Crazy Cat Lady Chapter 4 - The Aftermath

apple_muncher

Can I ask which platform dd used to record her french and how long it was, please.  Pretty please.

southern_chick

crazy_cat_lady said:

southern_chick said:

Sounds like you have got loads done with the garden and the bathroom well done. Can I just be really bossy for a moment please and this really is meant with the best of intentions. Please please don’t ever let DD (or anyone) mow the lawn just in socks. It is so easy to accidentally run over your own feet with the lawnmower.   As a NHS worker who has worked for orthopaedics I do know how often it happens and honestly it isn’t something anyone wants to happen!!   Bossiness over!  Glad you are getting some exercise and getting to spend quality time with DD and DS xx

This is a very good point, and to be honest I don't think I would have let her do it in bare feet even if she had agreed... I think I told her she needed old shoes, which she pretended she didn't have any of.
As someone that doesn't mow the lawn very often, running over my own feet with a lawnmower is exactly the kind of thing I could see myself doing, although I am surprised to hear that it's a thing.

It really is a thing!! Be careful out there 😄 xx

crazy_cat_lady

apple_muncher said:

Can I ask which platform dd used to record her french and how long it was, please.  Pretty please.

She says that she just used the video bit of her camera app and filmed one of the cats while she spoke because her teacher didn't want to see them on the video but she thought it would be entertaining... Apparently 2 minutes and 39 seconds (very precise).
French was my favourite subject at school (and physics) and I was very good at it. I had a listen to her recording and was mortified at her pronunciation - French with a Mackem accent, pronouncing every letter. And the way she said 'chaud' - 'chod' with a proper ch like chair... I have not done any French for about 25 years but have started a bit to try and help her speaking. Forgot everything I ever knew about French grammar though but I can pronounce words like chat, quinze and mignon(e)???

crazy_cat_lady

I've had a bit of a lazy day today. Got up early and had a third coat of paint on the bathroom door before 10am - then just couldn't bring myself to start with the emulsion painting. However, every time I've been in the loo I've put some more masking tape down and will be ready for wall painting first thing tomorrow if the motivation arrives. I've spent most of the day crocheting today, with a couple of hours of sitting in the sun reading a book this afternoon. Made ds come walking with me so it ended up being 2 miles rather than the 3 and a bit I'm getting used to - he moaned the entire way round about not wanting to walk, but then said how much better he felt for it when we got home. It's quite funny when you hear your own words coming back at you - he really is a not-so-little-any-more mini me.
We were going to walk around the outside of our town centre when he remembered Her0n and the cheese bites situation. I told him we could only go if the queue was less than 2 people - I thought I was safe as it has never been less than 2 people and I could see a queue of at least 10 outside Bee Emm (which is just across the road). Was gobsmacked to arrive at freezer emporium to just one person in the queue, so I well and truly lost there. Took the opportunity to stock up on cheese bites, chicken bits (which dd is also fond of), drinks, milk and bread (I had no idea that a family of three could consume milk and bread items at the rate we do). The mass of four pints of milk, 8 cans of diet cola and four bottles of flavoured water in two bags on my shoulders meant I wanted to go straight home as soon as we left the shop. The walk may have been short but the work done on that walk by me must have been immense. DS had the difficult job of carrying four bags of frozen chicken and three bags of cheese bites. I think that will be us shopped out for at least a couple of days until we run out of milk again, but there is a little shop at the top of my street I can use for bread and milk - trouble is they aren't so good at the social distancing thing in there and it's always full of kids, whose parents obviously just want them out of their way (moan whinge). I may be safer risking the town centre...
As I say other than that it's been a day of doing very little. Prepping the bathroom for wall painting and hoping I bought enough paint, clearing up from the woodwork painting. Lots of crochet, book reading and sunbathing in the garden with kids and cats.
The ginger ninja attempted to bring me a bird. He dropped it at my feet where it played dead but then flew away - much to my relief and his disgust.

apple_muncher

Thanks ccl! I want to get my pupils to record themselves but thought you could only attach about 1 min to an email, so this is great to know. A cat talking French , eh?

I repeatedly do a lesson with French words we use in English to try to help with pronunciation of certain letter combinations - think quiche, pain au chocolat, deja vu, fromage frais, ensuite, cafe, gateau, fiance(e)... (with the right accents on them, of course!)

crazy_cat_lady

Thanks apple - I may be back for help because my French is very rusty. We've already fallen out because I want her to use the term parce que and she insists on saying 'car' - which she assures me is the same thing. But having heard her speak French I am not convinced.

apple_muncher

I'll help as much as I can!

Car is the same as parce que, so she's right about that. I ask my pupils to pretend they are acting and to really ham up their accent!

f0xh0les

Tell them all you want at least one ' Bof  ' in there too  or they fail

crazy_cat_lady

Well then apple - perhaps she's not as bad at Francais as I initially thought - I've never heard that term (and obviously with the top grade in GCSE French I must be like a native ). F0xh0les - her favourite word is obviously malheuresment because that seems to arrive in sentences a lot, as well as comme ci comme ca. Obviously she's an optimist - I wonder if she's heard bof - that would fit in well with her other favourite words.
So, obviously you were all wondering where I was yesterday I know Well I shall tell you - it took me four and a half hours(!!!!!) Yes, that is 270 whole minutes of my life, to paint the bathroom walls and ceiling. For god's sake - you'd think my bathroom was the size of an effing football pitch, not the tiny space it actually is. Admittedly this is the total spread over two coats of paint, but what a faff getting round everything and making sure that the stupid artex walls from the previous owner were properly and fully covered with none of the previous colour sneaking through. I remember my mam texturing walls at home when I was about 10 - it was all the rage in the 80s. However, it is now done and my body is grateful for that. I'm not used to carrying shopping or painting walls and ceilings and am quite achey from it. Bathroom still isn't quite finished though - I need to put the shower curtain back up this morning and put all of the bottles etc back, and then last but not least I need to put the new floor down. That will also be a challenge I fear but was the one thing I actually wanted to do in the bathroom. Will I get it finished today? Who knows. That is just the excitement of my life now... not that I'm complaining at all. I have my health, my kids and cats and I'm still getting paid from work - so I am in an incredibly good position and I am most grateful for that.
I celebrated last night (completing the painting) with a gin. Admittedly it was a large gin served in a pint glass and my head is reminding me about that this morning. I woke up at quarter to four and just could not get myself back to sleep. Dozed over at about 7am then was rudely awoken by ds getting up and sounding like an elephant crashing round the house. Today may be nap on the sofa day. But I definitely want to get my walk in - I'm almost enjoying that now.

beanielou

Well done. 

You deserved that gin 😊