Saturday Dilemma

Photo Copyright: Maggie May

First of all I would like to apologise to those people who couldn't leave a comment on my last post because of a Blogger glitch. I only knew about it because they asked my brother to pass on a message about their difficulty.

I hope Blogger is working again now.

You might be wondering about the little owl photo on this post.

It was brought round by my friend and neighbour this afternoon.

At first I thought that it was a little bag or purse with a key ring on it. However, when I opened it up there was a strong nylon bag inside. That is ideal for unexpected shopping journeys. You know how easy it is to pop in for a small item and then go on to buy six. Then you notice you haven't sufficient room in your bag.

I am always doing that. Now I can clip this little owl onto my bag and never have to come home with a plastic bag again.

So I am well pleased. I do seem to have some lovely friends, don't I?

I hear some funny things while waiting in the hospital for my treatment to start.

Today I found myself sitting in a corridor with another lady while they prepared the two rooms for our radiotherapy.

The lady started telling me she'd just started having the treatment after a long session of chemo. I remarked that she was extremely lucky to have kept her hair.

She replied that it was a wig.

I was truly amazed because I can usually tell when some one is wearing a wig and this one even seemed to be mottled with grey. Very natural looking.

Anyway, she went on to inform me that while she had been having chemotherapy, another lady had asked her if it was her own hair or a wig and when she answered that it was a wig, the older lady asked if she could borrow it for the weekend while she went to a wedding because it looked so natural.

What a cheek. It would be as bad as someone asking to borrow a set of teeth or a false limb. Just a bit too personal.

We both had a chuckle about that.

It was my oldest granddaughter's 9th Birthday this week. I can hardly believe that she only came to this country five years ago after living in Japan from birth. She has done extremely well with all her English subjects.

However, she is feeling a bit sorry for herself at the moment as she is being taken by her mother to another city every Saturday to a Japanese school for the whole day.

It is the only way that both children can even attempt to keep up with their appropriate school year with reading and writing in Japanese.

The positive thing will be that both children will be fluent in both languages when they become adults and most likely will end up with good jobs because of this.

The downside is that they are doing a six day school week when everyone else is only doing five and they will miss parties with their friends and outings with their dad.

I can remember when I was only twelve and my teeth were overcrowded and my dentist wanted to make more room for them by extracting four good teeth. My mother left me with the choice and I obviously chose not to have the surgery.

I later told my mother that I wished she had made me have it done as my teeth grew crooked.

This seems to be a similar case with the girls and their Saturday school.

They might be glad of the extra tuition on a Saturday if they end up with good jobs as bilingual English/Japanese speakers.

What do others think about this?

Is it good or bad to cram children's schooling with an extra day?

Who Am I?

Five year old Amber seems to be having an identity crisis. 

To be fair, she was plucked out of a Japanese nursery school and a home where she had happily lived with parents and sister, Japanese auntie, and grandparents and almost immediately started an English Reception class, all less than a year ago and the family is now living temporarily with Harry and me. So there's no doubt that she is a very adaptable little girl and she is doing well at school and learning our culture very quickly.

However there is some mix up going on in her head and before she went on holiday she was looking long and hard at me when she eventually said, "You are not part of my family."

ME.  "Yes I am. I'm your Grandma."

A.      "No you are not Japanese."

ME.   "I'm part of your English family."

A .     "You don't speak Japanese so you can't be family."

ME.   "You have a Japanese family like Mummy & an English family like Daddy."

A.      "No, Daddy speaks Japanese!"

ME.   "He is English but he speaks Japanese."

A.       (Getting very annoyed) "He is Japanese, he is, he is!"

ME.    "He is my son."

A.       "No, no he is MY son!"

A little talk ensued about relationships. The difference between sons & daddies. I went on to explain that Auntie Debbie was my daughter, Daddy's sister. Rick and Dean were cousins. Thought I had better not mention the obvious racial differences as she had not even noticed them!

Amber replied, "They are family but you are not. Nor Grandad! You are very mean to talk like that!" she said, stamping her foot and flouncing off!

I gave up, feeling a little confused myself, but one thing I know is that she has a stubborn streak in her, just like I have!