Repurposing Your Dishes

Over the years I've amassed enough dishes of all shapes and sizes to allow for any possible entertaining event. I could feed 100 people out of the serving dishes I own. The plates would have to be disposable but the serving bowls and decorative dishes would suffice.

There are pieces remaining from sets long gone, inherited pieces, dishes that came as a gift filled with homemade biscuits, dishes bought at craft fairs or on holiday, the discounted last of lines, the pretty dish in the supermarket or IKEA that was so cheap it would have been rude not to buy it....

What happens to this vast collection of lovely bowls and dishes? Nothing. They sit in the display cabinet or in kitchen cupboards and waste their infinite lives waiting for their big moment that rarely arrives. And though I do try to rotate the dishes I use on the odd occasion when I do entertain, I usually end up using the same dishes every time.

So I'm giving some of my dishes a career change.

The space on the bookcase next to the door where I throw my keys and therefore has become the official key place (even for keys I've forgotten what they were for) now has a pretty dish in which to keep the keys. This dish was always problematic as it was a gift and I never knew if it was ovenproof or not. I'd have liked to bake small pies in it but ended up only using it to serve the humus. Now it's used and seen all the time and has an altogether more fulfilling life.

Who doesn't have a corner where counters from boxed games or Lego/Playmobil bits get deposited until you have the time to put them away properly? And how many times do those things get lost again before you've got around to taking them to where they really belong? Most of the times in our house. So now a little crystal glass bowl that my parents bought for me in Malta sits in that corner in front of the television and collects Lego pieces, lone beads, buttons, counters, and any other small item making the long journey home.

Of course everything should be put away completely the moment you touch it. But we're not like that. Realistically we need the dish for lost things. In it's previous life this dish sometimes came out after dessert filled with squares of chocolate or nuts to nibble while we drank our coffee. Unfortunately, by that time in the meal I was so exhausted that I'd usually forget about the coffee completely. Now I get to appreciate the beauty of the Maltese crystal glass all the time.

A pretty dish to hold trinkets on my dressing table. I had an old wooden ring-holder and small wooden bowl but a decorative china dish is so much more sophisticated don't you think?

The thick candle in the bathroom that stood on a black candle-holder plate is now prettily dished in Armenian pottery. We almost had a disaster last week when a candle dripped off its stand and all over the toilet below the shelf it was standing on. Had it been in a dish the wax would have been contained.

Who says that pencils and paperclips have to be stood in faded cardboard pencil holders? I'm thinking of a small cream jug of the right size and shape that would look great on my desk (when I get my desk back from being the temporary dining table).

Toothbrushes and toothpaste in a china cup. Why did I buy these? Because they were in a closing down sale, they cost next to nothing and they are pretty. I have four of them but the thought of drinking water out of them is not appealing. So now DD and I use one each in the bathroom and I have spares for guests.

And finally (for now because I'm on a roll with this) what could this possibly be (below)? I received it as a gift from work about eight years ago. It's glass and they got a box of them very cheaply so they gave them out as Rosh Hashana gifts, because you have to give your employees a gift on Rosh Hashana. It's meant to be a wine cooler and was so irrelevant to the people it was given to that it was almost insulting. No one I know puts wine on ice. We take it out of the fridge and put it on the table for goodness sake.

But it's sort of attractive. I thought of putting a plant in it but you need to find a plant in a pot that's tall enough and I never got around to it. So it's been sitting around for eight years taking up space and being useless.

This week DD's school announced the grand opening of their new composter to feed their own vegetable garden. We were asked to keep our vegetable waste and bring it in to school for the composter. So inside that wine cooler is a plastic bag filling up with our vegetable peels, pips and cores. I close the bag when it's not in use to avoid any smell in the kitchen. I like composting, it makes me feel virtuous.
                       

Little Things, Bigger Things, And Loose Ends

On our way home yesterday we saw this placed on the shelf next to the door to our lobby. DD and her friend made me take a photo of it as it was so lovely. I said we should make some but we probably won't.

The college course that I tried to close a few weeks ago, of course has been re-opened. I even opened it voluntarily, after some of the students went to the top and complained bitterly. In fairness, 'the top' backed me up and only asked me very nicely if I might reconsider for select students. I had to admit to myself that I'd rather the students who'd almost finished just finished rather than have them back next year to do the whole thing again. As there's no point giving them extra time (again) unless they can use it, I've given them until after Hanuka to finish. And then I'm really really definitely and finally closing the Summer Course! We'll see. On the flip side, those students love me now. *sigh*

My friend Stephanie has a great attitude to money. 'Money comes and money goes.' There was a delay (no one's fault) in paying me the full remuneration for the Summer Course and I'm finally getting the last installment at the end of this month. I had earmarked that money for a year of Building Committee dues, the yearly payment to DD's school, and possibly my new dining table. Then DD ate a large chunk of it by needing two crowns on her teeth. Pun intended. *sighs again*

About the crowns on DDs teeth. I take full responsibility. Over the years we've had too much sugar and not enough supervised brushing. We don't have flouride added to the water here so the flouride comes only from the toothpaste. We have been lax. Another problem is that when you open a bag of sweets for an only child - all the sweets are for her. I try put a few sweets in a bowl and the rest away for another day but that's much harder to impose than when you divide the bag between a number of children and the sweets are gone. I've fallen into the defeatest attitude of, 'when it's gone its gone.' Not anymore though. After two crowns and a significant amount of money we are brushing for Europe and restricting sugary foods considerably. Luckily we get a second chance as we've only messed up with the milk teeth.

