Drunken Deep-fried Rodent to you!

Or Merry Crisp Mouse if you prefer... Yes it's Christmas morn, and here I sit blogging. Have I nothing better to do? Like go to bed? Well, yes, probably but the old brain is whirling at ninety miles an hour. Didn't get to the Christingle service at half past six 'cos had too much to do and nearly didn't get to the Midnight service for the same reason. However, I did go, met an old pal from twenty odd years ago that I meet in our church at Christmas or Easter from time to time - (his Dad was the minister who joined Alistair and I in Holy whatsit) he visits his Mum and comes to Church with her sometimes and we have a ten minute catch-up. Patrick taught me the pick for Neil Young's 'Needle and The Damage Done' - the only guitar pick I have ever really been able to play!! So.... Jennifer and I came home and battered through the remaining tasks and brought a certain person's Christmas gift in from it's hiding place and then she went off to bed and I'm sitting here, hungry and in the mood for a large sherry! Still thinking about all the things I had planned to have done before going to bed tonight and considering how early I will have to get up to actually get them done before Tom, Susan and Sarah, and Mum and Paul arrive. And I want to go to the ten o'clock service too - this will be Jim's last Christmas morning service, he's leaving our parish and going off to pastures new, and boy will we miss him! Sad, sad, sad. Yet glad for him and the family as they are off to do things and go places they will enjoy.
I suppose I should go and get to bed now, maybe I will have a sherry and an oatcake or a hunk of chocolate.... now I know how Santa feels, it's all very stressful and I fully understand the need to eat to keep your strength up.....
A joyful and peaceful Festive season to you and God bless us, everyone.
Till next time...

A downward spiral it seems...

Could this weekend get any worse? Got hee haw done on Saturday, spent today doing all things Sunday Club (Nativity and Christmas Party) came home and sat down for ten minutes to have a coffee and catch my breath, woke up at half past four and the day just spiralled downwards from then. Finally went and got the white tree out to put up in the dining room only to discover (or not as the case might be) that the stand is/was missing! Where in the world can it be? We have absolutely no idea. The gremlins are clearly visiting us this week as things keep vanishing and then turning up in the oddest places; keys, books, mugs, letters, or maybe we have a poltergeist?! Victoria and I have searched through every box that houses Christmas decorations and even the Halloween box, just in case, but to no avail. I have spent a fruitless half hour faffing here on the internet to see if Homebase or B&Q might stock replacement stands but it seems my best chance is to trundle off either to Sandyholm down the Clydeside, or trawl through to Lasswade to the Dobbies Garden centres and see if they might stock sic a beastie. Before I do either of these things I will be checking out our local ironmongers, Boa's, a veritable Aladdin's Cave of wonders, most likely I will get one there. Failing that I'll do a detour via Veitch's Nursery over in East Calder when I go up for the shopping and see if they have the goods. I will not be beaten!! I will put this tree up if I have to stand and hold it for the duration....... I am, of course, kidding! Or am I?
Till next time...

Busy again - does it never end?

Good morrow, hail fellows well met! And even though this is the first day of the Winter break if we're being PC I was up far too early and on the treadmill - load of washing in and the feather duster flying with frenzied zeal! Stopping off for a welcome coffee and some brain clearing. Intensly inclement weather prevented the giant Christmas shopping trip planned for last night - this has been re-scheduled for Monday and with a bit of luck and a following wind I might get done in the morning leaving the afternoon for further festive frolic. Or at least a good slump in front of the telly! Muvva and Bruvva making an appearance this afternoon so have to get bundles wrapped up before eyes spy with a not so little eye. Also have to get another parcel wrapped and taken to the Post Office before 9.30 to catch the next uplift - and yes, I will put postage on it!!!! (I may never live down putting all my hand deliver cards in the box) So orft I jolly well go. I may sign in again later and lay out more of my planning on the page - it fairly focuses the mind and if I don't try to plan too much ahead I may just even manage to get through it all by the end of the day!!
Till next time...

Growing tireder by the minute...

Two and a half days to go and just about on my knees. The foward plans have come home tonight and after I have some food I'll be sitting with the laptop, tapping away, writing up my next term plans for the little darlings. It's only when I stop to consider that they aren't my class and that I'm really only babysitting them till Easter when the maternity leave ends, that I get thrawn and wish I didn't have to do it. However, it still needs to be done regardless. I was fairly scunnered tonight, as I had planned to get so much done in school after the kids went home, instead every time I got my head down to start working sombody came into my class and started talking. they all vocalised the 'I'll not keep you back' intro, then proceeded to do just that. I ended up going looking for a topic box in the cupboard for one person and looking for a book for another. Surely I should allow these adults to go and find their own things? What is wrong with me? Maybe I am succumbing to the Midwitch Cuckoo syndrome that seems to permeate the school. The children are all in control and the adults do everything to support and protect them from every little thing; even having to learn! so I've packed up my laptop and brought the intention home. Mind you the last episodes of the re-run of Will and Grace is on later so maybe I'll just do a bit and go in really early tomorrow...
Ho hum! I have a pile of wrapping to do tonight too - maybe we should see about gathering the extra leap seconds we accumulate and try and get another two or three hours a day that we can call our own. Though I suppose it wouldn't be that long before we were all used up in the extra time department too....
Till next time.

