Whirlwind weekend

Flopping in the rocking chair snoozing one weekend, and the next trying to go for a world record in activities. Sigh. When will I be of an age to think of balance and moderation? Never, I fear. But it has been a good weekend.

Murder mystery on Friday and zooming all over the place doing the errands I never got around to on Saturday, including having coffee at our monthly Traidcraft morning (and delicious walnut cake).

Then Saturday night was a dinner to celebrate our 150th bookclub meeting. 15 years, 1180 books, and still largely the same group of girls. Some have moved away, but essentially we have stayed together.

We drew up a short list of the books we have enjoyed the most over the years, and we voted on Saturday. There were 2 winners, and perhaps fittingly, one was an old one, and one was a relatively new one. Both are exceptional books for very different reasons.

The old one was Wild Swans - Jung Chang

The new one was Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

So if you haven't read them, this is an excellent reference! And we had a great time, with wonderful food, although the service was close to appalling. The older we get, the more these things are noticed!

Today, David and I set off north, to Briarfield in the hills of North Lancashire to see Geoff's sister, and to meet her son. Briarfield, an old mill town, is north of Manchester, and it took us 2 and a half hours to get there. We all went out to lunch at a local restaurant. Stephen has a form of autism, and was visiting his Mum today with his carers, so it was lovely to be there at the same time. So, after an afternoon catching up, looking at photos and visiting a friend, we drove back south. I am ready to flop again. Adventures, however brief, are exhausting!

Murder mystery night

Everyone should round off a school term with a good murder mystery evening. I had the dubious honour of being Paddy O' Lay. An Irish gambler. A male Irish gambler who bets on horses. This necessitated a visit to the shop to buy the Racing Post, a paper I have so far never felt it essential to buy. So, wearing a tweed jacket, tweed hat, with my hair tucked into it, brown trousers, binoculars (for spotting the horses) and the Racing Post tucked fetchingly under my arm, I arrived for the murder mystery, singing "Ireland Oh Ireland, together standing tall" loudly at the front door. (For those not in the know, this is the very stirring song played before Ireland plays any rugby international. I love it. It is also the ONLY Irish song I could muster at that moment.) Sadly, I do not have a photo of Paddy. You will have to use your imagination.


"Top o' the morning to ya" was the only Oirish accent I could come up with so I repeated that ad nauseum. But how we laughed. You arrive in character, and the entire evening you stay in character. Well, until the murderer is discovered. I am happy to report that I was innocent. Simon, Jackie and Jean had done a splendid job of decorating with signs and notices, and the dinner was quite splendid too. Please note the details. We even had a drinks trolley.

We were stuck in a snow drift on a train in 1925, after all, in the First Class carriage. Of course there was a drinks trolley.

These evenings are a lot of fun, and as there were 6 teachers there, it was all the more reason to relax. Holidays are here!

I waited to see if the schools were closing again yesterday before heading off to work, and many did, but not ours. However, less than half the kids turned up for school, and they were the ones who are generally "good" and who want to work, so it was a lovely day working with co-operative pupils. Oh if only it was always like that!

And more....

A couple more photos from the village square.

Something to make you smile. There was a survey done which was mentioned on the news this morning, about division of labour in the home. Apparently, in an average life span, a woman in Britain will vacuum the house for the equivalent of London to New York return. 7,000+ miles. A man will do the equivalent of Lands End to John O' Groats. About 800+ miles. I can't remember the exact figures, but you can get the picture.

As I find just about anything more appealing than housework, I think I could fail on the 7000+ estimate. Maybe I sank somewhere in the Atlantic.

SNOW Day!!!

At 5am there was no snow. At 6.30, everywhere was white, and David and I tuned in to the radio and TV to hear whether schools were closed. I had a call first to say my school was closed and then David heard his was on the radio. I had already seen that our local bus company was stating that the busses were "sliding" in the snow, and the thought of sending my son off on a double decker bus across the countryside to the town where his school is was out of the question. He was very happy....his holiday started a day early!

Mid-morning, I put on the snow boots and wandered down to the village, and stopped at the babes to play. They built snowmen with some friends, and had a wonderful time with the sled in the garden, and then we all had a snowball fight. A hot drink and flapjacks later, I booted up again, and walked, or slid, rather, down the hill to the village centre.

Here you can see the centre of the village with the war memorial.

And here is the church. It was lovely crunching through the snow in the churchyard. No-one had walked on it before me. I love the sound it makes.

On then to the field at the outskirts of the village, where traditionally, all the children (and a lot of adults too!) go to go sledding. The local farmer doesn't mind at all.

And then I walked home. And I snoozed in the rocker. It has snowed most of the day, and now it is going to freeze over night. Tomorrow is the last day of school, and I am thinking that there could be a chance it is closed again. I think some children may decide that they are already on holiday! Sigh. This has been a gift of a day.

Let it snow.....please!

