Dave’s Blog

Very strange now my form have left. Still seeing a few of them around the place, and some have ‘friended’* me on facebook, but in some cases I suspect I may only see them once or twice more before they go off.

All this year’s form tutor’s have been asked to write a piece for the yearbook, which I did happily (after three drafts) and post below for posterity (and maybe to come back to in five years!)

Ah, my form, how we’ve changed over the last five years. You, growing up (changing beyond recognition in some cases), losing the squeeky voices (well, most of you…) and going off into the big bad world (or sixth form). Me, with a few more grey hairs, two kids and perhaps a few better ideas about how to be a form tutor (although no better organised)

* Although not in a stalker type way, like some of you did to that poor student teacher we had last year!

*I shudder a bit when I type that, but can’t think of anything better at the moment

Probably ought to have blogged more, especially in Aeddan’s first few weeks, but I’m conscious of how Facebook, Twitter and the hundreds of photos we’ve taken have served just as well (if not better) as a repository for his development. I’d still like to come up with a way of better using this blog though. Might try a bit of a challenge next month, see if I can get into a new habit.

Not sure how long this will last once I’m back in school, but we’ve set Curig up with a Twitter account. Sions and I will update it from time to time with his adventures :0)

You can follow him at twitter.com/curig

This afternoon we went for a stroll around Troste. Having had some food, and purchased supplies on Boots we decided to continue strolling and found ourselves upstairs in Debenhams, where I proceeded to try and find a hat that suited me. As I think the follow evidence shows, I failed, and I am coming to terms with the fact that I don’t think I will ever suit hats.
We would have tried a few more, but one of the staff came over and stood close. After a couple of final snaps we took the hint!

Been ages since I blogged last, mainly because I’ve been too busy trying to cram everything in to have to stop and write about it. Curig’s doing really well and is now smiling, sitting up by himself and starting to laugh at us (or with us?) The best way to follow his progress if probably through Flickr, and the feed I’m pulling through the the babi tab at davestacey.co.uk

We’ve just spent the morning having some quality babi / dadi time, including trying out some new reusable nappies (him, not me), sorting out pictures and having a dance to Stevie Wonder, which did marvels when he was grizzly with wind. He’s now playing in the playgym while Sions has a shower before we head off out to the shop. We’ve got another family visit tomorrow, so more news and pics I’m sure will follow then, and I may even find time to go back and write about Christmas and New Year. But then again, maybe not

:0)

Oh, the title by the way is from this you-tube clip which he seems to like no end!

The amount of non-baby stuff is getting less and less all the time, but I wanted to post a couple of quick things here.

Firstly, Pete’s back safe and sound in the country after being off for exactly a year. It’s weird to think in that time the only communication between us has been through a few emails, so it’ll be great to see him in person and do some quality catching up. No idea when it’ll happen, but it’ll be cool when it does. Hopefully, as I set it up for him, he might actually get round to posting a few of his pictures on his flickr account.

Secondly, I hadn’t actually got round to posting anything about Col’s new site. Since he came back he’s been recording some really great songs, and was buggering about with several crap websites. So for his birthday we fixed him up with some hosting, a domain name of his own, and a copy of WordPress. The result? Have a look for yourself at colestacey.net. The songs sound really good, and are available to buy for a very reasonable 77p from Indiestore.com 

Dave: Hello world, sorry I haven’t blogged in ages. How are you?

World: Not too bad thanks Dave, you know how it is. How’s tricks?

Dave: Not bad thanks world. Been pretty busy. Last half term was pretty manic by the end, but I’m pretty chilled out at the moment. I think impending fatherhood does that. Either that, or there’s something in that new packet of tea bags.

World: Could be Dave, could be. How’s Sionedwyn?

Dave: Not bad thanks. She’s sat next to me going through the iTunes library on the mac creating some playlists for the birth. I’ve been sat in the floor for the last ten minutes, making a variety of suggestions, most of which, quite rightly, were roundly rejected. She’s now flicking through assorted classical tracks. I’m not sure if this baby’s going to be born to the sound of Mozart or Meatloaf.

World: How long left now then?

Dave: Due date is three weeks today!

World: Blimey heck as like!

Dave: I’ve never actually heard anyone say that before you know

World: Well, er… let’s move on. Has she finished work now?

Dave: Yes, she broke up at the some time I finished for half term, which meant we got to spend last week together doing various preparation stuff, visiting my parents, and our new nephew. She’s also just lent over and pointed out that the seventh word of the first sentence in this part should be ‘same’ not ‘some’. The fact that I’m writing this blog post in script format, with the world as the other half of the conversation apparently wasn’t worthy of comment. Not sure if that says more about me or her.

World: I suppose if you were any good at this writing thing, this would be the point where you started working in those ironic, post-modern, knowing asides that modern humour writers love so much.

Dave: Yeah, just as well I’m not one of those isn’t it. They can easily slip into self indulgent bollocks.

World: Yeah, it would be a shame for that to happen

Dave: Yeah.

World: So what was the point of this post again?

Dave: Not really sure. I just noticed that I hadn’t blogged here for ages. This was going to be one of those humorous sports-score style posts, but it strangely turned into this conversation style thing instead.

