Email is the best for scouts as there's always lots of information (eg gear list). For our 1:1 music lesson, we just text. I am the kind of person who likes email but I get the feeling some people feel it's old-fashioned? I don't know.

I don't think the Christmas cookie thing is big in Australia, but I do make a few things for my European-heritage husband. He prefers anything gingerbready like pfeffernusse. I like making Basler Brunsli - they are easy and very delicious. My young son will make biscuits from cake mixes, so just the cake mix without milk and with lots of butter basically.

That's the question. Is it innate or learned? If you ask, 'imagine a circle, what colour is it?' to one of my children, they'll go into great detail. The other will just say 'I can't see things like that.' I think with a little child you can tell stories and ask them to close their eyes and imagine what you're saying, not just visually but all the senses.

My suggestion is the Uglies series by Scott Westerfield. It's set in the future in a world where everyone gets plastic surgery at age 16, and everything is about filming yourself in order to get points. Basically the whole series is all about what is ugly/beautiful, who are your true friends, issues with social media etc. It's from maybe 10 years ago or more, but my 12 year old ate up the whole series. There is a bit of romance in it but very mild, unlike so much YA these days which I find is often really explicit. Robin McKinley and Diana Wynne Jones are two fantasy authors who create beautiful, unusual worlds and can be read forever. Robin McKinley's Beauty is a classic, Dragonhaven is more modern, and don't give her Sunshine yet as it has sex scenes in it. Diana Wynne Jones has Fire & Hemlock (perhaps best book ever?), the Chrestomanci series, and Hexwood.

He's 22 yrs old, I assume he has a job? I would just say, "you've mentioned you want a guitar, I'd rather you researched and purchased your own guitar as it's a pretty individual thing, I've got a few other things for you for Xmas." And if you can afford it, you could say, "I'm happy to throw in $X to help you purchase it."

I think it all depends on the kid. My eldest has a great memory, show her once and she's got it. Like me, she visualises and has synaesthesia. Memory palace works great, but really once she's seen it, she's got it. My youngest has a terrible memory (in his IQ test, his working memory was below average), and does not visualise at all - my husband is the same, if you ask him to 'see' a circle, he can't understand what you mean. So for my son, a memory palace is meaningless because he can't mentally walk through a house. Rhymes and chants have been more helpful for him.

"How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks." Gaudy Night, Dorothy L Sayers.

I'll start . . . "There's no butter in hell!" (Cold Comfort Farm). I think of that whenever I burn myself.

I'm so sorry. We had something similar happen a month ago - as in knowing someone. I had to just sit with a friend and talk it all out from beginning to end, for my brain to comprehend. And then after that I haven't wanted or needed to talk about it ever again.

Lived whole childhood in one home and now live just a few roads away from it (and my parents are still living there). I now live in my husband's childhood home. In between, though, I went to university and worked in various jobs around the world. I think I have lived in 13 different places? But most of my life (home for 17, with him for 15), just two.

Oh, I hadn't heard that. I wonder if it's post-covid related. I know so many people who had pneumonia this year. Not directly after Covid, but I wonder if there's underlying damage which comes into play with a later infection. Article today about a young man who ended up with post-covid myelitis. Rare but not good at all - again the guess is it's to do with brain and spinal inflammation. Mackay man put in wheelchair for months by rare case of myelitis likely caused by COVID-19 - ABC News And a Queensland researcher has done some good work in regards to the post covid brain fog, which seems to be a speeded up version of the stuffed brain cells we get in aging: Turning back the clock on brains aged by COVID-19 - UQ News - The University of Queensland, Australia

I'm sure a lot of us have read or heard about the famous book, 'The Brain that Changes Itself". While interesting and positive, as a special ed teacher it sometimes bothered me that the message seemed to be "don't worry about disability, it can be undone". I think most of us know that isn't true, and it takes ongoing intense work to make changes. This is a recent study that says the same thing. The brain can't rewire itself. It can use the connections it already has , though. Our brains are not able to 'rewire' themselves, despite what most scientists believe, new study argues | ScienceDaily

When I tried to embed the link to the article before, it (this box) tried to post everything I'd had on my clipboard . . . it was trying to embed research papers, cartoons, all sorts of things . . . it took a very long time to clear it all!

