilty about doing but I can't change them I just have to accept them when my kids do them to me ;-)

I hope Sherlock is happily asleep by now :-)

Anonymous said...

I was the only one in my family who wasn't too picky an eater. My brother still won't touch anything green, and he's almost 30. My sister, well, she no longer makes herself vomit, but she doesn't like her food to touch, and will even go so far as to not eat it if it's "contaminated."

I think she's accountable for my dad going silver by the age of 40. ;-)

AftSO said...

I sort of know one of the people who wrote that game. He's sort of a friend of friends, and the gaming world is small, so.

I am currently trying to decide what to make myself for dinner, and I don't like anything I've suggested, so I might have to make myself go to bed hungry. Or maybe I'll make myself tapioca pudding for dinner. I shouldn't, but maybe I will anyway.

ro said...

AftSO - I've been having a lot of those days recently. I usually end up eating instant potato, I'm afraid to say. Fills the stomach, if nothing else.

Growing up we had the 'eat it or go hungry' rule. Given that some days we didn't have enough food in the house to eat both lunch and dinner, we usually just shut up and ate what we were given. However, the minute I moved out of home I swore I'd never eat another sausage. Breakfast sausages were $2 a kilo, and we had 8 mouths to feed, so we ate them veeeeery often. Eurgh. Even just thinking about eating a sausage makes me feel revolted. (Mind you, I've been a vego for 18.5 years, now).

And Sherlock, I like your style. I love both beetroot and blue cheese :)

Anonymous said...

I'm more aware of the truly difficult problems some kids have with food textures these days -- I tend to skim through most of the parenting advice and human development books that come through the branch in order to tease out the useful bits. Makes me glad mom only made us try things. We were allowed to say that we wouldn't eat something again, having tried it, but it was pretty clear that we'd have to choose from whatever was left on the table. The only concession I can remember was that my grandmother made some of the turkey dressing without raisins to stuff the neck of the bird for my sister, while the rest of us got the dressing from the southern end.

We never went hungry, but there was a lot of soup, and I can remember having these huge barrels of dried milk that my mom used to stretch the real stuff. When they were empty I could actually hide inside them, and I must have been at least nine by then.

rsf

Small Hobbit said...

I don't remember having many problems with my two, apart from the constant question of what had happened to the contents of the fridge/cupboards when they were teenagers. My daughter wouldn't eat butter/spread for a while so did without, which wasn't a problem and refused to eat green vegetables for years, but as she ate fruit we didn't worry; she now eats a wide variety of veg and insists she's always liked lettuce but that we wouldn't give it to her.

Anonymous said...

AftsO, if you run into the friend who knows the friend you might pass along that the game is still much enjoyed by the people who stumble across it. My nephew says the only problem is that there isn't more of it.

rsf

AftSO said...

Will do, RSF.

By the way, have you folks seen duolingo.com yet? Free online language tutorials (but only for a few languages so far), and you can help translate web pages while you're at it. I ran across a news item about it today, and I'm already kind of hooked!

Desert Wanderer said...

You know, Doc. I think you've posted enough for the year. Maybe you should take a break until, say...January? Or write another 100 posts. ;)

John H. D. Watson said...

Ha. I psychically sense without even looking that I've made 69 posts this year... Am I correct?

Desert Wanderer said...

Brilliant! How'd you know?!

John H. D. Watson said...

What, you don't believe in my psychic abilities? They're specific to the number 69 only, so not a lot of real world application, but...

Desert Wanderer said...

I'd disagree about the real world application. That's just lack of imagination on your part. :P

Small Hobbit said...

Two days later and I've finally completed Level 24.

Desert Wanderer said...

Don't give it away, SH. I'll get there eventually!

Small Hobbit said...

Why should I make it easy for you DW - I struggled enough? And it was good to know that my brain could still solve it!

pandabob said...

As it's hit 200 over the road I came here to say I hope you're ok John and I hope you get home soon Greg :-)

Greg Lestrade said...

Moving too.

Think it says too much about my state of mind that my first thought was 'what sort of cheese?'


I'm going to be a bit late, love. Witness being hassled by suspect.

John H. D. Watson said...

Cheddar, from his lunch.

All right, thanks for letting me know. Good luck.

