Tuesday 22 May 2012

It's Tuesday, I'm Thinking Out Loud

Anything new with you and yours this bright Tuesday morning? We are here:

- Last couple of posts, I've only received email notifications for half of the comments. I needed to be in Blogger to find the rest. Odd. Is this happening to anyone else? Seems quiet in blogland at the minute, too. Though a couple of lovely emails from new readers really brightened my day last week. Thank you!

- When you have dinner with old friends you haven't seen in over a year and you wonder if you'll have anything to talk about and it turns out you do - that's lovely. The Tall One has met his match here: their son is six months older and 6'5"

- The Tall One and I ended up in out local Students Union building the other day. Long story. Weird experience. "See through that door?" I said, "that's where I picked up your father many, many years ago.." "Stop!" said The Tall One. "That's Too Much Information." And it probably was.

- I bought some October Afternoon 9 to 5 (shame the 8x8 is simply loose sheets and not a paper pad this time round). The whole look immediately suggested one quick story - about the time I played Rosemary the Telephone Operator from Hong Kong Phooey. In a school play.

- I discovered a new alphabet I love the other day. This one from Dear Lizzy Neapolitan. Love that font.

Sandra has some in stock here

and the chipboard pieces too:


- There is a new sketch challenge up at Sketchbook365, with a closing date of June 14th. Plenty of time to enter!

- Teenagers do not need six weeks off school to take six exams, especially when two of the exams are on the same day. It's a huge waste of time which seems to involve watching a lot of sport on tv.

- But it's only another six weeks til the holidays. Hurray!

Happy Tuesday...


31 comments:

Scrappi Sandi said...

I am so with you on the study leave front! I now have Alex eating me out of house & home, with only five days out of the rest of term when he needs to be in school for exams! I' having to insist that mornings are 'revision' time & only after lunch can the X-Box be turned on!! Today is gloriously sunny so I might drag him from his pit to take a walk with me...just a village circuit...to get some fresh air & to live in the 'real world' for a short while!!

I love the new sketch challenge over at Scrap365...as soon as I saw it I knew exactly how I wanted to use it!! May's sketch didn't fire me up at all & I missed the deadline!!

Enjoy your day! :D

helena said...

I'd been thinking blogland was rather quiet at the moment too. but I have been getting email notification of all comments

Love those font stickers

Lou said...

liking the title Sian. I'm always thinking out loud...get told off for it too lol!! What's new.....quite a lot this week surprisingly and at last the sun is shinning!!

Nice to hear you have been enjoying yourself. Had to smile at your comment with TTO! October afternoon is very tempting...look forward to seeing how you use it.

Carmen said...

Do you know what, I had noticed there wasn't so many blog updates popping up in my feed. I just thought for once I was on top of my reading! Maybe it has gone a bit quiet... ooer. I know I haven't been posting so much as am just waffing. Or snoozing, or waggling inbetween snoozes. Would probably get a bit boring for everyone :P

When is it they get 6 weeks off for exams? My two just done SATS and some GCSE. Sharrup about holidays - can't belive we are coming up to that time already!

Lizzie said...

Ah, so it's not just me that's so busy I haven't been commenting? I have read more posts than I've commented on recently (which is very naughty of me - I usually try hard to comment, even if it's just "hello"! - must try harder.)

Love the comment from TTO about "picking up your father..." - so funny!
And I don't remember having ANY study leave when I took my O-levels. We weren't even off school. We went to school, either to revise, or to take exams. And we had far more than six - wall-to-wall exams for about 3 weeks, for most of us. Humm...
Different when we took A levels - then we did have study leave, but only from the week before, I think, then over the whole exam period. But we still went to school most days - I mean, how else would we have rehearsed for the VIth Form Review? Or socialised and gossiped? Or used computers (no "home computers" then!), or had help with job applications (for those who needed to do them? VIth Form Common Room was busier than ever!

Love that alpha too - it's the colour that I really like. Another thing to add to my "I-really-shouldn't-but-I-might-buy-this" List!

And it will be half term soon. Amazing... my lad has almost completed a whole school year in his "new" school!

Enjoy the sunshine and having TTO for company (when he crawls out of his pit!).

Barbara Eads said...

Does that mean your summer break is 6 weeks long? The schools are wrapping up here for the summer. The kids get about 10 weeks off, a long weekend in fall, 2 weeks at Christmas, a long weekend in winter and a week off for spring break. There are some areas that go "year round." I'm not sure how their breaks work. Either which way, the exams come before the breaks.
Barbara

Karen said...

Happy Tuesday to you! We've been home for three days now and I've yet to upload the last set of photos from the memory card. It's amazing to me how many things are on my MUST DO list after being away. I'm happily reading blogs for a few minutes (to avoid getting started on the list!), but hoping for another day of crossing off lots of items so I can get down to the creative stuff. I do have one card I made to post. It's on that memory card too.

Amy said...

It is a little quiet in Blogland, I have noticed it to be that way at this time of the year since I began blogging, for the next couple of months too, during the northern summer. Sigh, just as it turns into perfect scrapping and blogging weather down here!

scrappyjacky said...

I don't remember having any study leave back in the dark ages!!!
I agree about the font....lovely.

Melissa said...

I've been "out" of blogland for a week or so, but I seem to be getting my email notifications now that I've got a post up!

