My Virtual Life http://viking.org.au/blog Minutiae of my Little Life Mon, 23 Aug 2010 02:03:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Lock down at school http://viking.org.au/blog/archive/lock-down-at-school/ http://viking.org.au/blog/archive/lock-down-at-school/#comments Mon, 23 Aug 2010 02:01:36 +0000 Lea http://viking.org.au/blog/?p=41 Today my son’s school had a lock down drill.
I was there, sitting in an outside area, helping one of the children with their reading.
The boy’s teacher came out to lock the outside door – “What do we do?” I asked, not knowing what sort of emergency that particular siren meant. “Come inside”, she said, and locked the door behind me.
The children were all under their desks, with their chairs on top.
They were supposed to be hiding from the potential ‘bad man’ on the grounds.
At this point we still didn’t know if it was real, or a drill – I couldn’t believe it would be real in our country school!
Half the children were bored and talking – not doing very well at being quiet! – while the other half were… frightened would be too strong a term. Lets say ‘worried’.
Eventually the teacher and I managed to convince the children to be quiet – only to discover (smugly) that we were much better at being quiet than the children in the next room.
The siren went on for a long time, and I was starting to think maybe it was real, and I didn’t want it to be.
Attempting to fight off a crazed gun man wasn’t in my schedule for the day.
I know I basically never write here anymore, so I guess it shows the level to which I am disturbed that I am doing so.
I’m noting how well I am typing, while my mind skitters around the events of the day.
Drilling for a predator on the premises was something that never happened when I was at school – heck, fire drills didn’t happen until high school! It was just assumed that our teachers would handle it if something happened. Certainly not something we as children were confronted with.

And eventually – the siren stopped, and the hard-to-hear voice on the loudspeaker thanked everyone for their co operation.
A drill.
No danger to the children – today I would not be called to lay down my life for them, as I would if it were needed.
But who knows what will happen next week?
I don’t really like this modern world we live in, with all its perks and conveniences.

]]> http://viking.org.au/blog/archive/lock-down-at-school/feed/ 0 When is “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” available? http://viking.org.au/blog/archive/when-is-harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-available/ http://viking.org.au/blog/archive/when-is-harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-available/#comments Sun, 04 Feb 2007 06:45:29 +0000 Lea http://viking.org.au/blog/?p=40 When will the final Harry Potter novel be available?
Current expectations are that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be published on July 21 this year (2007) – so at time of writing we only have a little over 5 months to go.
I’d love to know if its actually finished yet. What do you think? Likely? :)

Want to pre-order? Amazon has Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows available for pre order, if you are a big Harry Potter fan and want the book to arrive on your doorstep on the day of release, rather than doing that nasty queue-in-the-bookshop thing.

Or are you trying to avoid all that overseas postage cost? You can order Harry Potter at Seek Books, too – they are probably the best online bookstore in Australia. (Seek doesn’t have the book available for pre-order at the tme of writing, but that link should work later – hopefully when you read this :) )

There are adult and children covers being pushed again, but the pictures aren’t actually different yet – I guess that means that the publisher hasn’t yet said what they will look like?

And how do you think the storyline will come out? Voldemort will be defeated, of course, but I think we will have to lose one of main characters – so, who will it be? Harry? (A little predictable) Ron? (Most likely, I think) or Hermoine? (I hope not! It would lack balance, although she is brave enough…)
Me, I can imagine Ron being killed, and Harry and Hermoine eventually hooking up (possibly after the books end, but I nice hint to it in the book?)
Anyway – time will tell!
Only 5 more months to wait…

]]> http://viking.org.au/blog/archive/when-is-harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-available/feed/ 0 The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Mothers http://viking.org.au/blog/archive/the-seven-habits-of-highly-effective-mothers/ http://viking.org.au/blog/archive/the-seven-habits-of-highly-effective-mothers/#comments Mon, 18 Sep 2006 10:13:03 +0000 Lea http://viking.org.au/blog/?p=39 1. Shake out the bath mat before you run the children’s bath

2. Empty the dishwasher as soon as you get out of bed
2a. Set the dishwasher on timer after you wash up in the evening so you can get those last few glasses in and clean for the next day
2b. ok, ok – go to the loo first!
2c. This usually takes just long enough for the kettle to run. Bonus!

3. Make the bed as soon as you get out of it

4. Lay out the kids clothes for the next day before they go to bed (then you have the whole evening to figure out where to find clean socks)

5. Never go to bed with the clean washing unfolded

6. When you arrive back from dropping the kids at school, bang out each of the door mats

7. Put the laundry on before you go to bed (on timer if you have one) so it is ready to hang out first thing in the morning

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