Still catching up

(and hoping Bob will blog Centerparcs so I can tick that week off my list 😉 )

I was working on 2nd January, the first day of new hours at the shop so we were open 10 – 2. Lots of inquiries and phone calls and more sales than I’d expected, but still a fairly quiet day. Sarah popped in for a chat, which was lovely (and brought me some home-made lemon curd, which was delicious) and Bob and the children came along too (no music school) and did a few bits of work but didn’t make the planned trip to the park as the weather was not good. In the evening we went to the pantomime – Aladdin – amateur but fun 🙂

On Sunday M went off to church with the usual friends, but the rest of us stayed at home, as we were expecting a visit from old friends. Had a lovely time with them, chatting and playing, but not nearly for long enough…

Monday was a rescue day for Sarah; she came with her two little boys and we played with them while she got on with an essay 🙂 L’s gymnastics had already started up so that kept her busy for some of the afternoon, while the boys watched various Christmas lectures. Over the course of the holiday season we’ve worked our way through this year’s and also a couple of sets we have on DVD – number mysteries and food. It was also the day I found out that Grandad was very ill and made plans to rush over and see him on the Tuesday.

Tuesday 5th was officially the first day of term, but violin hadn’t yet started so we had a day at home until it was time for the boys to go to gymnastics. I should have been going to see Grandad, but he died sometime on Monday night, so it was a bit of an odd day really, with all of us trying to carry on as normal but feeling sad, and me feeling terribly guilty 🙁

Wednesday was a snow day – neither Latinetc nor a proposed trip to London happened, but we did make it to K’s cello and A’s baby music 🙂
We expected a quiet Tots on Thursday, but actually lots of families turned up, so it was a busy session, which was nice after the quiet of the holidays. Friday should have been a recorders session at Gina’s, but we decided we (I!) didn’t have the energy to face the snow and stayed at home instead, doing a few more normals and a bit more sitting down type work. A nature walk happened some time this week, too, with resulting watercolour sketches and paintings 🙂

Saturday 9th was the first Music School of the new term, while I was doing a sling morning. Bob and the children came and picked me up and we walked to the park together then went and had a look in a lovely toy shop owned by a family we know through HE. The children spent their first pocket money of the year and L spotted a toy she wants to save up for, which led to some good discussions about putting money aside each week and how long it would take to get to the desired sum 😉

10th – 15th was the usual round of Gymnastics, Beavers, Cubs, violin (but no cello), Baby Music and Tots, with added Latinetc (microbiology – putting samples onto agar plates to see what would grow; my airing cupboard now has some very unsavoury looking brown/beige/yellow splodges fortunately well taped into closed containers) and CHEF sports. Oh and the extra excitement of a reporter at Tots and sports, getting some idea of a day in the life of the other K.
16th should have been shop for me and music school for children, but everything changed for various reasons, so we ended up losing a day and having to pack for CP in a bit of a hurry. Sunday was spent very happily between church and dancing – a new dancing club for children interested in Molly/ceilidh and so on.

Growing up with Big Brother

I saw an excellent programme on TV last night: The History of Now. It’s a series about 2000-2009, and it helped me to put my finger on things that had been vaguely lurking in my head.

One of the things it mentioned was Mosaic – the postcode-based classifcation of people so that shops and, more recently, politicans can target particular things to particular people. It divides society up into 16 or so categories, and then says what category is most common in each postcode.

It made me think of a book I’m reading for work: Competing on Analytics. It has all kinds of interesting and scary things about how companies are storing information about customers and their behaviour, and then using this behaviour to make more money. Things like store loyalty cards, online accounts, using search engines and so on.

Apparently the industry average rate for people actually using money-off coupons is about 2%. Tesco can use its vast knowledge of its customers to tailor its coupons so that they are more relevant, and so get 20-50%. (So people buy e.g. cat food in Tesco rather than anywhere else.) It issues about 7 million targetted variations of product coupons a year, and has given away Clubcard points worth about £1 billion pounds. (Don’t feel sorry for Tesco, the points keep you with them rather than going elsewhere.)

It’s taken a while for me to realise what makes the weird feeling in all this, and I think it’s two main things (there might be more, but these are it for now). The first is that Tesco etc. know so much about me from a distance i.e. without properly knowing me. In the past, in the days before people left such a rich digital trail in their wake, to do this sort of thing you’d need to go through the rubbish in someone’s bins, tap their phones, intercept their post etc. In short, you’d be spying on them. We (at least, people my age or older) haven’t adjusted our social expectations to move this kind of knowledge gathering into the Acceptable category.

