Back to reality

I am shocked and amazed, the school summer holidays are OVER, I know Jessica had a very long holiday (a month more than Kirstin)but I have never known months to fly by as they have this summer. On Tuesday I found myself sitting amongst First Year students and their parents in the school hall, a few speeches and then all the class lists were read out and class by class the children filed out with their prefects to learn about lockers, timetables, class rooms etc. So that is it then my BABY is in secondary school. She loves her tutor, he looks lovely, very young but I think that is just because I am getting old!!!
The induction day on Tuesday was the best thing for the kids, they were the only ones at the school and when everybody went back on Wednesday they already knew their way around. The combination locks proved to be troublesome, I had walked up with Kirstin because the books were far too heavy for her to carry and I watched helplessly as child after child visibly deflated as they realised that their locks had the upper hand over them!!! Kirstin called over one of the prefects and she did it all one handed and very swiftly..blush..I had tried crashed and burned at my attempt.
I had watched the prefect carefully so I tried to help the little chap next to Kirstin but to no avail so I had to send him in search of an expert (prefect) too.

Thursday was the first full day and they had sports trials after school so I had asked them to call me and let me know what time they needed to be picked up. At
16h30 I got a call from Kirstin, her trials were not that day but she was happy to wait at school. This is not allowed and I told her I would be up to fetch her pronto. The response I am almost embarrassed to say was this: "Rumour has it that ... is going to ask me out and he is at rugby trials so I am happy to wait." I gave her a stern warning about hanging around waiting for boys, that she was too young, she must just be friends, she had only just met the boy (whose locker I had tried to open incidentally) and all that. I told her I would be there in 5 minutes
(come hell or high water she was not going to get asked out - I had to get there before rugby finished). She was not too impressed but what could she do...I am bigger and stronger than her....for now!

Follow me

The morning started off with a trip to the uniform shop. NO I did NOT leave everything to the last minute, the tracksuit I needed was not in stock 2 weeks ago when I took Kirstin to get "kitted" out in her new school clothes. Luckily we managed to snag one of the last ones today and as I was paying I took note of a Spanish lady who had just completed her purchase and was shaking the lady behind the tills hand and thanking her for her help, not something witnessed on a regular basis! In my nosiness I saw that the uniform was the same as Kirstin's and was going to say something (you know me...) but decided against it. As we were leaving the shop I heard somebody giving her directions to Dundrum and as I was heading that way I spoke to her and offered to lead the way. She accepted and then asked if I knew where the bookshop was...and so I found myself guiding her through Dublin to Wise Owl in Ballinteer.
Of course I was wondering whether she had just moved to Dublin, or if her daughter was going to boarding school, if she needed anything else and decided that I would give her my number and let her know to call if she needed more help...luckily when I got out the car in Ballinteer we had a little chat and I discovered that her daughter had been attending a different school in the area and that she knew part of Dublin quite well so I kept my number to myself and saved myself from any awkward moments. Why is it that I always feel compelled to help people out in these types of situations? I gave her directions to the school and Dundrum from where we were and she thanked me and we parted company. Kirstin reckons that was a good deed and that I will be rewarded, I think it was no biggie as I hardly went out my way but if she is right maybe my 3 pm second interview will be a roaring success...here's hoping!

School Play

Last night we went to see the senior infants and the 6th class perform their plays. The senior infants went first and they were ADORABLE, jeez they are cute at that age! They did a little story on a village - the Lazy Daisy Village and littering, it was too cute with a little 'litter muncher' who went munch munch...I think I smiled throughout the performance.

After that the 6th class put on a sterling performance of Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat which was better than the show that Kirstin did during her extra mural...expensive drama lessons...will definitely not be sending her back there!I sat and watched young ladies on the stage and wondered where on earth all those years have gone, all those tall, grown girls on the stage and mine is one of them! There certainly are many benefits to the girls being older, like being able to go on hockey tours...or to watch Def leppard knowing they can be left in the hotel room..but when they were little and I could not do any of those things I certainly did not mind!

Anyway...after the play Tracy and Warren were taking their 2 girls - cute little girls to Eddie Rocket's and Skyla begged us to join them. Malcolm was playing cricket and then watching the soccer, I had already eaten at home, but the kids hadn't - sly move on their part me thinks... so I thought, why not! I am glad we went, the girls enjoyed it, they all sat at a table together and I got to be the third wheel with Tracy and Warren, a good third wheel though...a tricycle! We sat there long after we had eaten having great craic and then realised the kids still had school, it was 21h30, the sun was still shining, oh how I love the Irish summer...lots of rain but so many daylight hours!