I need to clear our balcony and plant some winter greenery. Maybe we will make some shell plants after all.

Where is my phone?

On Sunday my phone died. It was a Samsung Galaxy Ace so it had had a long and productive life and I was due for an upgrade anyway. As I cannot funtion without a phone, I went out on Sunday afternoon and bought new phone. Not  an expensive super duper phone - a G4 non-Samsung does what it says on the box type of phone. I paid in two installments by cedit card, niether payment having actually left my bank account yet.

Yesterday I took my phone to school and played with it during my free period. I also got some smart-phone tuition from one of the student teachers, she being of the smart phone generation. I noticed how quickly the battery was going down and discovered that I could leave it on 'sleep' mode when not in use, which conserves the battery.

I picked up DD from her school on the way home and when we got home at 4.30 I noticed that my phone was down to 16% of battery life left. I plugged it in. It charged to 100% in about two hours. I then unplugged it and brought it from the bedroom to the shelf by the front door where it usually sits when I'm at home.

I looked at it about an hour later and noticed that while in sleep mode the battery had remained 100% full. The reason I looked at it was that a friend and her daughter were coming for supper and I wanted to check that they'd not been trying to contact me. My friend is visiting from London and we had been communicating via her daughter's phone. As I didn't have the messaging history on this new phone I had no way of contacting them.

I did a frenzied tidy up and clean of my apartment and made supper. My friend arrived at about 7.15 as we'd arranged. We had a lovely couple of hours together. During the evening both of them had their phones out and think I remember a light brown cover (my friend) and a pink phone (her daughter). So it is very unlikely that either of them picked up my phone by mistake thinking it was their own.

When they left at about 9.15, I sat at the table with DD while we finished the homework I'd not had time to help her with before. She went to bed at about 9.30, I tidied up a bit more and sat on the computer for an hour or so. Then I went to bed.

This morning I took DD across the road to school and returned home to drink a cup of coffee and pack my bag for work. I only took my keys and the rubbish bag out and I locked the door behind us.

Packing my bag for work I couldn't find my phone anywhere. I tried calling it from the landline but the call went straight to the answer-phone. I searched and I searched but I simply can't find it. I messaged my friend via fb just to check but I know the phone didn't leave the flat with them. I looked behind furniture that it might have fallen behind. I looked in piles of papers wherever I have piles.

No one came into our house last night, there is nothing else missing, nothing has been rifled through. I must have put it down somewhere and forgotten - but where? I don't live in a big apartment. I am so upset that, even though I'm at college, I can't concentrate on my work. It's a total mystery. How can a phone just disappear? And is it ominous that the calls go to the answer-phone or is that just a function of being in 'sleep' mode?

UPDATE: The secreatary at college sent me home to look for it. I live near the college and had half an hour to search before I have to return to teach. I looked in the fridge and the freezer - I'm not like that but stranger things have happened.

Anyway, I FOUND IT. It was under a cushion on the footstool. I'd been using the cushion to protect my knees from the laptop and then I'd put my laptop in my bag, throwing the cushion onto the footstool - on top of the phone. *sigh* Big thank you to Batsheva at college - you were right.

The phone was lost for 90 minutes in total during which my life fell apart. There's something not right about that.

Tuesday Tidbits #35 - After School Treats

At the Ice-cream parlour after school. I forgot to take a photo before she ate.

1
Me: What does single mean?
DD: One.
Me: What does double mean.?
DD: Two.
Me: What does triple mean?
DD: Another scoop on top?







2
There were two questions to answer for Hebrew homework, and one more optional question for bonus points.
DD: What are bonus points?
Me: Extra points.
DD: But what do I need them for?
Me: I don't know, nothing.
DD (looking at me like I'm mad): So I don't think I'll be doing that question thank you very much.

3
Collecting DD from school
Me: Hello Darling, did you have a good day? (We hug and I give her a kiss.)
DD (hissing): No kissing!

Tuesday Tidbits #34 - Heaven And Earth

1
DD: There's no such thing as ghosts is there?
Me: No
DD: Right, it's just dead people in heaven doing things.

2
Watching a video with a girl talking about her birth parents and her adopted parents. 
Me: Do you know what adopted means?
DD: Yes it means if you need a new mummy and daddy like if your birth parents die or if they're frozen or something like that.

3
After learning about The Creation at school.
DD: But when did the dinosaurs appear?
Me: Good question, ask your teacher.

4
DD: But how did Elohim  create the world out of nothing?
Me: Because Elohim can do everything.
DD: Yes that's what everyone says but the question is how did he actually do it? That's the question.
Me: If you study hard in science you can help all the scientists who are trying to find out.
DD: Well that sounds a bit boring.
Me: Well if you want answers to difficult questions you have to work hard to find them.
DD; Nah, what do I really need to know that for?

