Catching up

Well, let me see where to start.....

1. School is over
2. Holidays are here
3. I was not wrong about looking for plans for Noah's Ark
4. Harry Potter is out
5. It is still raining
6. NZ getting closer

One phase of my life is over. These phases seem to be passing very rapidly. Maybe that is because I am not a sweet young thing any more. By any stretch of the imagination. My very last day to school was bittersweet in a way. I said to my class...Shall we play a game? No! They yelled...We want to make things. So there we were, the only class in the school actually doing work in the last few hours before holidays, and all because the children chose to. One of the assistant heads just happened to pass through my classroom, and I can honestly say that I had a secret grin on my face as he looked rather astonished. I was dying to say...Well, we were told to teach up to the final bell. But that would have been nasty, pointed and not very nice. But I would have felt sooooooo good!

I had so many kids coming in to say goodbye and I got some lovely gifts too. Cards, and gifts from the kids, department, my boss, technician, the LSAs. One little girl had made me a sewing kit full of beads and sequins and stuff. How sweet is that. I stayed down in the department at the end of school, and we had a party there with the people I love. I didn't want to go to the main staffroom. And I came home. I will be doing a post ( writing a book!) on what I see is wrong in our schools one of these days. So many simple things which could make all the difference in the world. But that is for another day. Or maybe not.

You may have seen that Britain is under water. The rain yesterday was staggering. More fell in a couple of hours than usually does in a month, and driving home, there was water spouting out from the drains in the roads like geysers. The rain is still falling. People spent the night on motorways, and thousands of homes are flooded, villages cut off. We are fine in this area, and as I think I have said before, living on a hill has its advantages. But to the west of us and north and south, things are very different. The weather people say that maybe Tuesday will be a little brighter. TUESDAY??? That is days away! Then more rain. They try to look bright and cheerful as they say..But the rain won't be as heavy as yesterday! Hmmmm. It is still rain. Wet. Very wet.

The excitement of the day yesterday was going to queue at Tesco at midnight for Harry Potter. My 18 year old son has grown up with J K Rowling's books, and the queue stretched across the huge carpark. I breezed past and went to look at books for me in the store. And toilet paper, as one does at midnight. Of course. Then I went out to watch the queue and chat to half the population who I either knew or taught. Diana called from NZ to say it was going on sale at 11am there, and so all over the world, everyone could only buy it at exactly the same time. Unbelievable global arrangements. Apparently every outlet selling it is displaying posters of little Maddie who was abducted in early May, and never been found, at J. K. Rowling's request.

David came home to read, and I toppled into bed, and when I heard movement this morning I asked how far he was, and it was 400 and something pages, but he had fallen asleep at some stage. He is still reading, as I speak. Now I personally am not a Harry fan, but anything that can get the kids of the world reading through the night is brilliant as far as I am concerned. That is why the release date was midnight last night, as it was the beginning of the UK school holidays.

I bought the Memory Keeper's Daughter for myself while mooching about waiting for David last night, and I am looking forward to reading it. I know Mum wants to read it too. Mum???? I have got it! (Cheap at Tesco too!) I also bought the House at Riverton, by Kate Morton, which has had great reviews. It is her first novel, and looks excellent. I will report all.

It is so exciting to know I will have time to read, even if it is on the very, very long plane journey we will be going on soon. Because we are stopping briefly in LA, (to refuel I assume) I thought I would have the time to buy a couple of US magazines and one of the Rieses peanut thingys I have read so much about, but NO. My daughter tells me that there is absolutely nowhere to buy anything. We get off the plane, are fingerprinted and photographed go to a room with chairs and water, and get back on again. And fly off. So, if anyone in the LA airport staff happens to be reading this, I personally think it would be a very very kind thing to arrange for a magazine and sweet (candy) stand to be put in the transit place. For me. Hey, California, I WANT TO BUY SOMETHING! Sigh.

Right. I need to go and do something constructive. Like make coffee and recline in the rocking chair (which sadly no longer appears to have any springs, and which makes alarming noises when one reclines, but I am happy to overlook that. ) I may even watch some golf from Carnoustie.