Other What currently makes your life awesome?

It's far nicer than bag-in-a-cup ("te tramp" as my father used to call it, i.e. "tramp tea" ), and if you get one of those basket things to sit inside the pot, you can use loose-leaf teas without a strainer.

Plus, there's nothing wrong with drinking the whole pot yourself, as I've been doing with the Fortmason tea I got last week. It's bliddy lovely.

 

As long as you take the teabags/infuser out when you're finished brewing, otherwise by the time you come to pouring the last cup it'll be tar instead of tea.

 

Hog roast at work - I am about to ingest inhuman quantities of pork!

I can haz all the noms....

 

Stephen Lynch - Hello Kalamazoo.

I haven't laughed this hard since I saw Marcus Brigstocke live.

Addendum: E46 seats pretty much bolt into the Mk1 Focus chassis.

 

Feck those people. Another offer from a different company is after coming through for me. I'll be up and running in January. I'm both relieved and pooping bricks at the same time.

 

Secret santa in the office, OK its always naff. But I have taken some weirdly sadistic pleasure in wrapping my gift in Gaffer tape, I was going to us amalgamating tape but didn't have enough. Also gift is for my manager to give extra comedy.

 

And the gift is???????

 

I hope it's a role of gaffer tape.

 

Its a IT mug, was very tempted to get a couple of rolls of tape and put them in a box an wrap those.

Afraid not, its a 50M roll, it would have been impossible to open.

 

About to go to Marks to buy what will make my fat ass even fatter. Viva Christmas !

 

As a man who can no longer eat solid food pick something delicious out for me and gorge well.

 

"Local" (Okay, ~10 miles away) blacksmith is suuuper reasonably priced for work, and did exactly what was needed for despite being described by a waffling idiot.

 

My Eldest:

"Hi Honey, did you have fun at Bowling?"

"Yeah, I had lots of fun!"

"How did you do?"

"I Won!"

"...Of course you did."

Every single thing she does. I'm proud she's basically victorious in anything she does, but she doesn't know how to lose because she never experiences it.

 

That's an interesting perspective, and I appreciate your position. I was like your daughter once -- couldn't do anything I didn't absolutely massacre. That made me lazy and cocky, which is a bad combination because you're basically waiting for life to catch up to you.

In my case, it kicked my ass when it finally did. I managed to skate by initially on charm and smarts, but then I ended up properly out of my depth (go through my post history on b-t, even!). Eventually had to hit reset and try to claw my way back out of the hole. Done a decent job so far (if I do say so myself), but there are little things still holding me back, like a poor work ethic, traces of the old arrogance, lack of patience in dealing with people, particularly if I perceive them to be thick or unhelpful, and a general risk aversion (when you get used to success, failing tastes awful).

You've probably thought of this already, but maybe try and push your daughter to do stuff above and beyond her abilities? I didn't have that option because I grew up in a society and a schooling environment where conformity was the guiding value. A few years tasting defeat -- and slogging through it -- might have helped!

 

Except for superhuman feats of memory, she can basically do something well from being shown to only once. After that, she has unbelievable adaption. It's like the cogs are always turning, no matter what she's doing. She has a least a high-school reading level, but I can't give her high-school level books to read if you understand that. She's good at mathematics even though she dislikes it(she understands concepts like algebra and square roots when she's not even been taught them yet), and skill based sports she can achieve at very easily. I have to give her new things to do that constantly challenge her, otherwise she gets bored. She takes things to heart easily and has excessive ideals of 'fairness'. She makes up extra rules for games that no other child understands and she always wins, always. If it's a game or sport, she'll basically win every time. The other person playing has to be on her level to stand a chance, which is rare for children her age. She has to play a game against myself, where I have a High skill level in things like Card games, but she doesn't count it because 'i'm an adult'. It's still difficult to beat her because she understands all of the rules after a short time, and can think of complicated strategies in things like board and card games.

The school is... hesitant. They finally agreed to some tests for her to measure her academic abilities as well as her IQ but they don't really have any advanced programs she can take. The gifted and talented program was scrapped years ago, and it would completely alienate her and her peers for her to be skipped a year (although it is something to consider). No way could I ever afford a private school either. It's hard to parent her though. She can tell when i'm lying to her to make it easier for myself, and she cares a lot about everything being fair.

I've considered most avenues, but i'm not sure where to go at the moment.

 

Team sports where her team aren't as good?

 

Unsurprisingly, she's a terrible team player.

 

Team work is a reality of life. If she is smart and mature then perhaps reasoning with her as to why participating is good and that losing is not always such a big deal might be an approach.

 

Well, that's a key skill that you can work on teaching her.

 

Steak.

Oh god do I enjoy steak. 24oz rump, bleu, reverse seared. Hnnnng.