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It was half term this week so I've spent lots of time at home with Marianna. There has been lots of drawing, reading, and finishing off every game on the CBBC apps roster. M usually has quite restricted tablet access but we let up as it was half term and the weather has been so atrocious. Plus it meant I got to watch some of my new Kojak boxset as opposed to endless repeats of Frozen or Barbie's Dreamhouse Adventures. I've only ever seen the odd episode of Kojak here and there before so I'd never properly appreciated how massively uncool Kojak should be. Only Telly Savalas could pull it off, seriously.

We did have a little movie night on Thursday to watch the Horrible Histories Rotten Romans movie. Kim Cattrall as Agrippina the Younger, mother to CBBC alumni Craig Roberts' Emperor [Mummy's Boy] Nero, was legitimately hilarious. Luckily Marianna really liked it too or else it would have just been me cackling at this film aimed at six year olds...

On Friday night a bunch of us went out for a meal to celebrate my aunt and uncle's wedding anniversary. Anthony was most upset because he had to stay in for a change - it will do his liver good. ;D Saturday we went to my mum's to watch the rugby. ...The less said about that the better!

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Deal of the Week -

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This week I've posted guides to Project Mc2 and Vi & Va dolls, a couple of lyric sheets for Welsh post-punk three piece Adwaith, and two giveaways for Morgan & Cwtch and a couple of Michael Rosen parody books. For my Friday Five series I wrote a post on critically endangered European languages, as a tie in with International Mother Language Day.

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Song of the Week -

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On Monday I had a meeting at Marianna's school to start the headteacher recruitment process. As chair of governors you're expected to lead on it a lot so I was hoping we'd be coming up to interviews for the new head at Croesyceiliog Secondary by now, so I could get some practice in. Sod's law means the latter process has stalled, of course, so thank God for HR support!

Then there was a school open afternoon on Tuesday, so I was back in to look through Marianna's books. She seems to be making good process and I was really impressed by the evidence base across all the kids' books. Teaching in primaries is so innovative these days - I really hope curriculum reform will start pushing it through secondaries the way it needs to be.

I chaired Children and Young People scrutiny committee on Thursday, looking at the EAS (South East Wales Educational Achievement Service) business plan. I should have been more on the ball, to be honest, as it went over time and we still didn't get through all the questions we came up with at Wednesday's pre-agenda meeting. I did manage to bring up my usual points about governor training and some of my concerns about the sustainability of school-to-school work though. You can watch the whole meeting on webcast.

Other than education stuff I had licensing committee (webcast) and various bits of casework. At home I wrote 12k of fiction for the first time in months... I barely managed to scrape 25k in the whole of last year!

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Deal of the Week -

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I missed quite a few days of blogging this week so had to go and backdate some posts yesterday... I ended up with guides to Moxie Teenz and 'N Style Girls dolls, and posts about Safer Internet Day and my top five Zelfs for the Friday Five series. I also wrote a review of Dizzy Rhino's party in a box after winning one from TheSchoolRun website.

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Song of the Week -

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I'm feeling quite accomplished this weekend. I repainted the stairwell, landing, bathroom and some of the hall yesterday, and got a load of bedding washed and changed. Now I just need to wait for the weather not to be so awful so I can have a go at the collapsing garden fence...

Work was standard. Stuff that stands out: we had a seminar on ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and the childcare offer on Monday, and Mandy and I had a meeting with CIW (Care Inspectorate Wales) on Thursday. I had a clash of school governors meetings on Tuesday evening, so I went to Maendy as they needed me to chair. So unbeknownst to me they suspended the recruitment process for the new head at Croesyceiliog and I nearly turned up to a shortlisting meeting on Thursday like an idiot. :/

Marianna was off school on Wednesday after she coughed enough to make herself sick. By about 11am I was regretting the decision as she was on a cough syrup high and demanding entertainment. Other than that she had a fairly good week without too many temper tantrums.

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Deal of the Week -

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This week I blogged about the school rebuild at Maendy, my five favourite Mr Men and Little Miss characters, and the new Barbie BMR1959 dolls. I also wrote a guide to Just Play's Hairmazing dolls, and a review of Duolingo language learning app, as well as doing a new round of interview questions with Marianna.

I've been working on lots of future posts too, especially guides on discontinued doll lines. Expect to see Bratzillaz, Project Mc2, and the Moxie Teenz over the next few weeks.

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Song of the Week -

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I've been quite busy this week with different meetings and stuff. I had full council on Tuesday which, while not as bad as I was expecting, still left me feeling really stressed and run down. My other 'big' meeting this week was Bron Afon board, but that one went pretty well.

Marianna went on her school trip to St. Fagan's this week, and she had her haircut mid-week. My mum very kindly paid for that because I'd been skint since about January 3rd...

On payday I finally ordered the stepstool, paint, etc, I need to get on with freshening up all the paintwork. It was the first time I'd bought from Screwfix and, I've gotta say, it will probably be the last. Part of the order (the stepstool) went AWOL and another part was broken. I've been in touch with customer services and they say they'll try and deliver the stool next week but, still, I ordered it from them specifically so I could make a start on it this weekend.

In better news I sold some miniatures and bought the new BMR1959 Barbie line with the proceeds. I was trying not to get my hopes up after the Screwfix debacle but Mattel actually exceeded my expectations. Now I just gotta redress a few of them and they're good to go. :)

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Deal of the Week -

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This week I wrote a guide to Big Beautiful Dolls, a summary of this week's full council meeting, and a lyric sheet for Pen, Ysgwyddau, Coesau a Traed (Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes). I also posted a list of 250 free mail order catalogues and my top ten hits of 1973. Finally, for my Friday Five series I wrote about five (alleged) aliens living among us!

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Song of the Week -

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