hallo halloween

all quiet on the paranormal activity front...

got my pumpkin by my side...

and my torch...

what's that?

daaaarggggh!!!!

quick! scarper!

heh heh heh

what are we teaching our kids?

In Big Dog Little Dog, “a bedtime story”, click here! a large and a small dog with diverse tastes in winter holiday activities, cars (and how to drive them) and, well, taste (one eats greens, the other eats the beets) live together. Now I don’t mind this a bit. Nor do I mind the fact that one plays flute, the other the tuba nor do I even mind that these dogs can talk and use the phone and do everything human beings can.

What I’m bothered about is the bird and the beds.

At the centre  of this small story is a dilemma. Two dogs, one tall, one short are tired at the end of their winter sporting day so go to a small hotel where one goes upstairs to his room and gets the big bed, the other goes to his room downstairs and has a small bed. (I’ve suddenly had a flash in my head along the lines of how there are some really  massively important political things going on in the world and here’s me going on about children’s books. I mean hell I’m not even slagging off plumbers…..

The dilemma isn’t really at the centre of the book anyway, it’s kind of the final quarter or third. A bit where the story verges away from being about how one dog likes one thing, the other another and concentrates instead on how this hotel has only a room with a big bed and one with a small bed. And wouldn’t you know it, they’ve been ill advised in their choice of rooms.

The weird thing is the problem isn’t resolved by the dogs themselves, the Bird has the Word on this matter. This is a bird which until now has very much been a by-stander in this tale. He tries (unsuccessfully) to hitch a ride with then when they drive out to the mountains, he’s there at the window watching both of them fail to get a good night’s sleep, but what is his relationship to them. And if Ted likes one thing and Fred another, what does the bird like?

The bird isn’t even representing a middle way – OK he says don’t make big problems out of little problems but even that’s tricky to map onto the dogs themselves and surely as a support character his role is just to highlight / cast light on the central issue of the story – that one dog likes one thing and another likes another.

Now I know what’s you’re saying. Big dog likes the big bed, little dog likes the little bed, but this isn’t a preference thing – the bed issue is a physical barrier that needs to be hurdled – an issue to be resolved and not just a matter of taste.

Maybe my biggest concern is that up until this finale, Fred and Ted seem intelligent, talented, well rounded dogs with a vital connection to the world around them, varied and active interests and a fantastic friendship to be admired by everyone because they don’t simply tolerate each other’s preferences, they positively embrace them and let the other excel in his own lifestyle choices. The beds and the birds reduce them to two dumb animals who can’t even match their sizes to the furniture around them.

dress to impress…

or at least to keep the rain off

yes, Arlo really is singing Singing in the Rain.

hold on tight

I do seriously wonder what Arlo thinks of all this. I mean, 2 and a half and moved into a new house with no decoration and various eccentricities occurring and builders and plumbers moping about.

“I phone Matt.”
“Matt the plasterer?”
“Yes.”
“Why, Arlo?”
“Do some plasterastering.”

Most recently I wondered what Arlo makes of this as he watched me holding on to the washing machine as it hit 1600 rpm or somewhere there, making a sound not unlike a pneumatic drill and threatening to career off towards the wall where the outflow pipe has been fixed (hell it would have demolished the wall and made it half way up the garden given half a chance).

Seem the lovely lovely plumbers who ‘installed’ the machine did not level it, with the result that it makes excessive noise, vibrations and movement just like it says it will in the instructions. Such excessive vibrations a screw in the back almost came out – I unplugged it when I found this. So anyone know any good plumbers?

Because I don’t.

I know some plumbers who come when you tell them the bathroom installation they’ve fixed for you is leaking and who ‘fix it’ and then put down a floor board and hit a water main (that they put there) with the first screw they put in. (Matt the plasteraster was beside himself with joy at that, made his day coinciding with the plumbers for once.) These plumbers leave saying they’ll be back to do the shower when we’ve tiled and a few hours later it’s clear the leak is not fixed – or maybe it’s now leaking from somewhere else. And when you ring them to tell them it’s leaking they ask what you think is wrong. For the love of….

So they’re coming back tomorrow. And tomorrow. And tomorrow.

And on Saturday the Virgin crew are back because our broadband modem has developed a fault.

Is Mercury retrograde or something?

“Are you tired, Arlo?”
“Yes. All that running around.”

this one’s for steve

Hi Steve,

Sorry not to have posted recently and not to be able to take your call this afternoon only we’ve moved house. We are now entering the second night here and apart from the 5 / 6 hours sleep it’s constant motion.
Ikea finally finally delivered the rest of the kitchen today – horah!
The damp patches in the kitchen are definitely coming from the bathroom plumbing and not the holes in the walls cos Will filled the holes – boo!
Plumber comes back tomorrow – sort of horah, only sort of cos I have grievances now – just discovered the kitchen sink is leaking too. Boo.
Front room and bedroom and kitchen looking good – horah!
Oh, also my computer has crashed out on me and I’m looking at having to reinstall the operating system afresh. Boo.
Yes yes I know I’m still using it NOW, but I lost a keychain somewhere when I turned it off suddenly and consequently it’s refusing to reload programmes, remember anything in the internet browser and mail won’t configure my accounts. La la la la la la. Boo. It’s why this blog has become wordy and not pictury. iPhoto can’t load my photos anymore…
Might try sorting it out tomorrow… between plumber and everything else.
We are going to try and give Arlo a bath tomorrow in the new unchristened bath. On the one hand this part of the deal has nothing to do with any leak – on the other hand since we’ve not used it yet it might prove to be even worse.
So you see Steve I’ve been a tad busy. Arlo is still trying to talk the owners of the local coffee shop into coming back home with him, he’s also discovered the joys of riding his trike to Wilkinsons for buying kitchen ware and fearsome weapons of carpentry, and I’ve discovered he doesn’t really know right from left…. although having said that it is considerably more fun to drive your trike off the pavement, into cars or in circles when your dad’s pushing you than it is to just go home.
Must go sleep.

the best thing….

…about having damp coming into the kitchen walls is that you know when it’s raining without stepping outside.

Huzzah!

Hopefully the builder will come and repoint soon.

Arlo now loves the house and half built kitchen. He talks to the new house and will see it again tomorrow. We found our old retro phone from a box today which Arlo pointed out has a roundy roundy thing on it.
Ah, the generation gap. How can we tell him it was what we used to have before buttons.
Except it wasn’t even that, it was a retro phone cos we liked it…

future essay topics

- how to make food that sticks to spoons so your baby can eat it (now a little passe but worth revisiting)

- teletubbies vs in the night garden: benevolent(?) controlling god influencing innocent creatures vs fly on the wall documentary

-how to make your child ‘say’ the word cat when he thinks by ‘say’ you mean ‘sign’.

amnosure

I’m not sure who this blog is for. Especially since no one knows about it and therefore no one is reading it. If a blog exists and isn’t read does it really exist? If it falls down in a forest does it make a noise?

Good day with Arlo – watched runners, went to park, had patatas bravas in tobacco factory, walked to new house, walked to steam train via South Bank Centre where there was a dancing class he watch and damn near joined in with, saw a fire engine, went on steam train home. All this with the remnants of a cold.

His word count is shooting up and today was a day of doing words. Singing, running, dancing, jumping, marching.

House is exchanged. A weight is lifted. We hope to see it tomorrow and start planning. More lists will ensue and finally finally we will have a house. We’ve been six months between houses, but it will be longer still before we get to move in. And then it will be worth it.

And then we’ll get a camper van as well.