Katy’s rambles about life

no stories today, we sort of forgot until after Daddy got home and it’s too noisey once he’s in teh house!!

Today she played on “Daisy Maths” - link on “Making it up” blog and walzed through the counting bit and the “add 1″ games but then decided that she didn’t understand the taking away bit so did the clocks instead. It’s a fun bit of software as far as it goes but I could do with “Daisy Too” or something for Becca (but there isn’t one!) I wondered about the Singapore Maths software - anyone any feelings on it??? She responds really well to PC type stuff but she’s sort of outgrown a lot of the software I’ve got at the mo.

She also played on Cebeebies - bizarrely enough she seems to home in on the “educational” games and is getting a lot out of them.

Then she complained that my PC chair is just not comfortable and wandered off to her bedroom to play CDs (I’ll just call her “KEvin” should I!)

She also wrote in teh final Christmas cards so taht’s pretty much done and dusted at last. I’m not sure what to do about this for next year, she really doesn’t know a lot of the children she’s sending cards to and some of her friends wern’t on the list so she’s a bit upset about not sending to some of them (cos I’ve lost adresses or never had them!!!) I do have to admit 30 cards is a marathon but it’s lovely when they all arrive!!!

So all in all a quiet, slow sort of day. I’m having an early night tonight but first I have a “date” with the OU study books…. oh, what an exciting life!

After much searching I’ve found all 7 of the BBC’s “dramatized readings” of the books on this site. Cheaper than Audible and you don’t have to join for a full year/ration yourself to 2 books a month etc. Not shelled out yet so can’t comment on customer service etc but the soundbites sound good enough.

Went to see the film last night. So, waht do I think? Well, it’s okay. Technically it’s a good film, the animated caracters are cleverly done, Aslan looks very real etc.

It’s close enough to the book, obviously they miss bits but nothing critical really, they changed a few bits to add “dramatic tension” like making the narrow escape the children have from the wolves a damned sight narrower etc.

The added a bit at the beginning which I thought was very well thought out - when teh book was written the audience would know all too well what an evacuee was, why children would be moved from their homes to the countryside etc. The opening of the film assumes the audience does not know this and so starts with an air raid, the 4 children in the Anderton shelter and then the next scene is them being put on the train full of other kiddies being taken to safety. Nicely done.

So why just okay? Well, to be honest I’m spoilt, I was expecting “Lord of the Rings” and of course that’s just not going to happen with a storyline like the Narnia books, they are somehow gentler and less dramatic to start with. I also wanted something of the “magic” of the BBC serialisation and for all the better technology the “magic” just seemed lacking somehow.

I did spend the whole journey home explaining to the other kids (church youth club) who Professor Kirk was and why he had a mgic wardrobe in his house…… ever tried condensing The Magician’s Nephew into a half hour car drive whilst half asleep?????

And then I came home to find the chicken I’d cooked for Tim and Becca’s tea (and for cold cuts today) still out on the side, directly over the boiler so delightfully warm…. so now I need to find something different for tea!!!!! (yes Joyce, even I know to chuck it out at that point )