Nancy, reading aloud from crib notes for her assigned HSC English novel:
“‘He believes his characters are interesting because they are flawed.’
“Hmpf, well he is mistaken, his characters are not interesting, his characters are dickheads.”
The set text is ghastly. So ghastly that I cannot bring myself to read it (as is my usual practice, so that Nancy may bounce ideas off me, or so that I can more adquately provide assistance). Her entire class loathes it. Because of aforesaid ghastliness, we are treated to a constant stream of scathing Nancy commentary (directed at the author and occasionally the Board of Studies) whenever she picks the thing up.
The novel deals with delinquents in the Western Suburbs and the author tries to get all authentic by using colloquial language. He fails rather miserably, because, for example, I have never heard anyone under 50 years old refer to cigarettes as “cancer sticks”. He might as well have used “ripping” and “topping” and “wizzard” for all the “authenticity” of his language.
We are all thankful that she is doing some work, even if it is not nearly enough, at least it is a beginning.
8<———-
I have been staggeringly busy at Marie Celeste (hence the lack of posts – it’s all I can do to lay about exhausted on the couch when I arrive home in the evening). Department-cool-until-you-are-in-it have been involved in a rather large project. However, very late on Friday afternoon, we discovered an error of major proportions (thankfully not our fault) and so will need to spend the next week doing it all over again. But, hey, it’s all a learning experience, right?
8<———-
We toddled along to the Kings Cross Organic Food and Farmers Market yesterday. It was rather disappointing in both size and variety. I have not visited the faux farmers market at Fox Studios (as mentioned in the comments for the last post by the lovely anyresemblance), but I imagine this compared much less favourably. However, all was not lost, as we picked up some sensational fresh pasta (best we’ve had for ages), a very nice apple pie and a rather nice tomato, chili and pepper pasta sauce. I can only hope it picks up some momentum, because this area should be a market ripe for the picking (dreadful puns unintended).