Anon Without A Name said...

Argh, sorry for tipping you over the 200 comments, I'm quite sure Lestrade would rather have heard from John than from me.

Cheese?? The mind boggles.

Anonymous said...

Well... It could have been worse. He could have thrown the whole sandwich.

I'm sorry today wasn't a good one. I hope tonight is calmer and tomorrow is a better day for everyone.

REReader said...

(Sorry--I didn't see that it was over 200 on my iPod.)

John--That must have been an...interesting...lunch. Was it worked out reasonably well? As for the rest of your day--I hope it smoothes out for a nice evening.

KHolly said...

I suppose at least cheese is fairly soft. There are more dangerous food stuffs that might be in one's lunch.

Will Mrs T pass his book along to the new teacher next year? On the one hand it might be nice to start with a clean slate. On the other hand consistency of rules can make life easier to deal with.

Greg Lestrade said...

What does he have to say for himself?

Being insulted by a homophobic 8 yr old here. Brilliant. But it is mainly sorted out. Sort of.

pandabob said...

Was there a reason for the cheese throwing or just 'he felt like it'?

I kind of feel sorry for an 8 yr old who has been educated that way Greg but I hope you're OK.

Greg Lestrade said...

Yeah, AnonyBob. Just despairing slightly.

The kid is from the family we're helping too. But still felt the need to tell me to.... yeah, well , won't repeat here.

REReader said...

I'm sorry you had to have that thrown at you, L. "Despairing" fits, definitely.

John H. D. Watson said...

Lovely...I can see you're having a great day too.

He said she was "being mean"...

Greg Lestrade said...

Sherlock, want to explain why you think it's okay to throw things at anyone, ever?

REReader said...

Not to suggest that throwing cheese (or anything else) is an appropriate response because it's clearly not, but did Sherlock expand at all on "being mean"? That might mean almost anything.

pandabob said...

It's so nice to feel that your help is appreciated isn't it Greg!!

'being mean' isn't much better than I felt like it is it :-( I hope Sherlock can work out how to explain himself eventually

Greg Lestrade said...

He'd better explain himself.

Going back to the yard for the bike, then coming home, Danger.

REReader said...

Well, in all fairness, Anonybob, it's not all that rare to feel a reason without being able to articulate it, even as an adult.

(Of course, throwing things isn't an appropriate reponse for even very bad feelings. Which in this case might be "I'm extremely unhappy about this situation," or might be something else.)

Anon Without A Name said...

Oh, Sherlock :-(

John, Lestrade - sounds like you're both having unnecessarily painful days. Hope you manage to have a more peaceful evening, eventually.

pandabob said...

If everyone has had stressful days maybe tonight isn't the night to talk about it Greg?

Small Hobbit said...

And seeing it's a blog crawl and Friday night I've brought the drink. Sounds like I won't be the only one who wants one.

In my opinion cheese is much better eaten than thrown. Best bit of today - it was pizza Friday!

John H. D. Watson said...

It was something about not being allowed to go out to see the pond after lunch the way Mrs T always lets them do. Apparently playtime is at a different time in the older class. He got upset, threw cheese, got put in time out.

Also the sink is leaking.

pandabob said...

Is the older class a mixed class as well John?

I'm glad Sherlock's been able to explain himself a bit, understanding why he did something is hopefully a step towards him stopping himself before he does it next time :-)

Greg Lestrade said...

Which bit of sink? Taps or waste pipe? I'll fix it.

I'll also be having words with you, Sherlock, about throwing things.

REReader said...

Ah.

Well, Sherlock, leaving aside the question of throwing things (which I'm sure you are hearing all about from John and Lestrade), I'd like to make a suggestion based on my own experience, okay?

When you're told you can't do something you usually do (which is for sure upsetting, I know), it usually is a good idea to ask why you can't do it before reacting. (Sometimes it helps to breathe a few times before asking, or count to ten in your head, so that you sound calm and not upset, because people are nicer when you don't sound upset or angry with them--that doesn't really make so much sense, but it's true.)

Because very often there is a good reason, or at least a good-enough reason. Like this time, when the reason was there isn't really enough room for everyone to have a good playtime outside at the same time.

John H. D. Watson said...

L - taps. I think I made it worse, sorry.

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