Today stuffstillhappens takes part in the mass observation exercise organised by History Matters.
This might make for a pretty tedious read now, but the idea is to get as many people as possible to record the minutiae of their day, in order for future generations to be able to know about and wonder at the way we lived today, October 17th 2006.
So, here goes:
Martin got up at 5am to take the dogs for a walk. The cab came to take him to the train station to go to meetings in London and Reading. I got up at six, put a load of washing in the washing machine, checked my email, looked on the screenwriting website to see if anyone'd looked at my work, looked at the local news and then settled down with a mug of red bush tea for my daily dose of Sudoku. I especially like the 'Killer' version, where there are no numbers to guide you, but instead combinations of squares are enclosed with a total numeric value, so that you have to use maths as well as logic. I like to think it keeps my reasoning faculties healthy! I beat the guide time, which is always my objective.
At 7am I unloaded the dishwasher, made the children's lunches (sandwiches, fruit, little cheeses, boxes of raisins, pouch yoghurts and squash) and laid the table for breakfast. I had just enough time to print out the scripts from the Blue Peter website for the competition to win a speaking part in Doctor Who, and went up to wake my kids at 7.30. They are massive fans of Doctor Who, and they are very excited about this competition. They read the scripts while they got dressed and I had a shower. We have to make one minute audition DVDs of them performing one of the monologues. Breakfast, as always, was at 8am. Martin is usually with us. It's our time to talk as a family, as we can't always do supper together. I had a poached egg on malted wholemeal toast and far too much very strong coffee, while the children had Weetabix followed by toast and butter and a boiled egg, all washed down with juice. Jake had a 'fish pill', his Omega 3 supplement, which helps him to stay focussed at school. (We try not to give him sugar in his diet as he has a tendency to be slightly hyperactive.)
At 8.30 we walked up to school together. They go to a Catholic primary school, although we're not Catholics. It's a lovely place - really nurturing and caring. At the moment the school is welcoming a lot of children from Eastern Europe, especially from Poland, which is newly part of the EC. Bristol has a very well-established Polish community and has had since WWII, and it has grown very considerably since May. There's a great debate about the very existence of faith schools and the effect, positive or negative, that they have on British life in these days of tension between religions.
On the way back I popped in to the corner shop and picked up a couple of things, and was reminded that the paper bill is VERY LARGE! So I paid it on the way into school. Our corner shop is run by two brothers who work unbelievably hard to provide an invaluable service for the local community. Unfortunately our neighbourhood has recently become the focus of the supermarkets, mainly because until recently we only had one. Which was absolutely fine. We have everything we need in the main road - an organic butcher, greengrocers, toyshop, bookshop, pet shop, card shop, coffee shops, jewellers, shoe shops, clothes shops, and not a well-known name among them - they're all independents. In the last year or so two more supermarkets have been opened and another two, one extremely large, are planned. So in two years if we don't succeed in stopping them, we will go from one supermarket within one mile's radius of us to six, or even seven. The existence of our thriving independent retail community is threatened. There is a campaign to stop it - BOGOFS.com - Bishopston Opposes Glut OF Supermarkets. They put up trestle tables on the main road on Saturdays and have petitions that you can download from the internet. Unfortunately another recent conservation campaign in the area made barely a dent in the planning applications when a local Victorian pub/hotel was bulldozed so that a developer could put up a block of modern flats. And we lost the beautiful Edwardian swimming baths, even though we fought tooth and nail, involving English Heritage and local and national media. It now awaits someone to come in and turn it into yet another restaurant... Although there is a campaign to revive it as a private concern.
I've put out a cheque for the dogwalkers - they only come once a week, on a Tuesday when I work pretty much all day. Today's going to be quite easy because Year 11 (15-16 years old) are out on work experience. I'll spend their double lesson marking coursework. I teach in an independent school. In our city the standard of education is pretty low in the state sector. This is partly to do with the fact that over the years when results are published and parents see that the state schools are doing badly, they avoid them and, because there are quite a few reasonably priced independent schools locally, they can do what is necessary to get the school fees together. So now education is quite segregated. As a result too much time is devoted in education to fudging the figures rather than actually improving education. I don't feel great about working in the independent sector, socialist that I am, but I'm pragmatic enough to know that I don't want my kids' education to be a social experiment. I don't want their futures in the hands of the useless dunces on our local council. And in order to make the school fees as affordable as possible, I hope I'll get a discount for at least one of the children.
I had a good morning's teaching, then a sandwich in the school cafe for lunch and a bit of marking and I came back here and did more marking. Then a bit of writing, rewriting a script which has elicited some interest, and I fetched the children. Both kids, my eight year-old boy and my ten year-old girl, play tag rugby, which is a non-contact introduction to the sport of rugby, after school on a Tuesday. My daughter scored a try last week in a match against another school. She was very proud! They also go to drama and football provided after lessons at the school. When they got home the children had a buttered hot cross bun as a snack, and then settled down to do their daily Kumon. Im does Maths and Jake does English - it's a Japanese programme, where the children's level is assessed and they are given a bit of the subject to do every single day of their lives. It tends to be repetitive and it's timed, so that skills become automatic, meaning that they can concentrate on more complex ideas in school. Although they complain bitterly about it, they like the effects it's having on their achievements at school. It's only about fifteen minutes a day. They also do their homework, which is typically about another fifteen minutes. Im does all hers on a Monday, so that the whole lot is out of the way for the rest of the week.
We'll all do some music practice at some point: she learns violin, he learns guitar and I'm keeping them company by learning piano. We plan to form a family band! He wants to be a rock star, she wants to play in an orchestra and I want to be able to accompany myself singing.
It's raining today so they don't want to kick a ball around outside. So it might be plasticine, if they're in creative mood. They both love the work of Aardman Animations, creators of Wallace and Gromit, plasticine inventors. They have made their own models, and even added some of their own creations; there's Mr Pork; an innocent besuited animal by day, at times of crisis he turns into the caped and leotarded SuperPig! Or they might make Lego models, tiny, intricate designs which can keep them happy for hours.
Martin will come home at some point and we'll all have our supper; lamb cutlets with redcurrant jelly, peas and mash. I've got some rhubarb from the garden which I'll poach in orange juice for pudding. I'll iron tonight while watching TV. Martin's going away tomorrow for a few days in France with his friends, so I'll iron some shirts. (Don't think I do this all the time - I don't. I would do practically anything rather than iron.) And then I've got to finish my book club book for tomorrow night - This Motel Life, by Willy Vlautin. I won't manage it tonight, because I'll fall asleep, but I'll be up extra early tomorrow to make sure I get through it.
Wouldn't it have been nice if I could report that something amazing had happened today? A director had rung clamouring for me to take my script off the market. One of the agents I'd approached had called to say they'd represent me. I'd done a gig with the jazz band. But no. I'm afraid not.
That's my quota of the quotidian.
Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.
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