Of wardrobes and cathedrals.

Today, I took Principessa (with Grandand's help) to the cathedral to see the Prince Caspian 'experience'. The first stop was face-painting. She was really looking forward to that part, and becoming a tiger! Then we had a wander round, and Princi did some little craft-type things. Upon further wandering, Princi wrote a prayer-balloon, and then we sat and watched a little puppet show after we finally found Aslan. The picture doesn't do the Aslan statue justice at all, it was beautifully carved.

I have to say, I was in awe of the cathedral. I've lived most of my life in Liverpool, and today was the first time I have ever stepped foot into the cathedral. It is vast and impressive and imposing all at once. The stained windows are absolutely fantastic. I just wish I had full use of my legs so that I could explore the place fully. It really is breath-taking architecture.

Brrrrrr....

Pebble! Yes, I know, some explanation necessary. Nanny was trying to teach Principessa to say rock the other day.

• Nanny: Rrrrrrrrrock.
• Princi: Brrrrrrrrr-wock.
• Nanny: No, rrrrrrrrrock. Put your tongue behind your teeth.
• Princi: Brrrrrrrr-wock.
  

A little later, Principessa went to see Nanny again to give her one of the her stones.

• Princi: There you go Nanny. Brrrrrrrrr-pebble.

That still makes me laugh. She's a funny Monkey.

On sports news... Woohoo! Andy Murray is in the final of the US Open. He shall be playing Roger Federer tonight, though I doubt I will be awake to bite fingernails 'watching' him. (No Sky, virtual scoreboards on the computer.) But I am hopeful of good news in the morning!

As for Formula 1. Well, grrrr. After a fantastic race, the last three laps being the best part of the race, it became all a bit dreary. Lewis Hamilton won the race, but because of an incident with Kimi Raikkonen on the last three laps, or there abouts, Hamilton was stripped of the win and docked 25 seconds. This put him into third place. Now, this is what happened. Lewis attempted to overtake Kimi, but Kimi blocked Lewis, pusing him off the track. Travelling along the inside of the chicane, Lewis overtook Kimi as he corrected himself but, following the rules, he gave the advantage back to Kimi before attempting to overtake ligitmitly, therefore no unfair advantage was gained. He managed to overtake Kimi in the next corner, but Kimi once again overtook Lewis. Unfortunately for Kimi, a little while later he spun the car, crashing into the track wall. It was due to these events that, two hours later, Lewis's victory was revoked and given to Filipe Massa instead. So, once again, Ferrari are awarded the win. It makes me wonder what the FIA (does that stand for Ferrari Intercompitition Assistance?) has against McLaren. Ho hum. Think it's time to stop watching F1. Just as it is time to stop watching anything with the term 'Eurovision' prefixing the title. It's all just a load of political bull.

Jumping off the soapbox now.

And House is on, so I can't be bothered linking everything.... Yes, lazy day today.

The unreachable 2000.

ARGH! This essay is beginning to grate now. Every word feels like it's being ripped from another dimension, biting and clawing to be left alone. I've now written just over 1800 words, but it feels like it'll never be finished. I keep combing what I have to make sure I have enough words to finish this last bit about the Early Music Revival (sorry, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, I shall have to keep Eight Songs For A Mad King to myself this time) and the windy-uppy conclusion. I was about to say I knew where I was going with the conclusion, but leaving out Max... I have to rethink.

Oh noes! Hang on, I have to free my little Principessa fish from the net! (She is currently playing in her hamster-style tent-tube with some Daleks. However, the tube has become a net that she keeps getting trapped in.)

Awww. She's so cute and funny:

Thank you Mummy, you saved me. I missed you sooo much. Can you make me a drink to make me feel better?

Just lately she has settled on a new phrase. Whenever she has food or drink that she doesn't want, the cry goes up:

But it tastes like snakes!

How does she know? I've never seen her eat a snake! Maybe Grandad told her that snakes taste like chicken. Besides for snakey-tasting stuff, she is enjoying school so far. Thankee muchly.

Back to the grindstone, anyway.

First day.

Eeps! It's Principessa's first day at Nursery today. I just don't understand how I managed to convert mini pink Sith Principessa into little blue schoolie Principessa!

Okay, so maybe it isn't technically her first day. She did try nursery last September, but she hated it. I think she may still have been a little too young. But she seems quite excited about it now, although this morning she was less enthusiastic. We'll see. I hope she does enjoy it this time round.

Just lately Principessa has decided it is fun to speak Mockney. I have no idea why. She keeps on saying things like:

• Can I have my compu-ah?
• I need to make it beh-ah.
  

It is very funny.

Anyhows, time for school.

You know you're entering the Twiglet Zone when...

