Eclipse Watching

...Or "Another way I have managed to annoy Squeaky's school"

It was accidental, honest.  I was browsing one of those Mums' forums yesterday, you know the ones. One is full of recipes, the other full of swearing and people being (or not being) unreasonable.  I'm not even sure which, to tell the truth.  And someone had said something about their precious offspring's school and their demands for specific items with which to view the solar eclipse.

I'll be honest here. Much of the build up to the eclipse has passed me by.  I'd just kind of not noticed.  Unlike the 1999 eclipse, where I owned a pair of Eclipse 99 pants, from one of the High Street fashion stores.  (Sadly, even if I still owned them, there's no chance I'd fit more than a single bum cheek in them now)  But NetMumsNet reminded me, and so I thought I'd give the school secretary a quick call to see if I'd missed a letter. Not unknown.

Not the recommended way to view a solar eclipse

The secretary sounded completely shocked that I'd asked her such a crazy question.  Eclipse? Plans? School? And then promised to find out & send a text message to the parents.  Which arrived as I was standing at the school gate yesterday afternoon, gossiping with other mums about this exact subject. Co-incidence? Conspiracy? Who knows.

Anyway, school, having not made any other plans, preparations, or even having discussed the eclipse with our beloved offspring were watching via the BBC's live stream.  Not a bad thing, as it turns out, even though Squeaky said that they were talking in English, but it was so complicated she didn't understand and it was like they were talking Japanese (her words), so she just watched the pictures.  We'd talked about it last night, so she had some idea about what was happening at least.  More than some of the other children, I don't doubt.

The eclipse, viewed from the safety of my car. Or a pretty pattern.

Me, on the other hand?  Well, after I dropped Squeaky at school, I picked up my trusty colander, and headed for the retail park. Mostly because I needed to pop into the chemists, but also because it has a big car park & I could be fairly sure it would be quiet.  And I set up my Eclipse Viewing Kit on the passenger seat.  Actually a piece of A4 paper, the colander & my phone. See?  Significant and contemporary event blogging!

I'm living in the vain hope that my colander wearing & boredom-related photo editing will attract me my very own Professor Brian Cox.  It probably won't work out, but you can't blame me for trying, can you? Just think about that enthusiasm!