Keeping going with the girls and something for me.

Today K & M were being very secretive about what they were up to, both shutting themselves away this morning and continuing with what they were making while I read Lemony Snicket to them (but I wasn't allowed to look).  I was later presented with something that they had made, following the instructions from this book that M had borrowed from the library.

Meet Octavius the octopus!

As well as continuing with Lemony Snicket, we also finished off The Middle Ages.  We've also talked about what we might do once we've reached the present day and we have a plan.  We haven't decided just yet on details, but we're thinking about making a time-line.  I suggested from William I, but K insisted it has to be from pre-historic times!  I'm not sure what we're going to use to do it on, but I'm hoping that the enthusiasm will still be there by the time we've finished the next six books!

This evening I did something just for me.  At the weekend at the local arts festival, while the girls were doing an activity, the lady who was running mentioned a French evening to another of the parents, and when I mentioned that I used to be a French teacher and sounded a bit interested, she asked if I was interested in coming.  I said that I was and gave her my phone number.  Just recently I'm starting to feel the need to do stuff that's just about me a bit more often and this really fitted the bill.  It was just a group people who get together monthly, taking food & drink to share and just chat, but in French.  Talking to a group of people I don't know is not something that I find easy, but they were all lovely and actually because it was just me I couldn't hide behind anybody, so had to talk to people, and it was fine.  They were all really nice and it was really good to speak French for the evening.  It probably also helped that, although I'm really rather rusty, I was one of the more fluent ones there.  There were about a dozen of us with most people being I would guess in their 60s with a few a bit younger, although I think I was probably the youngest there.  I got the impression that the format is usually the same, with drinks and chat, followed by shared food and more chat and then some sort of word or language game that the host has come up with.  As I said this is a monthly thing, which I am definitely planning on going along to again.