Superheroes seem to fall fully into the realms of boys activities. The 6 and 7 year old boys I know are super hero crazy and this obsession seems to run across the different demographic groups of kids we meet (school, football and super camp). In some ways I’m quite pleased because it means my son has something in common with the other children he meets. The girls play too but mainly with the boys rather than on their own.

I get annoyed that the female super heroes have such sexy costumes – I’m not sure that crop tops and high heels are perfect for fighting the forces of evil…

My son has recently got hold of a copy of an X-men comic. It’s completely incomprehensible as it starts part way through 2 different stories and doesn’t complete either. It also seems to assume a knowledge of previous characters and stories that we don’t have. He keeps wanting us to read it to him.

In the comic there is a picture of Storm which has impressed my son greatly. He has created his own super hero (Tempest) and is making a Tempest costume as we speak…amusingly he’s gone for the same hot pants and crop top as the hero in the picture with a velvet cape. If it was a daughter I would certainly worry about the sexualisation of young girls as it is I’m mainly worried that he’s going to get ripped to shreds by other children who have a better understanding of the girls wear X and boys wear Y rules. And yet I certainly don’t want to be the one to tell him about these ‘rules’ or become the arbitrator of them.

I teach fairly small groups of students and tend to get to know my students quite well. However at the beginning of each term I meet a new group- I’m faced with a sea of faces and an inability to remember names. I ask them each to tell me their names and something interesting about themselves. I start..

 My name is Storm and in the last year I’ve read all of the Famous Five books (to my 7 year old) – its affected my language so excuse the exclamations of golly…Last week he was particularly happy and said …oh I do feel gay today.

 Occasionally somebody says something that really surprises me, when this happens I usually find my preconceptions have been challenged in some way. Often preconceptions I was completely unaware of.

 This term I was taken by surprise when a female student said; my main interest outside work is eastern European military history…I found it hard to respond knowing remarkably little about this topic or how one persuade it as an interest.

 I mentioned later to another tutor that this had happened and he said…you’re just picturing her in a uniform now aren’t you….

 I wasn’t but every time I say her now I think of it and the Chumbawamba song Add Me starts to go round in my head…

Here’s a picture of me in my Nazi uniform
doing a trick with an egg that I like to perform
at a monster truck rally that my Mum and me attend
Would you like to add me as a friend?

Obviously, the more I get to know her, and she proves to be a likeable intelligent individual, the more I question my own preconceptions.

A blog I read was having a carnival of sleep deprivation. I loved the idea of celebrating all those sleepness nights with sleep depravation stories. Or any stories I was very disapointed when the soap I was listening to on the World Service ended.

 My favourite sleep story is very short…but needs a tiny bit of background. My son was a terrible sleeper until he was 6 and ¾. Getting him to sleep every night was long and traumatic and people including my parents seemed to think it was my parenting that was at fault. If only I….let him stay up later, gave him a bath, fed him different food….he would sleep.

 I met a mature student who was pregnant with her 7^th child…I said to her…Oh I suppose you’ve got the whole sleep thing sorted and she said…no

 Her first 5 children and been really good sleepers and she thought ‘hey this is easy’ those other people who can’t get their children to sleep should do it like me..they are so rubbish. Baby number 6 NO SLEEP!! It wouldn’t go down- it wouldn’t stay down….

 She did nothing different, there was no illness…some children just don’t sleep.

 I can’t tell you how this cheered me.

I found myself looking at the lego figures in their little super hereo capes and thinking how cute they looked.  I think I’ve found my maternal instincts…

I wouldn’t expect it of the Economist but in an article about PFI transactions they suggested that the government were doing something ‘dodgy’ when in fact they are not.  The article implied that the UK were being forced to bring these transactions into line with international accounting standards and that government are producing 2 sets of accounts 9one that complies and one that doesn’t).

 At the moment the treatment of PFI projects is covered by FRS5 which is a UK accounting standard. It tells UK companies how to account for things and through the writing of the standard and the writing of the PFI transactions most PFI projects are ‘off balance sheet’.  From 2009-10 UK Central Goverment is adopting internationl reporting standards. This year is the first year that they will be using international standards and international standards will bring PFI projects on ‘balance sheet’. At present government is producing 2 sets of accounts- one using international standards and one using UK to aid comparability. This is good practice and will also allow for the whole of government accounts to be completed as other parts of the public sector are not yet using international reporting standards. 

Moreover UK government decision to adopt international accounting standards is a bold move designed to make UK government accounts comparable with other organisations. Organisations such as the Accounting Standards Board are set up with the private sector in mind and it is broadly accepted that public sector accounting is a ‘matter for government’. The UK is the first country to adopt international accounting standards for central government accounts and they have selected to adopt the full standards rather than those designed for the public sector. International Public Sector standards are all together less rigourous.

But not yet he has 3 more weeks before he gets more time to practice his juggling. Now I want to fast forward time so we can get on with the big changes.

My husband has still not lost his job- or been given the all clear. They have given him official notice that is job is under threat. They have put people in pools and said how many in each pool will be made redundant. Some pools have 7 in and 6 get the push. He is in a pool of 8 one gets the push. managers are ranking staff. The one with the lowest ranking gets the push.