Some of it has been good, but it's mixed, depending on the writer, I guess. There's definitely been some minimalism around masks, as in they'll have an article about 'oh dear Covid is increasing what should we do?' and either masks aren't mentioned or they'll interview someone who says 'don't worry about masking!' I think it depends on the writer.

The eighth COVID-19 wave is here. Could catching it trigger Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or autoimmune disorders? - ABC News So this is a deep dive in the major Australian news source, the ABC. It interviews a range of scientists from different fields and has a good overview of different long-term effects of Covid. One of the scientists explored brain inflammation. I had the worst headaches of my life with Covid - I wonder if that was due to brain inflammation?

Oh sorry - I'm from Australia, so it's just internal flights (and they're all Qantas). If you're coming from the USA to Australia, just keep in mind that everything is super expensive at the moment due to inflation, but on the other hand, the US dollar is really high compared with the Aussie dollar so that would benefit you. We went there this year, super easy to get around, great place for a holiday. Go in winter though, it was crazy hot even in autumn.

In Australia, they've approved the new vaccines that are already available in the USA - but haven't approved people actually receiving new vaccines if they've already been vaccinated this year. So that is kind of pointless. They also haven't approved boosters for kids, who were vaccinated in 2021 and haven't been allowed any vaccines since. So my now 13 yr old had the kid dose back then. Nothing since. It is so frustrating. I know the risk of death is miniscule, that's not what I'm worried about. It's the risk of long covid. An article in the local media actually recommending masks, which is miraculous. And hospitals requiring them. So that's something.

Thanks for this topic, reminded me about my plans for next year, just in time for a sale on flights. I am going to go somewhere in Australia where I've always wanted to visit. My kids are adamant they aren't interested, so hey. I am even considering just going on my own if my husband isn't that keen. Haven't travelled alone in a while, and I miss it.

Have you read The Explosive Child? It is probably the most practical and well-known book on dealing with anger in children. It's been around for a long time.

This is something I wonder about too. We're in Australia, and almost all the children's programming is on the ABC. It's very good, and I used to sit down and watch a lot of it with my kids when they were small, and it was very educational. But I think kids go straight onto youtube now rather than tv.

The kids I've worked with have all had the issue of not seeing parents read, not having books in the house, not having time to read (as in, they rarely spend any time reading). I think a video about creating a reading-positive, book-positive lifestyle could be helpful. Stuff like going to the library, being a model reader as an adult, buying books as gifts, valuing books by having a bookshelf in a prominent place in the house etc. Many of the kids I've worked with have not been poor but have literally no books on display (maybe they're in a cupboard?), and the parents go on about how they hate reading and haven't picked up a book since school themselves. Being aware that there's good research re number of books in a household = better readers.

Oh that's awesome you were able to attend! And how wonderful to have a packed bookshop for a book launch - a night to remember. Really wonderful.

I didn't see any of the Marvel movies until we got Disney Plus during lockdown (in order to see Hamilton). I think we saw the last Thor in the theatre, not sure about any of the others - we've mostly waited for Disney Plus. I haven't felt that these films since Endgame have been connected, they've all been so different. Oh, that would've been awesome!!

Two books I'd preordered came out this week so that was exciting. The new Murderbot book (which was initially confusing but turned out to be good) which is sci-fi, and a prequel to Legends and Lattes (the cosiest fantasy of all time), Bookshops & Bonedust (I wonder if there's an American edition called Bookstores and Bonedust, lol). Both good but very quick reads. I think I already mention the new series I had been reading (The Heretic's Guide to Homecoming) which ended up being very long and dense, a good thing, but perhaps more didactic than literary. I also re-read Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall, which I read as a teen and remembered as very funny, as it is an absurdist novel. I don't remember it being so incredibly racist, though. I was really shocked. Now I'm wondering why I didn't notice that last time. It was his first book. Brideshead Revisited (which I re-read this year too I think?) is the most famous of his works and quite different, written after he converted to Catholicism.

Anecdotally I would agree, that's when people I know seem to collapse in a heap. I only have 2 though.