It is going to snow. The excitement mounts. Tomorrow is the last day of school before half term holidays for David, so he is really hoping it snows. Everything stops then. We are on snow watch for our school too, and hopefully I could have a day at home in the warmth. Maybe! My sister shrieks with laughter at what one small snowfall does to the UK. Living in Switzerland, things are slightly different there. Snow is normal. Here it is so abnormal now that nothing works. I don't think there is a snow plough within a couple of hundred miles.

My friend, Glynis, is doing a head massaging course at the moment, and as she needed someone to practice on, I volunteered. Tonight she came round, and I was a very willing guinea pig. VERY willing. I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to have a head massage. And she will come once a week for the next 2 weeks as well, as part of her training. I can live with that. Oh yes, I can.

Don't you just love the massage you have at the hairdresser when you have your hair shampooed? I think that is the best part of going to the hairdresser. The head massage. I could fall asleep quite happily, totally relaxed. That reminds me, I really do need to do something about making an appointment in the very near future. Another urgent necessity. It is looking very tired indeed. The hair.

This is a totally inane post. School is good. Kids still coming in at lunch to sew. Did I mention that one little toad took one of my very expensive embroidery threads and wound it round the art block? Orange thread? That we needed and can't replace? I was less than thrilled, and they were quivering once I had read the riot act. And you have no idea how far a reel of thread can go and how annoyed teachers get when they trip over bunches of it, and get it caught in their shoes, and then drag it along as they walk, collecting sweet wrappers, leaves and chewing gum as the go. And WHO do they hold responsible? Yes. Clearly, there is only one textiles teacher in the school, and that would be me. Last week, one of them thought it would be great fun to wind a huge reel around the senior teachers' cars in the car park. That was definitely not a good idea. I will have to resort to body searches as they leave the classroom one of these days.

-6 Degrees C

It is -6 outside. I know this because I have just taken David to the bus stop, and it took 10 mins to defrost the car. I look like a polar bear and have lost all contact with my fingers. We should have snow later.

Freezing out

It is absolutely freezing outside at the moment. The car iced up in just 2 and a half hours. I have just come home from book club. Our 150th meeting. We are all celebrating by going out for a meal on Saturday, and that is when we will do our vote on the best books we have read in those 150 meetings. The short list is long. Well, about 30-40 books. But if you think that there are well over 1000 in "The Book", then that is doing well. You will get the top ten on Sunday and then the top 3. And of course, our winner too.

Teaching today was fun. I had a ball, and I think the kids did too. So now I have met everyone I am teaching, and we are beginning to understand each other. Like the fact that I call the shots. However, a senior teacher was laughing when he told me it might be wise to get one of the kids to tell me when we were 10 minutes from the end of the lesson, as we all got so involved that we were late finishing and clearing up. Yes, indeed. I have 17 coming in tomorrow at lunch to finish making their bags. I think that is quite a good sign, as they are all volunteers, or rather, they all begged. AND I collected the laptop after school. Unfortunately I was in a rush, and completely forgot to ask the tech man how to log in away from school. Sigh. I will have to go back and find out tomorrow. Absolutely useless piece of metal when I can't get into it at all.

It appears that my year 7s (about 11-12 years old) have never used the sewing machines before. I refer to the pedal as an accelerator with my little boys. A stroke of genius, I feel. They tend to like sewing once they are called "boy racers". Unfortunately they did not get the concept of "steering" the material either. And here I was thinking they all knew what to do after 6 weeks. Do you know what happens when all the machines seize up in 2 minutes all at the same time? Chaos. Shrieks of outrage. They didn't know that the foot had to be lowered. I did my road runner impression as I zapped between the machines, hair falling down, hacking the tangled thread out of the bobbin casings, and one little cherub said..." Miss, you never stop moving". I think I am going to wear one of those pedometer things next term to see how many miles I do in a day. Or buy those shoes with wheels in them. Then collapse in a darkened room with a cold cloth over my eyes.

I wear anything with large pockets to work, so that the lethal things, like my scissors and roller cutters are never out for them to play with, and I see today that I now have a 2 inch slit in said pocket, so the scissors now dangle out of the bottom, attempting to carry out minor or major surgery on my legs as I walk. This is a trifle inconvenient, as the pockets also house my board markers, pens, pencils, extra bobbins, needles, thread and a zillion other essential items, which are now scattered through the school. Sigh. A fashion plate I am not.

Sleepy weekend, or why I have nothing worthy of note to relate....

I have had a number of comments this weekend about the lack of updates. Good grief. I must be the equivalent of the local newspaper. I would love, at this stage, to report that I have had a wild and wonderful weekend, but it was so quiet, watching grass grow would have been more exciting.

