Never thought I would be sitting in a classroom again surrounded by 24 excitable 10 year old children. But there I was trying to get myself familiarized with the current methods of teaching lower grade kids math. What I was not prepared for being my age was the near chaos that seemed to be the order of the day. Nowadays it is apparently necessary to put these youngsters in threes and fours at little tables with most of them not being able to see the blackboard – in this case the modern digitalĀ equivalent of one- facing forward. The result was a lot of scraping of chairs and sitting turned every which way plus a lot of noise. The teacher did her best to keep it all under control but it was an uphill struggle. I was actually there to be able to help one of the students with their math home work once a week, but my own math lessons were about 55 years ago. So I thought a refresher was in order.
At the moment we are being invaded by the Western conifer seed bug. A quite harmless but rather terrifying beetle who is trying en mass to come into our house. When you squash them it is like you just emptied one of those ghastly pine toilet sprays.Our youngest son who is about to embark on an adventure trip to South East Asia keeps shrieking when he sees one, which makes my husband crack up as he told him this little guy will be the most harmless insect he will see for a while.
I wonder how all these young people can afford to bum around these far countries for 5 to 6 months. At that age a trip to London would be all we could afford on our beginners’salaries. But good on them to do this before being tied down with partners, mortgages and such. It will be a wrench as he has being staying at home for a month before leaving so I have quite gotten used to having him around. It will be empty nest syndrome again. Thank god for our dog Bonita.
After reading about 20 samples on Amazon and as many beginnings of stories I have decided to add some more tension to my first chapter. It was all a bit too sedate Even I was not tempted to read the rest of the story. Strange that I know exactly where it is going even how it will end but the road there is not easy. On my travels I have been photographing some inspirational sights to use on my mood board. We are talking about a thousand years after earths’ population has been reduced to just a few groups left over or left behind.
On the islands of Albion all boats have been wrecked to stop people leaving for the more technically advanced continent.
Still reading more than I am writing. Will persevere though.