Finally lost it....

It's official - I have finally dropped the scone, lost the tattie, come to the end of my rope! Have had a major senior moment of staggering proportions. Thought I'd just mistakenly lifted a card or two from my hand deliver pile when I went to post the Chrissie cards last week, turns out (when I went looking for the rest to hand deliver) I've put the whole lot in the post box! Some haven't even got a full address on, just a name and a town!! if that!! All, however have a 'from' address sticker on them so I can expect a hefty bunch of cards being returned over the next wee while, as folks go to pick up the postal item that needs to be paid for (£1.27 - scandal!) and decide not to and they send 'em back! Trouble is I don't know quite what to do about it all. Do I send/deliver another card to them all or do I leave well alone and simply apologise profusely when I see them? Or put a note in with next year's cards? Thoughts and suggestions gratefully received. Many people think I'm batty as it is - this will simply confirm it for them.....
Had a busy weekend what with trips to Edinburgh and Livingston on top of the final two nights of the Christmas Revue, dress rehearsal for the Sunday Club Nativity and a pile of work for school into the bargain. not to mention the amount of housework not getting done - I said not to mention it! Feeling very tired and wishing it were the end of the week so that I could get a long lie and not have to set the alarm for anything like 6 o'clock. Have lost my twitter thing and will have to try and save it somewhere again, didn't manage to get it work off the mobile phone so no idea what I've done wrong or just not done! Anyhooooo, orft I jolly well go,
Till next time.

Sorry, trying to get a grip....

I don't know what has come over me recently. All this percussion and bashing away on humungous drum kits.... maybe it's my latent aggression looking for an outlet. Or maybe I'm in need of lots of loud rhythmic noise, or perhaps I've been sucked into the drumfest that is titupping about on the periphery of my blog! (you know who you are!) Anyhow I feel the need to reclaim my mojo and turn once again to the magic of the human voice - not that there's been a lot magical about mine or some of my nearest and dearest over the past few days. We've all got the dreaded lurgy and, as previously mentioned, the cast of our Christmas Revue have been very much under the weather as well. This would be fine if we had planned to sing selections from Lee Marvins' Greatest Hits, as it is, we are groaning and droning in the lower ranges like good 'uns and breathily squeaking and whistling our way through the high passages!
So.... one down and two to go! The school show was today and went off very well, thankfully, after the event I showed them the start of 'A Christmas Carol' - completely in keeping with the theme as we are doing Victorians as our topic and our Christmas show had been based around Scrooge and Dr. Barnardo - all very ACfE doncha know? They'll get to see the rest next week. Two more performances of the Revue and then Sunday is the Dress Rehearsal for the Sunday Club Nativity. And I wonder why I am so jiggered? A week left in school and the Forward Plans are still to be written - I don't need a crystal ball to see a few late nights next week!
Still got the Chrissy Decos to put up - one tree is trimmed and operational, (thank you girls!) the rest and the other tree aren't even out of the boxes yet! I had planned to get it all done before the onslaught of the Festive stuff began but as usual the gremlins showed up and life resorted to it's normal pace - running to stand still.
Edinburgh tomorrow for lunch with friend Ruth and then Livingston on Sunday to meet up with other friend Liz for coffee and last minute bits a bobs shopping.
Off now to get a load into the washing machine.
Bah Humbug!
Till next time...

Well what about this?

Considerate chap Ginger - let's the other guys have a tea break.....

Drumming? You call that drumming? Check this out!

Ha!!!! The Master - Cozy Powell!!!!!! And Check out Dance With The Devil too!
Have to run gotta show to do and the cast are dropping like flies..... must remember to pack the lemsips.....

Till next time

An oasis of calm.