So much for ‘its your job that is getting made redundant not you’.

There is no particular reason why my husband should be bottom- he’s very good at his job and technically very competent. I’m just not sure that the management get his personal style.  And he really pissed them off about 2 years ago.

Mean while our lives are on hold.. we are waiting to discover if our lives are going to change.

When your life falls apart you have to identify your key priorities. So when the chips are down what really matters?

 The answer surprised me. It is lego.

 It’s my sons birthday in a couple of weeks and I’m structuring our finances to focus on the purchase of lego. I’m desperately cooking our stock of millet to save money to buy lego.

 What is so great about lego?

• His face on his birthday when he comes down and finds parcels
• Then opens them and finds lego
• Backwards compatibility (small lego fits on duplo)
• The colours
• The build quality; even 20 year old lego still works
• Lego can be anything. He imagines things I’d never consider; we built a recycling foundry, a sunflower oil factory and a car making robot.
• We also built a house, a car, a hospital so I’m able to relive my childhood
• He spent 4 days playing with the space ships he built- one was adapted from a boat bottom
• When his interests change he simply builds more toys
• Sorting lego is surprisingly soothing
• That familiar feeling of lego under bare feet
• We learn about planning (we have to build the stairs before the walls)
• We learn about structure and balance
• We make mosaic like pictures and draw them on squared paper. And we make pictures and copy them in lego
• Its for boys and girls
• And men and women the type of building simply evolves with age.

And so much more.

During the time I’ve wasted on the internet I’ve come across a number of ‘frugality’ blogs. Usually people trying to pay of debts, or study or deal with significant drops in income. I’ve always thought it sounds so dull to worry about collecting coupons.  Whilst I realise that our entire life style is going to change I don’t want saving money to become what we do.

 However I find myself thinking about how we can reduce or bills. I’m intrigued by the relationship between time and money. Our utility bills are quite high, our electricity bill could be cut by not using the tumble dryer. I find myself slightly shocked that we do use it…We use it because washing takes so long to dry- we are out of the house most of the day so can’t dash out and bring the laundry in if it rains therefore it can take 3 or 4 days to dry a load of washing. We need to do about 7 loads a week so we tumble dry. If my husband was home he could line dry our clothes and reduce our environmental guilt.

 Well he could if we had a washing line. Recently I hung the towels on the line- it snapped in half and the clean towels fell in the pond.

 We got the tumble dryer originally because somebody kept stealing my underwear. We lived in a house with a small front yard and a line across the yard. I used to hang out my underwear (usually black M+S) and somebody used to pinch it whilst I was out at work. I didn’t just hang out underwear, it was all my laundary.

 The police took the whole matter alarmingly seriously. I decided eventually that I should inform them in case something untoward developed at a later date. They sent somebody round and took photos and then offered me help from victim support. Apparently there were 2 underwear thieves in the area one who only took designer stuff and one who took everyday stuff. They thought the designer underwear thief was selling the underwear on.

 My grandmother was touched by the story and sent me some alarming underwear. They were the biggest knickers I’ve ever seen- proper nipple warmers. I considered putting them on the line as it would take a brave underwear thief to take those home.

My husband and I like to consider that gender isn’t important in our relationship; that neither of us has predefined roles to fulfil. I suppose we like to think that having a house and a child is a joint project.

 However generally speaking he’s better in the house than I am. He seems to enjoy being at home more than I do and to be better at staying on top of it all than I am.

 I’m more interested in my career than he has been in his. He has tended to avoid additional responsibility and not apply for promotion etc. he likes the technical aspects of his job but isn’t really interested in managing others or brown nosing the boss. Where as I enjoy a challenge and find my work quite exciting.

 So I suppose we have prioritised my career as it means more to me. Other people are shockingly judgemental about this decision.

 The other night in the pub I was teasing him slightly as he has done quite well in his career despite himself! He is well thought of at work and earns reasonable money. I was teasing him about shirking responsibility and my friend said ‘why, why do you do that?’. He responded I’m not that interested. To which she replied ‘even though its worse for your son?’

 I was so shocked as she works part time in-order to look after her child and has been a touch critical of my decision to work full time before. We defended ourselves as we don’t feel we can both go full pelt into our careers whilst having a child and we don’t want to.

 She then started asking me if I expected my husband to pick up the things that I miss because I’m at work. I was unable to explain that I don’t think they are my things. Clearly the floor needs cleaning from time to time and from time to time one of us will do it. But I don’t feel that cleaning the floor (or cooking or knowing where the washing is) is my responsibility. My husband doesn’t wash the floor to help me out, he washes the floor because it needs washing.

 The interesting thing about my relationship is how well it works.. My husband and I met in 1996 when we were both students. I fell in love with him from across the street and the more I got to know him the more I loved him. Our lives have changed dramatically over this time through times of unemployment (both), different types of jobs, additional studies, starting a family and we’ve always been able to make it work. My husband has loved me in my ball breaking career phases and my bread making periods.

 Being together allows us both to be who we want to be even when that changes and I really wish that people would stop telling us we are doing it wrong!!