Early mornings

So Himself doesn't have to get up until six am now. Em, hurray, I think. But it does mean that waking me up is not so cataclysmic, it being bright anyway. And if I get up and have a coffee with him, then I have half an hour in the morning to myself. So hopefully I will get a bit more blogging done.

I had very strange dreams last night, but I can't remember them. I just have that feeling of unease that comes from a restless night.

It was very hot too. Well, hot for April.

Then a wind started up around four am, which is still howling around the house. Whoooooooooo - ooooo. One of those screechy, witchy ones you get in Ireland in the autumn.

Which may be a sign of something, because I got called the Wicked Witch of the West yesterday.

Yes, the pushing of the envelope episode didn't go quite as I expected. Kitty 'forgot' to call and then her phone 'died' and so she HAD to stay with her friend another night and got into all kinds of trouble the next day when she came home and said airily, 'I haven't slept in two nights!'

Neither had Queenie of course, but for different reasons.

So on Monday she had to go to my office after school and sit there and write an essay about why she had ruined my weekend.

The essay consisted of a foolscap page of reasons why it was not really her fault with an 'I'm really sorry' tacked onto the end. For self-preservation.

Then we left to do the shopping.

In the corridor we met Leonard and his son.

Leonard and I discussed punishment essays as the teenagers squirmed. It was Leonard who had given me the idea to do one.

Leonard's son announced he'd never written any. Leonard said he thought he might have seven or eight at home from him and smiled at me knowingly.

The teenagers were squirming a lot at that stage so we said our goodbyes.

Kitty and I got into the lift then and as the doors were closing she said, loudly enough, 'he's really HOT!'

So I'm sure Leonard had a good laugh at that.

So we went and did the shopping and I talked about trust and what it means, and how important it is, and it all went in one ear and out the other because there were five types of chili pepper in Pete's so could we get one of each.

Making the salad, she wanted to put the peppers in so I said she should scrape out the seeds, because they were really hot. 'I'm going to eat one!!!'

I said 'they're really hot'.

In it went. A seed from a Harbanero pepper. Her mouth went numb for an hour.

He he he...

Then later on over dinner when the feeling came back into her mouth, I was being argued into a cul de sac by what I call the Himself method. You use the Himself method if you are arguing with someone who is better at arguing than you. You just sit there saying nothing, lulling the other person into a false sense of victory. Then, when they make their killer statement, for example, 'if you do this, then you'll lose your job and we'll be homeless', you say, 'well I don't care'.

Works a dream for him everytime. Completely stumps the professional debater.

So I was moving in for the kill; something to do with homework I think, and consequences. And Kitty threw the 'I don't care' line at me and I laughed because it's just like her dad. Then I leaned forward and said 'I'll get you some day you know', just to make sure she knew that I was working on a block for that particular argument.

And quick as a wink, she scrunched up her face and said in a witchiepoo voice 'and your little dog too'.

There was a momentary pause as we both realised what she said and then we fell about laughing for far too long.

So God only knows what level of disdain she holds for my authority now.

But we both needed a belly laugh.

Moving on to grown up things, Julian Gough has won the UK's National Short Story Competition and £15,000. Well done to him, but his short story is the opening section of a novel, and if the NSSC is supposed to save the short story form, then I don't see the point in awarding it to a novel chapter.

But that's just me, I suppose. You can hear it on the BBC website. It's very Flann O'Brienish, if you're a fan of that kind of thing.

I'm sounding really mealy-mouthed... I don't mean to.

Anyways, time for breakfast..