Dave: Sorry for the pause there world, next door but one are letting off loads of fireworks, so I went and got the camera, switched off the flash and made my way to the window just in time for them to stop. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, update since September…

World: Don’t feel you have to Dave, if you’ve got other things to do.

Dave: That’s ok World. There’s a bit of marking to be done, but that can wait a few minutes. Ooo. hang on…

…Got a photo.

…Probably not worth it.Anyway, Since September it’s mostly been school stuff, what with teaching History, sorting out web stuff and doing the SMART thing (not very well if I’m honest), and baby things. Nursery is pretty much done, we’ve got almost everything we need, including a cool buggy with a car seat that you can open up into a sleep pod thing so the baby can stay in it, a whole bunch of different reusable nappies, a globug egg that’s telling us upstairs might be a bit too warm, and a nursing chair that came with the wrong set of instructions. We’ve also just ordered a digital SLR camera from ebay, so we can take decent picture, without the horrible delay that plagues my pictures (obviously all the pictures I take with this one will be staggering works of photographic genius), a new macbook, partly so Sions can be online wirelessly, and partly so we can get Leopard!

The bump is now really bump shaped, and it actually really suits Sions. She’s still being sick occasionally, but seems to be feeling better than she did. Basically the pregancy can be summed up as morning sickness, with a 6 week break in the middle. We think we’re sorted for names, although she does keep having dreams in which the baby isn’t the sex the hospital told us it was. We’ve got another name lined up in case we do find ourselves in that 2%. If everything goes to plan then the baby’s going to be born at home. We’ve ordered the birthing pool, and the music is being put together as I type. I’m really looking forward to it now, the closer we’ve got the closer to the birth I’ve been able to visualise. I think seeing Deio helped there, and since I last wrote he arrived (5 1/2 weeks early) and is now doing well at home.

World: That’s great Dave…

Dave: Sorry world, forgot about you there, that slipped back into a bit of a first person, stream of conciousness kind of thing

World: Yeah we noticed. Anyway, it’s been great catching up Dave, but haven’t you got some work to do?

Dave: Yeah, I suppose I have World. I’ve just realised that when I type this, the voice in my head isn’t mine, but Jimmy Rabbit from the Committments. Anyway, I’m going to post this and make a cup of tea. Would you like one before you go?

Terry: No, that’s fine thanks Dave. I’ll be off now, but don’t leave it so long before you post again.

Dave: I’ll try. Mind how you go now.

Mrs Goggins: Cheerio Pat.

The next person who tells me that I don’t know what I’m talking about when I complain I’m tired is likely to get punched in the face. I’m struggling to git everything in at the moment, and then some, which leaves me with only one solution. Start stopping things.

I’m going to try and get lots of things up to a point at which I can say ‘that’s it for now’ over the next couple of days, get my lessons planed till Christmas, so the CRA’s can get my resources sorted for me, and then I can focus on Sions, teaching my classes, and the school website, in that order.

Sounding a little like a cross between one of Mao’s ideas and a book by the Dali Lama, this is, in fact, a procedure that we were introduced to at our first antennal class (or ‘parentcraft’ as they are apparently now called). It’s actually quite releaving to hear about moves award from the medicalisation of women and child birth towards a more natural approach, given my concerns about the factory like atmosphere of the hospital when we went for the scans. Of course, it’s easy to me to say releaving, I am, as in increasingly being pointed out to me, not the person that has to get something ‘this size’ through an opening ‘this size’, however I think Sionedwyn was quite comforted by the fact that both the midwife and many of the people there didn’t seem overly keen on the whole ‘strap ’em to the gurney’ approach as portraied by the Daily Mail and some sociology textbooks.

I remain quite calm about the whole thing (although I refer to you to the previous comment about not being the one doing the actual giving birth), although there are times when I accept this could be misinterpreted as a lack of interest (simply not true) or an excess of ignorance (another accusation I strenusly denied on the way home, although possibly with less sucess than I had hoped). I swing back and forward between ‘that’s ages’ and ‘oh my God that’s hardly any time at all’ when we discuss how far we have left to go, and I suspect being back in a ‘try to get that done before the end of the day’ environment is slightly distorting my judgement of time. Still, I remain committed to reading several more books before the end of Novemeber, at least some of which will be about childbirth.

You’ll be pleased to know I’m feeling a lot better since my last post. Today, I’d like to talk about cover versions. Two things got me on to this train of thought. The first was listening to Thea Gilmore’s excellent Loft Music earlier and marveling at the way she’s taken songs like Ever Fallen in Love with Someone, Bad Moon Rising and Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime, changed them completely and produced something if not better, then certainly as brilliant, and in some cases bringing out new things from the songs you never would have noticed in the originals.

The second thing is that I’ve finally got my hands on a copy of Fire and Skill, the Jam tribute album I remember getting at The Courier. I would have gladly paid the money for the Beastie Boys amazing version of Start!, but there’s a few other gems on there as well. Garabge’s version of The Butterfly Collector is just creepy. No other word for it. Noel Gallagher’s version of To Be Someone manages to be both light and poiniant at the same time while Reef’s version of That’s Entertainment is (unintentionally) hilarious for the lines ‘.. and a kick in the balls, I said that’s Enterainment’, in the thickest West Country accent.

Sure there’s some dross on Fire and Skill, but by the standards of most cover albums they’re both fantastic. Shame more cover albums can be that good.