The second thing that’s behind the weird feeling is the imbalance in the relationship. You know so much about me, but I know so little about you. In fact, I don’t even know which “you” I’m dealing with much of the time – I see the shop workers, but the marketing departments, IT operations departments and other backroom boys and girls who shepherd all this data are people I will never meet. Just as a thought experiment, I imagined what it would be like if when I hand over my clubcard in Tesco (and give them yet more data) I got a little book with details of all the Tesco staff who will touch my data – their names, addresses, a photo maybe, what they typically buy in Tesco etc. ‘Cos that’s what I’m giving them.

While this rant has built up a head of steam, I’ll grumble about a particularly unpleasant version of all this. On Facebook there are occasionally adverts that say “Aged X-Y?” where X and Y just happen to bracket my age, or even “Are you a man aged X?” where X is exactly my age. I’m fairly sure that Facebook gives its advertisers that information about me i.e. the advertisers know exactly my age and sex, so they could just as easily say “Seeing as you’re a man aged X…” Putting it as a question makes it look like they just happen to have an offer on at the moment that just happens to suit me (according to them) and so I would be foolish to let such a brilliant offer pass me by. At least Tesco are honest about their omniscience (although they don’t go out of their way to help people realise quite how much data they have). While I’m in the area, there’s an interesting blog about someone trying to get Tesco to show him what they hold about him.

Of course, in some ways, there’s a choice in all this. We choose to exchange this information in return for convenience and, possibly, lower prices. Although the choice is more and more being made for us. In order to leave no digital trail you’d have to work really quite hard – as films like Terminator 3 and The Bourne Identity (and many others) show.

What provoked a wry smile is the following passage of the Competing on Analytics book. Bear in mind it was written in 2007:

Of course, any quantitative analysis relies upon a series of assumptions. When the conditions behind the assumptions no longer apply, the analyses should no longer be employed. For example, Capital One [an example in the book of a company succeeding through analytics] and other credit card companies make analytical predictions about customers’ willingness to repay their balances under conditions of general economic prosperity. If the economy took a sharp downturn, the predictions would no longer apply, and it would be dangerous to continue using them.

Christmas!

M went to the children’s midnight mass (at 5pm) with our Catholic friends, who then brought him back here for us and stayed for cups of tea and nibbles, with Carols from King’s playing in the background :tree: Oh and we quickly ran up some stockings from fleece in the fabric stash, having discovered that we only had one of the ones we made a few years ago left – we left that one for Big Alice and made new ones, each one different, for all the children, which they then proudly put in their rooms 🙂
Mince pie, card, drink of milk and small packet of sweets were left for Father Christmas, and a bowl of salad and carrot for the reindeer and we had a quick look at Norad tracking Santa to see where he was up to, then children went to bed, and eventually to sleep…

Christmas Day began slightly too early, given that Christmas Eve had ended a little too late (J couldn’t get to sleep) so children were told to unpack their stockings whenever they liked, do what they liked with the contents but not try to show us until rather later 😉 Leisurely breakfast, whilst admiring stocking contents and then looking at presents from us to children (mostly clothes, thanks to the SusuMama sale, and some white baseball boots to decorate) which were then donned ready to be shown off at church. It was a nice service, then we came back, ate mince pies and opened one more present before getting Christmas dinner going. M had chicken (deliberately left over from Christmas Eve meal with outlaws) and we had a Quorn roast, plus all the usual Christmas trimmings (except bread sauce – what is the point of it? Bleurgh!). We even watched the Queen’s Speech while we served up – how traditional can you get? Everyone was too full for pudding then, so we watched a film and opened more presents, then flamed and ate the pudding for supper. Various relatives were spoken to at various points in the day – M’s parents phoned in the morning, we phoned inlaws to sing “We wish you a merry Christmas” and to say thank you for presents and so on and apart from that it was just us and all was quiet and family and rather nice actually :mrgreen:

Boxing Day is usually when we see Auntie Norma and Uncle John, but this year they were celebrating their Ruby wedding anniversary on the 27th. We had thought of going to see Grandad, but my Dad said he had been unwell on Christmas Eve and was waiting for antibiotics to take effect, which meant he was confused and would possibly not even know we were there, so with that and a warning of very bad roads near to his nursing home we decided that 26th was better spent quietly at home, with presents and films to enjoy and not-quite-enough leftovers to eat (A had eaten all the roasties so I had to cook more potatoes to make bubble and squeak!) then on the Sunday the boys had their first morning of Holiday Orchestra. M was to have a sleepover with Gina and co, so that he could do the first New to Gamelan session rather than meet a bewildering number of random relatives at my aunt and uncle’s, so we dropped them all off at 9:30 for their first session then picked J and K up at 12 (missing choir) but left M there. Despite bad weather we made it in time to pop into the house before going to the church for the blessing service they had arranged to have, at which both J and I were to read. J coped well with a long reading (Matt. 2:1-12) and the children all sat nicely through a service which tbh had little for them until we got to the end and the blessing itself. K and L took the collection and their second cousin (I think!) J did a blessing at the end so family were well represented. My little sister Polly was expected but not there, which had us slightly worried until she appeared a few minutes into the post-service party, having had a nightmare journey (from Wales to Norfolk) including a puncture. It was so nice to see her again 😀

Since the boys had HO again the next morning we could not stay too late, but had to make our way back through snow and ice. Gina assured me that M was having a good time (and a late night) so all was well 🙂 Having taken the whole week off, Bob did the Monday morning HO run, so that I could sleep in (ha! A had other ideas!) then the girls and I picked them up, so that we could go for a play/chat date with Morag and family, since R and R had also been HO-ing. I was so tired I wasn’t sure I could face driving across town through bank holiday sales traffic, but it was such a pleasant afternoon that it was well worth it in the end, for lovely soup, great company and a chance to set the world to rights – or nearly, at least 😉

On Tuesday and Wednesday Bob did both HO runs, in his small car, and on Wednesday L, A and I went to Michelle’s for an extra small Latinetc which turned out to be mostly Music Theory, with a little French, no Latin but lots of chat and playing. We were late getting there, which was probably not a bad thing as it meant E and C were already playing well together and L just joined them, rather than E and L arriving at the same time and trying to fit C into a game. We stayed a little longer than Gina, so L and C played together too – it all worked out nicely really (and thank you for having us, Michelle, and Gina for doing so much Music stuff). Meanwhile Bob had three different Gamelan performances to go to, as the boys were each in different sessions, and then a quick dash home for rest and food before the evening concert – pics and videos on flickr.

Thursday, New Year’s Eve, was a flurry of hoovering and tidying, especially children’s rooms as we had two families to fit in overnight and another just for the evenings. The Rainedrops arrived at about 3:15, within 15 minutes of predicted time – very impressive 😉 – and were soon followed by Em and co. then Goddards at 6 o’clock (which sounds oddly like a film title!). We did potatoes and pizzas and similarly easy food so that people could eat as and when they wanted to, along with cheese and biscuits and similar goodies, including a huge box of baklava Barbara had found at Costco (I must get to a Costco some time!). LED balloons, glow-sticks, sparklers and indoor (cake) fireworks kept the children busy whenever they weren’t DS-ing, while the adults relaxed and enjoyed the peace! We tucked our children up at about 10, being mean parents who could see they were over-tired already, but all the others stayed up until the countdown and then watched the fireworks on the TV at midnight (in black and white, to the astonishment of some of our younger visitors 😆 ) before departing either for home or for beds. Oh, and I had a couple of unexpected birthday presents – some yummy fudge from Nic and a fleecy throw from Barbara (which she promptly annexed to snuggle under on the settee!) – thank you both 🙂 I think the last adults drifted to bed at about 3… and the first surfaced at about 8 (and that would be me, both times – whoops!) to put out massive quantities of brioche and pastries (good old Costco, did I say I really want to go there some time?) and fruit salad for breakfast.

So, er, where was I?

