Glassy Heaven
Monday morning
So the schools went back on Thursday, and this year we had the great pleasure of seeing our daughter start at Secondary school. She looked so smart in her new uniform that I was bursting with gooey feelings (very unlike me). After the obligatory photos on the doorstep in the same place as the ones we took when she was 5 and starting primary school, she was picked up by my friend. As we wandered back into the house after her departure we both groaned and panicked because in the excitement she’d not returned into the house to collect her brand spanking new gym kit. WOOPS. It was a very mad dash after several rushed phone calls to get her kit to her before she walked the final few minutes to school from her friend’s house. I’m not one to run around her but you seriously can’t start a new school without your gym kit and it was partly our fault.
Of course going to big school means she starts earlier, as she has to be at school earlier and it’s further than the 3 minutes (literally) around the corner that we are used to. Which also means that she comes home later too. The upshot of this is that I get a bit more time to work during the day, and so far, even with 2 days under our belt, it seems to be making a difference. I made a record 99 beads on Thursday (a record for me anyway) and seem to be using the time productively so far.
My other big news is that I had an ab fab weekend at Stourbridge last weekend. at the International Festival of Glass. We left last Friday and attended the Bead Fair on the Saturday and Sunday. We had an enjoyable meal out at the Chinese on Friday with friends, a very raucous meal at the Curry House on Saturday evening with more nutty glassy friends, and a quiet one with friends at the hotel we stayed at on Sunday. But the best part of the weekend (which was already super brill) had to be Monday, when Rick and I had a chance to try our hand at glass-blowing. I’d noticed that the taster session on Monday wasn’t full and amazingly when we enquired there were still 2 places on the 4 place course. So at 2pm after a very rushed lunch we entered Hot Shop no.1 and had the best time ever. The 4 of us took turns after being shown demo of what to do. We made a snowman to get us used to the basics, then swiftly moved on to blowing a bowl and then made a classic paperweight. It was so much fun I can’t tell you. I’ve been wanting to try ever since watching Norman Stewart Clarke and I have to say I loved every minute, I just want to do it again now!
Here’s a couple of photos and a link to Rick’s Flickr account where you can see all the photos from the weekend, The Bead Fair, meals out, Bienale and our glassblowing.
