Twelfth Night in Minecraft

Year 5/6's preparations for our epic Machinema rendition of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night continue apace. In the screenshot above you can see:

1. Lady Olivia's house. This is now carpeted upstairs, and Malvolio recently took delivery of a consignment of imported lapis lazuli dye for the blue carpets downstairs.

2. Duke Orsino's Castle. Here the mournful Duke sits by his window gazing out at Lady O's dwelling in a *slightly* creepy fashion. Fear not Lovestruck Sire, Ernie & Evie* will soon sort out your mixed up love-life!

3. Shakespeare's Shack. Sssh! The bard is... barding? Do not disturb.

4. Lake. This is one of the possible locations for the shipwreck / opening scene, though we haven't quite figured out the mechanics of making a ship sink in Minecraft...

5. Y5/6 Classroom. Here's are the students' lockers, work tables and furnaces, plus the roast chicken vending machine and the Chest o' Diamonds for assembling a the most durable of tools. There's also a noticeboard of outstanding tasks students can lend a hand with.

6. Lady O's gardens. These are based on the gardens at Villandry Castle, France (thank you Google Images). The gardens at the back of the house will have the tall hedges behind which Maria, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew giggle whilst drawing Lady Olivia's butler into their web of silliness.

* Ernie Mist and Evie Mist are the two twins who'll be playing Sebastian and Viola/Cesario

New glasses

I dropped my glasses (spectacles) in the swimming baths and Lauren found them - under her foot. Which meant the scratches have reached the point where even I can't see through them any longer, so off I went to Optical Express... who wanted to charge me a whopping £360 for correcting my (admittedly whacky) vision.

I tried the internet but they don't go up as far as my prescription (one said 'it would be morally wrong of me to try to make you glasses') so I visited Specsavers in Shipley. They offer '2 for 1'
which means I now have two pairs (didn't go for tints this time as I never wore the previous ones) for £239. Still a pile of cash, but less cash and more specs than OpticalExpress :)

Matt stays in hospital overnight

Last night Matt (6) started wheezing so I took him to Bradford Royal Infirmary where they kept him overnight for observation. Matt charmed the nurses by reading Peter Pan complete with voices!

He responded well to the nebuliser treatments and didn't need any further intervention during the night, so was allowed home mid-morning. It was actually quite enjoyable to spend some one-to-one time with him.

First post

Hmm. My first dabble with blogging. Feels like I'm the last to board the bus.