Book Learning

This is the week I’ve been dreading for ages. School’s going back and Mads would have been starting had she still been living in Melbourne. I can just see her in a little check dress toddling off to South Melbourne or Albert Park Primary. But Mads is far away and won’t be going to school until the end of next year. People keep assuring me that she is gaining so much – becoming bilingual and having so many enriching cultural and interpersonal experiences. I know it’s true but it’s hard on a granny for whom Education is God. I’ve been sending lots of educational materials to Germany for a spot of home teaching and Mere has thoughtfully put some clips on Youtube of Mads demonstrating her mastery of them. Particularly impressive is Mads’s excellence at what her mother used to call blussing (as in 1 blus 1 equals 2). Mads’s maternal line is useless at blussing but Matt can blus when he want to. And so can Mads thankfully. A virtual elephant stamp from me to her.


A couple of months ago I blogged about women who excelled at the ‘adoring wife gaze’ and awarded first prize to Nancy Reagan. But I’ve just received a late entry pic from Black Fasha, in a clinch with Ross on the Indian Pacific. You can see how near and dear they are.