MAKING YOUR MIND UP

I seem to have been spending most of the last few days trailing around the colleges in South East Wales looking for a an Art course for Fiona to start in September. How can so many colleges have such different course? I would have thought they would have all been the same. Coleg Glan Hafren in Cardiff doesn't even really have a basic Art course, they have a joint Art and Media course but nothing just Art. We seem to have shortlisted to Cross Keys and Barry so it is make your mind up time for Fiona.
A few years ago I did a GCSE in Art and got an A, it may sound like I am bragging but I was really pleased with the result. In school I got a fail in Art even though everyone thought my work was really good, the art teacher didn't like me and then that could effect the way your work was marked. All the exam work was marked by the teacher and a sample of the work was sent off to the examining board to see if the work was marked fairly, my work was not part of the sample.
I may not be brilliant at art but I am creative and I do lots of work which is why I received an A. So this year I am going to attempt to fulfill my ambition of getting an A level in Art. I have enrolled at Cross Keys College to do an AS in Art, the first year of an Art A Level.


On Tuesday night I watched a little bit of a comedy called Outnumbered, it is about a family and the father is a teacher.

Outnumbered is a new comedy from Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton, the creators of Drop The Dead Donkey, about the daily rollercoaster of life with small children.

Outnumbered is comedy about two parents and three young children, locked in an unequal contest. It is an honest portrayal of the well-meaning parental incompetence that happens in most homes, as a beleaguered Mum and Dad attempt to raise their kids with the minimum of emotional damage for all concerned.
Three children are: Karen, a regal five-year-old girl with a talent for interrogation, seven-year-old Ben, who could out-fib Jeffrey Archer and eleven-year-old Jake who is gearing up for his scary first day at secondary school.
The parents are played by Claire Skinner and Hugh Dennis. The Dad works in an inner city school, where a typical school holidays sees five arrested, two pregnant and one pupil shot.

Meanwhile, Mum is a part-time PA with a very demanding boss.
Other topics explored in the part improvised show include: racism, child abuse, new age weirdness, weak bladders, death and heaven, bird 'flu, contagious diseases, bullying, obesity, parental competition, attempting romantic nights in, divorce, journalism, running away, atoms, underage drinking, gin, corn-fed organic chickens, Nazis and ratbags.

Some of it was really quite funny. I did feel guilty laughing at one joke because some people might think it was bordering on racism but I actually thought in a way it was quite a natural thing to say.The father who is a teacher, made a comment to a pupil who was Muslim and was large and constantly eating in class about wishing it was Ramadan all the time. The father of the child complained that the teacher was being racist and had traumatised the child by referring to his weight as the weight problem was glandular.To which the teacher asked did the glandular problem make the child stuff pies into his mouth. I have an under active thyroid which I regularly take medication for and find it difficult to lose weight but I found the comment funny and so true. I may have a thyroid problem but it is certainly my love of bread and all things carbs that stops me losing weight.
It is important to be PC today because of not wanting people to take offense at things. When I was growing up I was bullied because I had red/ginger hair but I went to a wrestling show last year and one of the baddies said that Wales was like the ginger step-child of the UK and I found it funny because I knew it was a joke. Making comments and jokes about culture and race is such a mine field today that it is best to leave well alone.
I also watched Outrageous Wasters and the Dad was black and when her had to shovel up the pig poo he commented Why is it always the black man? which was a very natural comment BUT only funny because he said it.
It is sad that we live in a world that has to be so PC but if we didn't have certain social rules on what it is OK to say then some people might take advantage and be unkind.