And how long will that last I wonder? I've been up for about two hours and have paddled about being completely ineffective. We have a dress rehearsal today and my cunning plan is to take all my Christmas cards with me and write them, I'm not on till the very end of the second half so, no pressure then! At least I will have completed one of the things on my 'to do' list. I think I finished my Christmas Shopping yesterday. If there is anything else still to get I'm in Edinurgh on Saturday for a short while, meeting my friend Ruth for a 'between our birthdays lunch' as we can't get together on either date. I'll go in by bus and have a fast prowl around before meeting her and then get the bus home in time for the last night of the Revue and then collapse in a quietly gibbering heap into my bed. Or I may be as drunk as a skunk - who knows?!
Did all the wreath deliveries and had a very pleasant time sauntering about Livingston Centre with Mum and bruv, we were focused and planned the foray well, moving from one shop to the next in a measured manner, not racing, just taking it steady and maintaining a zen-like patience when we had to stand in impressively long queues to pay for the 99p packet of gift tags we had decided to purchase. I am still not convinced about shopping on-line; I like to see and handle (well, somtimes!) what I am considering buying before I take it to the till, when I order on-line I am in a vacuum until it arrives, or doesn't as one particular thing hasn't yet. I have sent the obligatory email asking for confirmation of the order and an ETA but so far, no good. As this involves an item for one of the girls I'll say no more here just now, but there may be rantings later in the month - you have been warned!
So, I had better go and print my address labels for the cards and sing loudly at the girls to get them out of bed (some hope!). Have a lovely Sunday, don't stress too hard!
Till next time.

Losing the plot....

Here is December and all my carefully formulated plans to be organised and on top of all the guff are lying in sad little tinsel coated heaps around my feet. The tree and decorations are not yet up - that was last weekends task, the turkey is not cooked, carved, portioned and frozen, neither is the soup made and frozen. What? So I like to give myself a day off on Christmas Day and have the bulk of the cooking done before hand! I still stand in the kitchen for large portions of the morning plootering, listening to the radio and slurping down Cava....
School is particularly manic with the ever daunting Christmas Nativity/Assembly looming on the horizon. In an effort to address the whole 'A Curriculum for Excellence' (hereafter known as ACfE) thang thats going on in our authority I've pulled my topic work, drama, citizenship and all sorts of other things into ours. We are performing, if that's the right term, a potted version of Scrooges' story, highlighting the plight of the Victorian child and the poverty of the time and so on and so forth - very uplifting what? Of course in the middle of it all we have the story of the Notivity just to lighten the message and turn it into one of hope for the future. A few thundering good Christmassy songs and there y' have it. End of Term - sorted!!! Just the forward plans to write, the evaluations and assessments for 28 kids to formlulate, the ineffable Christmas decorations they all have to make and the Christmas activities to create and collate for the little dears to occupy themselves with during the last week - after all we can't possibly expect them to do any real 'work' can we?
At the same time I'm fighting off the dreaded cold/flu/pneumonia thing that's been lurking in my chest for the past five weeks, a house like a jumble sale ( the girls are both as busy as I am and the housework has gone by the bye ) and - how did it happen? - the Christmas Revue to take part in!! I truly had no intention of taking an active part in the show this year but when they were looking for material to fill the evening I recalled a wee Potted Panto thing I had written for a school I used to work in, revamped it to add dialogue where there had only previously been a narrator and offered it up to them. One thing led to another and I'm narrating, so that's four nights of having to be jazz hands and sparkly! I don't know if I can cope! Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the laundry piles grow ever taller and the kitchen grows ever grimier. Roll on the holidays - I may just manage to get it all done then.
Looking forward to the Junior Workshop Party - it'll be the only one I'll get to this year due to the Revue, missing the Staff night out and my class' trip to the Panto in Edinburgh because of it!! The things I do for that Workshop!!
Hey ho, time to go. Off to collect my holly wreaths in Lanark, then it's down to Motherwell to the cemetary and then over to Mid Calder to the cemetary then up to visit Mum for a short while, a fast barge round the Shopping Centre and then home to collapse for ten minutes before rising up again to begin the furious round of Christmas decorating..... will I never learn?
Till next time....

Crashing out as I type...

Thought I'd better stick a note or two on tonight before the weekend passes in a blur of activity and I forget. It's been a really busy week and I'm soooooo tired I could just about fall asleep standing up - not that I do, just that I could! Sat down after getting home after 8.30, to catch my breath and relax for five minutes and zoned out totally, not resurfacing until nearly 10!!!! Yet here I am still trying to pretend that I'm actually achieving something! Having a small brandy and coke instead of the ubiquitous glass of wine and then I'm off to my cozy warm snooze-pit. Even though I sat in school until I had completed major chunks of marking I still had to bring a bag of it home!! Had a meeting this afternoon and went back into school after it in order to try and leave myself a clear weekend - HA! Some hope that was! Dearly Beloved has pupils sitting a music theory exam in the morning and I'm invigilating for him - this means I have an enforced sitting down doing nothing for three hours. Nice work if you can get it, I hear you say, but when I have so much needing done I can think of at least twenty things I could be doing instead. Never mind - I have my potted panto to revamp. I'm calling it Moggie Mia and it's based on Puss In Boots. We'll be doing it as part of the Workshop Christmas Revue. It's a piece I wrote a few years ago for the school I was in and it was nicely done by the children. However, I need to make it much funnier for the workshop, and I'll be directing it of course! Hopefully I'll get enough bods turning up on Monday night to cast it and not have to be part of it myself. We'll wait and see who all turns up! Right that's sunk the last dregs of booze so I'm off t'pit. Nightie night, sleep tight and don't let those pesky bedbugs bite!!!
Till next time....

