Thursday photo #292

Next December, can someone please remind me not to take on more stuff just because work is calming down? As a blogger, the end of the year is always relatively quiet. There’s the odd Christmas review or day out and subsequent write-up. There are emails to respond to and things to add to Christmas gift guides. Realistically though, most people are done for the year. So I could be winding down, relaxing and getting ongoing admin done. Instead, I’m moving furniture and attempting to redecorate. I’ll never learn.

“I’m not interested in politics”

When I was younger, I didn’t know much about politics. It was a grey, dull topic that didn’t interest me. Politicians were all the same. My vote wasn’t important, everyone else could do it. Until I went to university and studied a few politics-related modules by default. I learnt about the separation of powers, civil liberties, voting rights and the constitution. I wrote a dissertation about the validity of the British constitution in comparison to its written counterparts in France and America. And somewhere along the line, I learnt that it mattered.

My parents never really talked to me about politics when I was growing up. My mum had no interest in it and I never discussed it with my dad. So it’s easy to see why I never really developed an interest in it. Having educated myself about politics though, I want my children to grow up with an awareness of it. I want them to know about the people who died so they can vote. We have already read about Emmeline Pankhurst and the suffragette movement. But we’ll read it again, and talk about why it is important that they use their democratic right when they’re old enough to do so.

Today, I’ll probably be voting while the girls are at school. We’re busy in the evening so it would be difficult for me to take them with me. Despite this, I will be talking to them about the election. They will know that I’m going to vote and they’ll know why. I will tell them that the people who abstain are the ones who could make a real difference. That political parties aren’t all the same. None of them are perfect but you have to vote for the sort of world you want to see. And I’ll be voting for their future, because that’s what matters.

Christmas fair and productions

Last weekend was the girls’ school Christmas fair. It was also Lia’s first dress rehearsal with her ballet school, along with the usual swimming lessons. We just about managed to fit it all in, but everything else went out of the window. Spellings weren’t learnt, reading wasn’t done. Piano practice was non-existent and our diets weren’t great either. And that’s the way things are continuing this week.

Lia did her nativity play yesterday and she’s doing it again this morning. We’re off to see the pantomime Aladdin at Malvern Theatres this evening and we’ve got a weekend full of productions next weekend. Then, things start to slow down. The girls break up from school on the 20th. Out of school clubs wind down, I’ve postponed all the sport I do until the new year. I can’t wait for the break. Time to relax, take stock, make plans and revitalise ready for 2020.

Thursday photo #292

Last week, we went to Enchanted Witley, a light display at a local English Heritage attraction. It was a lovely evening and a real adventure for the girls. This isn’t the best photo I’ve ever taken but they were happy, and that’s what counts.