Ah yes, HE group Christmas party – Friday 18th December…
The children played in the snow first thing, while I got food ready for the party, finished loading up the car with costumes, percussion etc and quickly printed off some carol sheets. Then we headed out, through a lovely clear crisp day, with roads all easy until we got to the city, where there was packed ice and we met some slightly scary ruts and slippage! Made it to the venue, where we found a somewhat depleted company but had fun nonetheless. The play was performed, with a few of the essential characters being replaced at the last minute and a few extra parts (and costumes) being found for enthusiastic but unrehearsed joiners 🙂 Lunch was a bring and share affair, including everything from roasties and sprouts to chocolate cake and truffles. The children spent lots of time and energy playing in the snow, coming in for an informal concert, popcorn stringing and similar crafts and carols round the piano. Father Christmas even came along (in his bathrobe!) with presents for the children. As we headed home in the afternoon we mentioned that we were planning to go our local (town) celebrations, which were to include “ice” skating and refreshments and managed to persuade the Beans to come along too. Bob came home from work a little early and Big Alice turned up just in time so it was a large group of us who made our way down the road just as it started to get dark. There was quite a wait for skates and the ice turned out to be plastic tiles, which were not working as well as usual because it was snowing softly, but my poor deprived children didn’t know any better and enjoyed it just the same 😉 M, SB and BB were all seasoned pros, but had to change technique to accommodate the odd surface, while Alice, Chris and I just walked around and supported/encouraged as necessary and Helen, Bob and A looked on from the sidelines, enjoying hot chocolate and mince pies. Oh, and Father Christmas was there too, handing out goody bags, including one to Big Alice, who was very chuffed 😆 Not bad for a free event! After skating we sent Bob on ahead to get chips, then I fished veggie sausages out of the freezer to make up for the non-veggie hot dogs we had been watching others eat. A quick burst of Magic School Bus while adults chatted and drank tea and it was time for bed, after a long but pleasant day with friends 😀

Saturday was a quiet day for the children (no Music School) but I was at the shop and then took 2 hours to get home, thanks to a road closure, diversion and gridlock – lovely! In the evening Bob was to have gone to a party but cried off because of bad weather, but at least it was clear enough to get M to church in the city (and us in town) on Sunday.

On Monday we went to visit Emma and her boys and had a lovely restful morning and early afternoon there, eating warm mince pies and quince pies – definitely to be recommended and I intend to raid their tree next year so I can make my own 😉 Then we girded our loins and set out in the snow for yet more Christmas socialising – one of those “shall we or shan’t we?” things where in the end you are glad you did as there turned out to be lots of HE friends there and the children all disappeared and played party games for ages, leaving adults (and babies/toddlers) free to chat.

On Tuesday we had expected to see Bob’s parents for a fair while, but their visit was curtailed by weather etc so I took the children out to collect parcels and do shopping and we got back just in time to say hello, read a story or two with Gran-gran and then say goodbye again. I’d rather the children blamed me for being late than their grandparents for not being there…

Wednesday was Latinetc again – another seasonal special with Saturnalia for Latin, plus a couple of Minimus plays for the children to practise and perform (in Latin), making (and eating) Roman Army bread, some music theory, jingle bells on the bells and a chance to look at snow and ice crystals with the microscope. Helen and co had to dash off so it was a bit rushed in places, but we got lots done and then relaxed and did the rest at a slightly slower pace!

Christmas Eve morning was spent tidying and hoovering for the Inlaws Visit, then waiting for them to arrive as they got held up by slow traffic and bad weather. M-i-l was too poorly to come, unfortunately, and b-i-l was working, so that left s-i-l, f-i-l and two nephews – who instantly disappeared off to play. It was lovely to see K and cousin C bonding so well (I really should make the effort to get them together more often 😳 ) and they all seemed to have a great time, making clove-stuck oranges, building with the rainbow blocks, racing sprouts and Christmas puddings (from crackers) and whatever else they were up to when they disappeared into the annexe giggling 😆 Sadly the weather meant f-i-l didn’t want to stay late, so having got here after 12 they left again before 3, but it was lovely to have them anyway.

Oops! Slipping…

I find it so hard, once I’ve fallen behind a bit, to get back to writing at all – which is daft as it just means we get further and further behind 🙁
So, this is going to be an attempt at a quick round up and catch up post, so that I can draw a line under what I’ve missed and carry on from here.

We need to go right back to Saturday 21st November 😳 which was Music School and sling shop in the morning and then the church ceilidh in the evening. Unfortunately M was very tired by mid-afternoon and in the end felt too unwell to come to the dance, so he and Bob stayed at home while I took the other 4 with me. The numbers worked well as A mostly wanted to be in the carrier, leaving 2 male and 2 female dancers 🙂

The following Monday should have been a family trip to the new Donarbon waste site, but at very short notice the site managers decided to impose an age restriction such that A and L couldn’t go. Fortunately Z’s mum stepped in and offered to take the boys for me, but ended up taking only M and K as J managed to make a nuisance of himself to such an extent that he lost the chance to go (I must admit I can’t now remember what he did, but I imagine it was to do with procrastination, his (and my!) besetting sin). They had a great time, learned all about waste sorting, recycling, treatment, compost making and more and came home with garlic bulbs planted in compost made at the site, which are now growing slowly but surely on the annexe windowsill 🙂 They were back in time for a late lunch and then we kept Z here until L’s gymnastics, when we also dropped him off.

