People asked me questions

[radegund]

leedy asked: How awesome is your new kitchen going to be, on a scale of one to awesome?

Well. The South Wing as a whole - comprising kitchen, utility room, shower room, expanded hall, side passage, dining area and sitting area - is going to be OMG MADE OF ELEVENTY-AWESOME. (We've had several deliveries of awesome to date, slung over the wall by a truck with a big monster claw.) The kitchen part, specifically, is going to be about an eight on my notional scale, because we have neither (a) unlimited space nor (b) infinite money (wah! SO unfair! *flounce*). But given that we started from about minus a zillion four, that's not bad going.

sshi asked: Is there a special trick to staying sane when you have had Not Enough Sleep for long periods of time?

When the Oyster was about seven months old, I was working full-time in a stressful job and feeding him through the night (anywhere between two and six wakings). At that year's Easter holiday I got chatting to a cousin-in-law, who has a profoundly disabled daughter and twins twenty months younger. I asked her how she coped with the broken sleep when the kids were young. She laughed and said, "You know, you get used to not having sleep." Turned out her elder daughter, then aged nine, was still waking her most nights. That conversation was a moment of sudden recalibration for me - I'd been in push-through-the-hell-it-can't-go-on-forever-endure-endure mode, whereas this woman had clearly made broken sleep a part of her long-term expectations and adjusted accordingly. So that's what I (eventually) did. It's fine - and in fact, it's taught me to be more realistic about my own needs, which is definitely a plus. Sanity, I'm afraid, is not guaranteed, but I'm in a roughly workable configuration, which is good enough for the moment.

felinitykat asked: When are you coming to the UK again?? Have not seen you since (I think?) I went to stay with Glitz in Jan 06!

I know! I feel bad when I visit Reading and don't hook up with my Londoners. It's theoretically so close. But actually getting up the momentum to arrange anything has been beyond me. This time, we saw my brother, who's studying at UCL, and londonn7 and family, and that was it. Next time, I must overcome my nebulous conviction that suggesting a meet-up would be bothersome and weird. (Honestly, self. Grow up.) Anyway. I hope to stage another skite in the autumn, if humanly possible. See you then?

glitzfrau asked: When can we phone, eh?

Very soon! I'll text you!

biascut asked: Can I learn Italian in eight weeks?

Do you want to? If so, I'd imagine you can - particularly if you have a bit of French, Spanish and/or Latin. Depends on how much of your eight weeks you'd be devoting to it, obviously. Apparently the Soviets used to specialise in teaching foreign languages by immersion: my father encountered some Russians in the eighties who were fluent in Italian after a three-week intensive course.

puritybrown asked: When can we meet up so I can return the DWJ books I borrowed and lend you Alfie Kohn's No Contest?

Soon, I hope! It'd be lovely to see you, and I've been thinking about the Kohn book. Our house isn't exactly fit for receiving guests at the moment, but that needn't stop us :-)

sorenr asked: Which was the best day in April and why?

I can't decide. Symbolically, the 6th, which was the day the demolition started. Socially, the 26th, which was the day of Linnea's birthday party in Reading. Familially, the 3rd, when the Oyster was being the Christian sort of god at the Zoo. It was actually a pretty damn good month.