Things that are griping me at the moment

(i) People who say they're going to show up for something and don't. Last week, we had our Rotunda night with John Clarke and had over 160 people say yes they were coming -- at which point we declared the session full and turned a lot of people away. And on the night, we had around 110. Lots of our students didn't come and said they had wanted to but didn't bother because they'd heard it was full. The night was fantastic -- John was informative, entertaining and so warm and generous with his time, Sherryl was a very relaxed and competent interviewer, and then we followed their session with some excellent student readings, so it was a shame that we had turned so many people away. I know sometimes there are genuine reasons people can't come at the last minute, but I doubt so many people had emergencies... Why bother booking if you don't intend to come? And if you can't -- please let us know!

(ii) Government bodies who think that the way to increase TAFE patronage is to increase fees. Please excuse the trumpet-blowing that's to follow, but I feel quite passionate about this. We have a fantastic course -- I truly believe that. We have a fantastic bunch of committed teachers who love our course and love teaching in it. We've worked hard to build it, to make it a dynamic, happening place, to recruit an enthusiastic staff -- and although we're tiny we're leading the university in terms of what we're doing online. We've embraced the university's community engagement directives, and are running events that are well attended both by students and those in the wider community. The feedback we're getting is excellent. We've risen in the pop pols since I started, from third to second place and have that final place, which we believe rests on its (excellent) marketing abilities, in our sights, even if it is way ahead of us. Our students love our course (most do, anyway -- I can't speak for them all, of course...). We have so much going for us -- and now we're under the gun. Thanks, people! Raising prices, yes, that's how I'd get people to come too. (Pardon the sarcasm!) What it means is that those who are thinking about studying at TAFE should jump in now and lock themselves into the current fee structure. 

(iii) Councils who do sneakies -- like putting up small no-parking signs without warning anyone that they're going to do this. That's what's happened at the end of my street -- and I got caught there the other day. $113 worth of caught to be exact. What made it worse was I had originally parked somewhere else and thought the car might be too near a corner so moved it to do the right thing. Argghh. Clearly, I wasn't looking for signs because I've often parked there. Mind you -- my brother got caught somewhere after a council erected the signs while his car was parked. How rude is that! Fortuitously (and fortunately), he happened to have photographic evidence, but still had to go to court to get out of it. After my exhausting efforts to get another fine (only $75 worth in a different council) overturned last year -- I won, but I'm still wondering whether it was worth it, given the amount of time and grief it caused me, I've decided that this time I'll have to just suck it up. In this house, we have a process in place that works well: if one gets a fine they think is truly undeserved and that they're pissed off about, the other quietly goes away and pays it. It's just as though the fine has disappeared...

Well, the holidays are over...

And it's back to school. Yay! The house to myself to get some work done. Today it's workshopping and class prep and editing and maybe working on my own stuff -- if there's any time left. And that's the problem with my priorities really. Everyone else's work comes first. I'm going to be looking at ways of addressing that the next few weeks.

Time to review the holidays, which were almost a non-event this year. We did see several movies: Race to Witch Mountain, Inkheart, Knowing and Duplicity -- and I saw The Reader, just before the holidays began. Plus we went to see Wicked, and didn't I get a shock when we drove into the city because we were late (what a surprise! not) and missed our train. I was expecting parking to be around the $20 mark. Foolish, foolish woman. I'd forgotten that usually when I drive in to go to a live show, it's the weekend, and weekend parking is cheaper. The first place we stopped was $47. Gulp. Then a bit further out we found one for $40. Further out still we eventually found parking for $32 -- one of those places where you leave your keys in the ignition, and they park it for you, which really freaked out the kids. Our plenty of free time was eaten up in the cross-city slog, and neither child had eaten anything, so by the time they bought food (which I was most surprised to find out they were allowed to take inside) it was right on starting time. We had great seats -- second row -- so close we could see where the actors' hairpieces ended! Anyway, I'll post reviews on my writing blog.

Other things we enjoyed -- Victorian State Singers presenting the Credo Mass on Good Friday. I was settling in for something that was going to go on for hours and was surprised to find out it was considerably shorter than I expected, but beautifully presented as always. Man, I love this choir, which is struggling a bit with numbers, though I can't imagine why. Actually, that's not quite true. I do know why -- I just think in a perfect world this group would be bursting at the seams. First, people have to get over their misconceptions. Princess Sleepyhead has been trying to recruit at school and not meeting any kind of success -- kids saying why would they want to join a daggy choir. 

And why would they? Here's a few reasons. For a start, there's the practice of singing for three hours a week, which for those doing VCE can only be a huge benefit. Then there's the performance experience. This is a choir that does fairly regular performances -- great at getting any performer used to what's expected -- with a varied repertoire of music. So that's the next point -- learning lots of different styles of music, broadening knowledge of what's out there. And then there's the other thing, perhaps the most important of all: this group has fun! They love singing, and their leader, Doug Heywood, and pianist, Alexander Cameron, are great motivators. It's a serious choir with a great sound that has lots of fun -- what more could you want?

In the bad books

That's me. Sir Talkalot is barely talking to me. I'll have to rename him Sir Talkalittle if he keeps this up. What have I done now?

Easy. 

He was supposed to be at a friend's house this morning, and I didn't take him. Er, hello? I did try to get him up. He refused. And I had a dental appointment. At 11.15. Now, seriously, if he's still in bed and refusing to get up, what does he expect me to do? Maybe he shouldn't have been up playing computer games half the night.

And then he's equally unhappy because I did pick him up at his friends' house this evening. 11 pm to be precise. (Well, "accurate" really because I only went once.)

He wanted to stay all night. I said no because we've got something on tomorrow -- and hasn't he just proven this morning that he can't get up after a late night?

We agreed on midnight -- well, no, I laid down the law; he acquiesced rather than agreed. But then he rang up today and said there'd been a change of plan, and they were going somewhere else, and he wasn't telling us where because he wanted to stay all night. That's just not on. His penalty was an hour earlier pick-up. So he barely spoke to me all the way home. Tough. We can play it his way or mine. I choose mine.

What I hate

is kids that come up to you at 1.30 am and say, "Mum, we have a cultural day tomorrow, and we all have to take some food to share from our background. Can you make me something Dutch to take..."

Children!