Busy, buzzy and brainbustin'!

Well here it is - November! I am stunned and amazed at how quickly the last week has simply scudded past!! Like weasels crossing the M8! In rush hour! All of the holiday week benefits are long gone and the wind up/running down to the 'C' word has begun. The visit to the Dungeon was tons of fun, even if the weather decided to join in and be as awful as it could be, presumably providing the dragon part to the day, however, we still had a darned good time! the special shopping has been fairly successful - in fact it was so successful that my plastic decided it had had enough and was not keen to let me use it for about four days!!!! and that was even though I had a balance available - something to do with nailing fraud before it gets all yer cash apparently, according to an old pal who used to work in a bank! Spent a lot of time after hours in school doing the forward plans and getting sorted for the next block - but really must get my act together and find myself a job, it's all very well having a supply maternity cover, secure job till Easter, but if I don't get out into the market very, very soon I'll find myself competing with this year's probationers for any posts that come up. Going to see a pal who will help me complete an application form for my own authority - if I can get onto the supply list here, I may manage to get a job more locally and save a fortune in diesel!!

Taking another tack, I think I may have given myself another 'smack yourself over the head' problem. Have started a wee drama club after school for the P5 and P6 kids and have taken in a wee mini panto that I wrote for a school I worked in a few years ago. It's basically the story of Puss in Boots but the music is all Abba songs. The idea is that they learn it and perform it for the rest of the school before 'C' ; if it's ready, in the New Year if it's not. Knowing that the busy souls who are pulling together the Ch******s Revue were in deep need of stuff to fill the time slot, I fancied they might be able to use a longish sketch and said I would do a little bit of a re-write to make it funnier and put in all the stage directions. Then I offered to direct it and rehearse it every week just after my Junior Workshop. Silly me!!! And I may well have reason to beat myself up before the end of the month. this is a simple, straightforward, short, one act, tiny cast required, practically no set needed mini panto, but as I have directed it before and am currently directing it at school I have, perhaps naively, assumed it would be easy to direct a few adults in something I don't have to spend a fair bit of time on with the kids. Then reality raises it's head and looks me squarely in the eye. The attitude to panto is often ' it doesn't matter really - this is just panto, nobody cares as long as they get a good laugh', which is fine to an extent, but when it's a wee short thing like this it really needs to be slick, otherwise it becomes boring, so to prevent this from happening or (with a meglamaniacal 'bwah ha hah!) so nobody else put in their tuppenceworth and tries to rewrite bits to make their parts bigger - now really Madam! - I'd rather have a modicum of control. My other potential problem is that I'll be using a karaoke CD for the music as I like Abba arrangements and think they will add to the whole piece - introductions are instantly recognisable - and to work with only a piano would sould a little bit empty. Anyhow that's a battle I may not have to fight, depends on whether anyone else throws their hat in the ring regarding it!

Have to go now as am adult in the room at the Youth Fellowship tonight and I have to gather all my marking together to take with me!! Ah the joys of parenting!!!

Till next time....

Jolly good lunch - hic!

Had a very pleasant lunch up at the Crown with accompanying obligatory three glasses of wine!!!! There!!! Bet you thought I couldn't spell that!! Have come home to do a spot of online shopping for Christmas ( there - I've said it!!! CHRISTMAS!!) and have done a bit of the same out on the High street before returning to the comforting warmth of this cuddly home!! Also purchased Sis -in law's birthday pressie and have seen other things I'll be grabbing with both hands once the next pay check rolls in!!! I love this time of year - really I do!! Even if it is dripping with rain and horrid nasty cold stuff.
Off to Livingston tomorrow to further smack the bank account in search of stuff to give away. Then off to the Edinurgh Dungeon on Saturday to have several pounds of **** scared out of me!! Looking forward to that in a strange, perverted sort of way.... will keep you posted!
Till next time...

And the band played on....