Principessa turns to you and says:

It's OK Mummy, I'm not James Whale anymore!

Yeah, can't get any more surreal. Although, I wonder what she was dreaming about last night when I asked her to move over (yes, she had invaded my bed. Again.) and she sleepily cried out:

I can't! And I can't fly!

Complete head scratcher!

I think I will have to think about getting this essay written. I haven't looked at it over the weekend. I know I need to, and that I just need to prod it to get started, but an enormous sense of apathy resides in my brain. I think my synapses must be on holiday because my brain isn't firing up at all. Ho hum! Or maybe it's just that I want A215 to start. Impatience...

Principessa-ly!

Asking Principessa what she wanted for tea tonight:

Me: Do you want peas?
Princi: No, no peas.
Me: Do you want sweetcorn?
Princi: No, not sweetcorn.
Me: Do you want carrots?
Princi: No, they are too blue. *Mind ticks as she realises carrots aren't blue* No, they are too carrotly.

Ever since, thing have been decidedly "ly"!

Me: Do you like your beach shorts?
Princi: Yes, they are very beachly.

Nanny: Are you sure you don't want peas?
Princi: No, they are too pealy.

Anyway. Time to get a little miss to bed and then attempt an essay. *Sigh*

Verb creation

Principessa has started making up her own verbs. Yesterday, when coming down the stairs she held my little finger while resting her other hand and chin on the arm of the stairlift. Somehow or other she managed to knock her chin.

"Ow," she said.
"Awww, you okay? You daftie," I said.

Then, a couple of steps later she knocks her chin again. On purpose this time.

"Ow! I just daftied again, Mummy!"

I love it! You can't beat a bit of verbage!

And to finish;

*DRUMROLL*

Presenting, for your viewing pleasure,

ROCK MONSTER!

The beauty of speech.

I love Principessa's way of talking.

Last night, she was happily playing away on Nanny's computer when she decided that it was too loud. She turned to Nanny and said:

• I shall just turn this down, and then my ears wont go blind.

Brilliant! But as I giggled about her turn of phrase I did begin to wonder...Maybe Principessa is a sound to colour synesthesiac. You never know!

Is thinking a thought experiment?

If I could make Chewbacca noises, that's what I'd be doing right now. My brain is on overload with revising for TMA09. At the moment I am reading through the Rousseau philosophy stuff, though I will have to reread the philosophy from block 1. I have decided that I will get it done tomorrow night, once Principessa is asleep. I want it done and out of the way before next week. That way I can concentrate on TMA08, which I am dreading. I'm not looking forward to wading through Mr Marwick's verbose history of the 60s.

Speaking of Principessa... She is driving me crazy lately, answering back all the time. She has decided that being told off is a request, and will shout 'No thanks' at me when I do tell her off. It would be funny if it wasn't infuriating! If that's not enough, she is becoming really handy with her fists if she doesn't get her own way. Argh! I just don't know what to do. She is getting far too strong for me, every day seems like a constant struggle!

Ah well. I suppose I'd better get back to the revision instead of looking through my new sumi-e books. Ooohh, it looks all so interesting, and so relaxing, that I can't wait to get started on it. But I have to. I need to get this humanities course wrapped up before I stress out! But what I'd like to know is why someone was searching the internet for 'Myra Hindley in a leather skirt'? Very intriguing. (How do I know that someone was searching for this? Well, it came up in the feedburner stats this morning. The search pointed to my blog from comments made at this post.)

TMA avoidance.

This is what this is. I am so frustrated with the whole thing, it's driving me up the bloody wall.

So, what do I have to do in this latest essay? I have to contrast the traditional attributes of masculinity and femininity in two of four specified texts. I've already said that I have chosen Don Juan and Medea here, but working the essay around them is proving more elusive than the Scarlet Pimpernel. I know what I want to say, and what parts of the 'texts' I want to use, but cohesion is non-existent! I am floundering, plain and simple. It is so frustrating because both of the 'texts' are goldmines for essay material. Maybe that's the problem, maybe I'm trying to incorporate too much. I think I will need more thinking time.

On other stuff... The things Principessa has me doing! Today she had me try to teach her how to play bowling and tennis on Wii Sports. It was both funny and frustrating at the same time. Principessa has developed the art of selective hearing extremely well, so trying to show her or explain to her what to do is a very hard job. But, saying that, she did strike out in bowling at one point. 'Twas very impressive! Another thing she has me do is put socks over her bedtime bottle (sooo much less hassle than a cup at bedtime) so that the milk or orange juice doesn't freeze her hands. Oh, if a drink is too cold she throws it on the floor. That is me, not a happy Mummy! A sock makes it all better, and her socks fit the bottle perfectly!

