avidreaderbz posted a comment on Friday 31st December 2010 11:37am for The Minder's Visit

Whilst we Brits know what is meant by child minding, we must definitely refer to it as babysitting x

LilyPad posted a comment on Friday 14th September 2007 11:14am for The Minder's Visit

First off: I love this fic. I am less satisfied by the sequel, but that is due to length rather than content and quality.

As I am reading this for the umpteenth time, I noticed and error commonly made in newspapers:

"Having mowed the lawn and weeded the garden already this week, today’s list of chores was fairly short: doing Vernon and Dudley’s laundry (Aunt Petunia did her own laundry, mustn’t let freaks gape at her scrawny undies) along with cleaning all the bathrooms."

The main error: in this sentence, the list mowed the lawn and weeded the garden already this week. Since this fic is in the past tense, the words ‘today’ and ‘this week’ probably weren’t the best choice.

The third error might not be an error: in the States, we ‘have mown’ the lawn. This may or may not be different in the UK.

Wow. I really need to stop reading fan fiction right after doing my English homework…

Kokopelli replied:

Thank you for your kind words.   I finished TLOS in December of 2004, and knew then that it was chock full of errors - my first beta was uneven in quality, both as a proof-reader and as a writing coach.   Some chapters were terrific, while others were sprinkled with nits.   I've thought of going back and doing a really good scrub, but my time is so limited now, so that usually makes the list of things that don't get done.

I wrote SFSY to tie up the loose ends in the story - of which there were many.   In many ways, TLOS is a sappy story, plot-wise as the bonding leaves a 16 and 15 year old couple essentially engaged.   Since then, I've pretty much concentrated (if that can truly be said about my work) on post-Hogwarts stories.

I've also started some original stuff - which may or may not ever see the light of day.

I'm glad that you enjoyed it.

TxA_GunFighter posted a comment on Friday 29th December 2006 7:19am for The Minder's Visit

Good one, really like Tonks.

gunny

Aaran St Vines posted a comment on Wednesday 31st May 2006 12:01am for The Minder's Visit

Not that many tales give us an indication of Ginny's intelligence. I always prefer her to be right smart, so Harry isn't 'settling' in the brains department foregoing Hermione to Ron. (Talk about intellectual incompatibility in canon.)

The passbox concept is brilliant.

TxA_GunFighter posted a comment on Tuesday 9th May 2006 12:26pm for The Minder's Visit

Good story so far.

gunny

Aberbadger posted a comment on Sunday 5th March 2006 11:02am for The Minder's Visit

RE: Babysitting/Childmindin AN.

Actually, both terms are used in the UK, although the inference is usually a little different. A babysitter can be anyone who looks after a child for a few hours during the evenings or the occasional all-nighter. Whereas a childminder is always an adult and looks after a few kids during the day. As a general rule, these children are younger (pre-kindergarten age (which in the uk is 4/5) and don't attend playschool (preschool), but during the holidays, the children a minder will take can be any age. If you've ever seen the film Daddy Daycare with Eddie Murphey, the scheme he had going before he got his papers would have been the set-up for a child minder, although with about half the kids and on his own.

Aberbadger posted a comment on Sunday 5th March 2006 10:45am for The Minder's Visit

When did Wood get transfered from Puddlemere Utd? (GoF Quidditch World Cup Chapters)

Wooster posted a comment on Thursday 22nd December 2005 11:59am for The Minder's Visit

Fantastic, truly fantastic. The passbox concept is really cool, especially it's history, (The Gringotts thing). Harry as a girl flirting with Lupin...hilarious.

helva2260 posted a comment on Sunday 4th December 2005 5:11am for The Minder's Visit

I'm really enjoying this but re: your Author's Note - not entirely accurate!
I'm not sure where you got your brit-picking from, but in my neck of the woods at least (the Midlands (home of Worcestershire sauce, Elgar, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis et al.!)), we use both terms. Babysitting has overtones of a friend of the family doing you a favour for a token amount of money if any (I think JK talks of Mrs Figg as Harry's old babysitter in several places). A child minder by comparison tends to be a professional. I wouldn't be surprised if it was merely a difference in formality, so in your police example, the officers would be assigned to a "minding" job but talk about it between themselves as "babysitting", especially as you say, if they were joking or annoyed by the assignment.
As I said, if you have other information, this could be a regional thing, but I thought it worth mentioning for interest's sake.
Great ideas though, and I'd better get back to reading the rest... :-)

Patches posted a comment on Sunday 20th November 2005 10:24pm for The Minder's Visit

I like this story. I think it is great that Ginny, Hermione and Tonks are working with Harry and keeping his spirits up. It is cool that Tonks pointed out that Ginny was the one that come up with the passboxes. Great immagination to come up with that concept. I am so impressed with all the fan fiction writers and the things they come up with.
Full marks!
Thanks for writing. I appreciate it!