Having a fun time in the house! Made bread today and soup and generally did all things sort of domestic. Still to complete the laundry but am going off to look at steam presses with a view to making much lighter work of the ironing!! I live in hope eternal!
Had Junior workshop tonight and it was great fun. Had people who would not normally be actually, physically, involved, acting out the parts of the King of Siam and Mrs. Anna and some of the Wives!! Thank you guys! (you know who you are!) The kids loved it and were much better at what I was asking them to do because they had this very valuable assistance. Then had an in depth chat with the Director of the Senior section about where we need to be going in our planning and sorting out of expectations and so on - very informative and useful! all in all a rather pleasant day.
Pal Mags came over for lunch and a chat (hence the bread and soup making!) and it was totally magic just to sit and catch up on the doings of our busy lives. We don't see each other nearly half as much as we want to - this working for a living has a lot to answer for!
So, I'm off now to watch the tail end of Heroes - a programme I've not seen since the end of the first season and now wish I had kept up with and then will settle down to the totally frothy and delightful mental chewing gum that is Desperate Housewives. Why do I like it? I don't know, it's just pure (or otherwise) escapism and in this climate, an escape is a welcome diversion.
Till next time!

Holiday? What Holiday?

Here I am two days into my October week and there is still no sign of a rest!! Did the singin' thing on Sunday and it went off okay then did the actin' action last night and, well, basically rewrote and ad libbed huge chunks of it!! Apologies to the author, the director, the sound, light and prompt people for what must have been an horrendous experience trying to relate the gubbins pouring out of me to the script! However we got there, the audience laughed a reasonable amount and as far as I know nobody asked for their money back so it can't have been that bad!
Off to visit a pal up in Wiston although she's actually in Symington as her school has been decanted for a rebuild so I'd better go pick up the sticky buns and get up there!!
Till next time!

All becomes clear!!

So why did I ask for help on the dog snarls? Cos it was worrying me! That's why! But all has become clear! A buddy has a cute, slobbery dog icon for her instant message and when she's online the dog announces it's presence every so often with a growl, snarl or rumble. As I don't always have sound on, or the buddy screen up I was not aware of this, however as her land line is fork lift trucked, to use her description, we just had a wee IM chat and as I'm listening to music in the background the sound is on (that's how I heard it all in the first place) and during our chat the dawg slobbered, whined, panted and generally did doggy things! I myself have a cute pink poodle that speaks french! It has a shrill heelllooooooo! followed by what sounds suspiciously like a fart, I have tried to edit the sound but it wan't go away, however I am assured that even though I clearly hear this farting sound it does not seem to transfer through the ether and manifest audibly on my chat partner's pc!!! That's a relief! I can go and clean the kitchen now!
Till next time

Nobody tells me anything!

Well have had a wee bit of time to pootle about on the Bloggers thingy and now it seems I could have imported my AOL journal into my blog!!! Who knew? How would I have gone about this? As it stands I have cut and pasted (as previously mentioned) all my previous entries into a word doc. and kept it in the archives!! Hey Ho there y'go! The technological stuff is starting to get away from me in a major way - just don't have time to do anything except look for relevant stuff for school on the internet and -as we all know - that can steal hours out of your life you'll never get back!! Even the email is getting very sketchy! Still have no idea how to do the whole ipod thing, fortunately both girls are very able, although it means I am rather at their mercy, so to speak, to get what I want on my player. I seem to have an awful lot of Ben Folds and, while I quite like the music, it can get a bit overpowering on shuffle when one out of five is good ole Ben! That plus the fruity lyrics make it a bit non-pc to have the shuffle on in general company, nor can I shuffle in the class in case one of the down and dirty ones pops on!

While I'm on here and it's just happened again, can anyone tell me why, every so often, I hear what is, in effect, a huge hairy dog snarl? Is this a virus we have picked up that decides to make its presence felt from time to time? My AVG hasn't flagged anything up but that doesn't always count for much. There, it did it again! Sounds like the Hound of the Baskervilles eyeing up a steak! Should I be worried? Going to have to go as am about to have a quick coffee and then go jump up and down on Vic to get her out of bed!!

Into the final lap...

