Sunday

The last day of the half term holiday.  Very sad but all good things . . . as the saying goes.  It's been lovely but we have to keep moving on.

Last night we went out to see the Arcadians' performance of Godspell.  Loved the music, loved the colour, fun, energy and general wackiness of their interpretation.  Not so sure about the venue - the stage was a church platform stage, not a proper stage and it wasn't that high so although we were only five rows back we missed a lot and couldn't see the footwork in the dances.   Their usual venue is the Gordon Craig Theatre, which gives them a lot more space too.
Still, it was a lot of fun and well worth going to and, unlike some of the older musicals, there wasn't a point at which I thought 'this is getting a bit slow'.  Some of them do have a very weak, thin storyline.

Today is going to be all about making sure all is ready for school.  Planning needs refining, resources need checking over - and, you never know, I might even get my bedroom tidied.

Oh, yes, and there's some ironing - again!

Saturday

I got a shock when I opened iGoogle this morning.  The weather forecast thingy said it was snowing in Chelmsford.  Well, I don't know which bit of Chelmsford it is thinking of, but I rushed excitedly to the window and opened it, to be greeted by a rush of extremely cold air but no snow.  No hopping out to the shed in my slippers and nightie this morning, that's for sure!  Shame about no snow though!

Well, it's 6:44 am and I'm not rushing to finish anything, I'm not thinking that I must have my bath soon or I'll be running late, I'm not checking my planning in case there's anything I have forgotten.  I'm sitting here, idly pondering over what I can do today that doesn't involve work.  I stayed late at school yesterday to get the new display up for after half term (it looks really nice too), I am up to date with marking, etc, and the planning is virtually done.  Bliss!

I think I want to have a go at the eight strand plaited loaf that was shown on the Bake Off programme.  I will cheat, of course, and make the dough in the breadmaker.  It's the actual plaiting that fascinated me and once you've got the sequence sorted it's not actually too difficult - or is that famous last words!  We will see. 
Also I have to pick up Beth's birthday cupcakes and sort out a nice dinner for her.  I want it to involve use of my potato ricer so I guess it will be gardener's pie with a lovely cheesy mash topping - naughty but very nice.  Alex can have a savoury mince base.  I might set to and make a really tasty onion gravy too.
Having said no work, I do rather fancy trawling some sites for resources, etc.  It doesn't count because it's fun and I choose to do it for fun.  :-)

I have to do some tidying up, of course, but in my own time.  Today is going to be a lazy day!!!  So off I go to start off the dough!

There's still a few splashes of colour in the garden.

Friday

The end of yet another week.  Two weeks until half term.  Not that anything is slowing down, of course.  Quite the opposite, we started at a run and it's just getting faster.  At least one is rarely bored - not in class anyway!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow.  DG (who I guess I can now call Alex, seeing as DD - Beth - has outed their names on her own blog - it's good, go and read it http://veggievictorykitchen.blogspot.co.uk/ ) is coming round because Beth has a tutorial.  I'm looking forward to seeing him and I guess he is looking forward to - eating non-rations!!!  He's requested fish and chips so I will have the same, although my fish will be maybe a boil in the bag kind (which are not as nasty as they sound, in fact) and my chips will be carefully measured out.

Today is busy, busy, busy.  Three - yes, THREE - meetings.  One at another school, one in the head's office and one in the staffroom (I'm guessing it's there anyway, that being the quietest and most comfortable place).    Fortunately they are one after the other so I don't have to be in two places at the same time, two in the morning and one in the afternoon.

The weekend is also going to be somewhat busy, with parents evening reports to write, levelling to do and a fair bit of sorting out.  At least I am bang up to date with marking, filing, etc, so that's a great relief!

Last night I popped out to the freezer with a loaf and my eye was caught by a spider in a web, glistening with raindrops in the security lighting.  As they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I popped back in to get the camera and had a go on the 'intelligent automatic' setting.  These are the best . . .

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A more tightly cropped version of the one above

Not as shiny as it really looked, but given that it was dark and I'm pretty ignorant with cameras, I'm pleased with these photos.

Thursday later on.

Scene:  end of school.  The children have gone back to their places to pick up all their things for home and then line up by the outside door.  Polite Little Boy is still standing by his chair, exchanging pleasantries with a friend, oblivious to the fact that everyone else (including aforementioned friend) has picked up their collective things and are standing in line.  Fortunately (for him), I am in a good mood.

Me:   Polite Little Boy, you're a bit slow to pick up your things.  Do you think that might be because you are chatting too much to your friend?
P L B:  (looking somewhat misunderstood) I'm not chatting, Mrs Clark.
Me:  I think you are, I saw you.
P L B:  I'm not chatting, I'm HAVING A CONVERSATION!!!
Me:  (speechless, but not for long)

AND NOW IT IS HALF TERM!!!!!

Monday

And here we are at the start of the last week of the half term which has all gone terrifyingly quickly.  I seem to have been extremely busy with nothing to show, although the amount of work in the children's books tells a different story.  It's a four day week as Friday is report writing day and is Jubilee week so the afternoons will be very red, white and blue!.

Yesterday was pleasant although I was very tired and slept much of the afternoon away.  This was lucky because I spent most of the evening in front of the PC sorting out hustings questions for the OUSA Officer elections, in the company of two other mods.  By the time we stopped, we were all making silly mistakes from sheer tiredness, but we got loads done so that was good.  One more evening's work should see it done.
The morning was busier.  I popped out to Hobbycraft and ended up buying some more sock/glove yarn.  The knitting is on a go slow at the moment because there's so much else to do but come half term I will be able to make up for lost time.  I also found (elsewhere on the same site) some Morny lavender soaps, very much reduced, so I treated myself.

It appears that today we may get storms.  Not in school time, I sincerely hope.  Some children can be terrified of storms!  However, I have taken the garden cushions into the shed, just in case!  The garden could do with a good soaking, that's for sure!