Last night we had the first formal parent/teacher with Z’s new school. The conversation revolved around Z and his integration into the school (took less time than expected, only a week) and his academic achievements (on or above target) for maybe two minutes then it went to league. Quelle surprise.

So Z had a good night when this was combined with his afternoon jaunt in Riki’s VERY LOUD Ferrari. Very fast, too. Perfect for little boys, and probably the ones who pretend to be grown up too. He went to bed on top of his world.

Prompt 18: Complete this sentence….. ‘If all else fails…….. ‘

Start again. Work out where I went wrong. Follow the directions. Re-create the directions. Find a child to finish whatever for me. Google. Do something else until my brain coughs up the solution. Eat Whittakers chocolate. Stitch. Read. Walk.

Prompt 19: School uniform! Still a tetchy subject! What did you think of yours?

I loved mine. I went to Penrose High (before it was renamed One Tree Hill College) and it was mostly blue. Junior school had pale blue shirts, senior school had white (or was it the other way around?) and Seventh Form had mufti. Plenty of choice for bottoms – skirts (always rolled up higher as soon as we left home!), trousers, shorts and reasonably flattering styles too. So much better than brown! The uniform today at the school is very similar.

In two weeks all my babies will be in uniform and I’m going to love that too. I’m a big fan of uniforms – identification, unity, equality – and of course, it seems like less washing in the basket too. Bonus! As long as we forget about the very grubby league uniforms… B’s team circa 2005…

One of the other things about Penrose was the art – as we leaned against the reception desk our knees knocked on a Colin McCahon (Necessary Protection), and plenty of other NZ artists were featured on our walls. I remember all the pieces in the links except for the Frizzell – perhaps that was in the staff room?

At home we have some prints (not enough) and the kid’s stuff. When we had Colwill on the market we got more than one offer for a collage Lou had done – at seven.

http://www.art-newzealand.com/Issues11to20/penrose.htm

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/central-leader/805528/Tuck-shop-art-on-show