Rosetinted

* I do like to write.  Before 'lockdown' I hadn't written anything for a long time.  Usually, I am studying something, or at least trying to, but I have not been doing any of that for a while. As I have been a year one teacher for a considerable amount of time my writing has consisted of tasks such as  rewriting Shakespeare into sentences consisting of Consonant, Vowel, Consonant words. That and facebook, which has robbed me of any clear idea of grammar and spelling as I join the rest of the nation in their constant confusion of 'your' versus 'you're' and wondering about my friends:  'If there alright'.  I am a little out of practise.  The idea of writing a 'lockdown' journal was to ease myself back in to something I enjoy.  The best thing about writing a journal is that you don't have to ponder too much about content. Content should be easy: You wake up, you do a few things- someone makes you laugh or you read something that gets ...

I guess we all respond to change in different ways. My youngest child has responded to all this lockdown shenanigans in his own particular style. The boy's response is to become deeply nestled into, what is euphemistically known, as a special interest. A while back and as I remember, there was a time I feared I would never have a conversation with my youngest child. It was a volatile  combination - a mother with the attention span of a gnat and a child who could monologue a million times over about the intricacies of camera angles in the film Jaws.  It was never enough to robotically, ummm and nod and yeah because, sporadically there would be a multiple choice question thrown in to ensure your attention. But, like many things that seem so significant at a time , things change and somewhere along the line he started to converse as if the audience mattered, at least partially.  At the same time he developed a rather lewd sense of humour- which, perhaps would have be...

* On Wednesday, I had an appointment. An actual time and date to be somewhere, not an artificially constructed one and an important one. I have actually tried to make such an appointment but somehow failed since 2017- I blamed work and being all busy and stuff, but in reality it is about me being unable to do a simple task without being distracted by doing something else. Right now, I have the perfect opportunity to work on that -you see I have a method. The task I need to do may only take 5 minutes but I have up to 12 hours to get it done. OK so it means in order to get all my jobs completed, 'lockdown' needs to last until 2028 but at least I am getting shit done and to hell with distractions. Talking about 'to do' lists, home-schooling is going well, or so we thought until we discovered a 53 point 'to do' list on Alexa which included the kinda things you'd associate with a Monty Python and Russ Meyers love child. At least we have ticked off part of the ...

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Deborah Darko Davies (@roseytintz) on Apr 22, 2020 at 2:37pm PDT Most of us have had to change a little over the past month. Many of us have had to adapt to a new environment, for some of us our daily routines have been uprooted and put on hold - so we are left with the job of building a new schedule. 'But, surely I am too old and stuck in my ways to make significant changes?' I reflected, at some point, on some day. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks but this bitch is showing more plasticity than Stretch Armstrong: The most significant change is that I have found myself able to plan a day without spending money and without using up the hours in the Sisyphean effort of wondering what to do. The first week of lockdown was like cold water shock. Who didn't find themselves striding into rooms; stopping and wondering what the fuck brought them to this pl...

Facebook unites us, sometimes... at least it gets us in the same room to disagree. My sister told her  timeline that she had decided that she was not an introvert. She related this to the fact that she was missing her place of work.  My brother and I agreed (for once) that if we could, we would retire in a flash. I wasn't quite sure whether my love or want to work for the rest of my living days related to my status as introvert or an extrovert. And I was reluctant to pick up on an 'overworked' issue but this is 'lockdown' and I am not sure that I could pinpoint an issue of interest if I fell over it - but it got me thinking: where do I lie on the whole introvert/extrovert scale? Apparently,  extroverts get energised by the company of others. Well let's see? People wear me out.  Don't get me wrong I love 'em -but god blimey aren't they tiring?  I mean, take my husband, he always wants answering when he says something and on occasion he wants a...

Time for some honesty. The only people who like to talk about running, are runners. The only people who like to listen to anything to do with running, are runners. It is probably singularly the most boring subject, with the exception of when people list what they have just had for their lunch. Or when someone shows you their holiday snaps. You poor people of a certain age will remember the dread a holiday slide show would evoke. Thank goodness for social media and its 'scroll on by' capacity. Over the years I have developed enough social skills and concentration not to walk off midway through boring conversation. My husband was the one who kindly observed and pointed out my tendency to bolt during 'boring' conversations and now with  practise and perseverance I can nod in the right spots as is socially acceptable; except if you are boring and a twat and then I will allow my flight shoes to run free... fly my pretties. Honesty goes both ways and I will confess, th...