Just thinking...

Sometimes I second guess our timing at coming to Ireland. One of our major considerations when moving was the school system and what year the girls would need to enter.
If we had waited until September this year Jess could have gone straight into transition year and Kirstin into First year. This makes a lot of sense to me, but unfortunately we were not really too clear on the whole system and Jess is basically repeating a year. Luckily she is not bored, all the work is new to her and she has the challenge of learning Spanish added to her many other obstacles. Well hindsight is 20/20 as they say and we could have waited another year.
But then I think of all the good things that happened when we moved here in July 2007, we found our house, have fantastic landlords/neighbours, Malcolm got a job and we bought a car all within a week, is that not a sign that it was meant to be?
I had a look at a South African website this morning, it now ‘costs’ R11 to get E1, when we left South Africa it was R9.20 or somewhere around there. The power outages are horrific, there is an electricity crisis in South Africa and it does not sound pleasant. I wonder if that will affect the price of houses? All in all I think Malcolm and I can sleep at night knowing that all our forward planning worked this time.

Conversations around the house

Malcolm: "This lettuce is brown, shouldn't we throw it away?"
Kirstin: "Is it a ball of lettuce?"
Malcolm: "Yes"
Kirstin: "Well then dad we just have to take the brown outer leaves off, the rest of the lettuce is good!"

Growing pains

Jess started at her new school on Monday. I am not sure who was more nervous, I had a ball in my tummy all day. I fetched her from school and studied her every facial movement as she walked towards the car, trying to figure out how her day was without having to ask. I think she sensed what I was doing because I got NOTHING. Of course the minute she got in the car the questions started. The result? "It was very overwhelming" and she has asked us to wait until Friday, by then she will have a better feel for it all. My baby girls is almost all growed up...

Search and Rescue

About 2 months ago I volunteered to help make sandwiches at the secondary school. Today was my first of two consecutive sandwich making days. Why I decided to help out is beyond me, I detest making school lunches, in fact I hate it so much I celebrate enormously when my kids are on school holidays.
Nevertheless I found myself having to be ready to leave the house at the ungodly hour of 08h15, now I have certainly left the house at that time before…in my pyjamas or trackie bottoms because it is a nip down to the luas etc and the only time I get out of the car is the mad dash back to the house, praying all the while that the neighbours don’t decide to use that nano second to look out of their windows.
I digress. Traffic in Dublin can be atrocious and this morning was no exception. This led me to believe that Kirstin’s safest option for getting to school on time was the luas. We were in traffic, the luas station was right there so k jumped out of the car in the middle of the mayhem and made a dash for public transport. Five minutes later I realised that I had left my cell phone at home and K always calls me when she gets off the luas. I placated myself with the fact that she has known me for 11 years, so chances were good that she would realise this when she could not get hold of me.
To make matters worse traffic eased and I actually made it to school just before 09h00 so I felt wonderfully guilty that I had booted my daughter out of my car. I even looked out for her in the vain hope that I could give her a quick cuddle and explain the phone story.
I reported for duty at the secondary school and next thing there was a tear stained, blochy eyed, frozen little girl on a scooter in the hallway. I held her while she sobbed out her sorry tale of the lost phone. She had called me from the luas, put her phone in her pocket and zipped down to school on her scooter. Upon arrival she tried to call me again (so much for knowing me so well) and realised that her phone was no longer in her pocket. This started the proverbial needle in a haystack search, retracing her steps in the icy cold. Alas no phone to be found. Anyway…I consoled her, wrote a note explaining her tardiness and sent her to school.
I made rolls and made rolls and made rolls. Finally I went home and searched for my phone (found it in the pocket of a jacket) and called Kirstin’s number. No answer, but at least it rang, which meant it had not been turned off, either it was lying all alone, wet and cold in a bush, or somebody was waiting for the owner to call.
I had promised to fetch her from school after the traumatic events of the morning and I devised a brilliant plan of search and rescue for her phone. We would retrace her steps and I would keep calling her mobile so that if it was in the bushes somewhere we would here it. This involved me remembering my cell, which luckily I did. Kirstin came out and I started telling her my cunning plan and she looked at me and said “No”. I looked straight back at her and said, “Your phone is in your school bag,” and she smiled.

