First day of the new school term and it was two extremely underwhelmed cubs I chivvied out of the house this morning. <g> But it wasn't too bad, they had their ice-cream vouchers to look forward to redeeming after school and it was the first day in the new school.
I've decided that our principal has an overdeveloped sense of occasion. Not that finally moving into the new building isn't a cause for celebration - we've been waiting for two years after all - but having the school's brass band (marching behind the Aus flag) lead us in a parade from the old to the new? Seemed a little cheesy to me, but then again I think the children appreciated the dramatics, so...
After raising the flag on the new flagpole the students filed inside, followed by the parents etc. We were given quick tours around the new building and I have to say I'm impressed. The classrooms all lead off from a large central space which is much more community minded than consecutive rooms linked by a corridor. The library/computer room looks good, too, with lots of light and space. The teachers'/admin area is like a warren, rooms leading into rooms leading into more rooms. <g> And there's a good, solid door separating that from the students' area. The canteen, however, is tiny: as one of the volunteers good-naturedly pointed out the space will very quickly go from 'cosy' to 'claustrophobic' if the workers are on the large side. :)
I like the new building, I don't doubt there'll be teething problems as we settle in, but on the whole I think the design will work well, even if the exterior could possibly be likened to a shearing shed...

In honour of the cubs' birthday I unwrapped the fruitcake I'd made at the beginning of the year. It's very yum, perhaps a little dry, but rich and heavy nonetheless. Hee, delicious, but all the dried fruit gave me some ferocious wind.
I'm going to make another cake (perhaps two!) in the next couple of weeks for xmas. A slight lessening of the cooking time and a more liberal use of brandy should help smooth out the dryness. <g>

Speaking of xmas... We're halfway through the year, and if previous observations are anything to go by, in 8 weeks time xmas merchandise will start appearing in the shops.

Found something odd in the supermarket the other day - Caviart. The taste was reminiscent of dill pickles, and the wee balls were firm and didn't pop between your teeth like real fish eggs do. Good to try it but I don't think I'll be going back.

The cubs had an early start to their birthday this year. The day before the hallowed event we trotted off to the local op shop where they found a fistful of 00 scale model railway tracks and a compatible 'iron' bridge for just a few dollars! Happy cubs, and it revitalised their enthusiasm for model railways.

On an impulse I bought a boxed set of season 1 of Deadwood. It's set in an American frontier gold-mining town in the late 1800's and while it's brutal and gory - I wouldn't want to eat any of the pork in this place - I really enjoyed it. Even despite the casual violence I got sucked in to the lives and trials of the characters, and the characters are, generally, compelling. Not always pleasant or attractive but they feel like real people. For example, at first glance I thought Brad Dourif had been cast yet again as a creepy weirdo but as the series progressed and the character was allowed to develop it was revealed that there was a lot more to him. It was intriguing to watch it all unfold.
The cubs' father watched some of it with me and he queried the sense in using historical figures (Wild Bill Hickok, calamity Jane) in the story. Didn't bother me at all, I thought it gave the series an easily recognisable frame of reference. I knew where I was right from the start.
Heh, I have this thing though, where if I watch a lot of something I'll begin to mimic the speech - at least in my internal monologues. When I was indulging with Taggart there was a pronounced Scottish lilt to my thoughts; after watching Deadwood I find the voice in my head has affected a ponderous mode of speech with a frontier-town drawl. <g> It's probably just as well I never got into Lernsom' Durve cos I would have been incomprehensible even to myself!
So anyway... loved Deadwood and I'm going to get the second series. And I'm delighted to see there's a third season in production now. Woohoo!