Friday morning

. . . and the end of the first week is in sight.  It's been a good week - a great week in some ways - and I seem to have got loads done, one way and another.  I'm getting to know another group of little people who are also getting to know me and my cupboards are looking increasingly tidy as time goes by.  I've slept like a log each night too.

We had a bit of a sunset yesterday, which was a good opportunity to try out one of the settings on the camera I am thinking of buying.  I was twiddling around with the buttons and discovered that there's a sunrise/sunset one.  This was good, because capturing them has always been very hit or miss with the point and clicks.  So out I went and below is one of the results.  A little on the dramatic side and I neglected to take a few on the ordinary setting to compare, but it makes a nice photo.

Nothing exciting about the menu today but Amazon has told me that my Hairy Dieters book should be with me by Tuesday so that's something to look forward to.  I've heard lots of good things about recipes in the book, not just the ones that were on the programmes or web site, but others as well.  Can't wait . . .

 . . . but I will have to!

Thursday morning

. . . and I'm looking forward to going into school!  Yesterday was good - great fun, sunny, not as warm as Tuesday but still very pleasant indeed.  Long may it continue.

I have a new toy - sort of have, anyway.  A local friend is selling her camera and I've got it for a few days to play with it and see if I like it.  I do rather.  I've looked up reviews and they are pretty good, the camera is in good order and it's quite a bit more complicated than a point and click (although I would still want a point and click for those times I'm just snapping away) so I will learn a bit more about photograph stuff.  It seems to do good close ups, although I couldn't get it to focus on a spider, it wanted to focus on the fence behind.  There must be a way to do it manually though, and I will learn!  Looks as if I have made up my mind to buy it, doesn't it?

The poorly camera has gone in for repairs.  Fortunately, it is still under guarantee or whatever it's called, so it should not be expensive.  I do miss it.

I'm finding the sensible eating a lot easier to manage now that there's a very strict routine to my days.  Yesterday went fine again and I'm now planning my next week's eating.   The resolutions are holding out, which is amazing!  Today's nosh is porridge, crispbread with hummus, yogurt and fruit, with chicken casserole from the freezer for dinner tonight.  Amazon should be shipping the Hairy Dieters' book in the next few days, so next week there will be a whole new load of recipes with which to have fun.  Good-oh!

Wednesday morning

Yesterday was fine.  Really, very fine indeed.  It's always a great relief when the new year starts off with a bang!  The weather was fine, playground duty was fine, life was good.

Not a lot else to say really.

Tuesday morning

. . . and up with the lark - actually, probably before the lark as it was still dark when the old eyes opened and started focusing for the day!  I have a nice comfortable feeling that all is in order, everything is ready, the sheets are copied and trimmed, the books are labelled, the displays are up, the powerpoint for phonics is ready and all I need is fine weather, given that I'm on playground duty am and pm.

I even managed to do some more sorting out yesterday afternoon.  In the olden days I did a lot of recorder tuition.  That was when a) I didn't have nearly so much other responsibility and b) I was young enough to be happy to go rushing here and there all over the school at odd times, gathering pupils from their classes and returning them again afterwards.
We did jolly well too.  In all my years of tuition and teaching up to exam level (a few even reached grade five descant and grade 4 treble), I never had a fail and the huge majority gained distinctions.  I'm quite proud of that.  But those days are long gone now.  I neither have the time nor the stamina, sadly.  So the fairly huge stack of music, all now out of date anyway in terms of exam material, has been sitting in my cupboard gathering dust and taking up valuable space.  So yesterday I sorted it all out, kept only the resources I could use with beginners recorder club and, after a nostalgic wallow and throwing out all that was in a really bad condition, handed the rest over to the music coordinator.  I also found some old choir stuff too (I used to take the school choir - not very well, but I was the only one able and willing) which went to the Head.  So that's another useful space in my cupboard, soon to be filled by my geography coordinator stuff (currently somewhere it really ought not to be).