This is the start of what will probably be the most stressful week I'm likely to have for at least three months!! In a couple of hours I'm off to a dress rehearsal for the Mostly Mozart concert which takes place next Sunday, tonight I am token adult in the room for the Youth Fellowship and will be starting to write evaluations for my forward plans which are due in on Friday, I have also to write comments on all of my pupils as the Parents Consultations are this week on Wednesday and Thursday, I have a dress rehearsal for the play I am in which goes on next Monday, and I still don't know all my words! I'm doing front of house on Thursday and Friday for Biggar Little Festival events, The Festival Service is on Sunday, Alistair is away examining in Malta for the weekend and I'm meeting up with a pal from Falkirk on Friday after work for a few hours. The house, as they say, will have to go hang, along with the laundry and everything else that would usually get done!!! My main freak out is having to do one of the songs for the Mozart in Italian, not coping very well with that at all! Thankfully it's a workshop production and we will be able to have our words onstage! Not so lucky for the play tho' have to get it all learned and pronto! However not stressing as much as I have the Monday off and can sit and chill over it with many cups of coffee! Debbie and I have a plan to have lunch and word bash if we need it - mind you, we can both ad lib like fury so maybe it won't be sooooo bad, as long as we get the bits with everyone else right and don't throw others off the stott we'll be fine! You would think I would know better than to allow myself to get caught up in all this in the same week, but when it is all first suggested you have what seems to be so long to get on top of it all you think it will be relatively simple to organise. Then, of course, life jumps up and bites you in the bum! Ho hum! So, better get off and get on with the domestic duties before I trundle off up to the theatre and plough unceremoniously through my paces! How I remain the size I am I cannot understand!!! If there was any justice in the world I should be a size 10!!!!! The other side of that coin is - how big would I be if I didn't do all this stuff?????? Scary!!!!
Til next time!

A funny video clip - well I laughed!

Have a look at this one - I thought I would fall off the chair!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKJFX2zDXo8

Another weekend of housework!

Isn't it ironic, spend all week slogging my insides out in school and then come home and have to spend my two days 'off' slogging my insides out in the house. Oh, and let's not forget trying to spend some quality time with the family as well!!! Might as well just let it all go hang and hope for the best!!! I shouldn't be sitting here typing as I have tons to do and the ironing won't do itself! Victoria and I are having an ironing bee while we watch James Bond movies so that's going to be a fun afternoon! And before I forget again - have to go take the meat for dinner out of the freezer or it'll be the chippy tonight! Losing touch with people 'cos all I seem to do these days is promise to get in touch later or simply forward those longsuffering kitsch emails to them, just to prove 1. that I'm still around and 2. that I do actually think of them. Mind you, thank The Lord for Email as without it I'm certain that a large number of thise I know would likely think I had actually retired or died or moved to Garangad (Billy fans will get that one!) ~Anyhow, better get off and get back to it!!!
Till next time...

Having a rant!

Cannot believe what I have just been told by the man from the RBS! Apparently the £200 cash I drew on my credit card two years ago will not have any repayments made against it until I clear the purchase balance on my card. So for the the past two years I have been paying pennies of interest on this £200 pounds which has now reached £4 odd and rising every month and nothing I can do to stop the rot until I pay off the rest of my card!!!!!! As I am still paying off last Christmas and a horse choking overdraft facility which will be withdrawn in June next year (end of my student status!) this is not likely to happen very soon. So beware all of you naive biddies like me who didn't know that! Never pull cash on your credit card unless you have zero balance and the wherewithal to clear the card when the statement comes in!

So here we are then.

Well there's a fine how d'ye do! I may not be the most prolific blogger in the world but I do tripe my pearls of wisdom into my blog from time to time and I have been known to have the occasional rant!!! So it came as a total surprise to get a wee email from AOL saying the the journal is shutting down and that my blog would melt into the ether!!!!!! Stunned and amazed at this complete and utter farce I have (rather sensibly) moved lock stock and two sniffy barrels (got a touch of the cold) over to Blogspot. All I have to do now is remember to send the links to all the folks who I sent the first lot to. That's if I can figure out how to do it!!! Anyhoooo, as you might notice, this time I have included a photo - granted it's not that recent, but really you wouldn't want to see the remains of the grey.....
Not going to spend much time with this entry as have to sort out the contact stuff and the girls want to go on and shift thier blogs over too!!!! So we'll say bon nuit pour le moment.
Till next time.

Oh. My. God!

