Back at school

all of us, well not Seb.

Day 3 at Uni, I missed day one, not my fault! waiting for department to put up info on website, they did not, all stage 2-3 classes ever that I have had have been 2 hour sessions with a one hour tut, looking at my timetable there was indeed a one hour and one 2 hour class scheduled, but the stand alone hour is a lecture, I don't recall seeing this while meticulously planning my colour coded timetable. Im annoyed but I've covered the base info in this paper before so Im not too worried except I have no idea when assessments are due.

Yesterday was Te kete aronui, a Maori studies paper on retaining lost art forms, practising traditional techniques to make artisan objects, no powertools allowed. My tutor Dante is an older man, a smoker, a fidgitpants, and possibly one of the most valuable people I think I've ever met in terms of his physical breadth of knowledge of stone, bone and fibre and their uses and properties. there is 11 people in my class, and this is the only shame of it, that only 11 people out of a potential 40,000 are interested in knowing about our art forms, its no wonder they are dying.  learnt to strip the fibre for rope and cordmaking out of flax using a sharp piece of flint and a mussel shell, initially frightening in its basicness, ultimately empowering in its simplicity. The flint is fantastic, easy to hold, cuts like a razor, and its easy to source. the mussel shell is much the same, learning to cut the correct leaves with the edge of a discarded bit of seafood seems unlikely, shows how removed from the benefits of natural materials I am in a modern world.

Loving it so far, but prepared to temporarily hate it when the hard work begins. I took some harakeke (flax) home to practise getting the muka or fibre out, by the 6th go I was getting the hang of it and now I have a small collection hanging on my wall. It smells green and yummy and looks like twine.

Two politics papers today, social justice and comparative media, both stage 3, both interesting, looking forward to debating the merits of maori seats on the supercity council with my mate from old classes Hugh, an incredibly smart young bloke with a dry sense of humour and a loose jaw. All lecturers seem good, nothing worse than a bad teacher.

had kobi's meet the teacher evening last night, I have met his teacher previously accompanying him to swimming lessons, but it was nice to catch up and hear he is keeping up with class but needs to speed up the writing. Cole is enjoying Royal Oak, but me, showing off with the stupid cupcakes for Friday bakesale has become the subject of interest for the upcoming school food festival. So I have been asked to help decorate on the stand, as well as putting my hand up to make icing for 400 cupcakes. This seemed a logistical nitemare, so on the advice of mother I have got the supermarket bakery next door to quote me a price on 15 kilo's of frosting. lol imagine licking that bowl. I can only hope that we use it all up if we end up buying it, I personally don't like to think of making 15 kilos of icing in my food processor.

Everything is ok except for Sebs job struggle continuing and him not getting the St Cuths position, we could really do with the money. Never mind tho, it will happen when it happens.