Grr

I did tell myself that I wouldn't blog if I was feeling fed up as I didn't want to inflict my misery on my dear readers but on the other hand, it's a place for me to brain-dump. So, I have had a couple of things that have really ticked me off.

1. I sent off my last assignment and I have missed marks because of the ambiguity of the question - I even asked Charles who, being a lawyer and at the Very end of the pedantic spectrum, was in agreement that if I'm going to be picked up for typos in my essay, the question-setters should perhaps have a little look at their comma usage. The other thing was that we were told to plan and write the essay question in an hour to replicate exam conditions. So I did, pretty much, and got back: "more references to the course text and more diagrams needed". We don't have the course text in the exam as it's not open book so I had only used generalised examples, and planning and executing diagrams takes precious time so I had only done one. Grrrrr.
2. Rosie announced that she wanted to go and live with her father and go to school with her step-sister Lottie which in principle, is perfectly reasonable, except she decided to tell Julian about that wish before she told me. I then said ok, but she would have to come back every other weekend and not, as she was hoping, pick and choose the days when she was here. She then burst into tears at the thought of her room not being kept as a shrine (to the God of Clothes On The Floor) in her absence as Amber would have it as it is the bigger room. After much discussion, she's decided to stay living here.
3. The CSA are going to send Julian another reminder letter about sending in his accounts as he hasn't responded to the last 5 they have sent him. I did ask the lady to repeat that statement to see if she picked up on the lack of wisdom in that strategy, but apparently because he did say he'd respond, they have to give him the benefit of the doubt.
4. Amber decided to kick off when Julian came to collect her which resulted in Julian throwing all her stuff out of the boot and driving off. I had said to Amber that if she didn't want to go to her dad's then she'd have to go somewhere else as I had things to do and she said no and why did I have to go out anyway as surely I could spend the weekend with her. Arghghghghhghgh.
5. My potatoes and tomatoes have got blight.

But Shinies was good yesterday and having shaken off the mantle of responsibility now the children have gone and done a metaphorical two fingers to my tutor, I am going to relax with some crochet and tv and watch my chicks. I had a cuddle with John (the duck) yesterday, he's sooooo soft, but his missus wasn't happy about being left on her own and let out one her foghorn-ish alarm calls. Honestly, you wouldn't think such a tiny creature could make such a racket, she must be all lungs under those feathers. I think I need to buy some wool and spend some more time in the garden...

Here's a video of the ducks. Sorry if it takes ages to download