Which are you? Early bird? or Night Owl? or Something In Between?

I’ve never been an early bird person. My eyes and my thought processes just don’t want to take it. The earliest I’ve ever willingly dragged myself out of bed to start the day was 4:00 am and then only to catch an international flight (the jetlag starts from the minute I wake up, I swear!) This week I had the questionable delight of getting up at 5:40 am as youngest progeny is trialling for an Open A netball squad at her high school. This wouldn’t be a problem if eldest progeny didn’t have an early class at Uni and had to take the kids car into Uni for the day, or if eldest progeny had her full licence and could take her sister up to school in time for 7:00 am training. And, since the man of the house came in early from night shift and was already in the depths of sleep (lucky fellow!), it fell to me to get my youngest up to school on time.

Now, you’d think that an hour and twenty minutes would be sufficient time for a sixteen year old to get ready and get up to training on time, wouldn’t you? Especially when she’d packed her bag with uniform, books, towel, bathroom gear, sandals, etc. last night. Well, wouldn’t you?

Suffice to say, my darling youngest child is not an early bird either. We made it at 6:59 am and as I drove back home, in the dark, listening to the news bulletin that I usually lie in bed and listen to before I get up in the morning I realised she must really really want a place in this squad to get up this early.

Of course there are benefits to getting up early. By rights, I should be able to get more writing done, and since both progeny finish school and Uni later, on this wretched early start day, I get a bit more time in the afternoon as well. But I’m so tired! Maybe I should nap instead

On the ‘bright’ side–I got to watch the most beautiful sunrise through my office window. There’s a bit of a cloud base and I could see golden/pale apricot rays in broad strokes breaking through the cloud here and there. If only the digital camera wasn’t in the bedroom with the sleeping man of the house I could have shared it with you all too. Maybe next week…yawn. But that will be my last shot because (yay) after next week eldest progeny will have her full licence and guess who’ll be chivvying youngest along to training in the morning! Ha! If that doesn’t get her ready in time, nothing will :D

I used to be a night owl, and there are times I still make it (usually deadline times) but now I think I’m very definitely something in between. So which are you, early bird, night owl, or something in between?

What I’m watching: The Covenant

As you may have guessed, we don’t go out to the picture theatre much, and watch most of our films on DVD. Thanks to the New Year clearance sales, members of the family have aquired a range of films that we haven’t seen before and amongst them was “The Covenant”. I have to say that I really enjoyed this movie but felt it really had the potential to go a bit deeper and even be a bit more scary. That said, the male eye candy was exceptionally fine in it’s various stages of dress or undress ;-).

Frivolity aside I did enjoy the concept of the film, especially that these powers were conferred on the male side of the family, and only one son in the family, when so often in books and films it is the women who hold it. It changed the dynamic considerably, from my point of view, and the thought that young men were coming into power at the age of 13 and ascending to full power at 18 is quite terrifying, especially when you learn how seductive the casual use of that power is and what the long term ramifictions of it are. I can’t say I know of many 13-18 year old males that I’d feel comfortable around with powers such as were exhibited in the movie :-).

The special effects were also excellent, in my opinion. The Darklings, though, I felt could have been explained in more depth and their fright factor used even more. Eeeuw, and don’t get me started on the spiders <shudder>! Guaranteed creep out material for me using something we all come across just about every day. And really, when you think about it, that really is scary. Something that’s as normal about your house and home or workplace as a spider… just think of the potential (sorry, I’m shuddering here again.)

Have you seen any good scary movies lately?

Saw my first live basketball game today

Where have I been all my life, you ask? Well, the thing is, to my limited knowledge, basketball hasn’t been a very big sport here in New Zealand. Obviously that has changed quite dramatically because even my old girls’ grammar school (which back in my day fielded swimming, netball, tennis and athletics teams) had a basketball team in the schools’ tournament I went to today, but traditionally New Zealand’s focus has been on Rugby (Union and League), Cricket, and Netball (with equestrian sports, swimming and athletics out there too.)

Okay, let’s roll back the clock a bit, I’m getting ahead of myself. The youngest child and I travelled to the North Shore Events Centre today to watch a friend, from down country, play basketball. She plays for the New Plymouth Sacred Heart College team (and very well, too!) As both my kids are netballers the concepts of basketball generally escape me (and I didn’t think to check up on rules etc before going to the game,) but wow, what a pleasant surprise to watch a few games in very active and physical play, and even better to see our friend’s team beat their opposition by 20 points! Yay!

So, I’m a convert. Heck, who doesn’t want to watch a sport that lets all players have a go at goal and where you can run between two squishing opposing players and get given penalty shots, or stand right in someone’s breathing space and restrict their movements and not be pulled up for over defending or obstruction. And some of those shots! Wow!

All I need now is someone to direct me to a site that clearly explains what all the umpires little hand movements mean and what the rules of the sport are.

Any suggestions anyone?

17 year olds aren’t supposed to die

A good friend of one of my kids passed away suddenly this weekend. We’re all stunned and grieving. If it had been a car crash or an illness, maybe we could have accepted it better, albeit with no less sorrow, but it was one of those horrible freak accidents that defy description.The ripple effect has been massive. And I can’t begin to imagine how the parents of the dead boy feel, or his siblings.

When we first heard the news today I have to admit that I fervently hoped that the news–from the other side of the world–was someone’s idea of a very, very bad joke. Tragically, that wasn’t the case.

One young life was lost. A thousand hearts are bleeding.

I never thought my kids would have to cope with this sort of thing. We never did when I was growing up. Maybe I grew up in some sort of Utopia–an alternative reality where bad things didn’t happen to good people, but why then do our children have to face this now? Today? I hate it, and I feel so helpless. I just want to wrap my kids in a safe secure bubble where bad things won’t happen to them and as a parent I feel so impotent that I know I can’t stop these horrible things happening in their lives. I feel incredibly blessed that my kids still have their arms wrapped around me–both seeking and providing comfort on this horrible, horrible day.

My kids’ high school (which is closed for school holidays right now) is opening tomorrow, armed to the teeth with grief counsellors as they struggle to come to terms with why a student inexplicably passed away on an international school trip. There’s no blame. There are no fingers to be pointed.

We can only celebrate the life led by a lost boy, and from what I can tell he left much to be mirthful about in his wake. And we can celebrate that our own children are safe–for now–and try not to feel guilty about that.