Thursday evening – I’m typing on my laptop as I sit in bed.  It’s cold here at night and Leon is away, somewhere in China by now, on his way to BC for 2 weeks.  The kids are here to keep me company, so it’s not so bad.  The week has been filled with non-eventful events, except for Leon’s birthday, but he likes to think that is not an event worth mentioning.  I made a nice dinner for him on that day, Wednesday; frikadeler, basically Danish meatballs in gravy with potatoes, some very failed green beans (which were replaced by a tin of asparagus) and a store bought sponge cake smothered in whipped cream and jam.  The gravy was almost ruined until Ariane saved it by adding some milk and pepper to cut down its saltyness.  It was like an episode of Master Chef, our favourite evening show, where everything I made was going wrong and I might lose and get kicked off if I didn’t save the dish.  Well, at least no one asked me to leave the kitchen for good.  No one complained this evening when I made dinner and did the dishes.

Earl finally got to come to my school to volunteer today.  They had a Yugioh card tournament organized for the younger students and I thought it would be a good chance to meet with another teacher’s son, Tom, who volunteers with this group once a week.  I also thought it might be nice for Earl to meet some people his age while he is here.  So Tom picked Earl up and took him to school.  The tournament was not a big success mainly because few kids remembered to bring their cards, but there is always next week.  In the meantime, Earl will return again tomorrow with Tom to help with the anime club.

Ariane didn’t get away from volunteering either.  I offered her services to the teachers who will be doing the make-up for the school production of Oliver.  Two of the ladies came over after school and Ariane went through the school’s supply of stage make-up and explained what was needed and how to apply the make-up for certain effects.  I provided a nice snack of cheese and breads along with my face for Ariane to demonstrate on.  The final result was pretty frightening.  Half my face looked old.  Just what I needed!  She did show how to contour the cheeks to make them look hollow.  I was wondering what kind of make-up I could apply to my thighs for the same contoured, trimmer effect.

The weekend ahead looks mighty promising for completing some schoolwork.  The kids have been helping with the marking but I have a huge amount of assignments to look at and grade in the coming days.  I also have to read a few chapters of a book as part of a professional learning activity.  So I’d better get to that now.  It should help get to sleep in no time.