Being Me

I arrived back on Friday from a week in Wales with my son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren. (Just then, I typed 'groundchildren' instead of 'grandchildren', and soon you will see how ironic that is.) If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll know not to expect post-holiday descriptions of lush landscapes, snippets of pastoral poetry or anecdotes about my daredevil surfing exploits.  Oh, okay, then. Here's a waterfall. But that's all you're getting of anything postcardy.    The weather forecast, as we left the Midlands to drive to Wales, was not favourable. In fact, we had packed raincoats, umbrellas, wellingtons and a book entitled 'First Aid for the Drowning.' For most of the week, however, the rain lashed down during the nights, then in the daytime the sun shone, burning and shrivelling any exposed face or limb without mercy. We slapped on sun cream but not as fast as the sun slapped our cheeks and foreheads.   Oh, all ri...

Lennie Small - Of Mice and Men Lennie has been seated at the very back of the class so that other pupils can see the board. He cannot be faulted for effort in his academic studies but struggles with most aspects of the curriculum. He does love nature, especially animals, although since the unfortunate incident when Lennie was allowed to take the class gerbils home for the holidays, we have tried to divert his interests. He is generally well-behaved in school; nevertheless, he did receive a detention for shouting 'I like my beans with ketchup' repeatedly across the school dining room, upsetting the catering staff. Also, he has joined the after-school Film Studies club but continually insists they watch clips of 'Watership Down'; other pupils are wearying of this. Lennie usually does relate well to other pupils, but is less popular with the girls, most of whom have taken to wearing pastel colours to school. With further work on his social skills, Lennie should have a brig...