The Chutzpa Of Closing A College Course In Israel

I teach in a teacher training college. One requirement for a degree in Israel - any degree - is passing an exam at a certain level of English. That means every student, has to take Academic English. The logic is sound - if you're entering academia you need to be able to read articles in English. But can you imagine having to pass an exam in Academic Russian if you want to be a nursery school teacher in Yorkshire? Or if you want to be a nurse in London, a social worker in Cardiff, a electronic engineer in Brighton..... You can see why many students hate it.

Another aspect of Israeli academia is that the students find it very hard to take 'no' for an answer when it comes to due dates and deadlines. There are reasons for this too. Firstly every male student does up to a month of army reserve duty every year. He has no say when this will be so you have to give extensions when it occurs. Also every exam has a second sitting a month later - with a different exam paper at the same level, obviously.

Secondly, Israeli students are older as they've completed several years of army service plus the needed year off to clear their heads and get out of the heat. This gap year is also when they take the Psychometric exam for university entrance so it's almost compulsory. Many students are already married with children. Female students disappear for a few weeks to have a baby and then come back. Male students are working night shifts to support their family. It's hard not to give them some slack when the reasons for being late with a paper is not because of partying.

There's always an extension. And then there's an additional extension. I teach some online courses in which papers can be re-submitted with corrections for an upgrade. During the extension period I refuse to check corrections. This is my one little power trip as in reality, online courses are very difficult to close. I still have students badgering me about finishing off last year's course (course ended 30th June 2015, 1st extension end of July, 2nd extension until Rosh Hashana, 3rd extension until the new semester starts on October 11th). I'm making them go to the college authority for special permission to continue and they are shocked at my chutzpa.

This summer I facilitated a summer course. We said it would be intensive and we said it would end on September 30th 2015. On October 1st I sent a letter to all students saying I would not accept any papers after October 11th when the new semester begins. The final final deadline was midnight on Saturday 10th October. No exceptions.

Then I did the unthinkable. At 5 minutes past midnight on 11/10/15 I closed the course. I changed the website settings so that nothing further could be uploaded by students. By Sunday morning I had three emails begging me to reconsider. By mid-morning two students had visited me personally (we work on Sundays here) to plead their cases. I was strong. I didn't give in. I want the word to get round that the due dates for English are not gentle suggestions but law.

I did it but I can't believe I got away with it.

Oh the relief of knowing that the final papers thrown at me at the eleventh hour are the final papers to grade. As the new semester started last week and I'm already dealing with new students, last week got a bit out of hand. Even DD noticed how our home was being neglected. She told me she didn't want her friends to come over because it was too messy. Woops.

I've now finished grading the summer course - no exceptions. I've tidied our apartment. I've washed up a week's worth of dishes all over the kitchen. I've done about 6 loads of laundry including the last of the sheets and towels used by my sister's family when they stayed here two weeks ago!

Bring on the new semester!

Why Can't Adoption Be Reversed?

Again in the Daily Mail there is a story of a couple wrongly accused of abusing their baby. (Here is the last one I wrote about.) This time the baby was adopted while the case was still in progress. By the time the couple were cleared (the baby had rickets and possibly a blood disorder) the adoption was official and there is almost zero chance that they will get their child, now three years old, back.

You can read the story here.

Of course the child should never have been adopted while the case was still open. I wonder if the adoptive parents knew that the case was not finished? Shouldn't they have been warned before the adoption was finalized? Big mistakes were made but it's the attitude going forward that I don't understand.

The precident is that once the child has settled with its new family it would be too traumatic to uproot him/her again and return him/her to the birth parents. So the child is brought up by others because the authorities feel that this is best for the child.

They talk about attachment issues which can be very real and life changing. I'm sure some children might suffer long term attachment issues but why assume that this is probable for all children? Parents die and the children are brought up by other adults without attachment issues. During the war children were sent away for years and then returned afterwards. Many suffered from this but many got over it with no lasting effects. It does happen that young children change parents without attachment issues so why not consider some of the disadvantages of not returning the child to his parents?

Many adopted children (not all by any means) grow up with identity issues. Why not consider this? At the very least, most adopted children (not all) want to know the circumstances of their birth and adoption, and who their birth parents are. All these children are going to have to deal with the fact that they were removed from their birth parents for no good reason.

I feel desperately sorry for the adoptive parents as they are going to have to deal with the emotional fallout from this either sooner or later. Maybe it would be better for them if they dealt with it now while the boy is still only 3 years old. Let a wrong be put right, and allow everyone to heal. The alternative might be an angry 18 year old who doesn't want to forgive them.

I don't have the correct answer. There are no guarantees that either route will produce a happy ending, My concern is that there is a legal precident of never reversing an adoprion that rules out any real consideration for the people involved, including the child. How can a one-size-fits-all policy possibly be applied to children and parents in these cases? Where is the discussion about the possible benefits to the child of returning him to his parents?

It feels like they don't want to open a Pandora's box of what might happen if adoptions could be reversed under special circumstances. I don't for one minute think this is entirely about what is best for the child.