As well as that, I sorted and distributed a whole load of 'scrap paper' brought in by one of my lovely mums last year, jolly useful for wet playtimes, golden time, etc.

And just to cap it all, I went through some of my resource files (work sheets, display stuff, etc), found some resources I'd forgotten I made and generally managed to create order out of mild chaos.

So, all in all, very satisfying.  Plenty more to do, of course, but I'll get there!

When I was sorting stuff out for yesterday's dinner (I like to get it all sorted in the morning because I'm tired come the evening) I found that the planned broccoli was somewhat over its best (yuck) so I popped into Morrison's and saw they had sprouts, which I love.  Afterwards I wished I hadn't bothered, they're never that good at this time of year.  However it was more than compensated for by the wonderful roasted squash (not courgette as I said yesterday) given to me by DD from her allotment.  Honey bear squash.  Quite a new  variety, I gather, and I chopped it into bits, skin and all, roasted it in a little oil and oh, my goodness, it was absolutely gorgeous.  And I've got half left over for today, to have with the chicken korma.  And it will go very nicely with that, I am sure.  I think the flavours will complement each other very nicely.

As yesterday, not my photo, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like.

And on that happy note I will stop.  Have a lovely day, gentle readers!

Monday morning and the holiday is over!

It's very strange.  For most of this holiday I have been bouncing out of bed good and early, bright eyed and bushy tailed.  Today I slept through the alarm (which never happens usually as it is very loud and piercing) and had some difficulty getting my eyes open.  Mind over matter, I guess, and we don't have to be in until 8:30 so no problems.

The order of the day is Staff Meeting and then into class to prepare for the invasion tomorrow.  Having worked quite hard last week, I don't have an awful lot more to do today in terms of preparation for tomorrow so I can perhaps sort out another cupboard!

I had what OFSTED call an 'awe and wonder' moment on Saturday, which I forgot to mention yesterday.  I was sitting at one of the children's tables by the window, idly sorting those new found felt tips into groups (they were in boxes of the same colour to start with) when I saw a woodpecker - yes, actually a woodpecker, I checked on Google - merrily pecking away at bugs along the low wall.  He was beautiful.  I think he was a juvenile green woodpecker as he had all the right markings and I cursed my out of action camera as he was very bold and wasn't disturbed by me standing right by the window.  A site found by Google tells me that the green woodpecker can 'often' (yeah, right!) be seen pecking at ants in back gardens.  Well, all I can say is that if he thinks the school field is a garden, he's going to get a shock come Tuesday !!!

Not my photo, unfortunately, but just what my handsome youngster looked like.

Yesterday for lunch I made mini tortilla quiches.  Now, we all know that there's no substitute for a nice crumbly shortcrust shell but, given that they are about a million and one calories per portion, that wasn't an option. 
So I did what I've done before and used a tortilla wrap, pressed into each mini quiche tin and the edges trimmed around before adding the fillings.  No, it's not pastry but it does, it's OK and I can keep the pastry for best!  After chatting to DD, I am going to try baking the trimmings to see if I can turn them into some sort of cracker type thing as there was a lot wasted.

So - today!  Back to routine and timetable.  Back to being a bit pushed for time again.  Back to being surrounded by lots of people again.  And the food planned is the fruit, yogurt and crumpet thing as described previously; crispbread, hummus, orange and apple for lunch; and then, for dinner, a skinny pie using one of the portions of filling from the freezer, with broccoli and maybe some roasted honeybear courgette, which DD tells me is delicious.  As the oven will be on for the pie, I may as well.

So - better go and get started!  New year, new class, new habits?  We will see.

Sunday morning

Isn't it staying dark in the mornings now?  It's light now at 6:20-ish but when I woke it was dark and it wasn't so dreadfully early - not for me anyway!  With it being September and with the new term just over the edge of the cliff, not to mention the very chilly evenings, summer is truly over, what there was of it. 