I think I have underestimated in a big way just how much I have drained my physical and emotional reserves in the past year. If I sit down for longer than a few minutes, I fall asleep, and that is what I have done most of the weekend, apart from venturing out briefly to get bread yesterday, and going to church and our monthly shared lunch today. Snoozing? I have got it down to a fine art. David actually woke me at 6.30 this evening asking plaintively if we were going to have any dinner today. Um, yes. Food. We do need food. I thought about it for a few minutes and was just drifting off again when my mother phoned and jolted me out of my nap. And this is the woman who never needs to sleep much. I am up late and awake early. I have never "napped" in my life, and have no desire to do so now. Just the body thinks otherwise. Sigh. And we have had beautiful weather too. Wasted on me, it was.

BUT

I can report that my house is a cobweb free zone at last. And I have finally managed to get the box with the Christmas tree out of my kitchen and back into the shed in the garden. We now have clean clothes and my hair is under control. Rivetting stuff, isn't it.

School was tough. Not easy to deal with the anger of the kids, who had no idea that their old teacher was leaving. No-one told them. That took the first part of every lesson to sort. Once we got going, it went well. I think. However, in one class, a group of girls refused to take any part in the lesson, so I ignored them, and got on with the others. A couple joined in when they saw what we were doing, but some did nothing. There is absolutely nothing anyone can do to make them listen if they won't. But that was just a small group. The rest of the classes were hectic. I seemed to be in perpetual motion. The kids were involved anyway, and busy. I have no idea how anyone would or could judge what it was like, but I think about 7/10 would be fair. It was not an unmitigated disaster. There were a few moments when I had serious doubts, but we got through that. And tomorrow is another day. I was talking to some of my teaching friends today at the shared lunch, and they think enthusiasm will go a long way. One offered me a job at an "easy"school! The teacher who left, by the way, is going back to America. She said she had never seen kids like this in all her teaching experience. The school I work at has an extraordinary number of special needs kids. I did say I like a challenge, didn't I? If I survive this, I can survive anything.

My laptop? Well, that is another story. Suffice to say that I have not got it yet. My excitement might have been a little premature. I live in hope. You know, teaching something like textile technology is not the same as teaching, say, Maths. In an academic class, the teacher stands in the front and teaches. In Textiles, I am controlling up to 25 kids moving about, working on 7 sewing machines, 4 computers, 2 embroidery machines, ironing, cutting out, printing designs on the sublimation printer, learning how to use pinking shears etc. All at the same time. I have to be everywhere all the time, especially when they can't re-thread the machines, or break a needle, or need help on the computer. The room rings to the sound of 20 odd voices yelling "MISS" "MISS" "MISS" all the time. (All teachers seem to be called Miss, by the way. Men are Sir. This is possibly because none of them ever remember a name, of course.) Anyone walking in would see chaos, but it is not really. Everyone knows what they are doing. Ah well, it will get easier. I hope. I still think that this is where I am supposed to be, and what I am supposed to be doing.

I did intend to write about something completely different, but my fingers ran away with themselves. And my brain is too tired to protest. So...... this will have to be the missive for today. I will be back tomorrow.

Excitement!

My hair looks like I have just been through a tornado. My house is still in need of an extreme makeover, preferably by Boomama's mama. I have unearthed fabric from my stash to use at school, so that is tastefully heaped on the chair in the lounge. The washing machine looks as though it is about to spew excess unwashed laundry all over the floor. I am not sure exactly how many co-ordinating clean options I have to wear tomorrow. The fridge is looking rather empty. Order? Maybe not.

But guess what.............. tomorrow I GET MY LAPTOP. Moi. A laptop. Well, it is the school's really but who cares. Details. Mere details. It is mine for now. Me. I will have a computer to use when I want to. Not just when the son is finally squint from too many hours staring at the screen. Of course, his eyes gleamed when I told him it was arriving, but then I had to add..... but it is a work one, so only I can use it. In a mean and selfish manner. I may even dust the table next to my chair, so it doesn't get dirty. I am SO excited! Hopefully now I will be able to put all the mountain of papers I carry around all day onto it, and look less like a Sherpa ascending Everest when I move around the school. Or a bag lady. I can just sling the bag nonchalantly over my shoulder instead. Sigh. It does not take much to make me happy.

Today was a "light" teaching day at school, but tomorrow is a full one. Today was fine. I really enjoyed the older kids and their enthusiasm. I have been preparing lessons tonight in my rocking chair, and have worked out that technically I could do with a break between each class just to sort out all the supplies etc. This does not happen, of course. Lesson No 1 - make sure all equipment is set up and fabric sorted and supplies ready the day before. Sigh. It seems simple now. I even contemplated crawling back to school in the dark to do it this evening. I would however, have been arrested for trespassing, so I decided that I would just have to go in at dawn. I have lists. And lists of lists. Sub-lists of lists of lists. I will dream of lists. And laptops!

Laugh till you cry

I am starting the day howling with laughter. Go and read Boomama right now. And read the pillow talk one as well. I now have to go and redo the makeup.