Tuesday was a normals day, with violin and then gymnastics for the boys. Wednesday posed a few logistical problems, as I had been unexpectedly booked to do a sling morning but it was also a Latinetc day. Bob worked from home in the morning so I could set off early, then Gina took over childcare with some Music (practical and theory) and Helen did science as usual. I made it back in time to do a quick burst of Latin and French and we still got to Baby Music 🙂 Cello had been cancelled, which gave us a little more time in hand.

Thursday was Tots and Nots, with Philosophy Club, which they are all still enjoying, but Friday was a bit of a disappointment as we set off for the HE group we only occasionally get to, where we hoped to take part in a Messy Play session, only to find everybody standing outside the hall, unable to get in as the keyholder was ill and nobody else could get access or get hold of him to collect the key 🙁 Instead we spent lots of time and not so much money in an excellent charity shop we discovered down the road from there and sorted most of our Secret Santa presents for the following week’s camp. Then we came home and tried out all the games we had bought to see if they would suit their recipients 😉

On 28th November the boys decided that Astronomy Club was more of a draw than Music School, so Bob took L to music while A and I took the boys to Astronomy and then stayed while they learned all about comets. The rest of the weekend, apart from church, was spent getting ready for camp and then on Monday morning we set off for the South Coast, stopping at Ikea for lunch and a nice long play on the way. We were leaving Bob at home, partly because of lack of space in the car but mostly because of lack of holiday time left, but in the end he came along for the middle of the week and joined us – just in time to look after M when he spent a night vomiting and then a day recovering. Apart from that, which fortunately didn’t seem to spread to anybody else, it was a great week, with lots of cake, tea, chat, games, music and craft – and a trip to a planetarium which I’m assured was “really really good” although I stayed at the hostel to do service prep. so missed it 🙁 We had a Christmas dinner together and exchanged Secret Santa gifts and generally enjoyed ourselves, then made our way back home via a much overdue visit to Rodena.

It was quite odd to go straight back into everyday life after such a Christmassy week, but Music School was on and I had a shift at the shop on Saturday morning, then spent much of the afternoon and evening polishing off service stuff, including buying Christingle supplies – enough for everybody who might be at the service to have one. I think Bob has blogged this Sunday so I shan’t do it again, other than to say that all went well and it was a lovely day 🙂

A day of normals (and washing!) at home was just what we needed to recover; there wasn’t even gym to stop for and although K was out carol singing at an old people’s home with the Beavers Big Alice took him there and brought him back for us so it was a very easy day all round.

Tuesday was violin, which was just as well as it gave us the impetus to get lots of music practice done, and I was tutoring in the afternoon, but other than that we had lots of time to do Christmas crafts, try out some cookie recipes and so on. Oh and J and M practised their parts for the Cubs panto, which was to be part of the session on Wed. Wed Latinetc was cancelled but Gina and co came over anyway and we did a few bits together, including making some rather lovely Christmas cards. Cello was back on, but Baby Music had finished, so Gina took K and E and stayed for the lesson, while I kept J here (and made him, M and my J do work 😈 ) then swapped him for K again later. Cubs panto was fun (M was Alice Fitzwarren in Dick Whittington so borrowed a long skirt from L and looked very sweet 😆 ) and they came back with plentiful supplies of sweets – joy!

Thursday Tots and Nots was Philosophy Club again, and also lots of rehearsals for the Nativity Play planned for the HE group Christmas party, alongside an oht workshop to produce backdrops (some of them really quite stunning!) for the play. Friday was local HE group planning meeting, which Bob went to as I couldn’t face it after so much online politics 🙁 Saturday was the usual Music School and slinging combi and Sunday as usual found M with Catholic friends and us with Methodist ones.
There followed a week of Christmas activities – lots of baking, crafting, decorating, singing carols, reading Christmas stories and so forth with some normals and lots of music practice thrown in for good measure 😉 Latinetc found us working out carols from their Latin equivalents/translations and doing seasonal vocab in French, as well as looking at crystals with the help of SB’s fab digital microscope connected to laptop for easier viewing, then making molecules from Maltesers and working out carols on bells. Tots included another quick rehearsal and lots of lovely Christmas crafts, then finished early so we could get the boys to Multisport and then Friday had the big excitement not only of the HE group Christmas party but also lots of snow!