The shock shock was that I got another 90% for my TMA. The question seemed straightforward, and I answered it without too much trouble, but I felt something was missing. It had no sparkle. I just seemed to be regurgitating the course material, and had put nothing of myself in it.(Can’t remember the question, but we had to talk about Peter Rabbit and Voices in the Park. Something about the best picture books have something intangible and invisible to them). This was my favourite part of the course so far. The bit we’re doing at the moment is about do books reflect or influence society as far as I can see. Tutor says it allows us to give an overview of the course (instruction/delight, intertextuality and stuff) The books are realist fiction. (Junk by Melvyn Burgess, The Other Side of Truth, by Beverley Naidoo, and Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve). The latter is a sort of science fiction, about London on wheels eating up the surrounding towns, but it related back to Colonialism. Yes, it does. Really it does. And there’s lots in it that relates to life today. I could have chosen Coram Boy - a historical book  - but I’m saving time and skipping it as we only need to refer to three books. We’ve done a fair amount of historical books, but no science fiction, and many people on the forum say it’s a bit boring.

The horror horror was when I idly looked at the church website on John’s Mac. I had designed it on my laptop, which has a large screen for a laptop, and tested it in various browsers, and it looked fine. But on John’s Mac the background image stopped half way down, and the colours looked completely different. A few other things wrong too. So I have spent ages putting the site right, and now it looks okay I hope.

www.sacredheartstjoseph.org.uk

Peace and quiet today. The grandkids (not Alexander!) are coming tomorrow for a week, so ‘let the rumpus begin.’ I’m about to whip off the ivory ironed bedlinen on their bed and replace it with unironed coloured sheets. Not wasting all that ironing on kids! We’re meeting up tomorrow at a pub near Penrith, and Ali is treating me to a Mother’s Day meal.Looking forward to i, but disappointed it clashes with an OU get-together in Manchester. I wish I had insisted we pick up the kids on Sunday, but Saturday suited Ali better. Can’t remember why. They’re probably doing something on Sunday.

Anyway, bye bye. Have a good weekedn.