I popped into school yesterday and I'm jolly glad I did as I now feel much more comfortable about the state of the classroom and, in particular, the state of my cupboards.  I might not feel quite so hypocritical now when I urge the children to keep their table boxes tidy.  And I was highly embarrassed when I started sorting the black hole that is called 'under my table' (as in 'just put it under my table, dear') because out came a box which, upon investigation, turned out to be a box of lovely, shiny felt tip pens.  Ooooops!!  They're in their proper place now and will be used.  I also sorted out my table drawers and chucked an awful lot of old stuff away.  Diaries going back years, old notes, pens that haven't worked for decades, etc.  I now have a drawer in which to put the week's sheets rather than having to keep them on my table where they always get lost!  I've set targets for the children for keeping the classroom tidy and I have now set targets for myself, keeping my area just as tidy.  One can dream . . .
And there's three black bin bags full of rubbish!  The cleaners will have fits wondering what's happened to me!  And there will be more to come, believe me!!

Joan, you will laugh at this.  A few days ago, Joan sent me a link to a checklist for the new school year from Flybaby.  Now, Flybaby is American and, my goodness, couldn't you tell!!!  There's no way that particular list would be much use over here except for a giggle or two but the concept - ah, now that's a different idea altogether.  I now have a checklist for the end of each day and for the end of the week, nicely laminated and blu-tacked on the notice board beside my table.  So many thanks, Joan.  I'll let you know.

For dinner yesterday I had the next portion of Hairy Bikers' cassoulet and, if anything, it was more scrummy.  Perhaps partly because the flavours had developed (the rest is now in the freezer but this portion I kept in the fridge), but also because on Thursday I forgot the very last thing which was to sprinkle over some grated orange zest and chopped parsley.  I'm not sure the parsley did a tremendous amount but the zest - oh, my goodness . . .

So - today.  Very last day of freedom.  End of the holiday.  Nice food planned.  Porridge, tortilla quiche and salad for lunch and then soup and a courgette muffin for tea, plus fruit and yogurt, etc, of course.  Sounds good to me.  I hope yours is too!

Saturday morning: a recipe

This is not authentic but it is delicious so here it is - hope you enjoy.  The list looks long but most of it is spices and other store cupbourd basics and I had them all in the cupboard - in fact, I didn't need to go out and buy anything, which pleased me no end!

Best ever chicken balti

Ingredients to serve 6
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
1 tsp chilli powder
1.5 tsp garam masala
1 tsp minced garlic (I used garlic puree)
3 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp Greek yogurt (I used the 0% fat kind)
2 tbsp fresh coriander (missed this out as I don't like the stuff)
2 tbsp mango chutney
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
4 tbsp oil (didn't use anything like this much!!!)
2 green chillis, chopped
2 tbsp single cream

I also used:
Half an onion, chopped
1/4 yellow pepper, chopped
1 chestnut mushroom chopped
. . . and I was making it just for 1 so the other ingredients were reduced accordingly.  Thank goodness for a variety of measuring spoons.

Method.
1  Blend together the tomato puree, yogurt, garam masala, chilli powder, garlic, mango chutney, salt and sugar

2.  Heat the oil (I just brushed a little around the pan with my pastry brush), add the onion and simmer gently until softening and translucent.  Add the pepper and mushroom and simmer for another couple of minutes.  Stirring helps!

3.  Add the tomato mixture and cook for about 2 mins, stirring often.

4.  Add the chopped chicken and a little water, stir well and continue to cook until the chicken is cooked, stirring now and again.  It doesn't take long.

5.  Finally, add the chillis, coriander and cream, stir in well, and cook gently for a few more minutes until back up to heat.  if the sauce is too thick, add a little water to get the consistency you want.

6.  Serve with boiled rice and/or nan bread.  (which I didn't, because I didn't want to - it was filling enough without)