State of the Monkey House

[woolymonkey]

Nothing exciting really: life has been carrying on pretty smoothly.  But for those who want more detail…

 

Squirrelmonkey went on a school trip to Ickworth Hall  and re-enacted the Olympics with 3-legged chariot racing.  He represented his school in a maths challenge.  His team didn’t win, but they had a lot of fun.  And they did guess how much cola was left in the bottle more accurately than anyone else.  He’s been exchanging messages by arrow with a smaller monkey whose house backs onto the alleyway behind ours.  And he’s become a huge fan of London Brass ever since he had a chance to hear them, and play with them, here in Cambridge.

Spidermonkey is still enjoying Big School, despite currently being on Report Card.  (Targets: I must listen carefully; I must not fiddle with items.)  He’s doing much better on the listening, but can’t seem to stop swinging that chair…  He also did a maths challenge, but his was more like an exam than a geeky birthday party.  He’s learning to play all kinds of guitar as well as violin, has discovered the Sex Pistols, and taught himself to play Anarchy in the UK.  He’s really happy to be swimming again with the magic earmould and looking forward to the French Trip in July.  He made beautiful wooden key rings in DT and lovely pencil sketches in Art.  His chosen topics are "The Ebola Virus" (Science) and "Death" (Media).  Apparently they have to design a superhero and this is his.

 

Musicmonkey is reading a book about maths and music with lots of squiggly stuff I don’t understand, but he seems to be happy with it.  (No, I didn't spot the free online version until after I'd bought it for him.)  He’s entered the world of blogs by somehow getting picked for the first shift on his company’s “asynchronous chat” page.  If you want to ask in depth questions about 3D object modelling, he’s your monkey.

I’m plugging on with teaching, translation, and the joys of the new electronic marking software.  What can you say about a system that does not trust you to add up four scores— won’t, in fact, let you enter a total manually—and then rejects its own total for being wrong, which it is, but…

I’m currently waiting for the new vacuum cleaner to be delivered.  The old one finally broke down beyond repair and we’ve been wading through the dirt ever since.  I can’t believe I’m getting excited about the prospect of vacuuming.

Zil has shed her own bodyweight in white fur. 

Fruitcake has made friends with tamaranth and ladymoonray by telling them how cruelly we abuse her.  She’s also taken to sleeping on the triangular stair near the top – the one you really cannot step over unless you want to break your neck.

Speedy is awake and eating but not doing much even by tortoise standards, just biding his time and waiting for warm weather.  On a good day he might travel a couple of yards and back again.

The house is still too much like a building site or a squat, but things are improving.  We have new stained glass in the front door.  (Pretending to be old stained glass and certainly looking a lot more cheerful than the previous institutional safety glass.)  All rooms have curtains.  Some even have paint and carpets.  The neighbours are behaving better, though of course we still hear them.  And the garden is springing into life—still short on tree-sized trees, or even large shrubs, but generally looking green and bushy rather than empty.  It’s so nice to see stuff growing that I’d forgotten planting there!

Comments

[smtfhw.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about forgetting what you've planted. I'm sure I didn't plant some of the daffodils that came up last month, and I'm equally sure they weren't there last spring. It's a mystery...

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing your talking about your real garden, not a window box at the Belvedere.

[smtfhw.livejournal.com]

You would be correct... I really have no idea why there's a tulip in the middle of the lawn! And as we moved in two years ago, why it wasn't there last year is equally mystifying...

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

Thanks!