Joanne takes a break

Well I did promise you a new entry a few days ago and being the kinda of "that girls so contentious" person I am, here it is.
Yesterday I went to the seaside on a coach not being a car driver.
Most of the people on the coach were groan ups who looked very groan up but me being a little said "Naw, I'm a little"  so went in my red school sweatshirt, grey shorts, the most cutest cat socks you could imagine with a pretty pink bow and regular unisex brogue style children's shoes. In addition I had my Hello Kitty childrens' flight and tote bag!!!
We set off travelling south through Jennifer's beloved Staffordshire Black Country (Btw it's more green than you'd think) that,being subject to long delays around Walsall and Bescot we had good views of. There were further delays on the M5 just south of Birmingham as far as Worcester North but the run through Bristol passing the bridge with good views across to South Wales was much easier.
When we arrived in Weston Super Mare, although I had been snacking on Barley sugars and chocolate finger biscuits - too bad they didn't have any animal shaped ones in - I was hungry so I called in at the Dragon Inn, a Weatherspoons public house that does food.
The food was nice , I had a Steak and Kidney pie and the manager was really funny!

Having eaten I felt like going on a bit of a walk around as I've never been here before and I'd have to say everywhere was super clean with litter pickers active during the day.

Some people don't realize the danger encouraging Seagulls with food can cause especially if you're a child having a picnic with your family.

The beach was cleaner than a good number in North Wales I could think of with finely grained sand.
There is one automatic response when I see a beach and it involves a bucket and spade so guesses for what happened next! Also the next response is something like getting a Pirates flag and waving it around while jumping up and down. Nobody I was with said anything!

Seaside towns often have amusement arcades, something the bigger side of me isn't too keen on but who couldn't resist the chance to win your very own Hello Kitty plushie? Well I sure couldn't.

The Pier was burnt down a few years ago but a great job was done of rebuilding it with associated facilities for that whole strolling along the pier experience. For an out of season weekday, it sure was busy.

Finally I had to be super careful not to get in the way of this the Great Western Land Train  that runs to the Harbour and back along the sidewalk. I think the Great Western was train company that operated in the South West of England before nationalization (and privatization in the 1990's).
The return back was much smoother stooping at Frankley services south Birmingham to freshen up

Disney bedroom?

All right The television is a bit past it's sell buy date having a old style picture tube rather than a flat screen lcd one but this is a middles girls bedroom needs to be, restful with plenty of space to spread out across the bed or floor when playing or watching say a dvd with cushions, plushies and nothing really Big in there so it aids your being in little/middle headspace at night.
That's the thing as an adult middle or little can be hard to achieve, avoiding the techno stuff that takes over the space or maybe running some groan up thing from within it.

Joanne returns to school

Well I did leave a bit of a hint a few weeks back but I will be undertaking a bit of learning this term brushing up on my numeracy, penwomanship and English as for one thing I'm a litle rusty part from my dyslexia, dyspraxia and other learning disabilities I'm not too good at this stuff.Really I'm not.
I'll be doing some UK KS1/2 worksheets as appropriate to my needs each week sat at a desk suitably dressed which no doubt Jennifer would wholeheartedly approve off although sadly I won't have a Games Mistress. The rotters!!!   Playtime will happen though.
But that means I need some new tools as my tools well, there a bit old really dating from the last time I set foot in a classroom.

That's right Jennie, a circa 1977 Commodore 796M LED calculator that if you knew how you could spell words on it! I'll be getting a newer one with pink keys but in the mean time this laptop has one although I'll be only using that to check the answers with cos I really need to bring my mental arithmetic aka Math up to scratch.
Spelling as well as picking the best words for something in English isn't my strong point and you see, if your dyslexic like me, a spellchecker only gets you so far plus it often suggests world you weren't thinking of so I'm going to have to learn new words by rote and learn to use a dictionary from now on.

Well that's my old very battered one the girl immediately under the Head Girl at my boarding school gave me back in the day but apart from the seams going, English has gained quite a few new words over the years as well as some old words having newer, more current meanings that I don't understand.

Well Hello Kitty can help me learn as she's made this new version that's easier to follow and as well as having some tips on how to use words better which I'll be using.
Dyspraxia means in simple terms I have difficult making and co-ordinating small movements such as those you use to draw and critically write. It's a pain!
My handwriting  has never been good and for a period stopped completely following the industrial injury that further messed my life up (in some ways at least, in others it bought the inner kid to the fore).

I'll be following the exercises Hello Kitty uses to practise my letter drawing together with forming the shapes that make the top and bottom of letters which is something I'm really really bad at.
Sometimes even in this electronic age we need to write things and many people appreciate a hand written letter, postcard or birthday greetings card so being able to make a good job of it will be a help to me.

Fun outfits

This is just the sort of girlish attire I like outside of uniform, contemporary, stylish  but wouth being too fussy with just enough pink in it without coming over too saccharine.

Bodnant Gardens

I like flowers and gardens a lot having visited a good many in my childhood although getting around them with my disabilities isn't easy as I'm not good on my feet and I tire easy.
One of the places I like to visit is Bodnant Gardens in North Wales, UK.
Here's a couple of pictures I took originated on film shot on HD mode using APS

As you can see the flowers in full bloom and I was rewarded with a bright sunny day which made taking a decent picture using a relatively simple camera easier. Had I of realized it, I'd of shoot them on 35mm film on my Olympus slr going wide and cropping to HD or Panorama style using the computer.

Getting ready for New Term

Fast approaching end of Summer Vacations which for me  at least signifies the start of the Autumn Term and getting all your school requirements such as uniform sorted, ironed ready.
You know pretty much what my uniform is, and what it means to me so apart from anything else making sure everything is in top top shape really matters.

Apart from the socks as I like white just above the knee socks that's pretty much how mine looks and that's what I'm wearing this minute.
Apart from finding Peaches and Spikey after a bit of tidying up I got into my closet and have been creating some space to hang everything nicely.
While there I made a few discoveries such as finding three pairs of tailored shorts that oddly enough two would go with the uniform, being Grey,Blue  and White for PT type fun that gives me an option for playing not least actual out of doors playtime that should help to keep me more in tune with me inner self too. They're not the flannel sort that LB's wear but not so far off with pockets.
I suspect they date from that period I mentioned when I talked about shorts a while back being a route back into littleness before I knew anything about being little because I just do things anyhow.
And I've gotten some new socks ready for September too

Realized me II

Another form of realized me is actually the girl out of school who loves to wear dresses although to be honest I find most really frilly 'Little Girl' dresses too fussy with acres of netting and that while something like this with a Butterfly motif and Dolly Mixtures on the skirt part wuld be just up my alley