Anyways, enough of my rambling. Time to try and get more of this essay done. 500 words down (ish), another 1000 to go....

Cabaret Cthulhu...

(Pictures from http://www.toyvault.com/cthulhu/plush_cthulhu.html and www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies)

I have just been watching some TV with Principessa, specifically a program called Doodle Do. I must admit, I zoned out a little. My brain went off on a tangent and I found myself thinking about Cthulhu. I wondered why, but then I realised. The characters on Doodle Do resemble cabaret Cthulhu hand puppets! I don't feel so bad about Principessa having a cuddly Cthulhu now!

Now I have a picture in my head of Cthulhu in Las Vegas, feathers and all, singing 'I Will Survive'! I suppose it'd look a little like this, but with more tentacles!

Paper and pencil skiing.

Last night, Principessa was scribbling away quite happily when she go up and started playing with the two pencils. With one in each hand, she pretended to push herself along in the style of a skier.

• Princi: "I'm skating, Mummy"
  
• Me: "Don't you mean skiing?"
  
• Princi: "Yes, skiing."

Then she took two pieces of paper down, put them on the floor - one under each foot - and proceeded to pretend to ski out of the front room.

• Grandand: "Are you a Langlaufer?"
  
• Princi: "No, I am just a skier!"
  

And off she skied, into the hallway!

Wimbledon, Day 10.

(Picture from www.bbc.co.uk/sport)

Again with the ah wells. Zheng Jie did not manage to overpower Serena, and Elena Dementieva did not manage to overpower Venus, so it's a Williams sisters final. Ho hum.

Arnaud Clement and Rainer Schuettler battled through a 5 hour long, rain delayed match.
Schuettler won 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (7-9), 8-6. He has to play Nadal today. Here is the line-up for the men's semi-finals:

Roger Federer (SUI) 1st seed vs. Marat Safin (RUS)
Rafael Nadal (ESP) 2nd seed vs. Rainer Schuettler (GER)

In the girl's singles, Laura Robson is doing fantastically well. After dispatching the 1st seed in the first round, she took out the number 9 seed yesterday to make it into the semi-finals. She looks like she's going to make a very handy tennis player.

So much for me doing any study last night. Principessa fell asleep just before 5pm, woke up at around 8pm, and didn't go back to sleep until 1am. Knackered, I am. I would so like Principessa to go to bed at 8pm and wake up at 7-8 am. I could handle that! But no. She usually goes to sleep between 9-11pm, then wakes up any time from 7.30-9-30am. That means I stay up until 1am to study. Oh so tired... But if I get a degree out of it, then it'll be worth it!

Wimbledon, Day 9. And stuff.

(Picture from http://sports.espn.go.com/sports)

Ah well. I'm not surprised. There was only a modicum of hope, and that slipped away quite quickly when Murray just looked drained. I think he must have expended far to much energy in the match against Gasquet. At least he said he was outclassed rather than blaming his loss on exhaustion. Oh, yeah, Rafa won 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. It was only to be expected though.

Apart from Murray misery, Safin supremecy ruled! So chuffed! Wish I had not turned over to watch Murray. I was all 'blah' when Safin lost the first set, thinking that Lopez would easily win, especially as Safin was being Angryman again. But the rain delay helped in a big way, allowing Safin to focus. He won out 3-6, 7-5, 7-6, 6-3. *Bouncing* Problem the next... Federer, who beat Mario Ancic 6-1, 7-5, 6-4.

The other quarter final between Arnaud Clement and Rainer Schuettler was suspended due to bad light. Currently it stands at one set each.

On other stuff... Principessa caused havoc last night. Nanny had let her into the bathroom to wash her hands, leaving Principessa to her own devices. About ten minutes earlier, Principessa had pinched a slice of bread (I don't know how she can eat bread without anything on it, but it's one of her most favourite things). Yep, you can see it coming, can't you? She had taken the bread upstairs, and when she got entry into the bathroom - the sink in particular - she blocked the sink with her bread and flooded the bathroom. Argh! Lots of AngryNanny shouting ensued, followed by AngryGrandand shouting. Principessa understood that she had been very naughty and once she had been put to bed with a drink of orange juice she fell straight to sleep. I feel guilty for benefitting from her being disciplined, but having my bed to myself all night allowed me to have a good sleep for once!

I carried on studying Medea after Principessa went to sleep. I can't believe how much of a goldmine that play is in answering the essay question. There is so much good stuff, like how the different areas of the theatre were used to convey masculinity and femininity, and how different parts of the funerary rights were alloted to the mother and father. Lots of interesting info, and plenty of lines that contrast masculine and feminine attributes. I'm loving it! So I have decided to leave the rest of the blockwork for Medea for now, as I feel quite confident of being able to eke out all the good bits, and I am going to start the Don Juan blockwork today. I am hoping that I will find the same confidence with Don Juan that I have with Medea.