09 September 200822:05:27 o'clock BST Feeling Exhausted Hearing The merry hum of the dishwasher


Well hasn't it been a week or what? I cannot recall having been this busy (nearly triped busty there!) for aeons! Who would have thought that losing the one and a half days (Yeah! Like I ever actually got the full time!) out of class for prep could make such a hoorendous difference to how the week operates. The past two weekends have seen me filling my eco-friendly jute shopping bags with jotters and answer books and dragging them, knuckles scraping the tarmac, round to the car. Even have a wee wheelie case to put them in there are so many! I then seem to spend the entire weekend marking! So much for the teacher only having to work a contracted 35 hour week and having all those holidays!! And I'm still getting into school by 20 to 8 in the morning and not leaving till around 6 of an evening (except Wednesday - Junior Workshop night) It's still at the teething throes in this P6 stage, getting the curriculum pummelled into shape and getting the speed of the class pulled up. Maybe it's just me and my expectations are far too high but I find rather a lot of the children are fairly slow to complete work. Already had a mummy in to see me because her wee precious can't hurry up and complete a times table square in less than 7 minutes!!!! I had Primary 4 kids who could complete one in 3!!!! However, mustn't grumble - at least I'm in work and there are still a few out there with little or no supply work! So, however much I may moan and complain, deep down I'm really enjoying it all - even the hard stuff!!!
Moving on into purple - a Royal colour - I think I should tell you a little bit about the workshop's next venture. We are doing The King and I next March as a joint workshop project. Our theatre is to close and have refurbishments and repairs done, major ones, and while we are closed we needed to find a suitable venue for our individual productions. After much discussion it was agreed that we do this show in the High School as we can incorporate all factions within it. The Juniors are, obviously, the Siamese Children, the Youth will be the Wives and perform the Ballet sequence of 'Little House of Uncle Thomas' and the Seniors will provide the remaining chorus. The parts have finally been cast and we are ready to make our start. I have to think what we'll do with the children for the next week or so until I have time to type up lyrics and figure out how to download the backing tracks from the computer! I think we'll practice movement and singing and I'll get a good look at the girls to find my little princess - the only part still to be cast. (we decided to select from the chorus) In the meantime I suppose I ought to go and get the book and make a start on it now but..... I'm off this weekend (HA!) Monday holiday and while I'll be getting caught up with the dreaded laundry-which-waits-for-no-man, I'll also be getting my register typed up and the lyrics for the children typed and printed into booklets.
So I'd better trundle away up the stairs and get on with a wee bit of whatever before I fall thankfully into my cosy, warm pit and drift off into blissful slumber, safe in the knowledge that out there, there are chip shops, Indian and Chinese restaurants and other fast food emporiums so that I don't have to actually cook tomorrow!!!
Till next time!

A class act....

04 September 200823:41:18 o'clock BST Feeling Exhausted Hearing Various ipod shuffles

It's been some time since I managed to rouse my weary bones enough to splurge a few lines in the blog. Unlike some of those friends I aspire to emulate who blog daily, sometimes more that once a day, or at least weekly. It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's just that, as usual, I'm up to the armpits in activities! School is back in and I an the proud owner of a surprisingly good P6 class! They are really quite delightful and on the whole, they are seemingly biddable and keen to learn.... well a lot of them are, and even the ones who aren't so keen are nice kids anyway!
The holiday in Egypt was a corker, the cruise down the Nile was blissful and I loved visiting the temples and ancient sites and monuments. I was sort of expecting to feel a sort of primeval 'coming home' sensation - every time I've been in Greece I have felt completely at home and as if I could happily live there, and I suppose I felt that I would feel the same way about Egypt. Yet there was something about it that I was able to remain relatively detached from it. The sheer size of Karnak and Luxor, not to mention the Pyramids, takes your breath away and you can't help but wonder not only how they were able to build them, but how did they design and decide on the shapes. What made them want such massive edifices in the first place. How did they come up with the idea of such collossal places - places that people didn't even live in - just the Gods! How were they able to carve, without the aid of machines, hundreds of identical statues to line the causeways from one temple to another, and to line the courtyards of the temples? It is, to quote the King of Siam, 'a puzzlement' Anyhoo, the other considerations - the boat, the food, the weather and the company were absolutely fantastic! We met up with some really terrific people and have kept in touch since we came home, in fact we've all met up since we came home!! Very nice and I'm hoping we'll continue to keep in touch! The second week was a bit of a let down though. We were expecting a five star hotel such as we had been in, in Tunisia, but we got a staggeringly gi-normous impersonal resort, with nothing to do but lie about in the sun and bake or sit in you room and watch telly. We're not sun worshippers but I wasn't going all that way to sit and watch telly!!! So we spent most mornings under a sun canopy, reading some of the dozen or so books we took with us and the afternoons wandering about the complex while Alistair had a doze. We spent our evening playing cards with a couple from the boat who were in our hotel - there weren't many - and had a fairly good time. The hotel was very impressive but the food was rubbish. Another niggly thing was the smoke from the ciggie suckers who were everywhere - we are really blessed here in Britain that smoking is forbidden in public places - you take it for granted now, but you really appreciate it when you go abroad and they are all puffing away polluting the atmosphere! So, there we are a short ramble on the holidays.
I' going to bed now as it's late and I have to be up very early again tomorrow. I may manage another burble soon... don't wait up.
Till next time.