That is a great alphabet! I just picked up a "few" new items myself at my recent retreat. :>)

Cheri said...

Your school schedules seem so different than ours. Our girls get about 3 days for six exams and the exams are taken in school, so they aren't even "off" - they just have 1/2 days. There is no real time allotted for studying - probably just as well, because mine wouldn't use it well anyway. Two weeks left until my girls are done with school and ready to graduate. Yikes!

Jimjams said...

DD is, like Cheri, allowed half-days off before an afternoon exam but has to go into school to revise. After half-term I think she can stay home. The boys were, like yours, off for WEEKS and WEEKS!!! The biggest difference seems to be the number of exams left to take - DD has just 7 left, having taken so many last year and during this one. When I sat O-levels we stopped school a week before the first exam, but often had 2 or 3 exams in a day for different subjects - arghhhh!!!

Susanne said...

It is so interesting to hear about school over there - how many days of school a year do high school kids go, I wonder. Over here it is between 180 and 185 (I do think perhaps we could benefit from a longer school year). And at my daughter's high school, they have 8 classes, so they take exams 2 a day for the last 4 days - and those are all full days - exams in the morning, review sessions for upcoming exams in the afternoon until the last day. No time off before - their last break was in late March. I think that most of the kids like it to be over quickly and then they are out for 3 months.

And your son is definitely quick on the uptake, because "pick-up" didn't click with me right away (a sign I'm getting old, no doubt).

And I thought the cyberspace had been quiet too - and I was getting older messages showing in blogger but not in an email last week. Weird.

Maria Ontiveros said...

No study leave here either. The high school kids have a finals week, with a few finals a day. We're down to 11 days of school left! But we have a four day weekend in there.
We are finishing up our travel plans for the summer - just booked a hotel in Belfast!!! Will email you directly with more details.
Rinda

debs14 said...

Let me put the other side of the coin to you. It's LOVELY and peaceful in school with years 11, 12 and 13 either silent in exams or on study leave ;-)

Jennifer Grace said...

I like this mixed post.

I'll bet TTO is driving you mad being at home so much!

I'm loving the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan too at the moment, I just received the jar and date stamps and I can't wait to play with them! x

Clare said...

I have this to look forward to next year with my DD, I do remember my study leave back in the Dark Ages but I was such a swot I spent it all revising! I'm liking the Dear Lizzy bits a lot, its one of the best AC ranges for a while.

Alison said...

looks like some lovely goodies there Sian!
Alison xx

ComfyMom~Stacey said...

Study leave? Oh I wish. We had exams at the end of the semester, no break to study for them.

I'm not getting all my comments emailed either, but I am on Word Press. Maybe it's a google/gmail thing?

laurie said...

i love those chipboard pieces - you always seem to have the cutting edge! i have been given the "tmi" message myself many times so i got a big chuckle at your school visit with the tall one. :-)

Paula - Buenos Aires said...

At school here we have three months off in summer and two weeks in winter. No other breaks.
Love those chipboard jars! Thanks for the 365 challenge link. I like to work from sketches.

Beverly said...

Six weeks, wow, that seems extreme! But ahhh the quality time with TTO ;) As a few others have shared, it's very different in the States. We have 11 days left, yay!!!! Since I took this interim position I have been reading and commenting less, once school is out I'll be back immersed I'm sure. I have been getting the comment notifications though. I think mine is comment 22 so it appears your blog is being well loved ;)

Gem's Crafts said...

I think I'm adding to the quietness of blogland, I rarely get the time to come on here anymore! Luckily baby is asleep at the moment! I have been known to talk to myself while going round the supermarket, but now I talk to Alissia and I don't seem quite as mad!

Lisa-Jane said...

Hong Kong Phooey?! Now that's a blast from the past that made me smile even wider on this beautiful sunny morning. I am going to ban myself from Facebook more so I can bloghop more - I'm missing everyone's stories!

Sian said...

It certainly sounds as if school study traditions differ a lot around the world. Our long study break is for the students in their last three years of school as they work for the exams they neeed to get into university or use for job applications

Amanda said...

Hong Kong Phooey now I've got to know more.....and you've got me singing the theme tune now.

I'm loving the Dear Lizzy range too.

Ifa said...

J doesn't need all that time off to play on his xbox. This week, we have 2 days of exams only, likewise next week. I am loving those Dear Lizzy products but my supply is much depleted.

Becky said...

I am quite with you on the study leave thing! Because Ben left his High School after GCSE's to go to college he was actually off school from May to September, just going in for his exams. When he returned in September he was not in the mood to study at all and struggled for the first term. Fortunately it all turned out well in the end! Hope the exams go well for the Tall One.

alexa said...

Nice list, and so with you on the exam and study leave front. Keep 'em learning, I say!

Nathalie said...

What a fun post! Can't quite imagine a Hong Kong Phooey play but we still borrow the cartoon from time to time because my kids love it!

Missus Wookie said...

Princess's school ramps up the 'extra hours' around exams so she's doing more not less. Next year will be different as it's an extra but usually there isn't any study leave offered - except at school.

Yes I've noticed it's quieter, summer/sun/life I suspect.

Love that Neopolitan and just got it myself - the chipboard made me smile. I can SO see it on a page you've done but not one of mine :)

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