Tits Galore

It's that time of year again, where pretty much the only thing I take photos of are the birds on the table - particularly with this year's new 'closer to the window' table. Far too chilly for natural light photos to be taken any way other than through glass!

An odd, and not entirely happy, day.

Conor wouldn't go to school. I wondered if it was just the unusual circumstance of his Dad being the one to get them ready and out of the door while I had a short lie-in; I wondered if he was still a bit poorly from the weekend; and I wondered about other issues, which have been troubling me for a while as his behaviour has veered from sweet boy to raving uncontrollable weeping boy.

He wouldn't tell me what was up, but he was happy to share with his Dad. Two boys at school are picking on him. Bullying him. One is a boy I know well from my English lessons and from basketball, the other is one of our neighbours. So, we talked through tactics for dealing with bullying, tried to explain to him some of the reasons for it and made sure he understood that we would help him deal with it any way he wanted.

And then Mr B told him to punch them on the nose.

I had a chat with the head teacher when I took Conor in at morning break, though Conor had asked me not to say to her who the boys are, and the day seemed to pass ok for him. It's going to be hard not to say anything to the boys/parents involved, but I think for now I need to do what Conor wants and give him a chance to sort it out himself. He did agree that he felt much better for having told us.

Later, I popped up to the College to make an appointment to register Katherine for school there in September (well, if we choose it versus the other possibilities that I need to pluck up courage to deal with). Some DIY shopping for Mr B, and a lunch of delicious bread eased me nicely into an afternoon of Christmas card writing and present buying.

K had a friend over after school (though I didn't see them since they chose to 'do their homework' in the freezing cold bedroom rather than the warm kitchen) and once she had gone we introduced the kids to some fun sketches from our youth - the Dead Parrot sketch and 'Fork handles'. Now they'll get more of our jokes. I have to say, Conor didn't seem to enjoy them so much. But I think he may have other things on his mind.