Ch ch changes...

Changes are afoot in the Rule household…AGAIN. Just when things start settling into something close to normalcy I have to shake it all up again. A decision needs to be made tonight, and a very big decision indeed. We spent the afternoon having a tour of a school, we met the principal, saw the different class rooms, fields etc and Jessica has been offered a place.
We have a dilemma, the book list looks alarmingly different, the uniform is different, even the shirt cannot be recycled and she has to take a new subject as Home Economics is full, there is a place in musicianship which she has said she will take as she has done theory of music and piano for a few years. It is also the middle of a school year, and it is a BIG move for Jessica. She is up for it; I have given her what I consider the worst case scenario, being left out, having no friends and eating lunch alone. The up side of course is that she can then tuck into a really good book every break…I am sure she would agree with my upbeat take on being a loner? Of course some people are happy with their own company and that is fabulous and my tongue is NOT in my cheek, but my daughter does like to have friends and the thought of her coming home and crying on my shoulder will keep me up tonight.
The decision is difficult, but J has said that she really wants to move, even though she has not been unhappy where she is. The extra curricular activity list is extensive, the science block has some amazing opportunities, especially during transition year when they do forensics which is something J is very interested in. There are many sport choices and the practices seem to take place up to 4 times per week.
Kirstin will stay where she is, but we have put her name down for September 2008, she is the lucky one as it will be a new beginning for all the kids in her year which will make the transition a lot easier for her.
Of course all of this will propel me into an unsuspecting work force if I can find someone who will have me.
My C.V is varied and may be a great conversation starter in the office. I am a jack of all trades (master of none….shhhhh) from window displays, to banks, nursery schools to bar administrator and more. I am fairly sure my C.V gets filed under ‘desperate times call for desperate measures/when we can’t find anyone else’ when I send it in to agencies, of course this is a travesty of justice as I KNOW that I can do ANYTHING I set my mind to…don’t we all?

Let the school year begin!

even start? I guess I had no choice in the matter because we chose a house rather far away from the schools the girls' were supposed to attend! Jessica's school is 4 miles, 6.4 km from home w with bad weather and one car might not be the smartest move we can make at the moment. The a bus that gets Jess to school from here, but not Kirstin and it takes about 50 minutes! My life line/neighbour/landlady (Geraldine) suggested a school and it is on the Luas line,a good thing because we are 1km from a Luas station too. It is also on Malcolm's way to work so he can d them off in the morning and they can catch the Luas home. And and and....the primary and high schools are on the same campus!!! Yippee!!!!!!
It has been an agonising decision to make, Malcolm had done so much hard work looking in May and we were all very happy with his choice but he fully supported me doing some extra research and Jess, Kirstin and I visited both schools and we all made a vote and it was unanimous! Malcolm really likes the school too, he had tried to contact them when he was here.....but they did not call him back! Normally I would have left it, but as Geraldine had made the suggestion I decided to give it another go and was luckier than Malcolm. This all started happening on the day I went out and bought Jessica all her text books, (260 euro) she came home and started covering them in plastic, I saw the school on the Internet, shouted stop the bus, she winged, (thank goodness only history had been covered though), and I started running around like a headless chicken trying to make the right decision for the next 5/7 years of my children's lives! Yesterday I went and enrolled them both, went to a book shop to buy all Kirstin's text books (120 euro) and came home to see whether all Jessica's books were the same. Here is the synchronicity part...the only books that are the same at both schools are the history text books!
The principal at Kirstin's school is DIVINE, she took the school report, opened it at the back and told Kirstin that the only thing that really mattered at the end of the day was what was written to summarise her. Of course this was all good, first term report comment was, "Kirstin is a dedicated young student with a good work ethic. She has set high standards for herself and quietly sets about meeting these. She is undemanding, independent and a pleasure to have in the class room" She told Kirstin that the main school rule was: be kind to others and do your very best. All of this was done standing next to Kirstin, not sitting behind a desk and she was most interested in speaking to Kirstin, which is the way it should be.
Today I will be madly rushing around, exchanging text books and buying school uniforms and all without a car! So bicycle and Luas here we come!