Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice...

So yesterday I found myself less than half an inch away from being able to legitimately wear a blinged up eye patch.
And I learnt a valuable lesson: never underestimate the lethal power of a hyped up four-year-old girl with a sharp pencil and a blithe disregard for anything in her peripheral vision--like, say, her teacher.
I actually felt really sorry for the poor little mite. She's a tiny thing, and desperately quiet and shy. She normally wouldn't say boo, but yesterday in class she was really starting to come out of her shell; singing and dancing, and for once not taking any crap from the boys!
But come about the half-way point of the lesson, when the kids were doing an activity that involved a bit of colouring-in, I noticed a crayon that had fallen to the floor so I bent down to pick it up. At the same time, she dropped her pencil and dove theatrically for it, springing back up with a cry of 'mine!' and the sharpened weapon clutched (pointing straight up, of course) in her tiny fist.
Being a lot older and slower, I was still bent over picking up the crayon (I guess from the outside it probably looked like one of those martial arts movie scenes where everyone's in slow motion except the hero), so I was perfectly placed to cop six inches of cold lead right in my left eyebrow.
And what a special feeling that was... I could feel the point of the pencil jab in, hit my skull, then judder along the bone. Yucky. And it hurt. A lot. But what can you do? For a few seconds I clutched my forehead theatrically going 'ow, ow, ow' (at least I had the presence of mind not to treat it as an emergent language situation and introduce the kids to some choice expletives). Then I saw how little K's face had dropped, and how close she looked to going catatonic at the thought that all this blood all over her teacher's face and hands was because of her.
So I grabbed Anita, who was fortuitously walking past the room, and she sang a few songs with the class while I got myself cleaned up and dressed the wound. For the rest of the lesson my main focus was on smiling at K a lot and making sure she felt included. Poor little monkey, I think that was the first time I've seen her do something spontaneous, and she'll probably be having nightmares about it for weeks!

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So what else has been happening in the Land of the Megamalls?
Not much, really. Tash had her birthday last week, but it was a bit of a low-key affair, since I had to work and we were busted-arse broke after the Bali trip! The guys at work did organise a surprise cake and some pressies for her, which was lovely (thanks guys). We'll celebrate her birthday properly next week when we've got a week off for Idl Fitri and we head down to Yogya to meet up with my sister Megan (her first time in Indo).
The monkey's going great guns. Her two big things at the moment are spinning until she get's dizzy and falls down, and running around with a black sheet over herself (old enough that she can see through it. Just.) like Caspar the unfriendly ghost. Tash has got some great video of both these, and will probably get them uploaded today.
Anyway, Tash is off to the expat kiddies singing group this morning, and I'm taking my bike to the shop to get fixed, so that's all folks...