Last night I was feeling a little sorry for myself and for some reason felt compelled to binge watch celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins... which I fully recommend if you are feeling like you need to be plunged into misery. There is the strange juxtaposition of tragic real life cancer stories in among the irksome achievements of celebrities who turn out to be tougher than you really hoped they would be. I began watching this a little hormonal and fed up; I mean who doesn't  want someone who 'has it all' to be shown up for the whinging baby you hoped them to be.  My batch, including Jeff Brazier, are not really showing themselves up and I am disappointed -celebrities are meant to make us feel better about ourselves as they whinge and flout hardship - but these are having a go and some, with aplomb. I am irritated, awed and intrigued in equal measure. Then there's a break and I am told: 1 out of 2 of us will get cancer - great, I think sulkily (I am hormonal) and because I ...

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Deborah Darko Davies (@roseytintz) on Apr 9, 2020 at 7:49am PDT Yesterday was not a good one for our youngest. The enormity of staying in and being so far from what he considers his normal life was all a bit too much. So today, I thought we'd take it easy. After some essential shopping where I managed to slip in a Doctor Who toy as an early Easter present, we made dinner and he dried the dishes. Any parent of a 10 year old will understand the significant weight behind the latter part of that sentence, however this is not the subject for today, but he dried up... My son has had quite a few 'special interests' over the years, some that I have become particularly attached to, I am reluctant to say encouraged - but who doesn't like a bit of topless Jason Statham. No, silly he isn't interested in Jason per se but sharks, which of course leads us seamlessly to T...

View this post on Instagram Absolutely needed/enjoyed our socially distancing walk today. #quarantinelife #quaratinestyle #antoniandalison #bestdress #thriftingfinds #thriftingcommunity #bluesky #charityshopping #cancerresearch #leedsthrifting #dressforwalking #bowties #fashionover40 #OOTD #selfie #familytime A post shared by Deborah Darko Davies (@roseytintz) on Apr 8, 2020 at 8:23am PDT As a child, one of my favourite things to do was to dress up- just like many little girls all across the world.  Somehow, I struggled to feel really part of the 'little girls' club. Looking back now my tastes were as feminine as many but I did often come across as bratty and strong, I liked to prove my toughness by taking on challenges, I would not allow myself to be athletically outdone by a boy (if I could help it) and I taught myself two things: a) not to cry when hurt and b) not to laugh when tickled. When I could, I ran with the...

So I promised you (darn fools) that I would talk about the end.  The end of civilisation as we knew it, the day we were told that schools were closing and the day I discovered I was gonna have to dig deep and find my role in it all. The last few days at work were strange, some people were already missing; having to self-isolate as they or their loved ones developed a cough or a high temperature. Some things at school have been a bit strange for me as currently I do not have a class. I am doing my best to become an effective reading intervention teacher, as this is new for me and the school, sometimes it feels like it's a dream come true and other days it feels like I am trying to make gold from straw. In the last two days before school closure, plans were set in motion: a) identify the children who would still need to attend and b) make a core team of staff who would be with those children. A meeting was called and the plan of action was laid out and at this point many of us disc...

View this post on Instagram Today I dress for gardening. #OOTD #charityshopped #quarantinelife #quaratinestyle #thrifted #thriftstorefinds #thriftedstyle #gardening #urbanspaces #urbanlife #denim #fortyplusstyle #urbanliving A post shared by Deborah Darko Davies (@roseytintz) on Apr 4, 2020 at 10:58am PDT Ratchet School. Rachet meaning:  6 Rachet   Classist  way of calling someone  brash  and ignorant.  School officially closed for us on the 20th of March. As soon as I heard the news we, as a family,  had a week off. You see, I figured we all had a lot of things to get used to.  My school, my place of work has had a pragmatic, well organised and thorough approach to their role during this current crisis and as I live with someone who is higher risk, I had to come to terms with (I still haven't) not being able to attend school. I am planning (see I do take my own advice!) on ...

View this post on Instagram Being all casual and not in the mood to capture my visage...#OOTD #casual #stayinghome #stayingpositive #quarantinestyle #quarantinelife #quarantinefashion #charityshopfinds #homemadeknits #droppedstitch #demin #bleacheddenim #quarantinehair #kitchenlife #lookingdown #thriftedstyle #week2 #blues #secondhand A post shared by Deborah Darko Davies (@roseytintz) on Apr 2, 2020 at 9:22am PDT As such, there is no plan about what I  will write in this journal of sorts.  No clue as to the subject or structure or content - this is not a fault of the circumstances, I am sure so many of you are kicking the arse out of staying home and are busy planning and structuring your 'content' because what are we if not 'content'? Nope, I cannot blame the circumstances- it is, this lack of planning, a deep rooted flaw. I rarely plan anything. I wake up and go from there. The first 30 minutes is often pain...