Wimbledon, Day 5.

Big news for the day: Ana Ivanovic, the number one in the world, was ousted by wildcard Zheng Jie. Zheng, ranked 133, decimated Ivanovic, 6-1, 6-4. I don't think I've seen Ivanovic break down like that since the final at Roland Garros last year.

11th seed Marion Bartoli (FRA), a finalist last year, was also knocked out. This was due, in part, to injury. Bethanie Mattek (USA) soldiered on to the fourth round 6-4, 6-1.

But yay! for Marat Safin! He finally made it through to the fourth round after a tough fight against 29th seed Andreas Seppi (ITA). In fading light he came through 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4. I think I enjoy watching Safin even more now, as Principessa will sit on my knee and watch with me, cheering everytime he gets a point: "Yay! He scoreded another point!" She is just soooo cute!

So, Andy Murray takes on Tommy Haas (GER) today. I'm not sure I'll be watching all of the match as Doctor Who will probably be on when he's playing. I am NOT missing the Doctor, not when there are only two more episodes left. And not now, when Davros is coming back to the fold. I am really looking forward to these last two episodes.

Cheesy Bread-face

Principessa has started experimenting with different mediums for her art. Here is a piece called 'Cheesy Bread-face on Cow Hide Couch'.

I really like the use of a halved Babybel cheese to make the eyes, and the carefully torn bottom crust from another piece of granary bread to make the mouth. The smeared Marmite nose finishes the piece off.

The art of a thousand walls.

Well, maybe not a thousand. In fact, it is the art of just one wall. My bedroom wall. Courtesy of Principessa. I think she has an irrational fear of using blank paper or something.


This little fella is above the radiator. He almost looks like a 'Chad was here' character.



This big beastie is above Principessa's bed. (Yep, she still sleeps in my room!) I think it looks a bit like a three year old's interpretation of the great Cthulhu! I would say 'but that's impossible as she has never seen a picture,' but then I remembered that her Uncle Gaz let her have the cuddly Cthulhu I gave him for his birthday.

She has been learning to write her name recently. I was really surprised when she shoved a piece of A4 paper in my hand with her name in her cute three-year old scrawl across the page. Made me so proud, it did!

What's another word for leg?

Principessa, sitting at her computer, lifts her leg up and rests it on the desk.

• I've got stickers all over my tentacles, Mummy.

And that, with a lot of laughing, was that!

Turning to ice cubes.

Principessa is a funny Monkey.

I was drinking a small can of lemo before, and she sidles over to me, eyes fixated on the can.

• Me: Do you want to try some?
• Princi: No. It is hot and will burn my tongue.
• Me: It's not hot, it's cold. Feel. (Holds can out to Princi.)
• Princi: (Touching can.) But if I drink that I will turn into ice cubes.
  

What can you say? Maybe I should stop her watching Tom and Jerry?

Kid logic.

Principessa is starting to get more argumentative these days. And arguing with some form of logic and fact. The lastest argument is the bedtime argument.

• Me: It's time for bed.
• Princi: Mummy (points to window) it's not dark.
• Me: It's still time for bed.
• Princi: But Mummy, it's still light. It's not dark. It's not night.
  

What can you say? Perfectly logical. It's more or less impossible to get her to go to sleep much before 11pm at the moment. I am thinking of waking her up at 5am and saying 'But it's light. It's time to wake up."

She's also making me laugh lots when I'm playing Guitar Hero - most of the time at her request. I think she likes the tunes. Why does she make me laugh? She tries to sing the songs. Well, more shout than sing. And it is soooo funny and cute! She especially likes 3's and 7's by Queens of the Stone Age. It makes me think I should re-invest in some QOTSA albums.



(OK, while looking for the 3's and 7's vid to put on the blog, the song started playing and Principessa hoofed it down the stairs, burst through the living room door and looked mightily confused that the GH3 tab was not playing on the TV! Funny little Monkey! Oh, and I call her Monkey because she was born in the year of the monkey, and she climbs like a monkey too!)

Well, I'm just on 1,100 words into the Wallace assignment. Not good as I only have just over 100 words left, and I have more spiritualism stuff to cover, his socialism to start, and a conclusion to wind the whole thing up. I think it might be time to go through what I have written and see if there is stuff there that I can cut. Grrr. I think it is all relevant. And I hate cutting things in case they are the things that are being looked for in the essay. Bum! I'm kind of looking forward to this essay being done with, even though it's been, by far, the most interesting of the units.