11 June 2008
18:04:39 o'clock BST Feeling Stressed Hearing The sound of my high blood pressure.... Edit Entry Delete Entry
It's the Final Countdown
Well the final two weeks are perched like vutures on the near horizon. This week has been a manic and stress filled one. I have spent all my time getting as many things finished in the classroom as possible. Displays, topics, maths and language programs, reading books and all that goes alongside. Seems daft to be panicking about getting the displays up as I'll be hauling them down next week, but them's the breaks! I will spend a great deal of time this evening putting together a last week booklet of activities for my class and will spend tomorrow after school photocopying it and binding it! We have a trip to the Glasgow Science Centre on Monday and the School Sports Day on Tuesday so it's a very short week and I'm not holding out much hope for getting anything important done.
However, on the up side, I have been given the maternity cover for Mairi from August till March and so that's a major plus point!! I have time now to find a full time permanent job without having to sell my organs or body....parts! Having a wage is extremely important as I have a horrendous amount of accrued debt from my Post Grad year. I had hoped to get rid of major chunks of it this year and, on paper, it looked possible, but reality reared it's ugly head and I'm not much better off. Maybe next year will allow me to get more paid off. Student loans are an awful thing, I'm hoping I can afford to pay the girls through Uni so they don't have to have one. So, can rest easy and really enjoy my holiday to Egypt, knowing I don't have to penny pinch. I got told today that I'm funded for the first three weeks of the term, even though Mairi won't go off till the beginning of September and This means I can start fresh with my Primary 6 class and get set up before the term begins and get my guff put up on the walls. Oh the fun!!!!!
Getting grief from Victoria who wants to use the computer for her homework. Huh! Some cheek eh? Anyway I'd better let her go on or she won't have time to finish up before bedtime.
Till next time

It's the Final Countdown

11 June 200818:04:39 o'clock BST Feeling Stressed Hearing The sound of my high blood pressure....

Well the final two weeks are perched like vutures on the near horizon. This week has been a manic and stress filled one. I have spent all my time getting as many things finished in the classroom as possible. Displays, topics, maths and language programs, reading books and all that goes alongside. Seems daft to be panicking about getting the displays up as I'll be hauling them down next week, but them's the breaks! I will spend a great deal of time this evening putting together a last week booklet of activities for my class and will spend tomorrow after school photocopying it and binding it! We have a trip to the Glasgow Science Centre on Monday and the School Sports Day on Tuesday so it's a very short week and I'm not holding out much hope for getting anything important done.
However, on the up side, I have been given the maternity cover for Mairi from August till March and so that's a major plus point!! I have time now to find a full time permanent job without having to sell my organs or body....parts! Having a wage is extremely important as I have a horrendous amount of accrued debt from my Post Grad year. I had hoped to get rid of major chunks of it this year and, on paper, it looked possible, but reality reared it's ugly head and I'm not much better off. Maybe next year will allow me to get more paid off. Student loans are an awful thing, I'm hoping I can afford to pay the girls through Uni so they don't have to have one. So, can rest easy and really enjoy my holiday to Egypt, knowing I don't have to penny pinch. I got told today that I'm funded for the first three weeks of the term, even though Mairi won't go off till the beginning of September and This means I can start fresh with my Primary 6 class and get set up before the term begins and get my guff put up on the walls. Oh the fun!!!!!
Getting grief from Victoria who wants to use the computer for her homework. Huh! Some cheek eh? Anyway I'd better let her go on or she won't have time to finish up before bedtime.
Till next time

It's been how long?

22 May 200821:11:45 o'clock BST Feeling Surprised Hearing Eclectic mix from Vic's ipod

Just logged myself on and glanced at the date of my last blog!!!!!! Cannot believe its been two months! Shock! Horror! Scrape chin off of floor and replace stunned expression with sickly grin. I know I've been incredibly busy but had no idea it had been so long, I do hope no-one was holding their breath waiting for the next scintillating episode/entry in my missive. Life has turned into one long litany of work, eat, sleep, work, eat, drink some wine, sleep, work, drink lots of wine, sit up all night unable to sleep and so on and so forth.... I was warned about the way the last term could career out of control but even after several severe weather warnings and reminiscences from other staff about previous years' fiascoes I did not appreciate just how hurricane like the last weeks are becoming. Out of the remaining five weeks I will only get about three for teaching as we have a health week next week where the curriculum flies out of the window and the last week of the term is traditionally written off as a waste of effort due to the children being as high as kites and therefore unteachable. So, while I try to get the last scraps of my planning rammed into unreceptive little brains, my only hope is that, as in a mud fight, some will stick!! A soul can pray can't it?
I like green! It's a soothing and calming colour and so I should be able to chill out now and recount some of the other things I have been doing recently - yes there have been other things; hard to recall but I know there were some!! Mainly the Theatre Workshop as we thundered through three shows in six weeks!!!!! never again let me tell you. As you might recall it started off with the Junior show - Alice Through the Looking Glass, and it was a very well received production may I say, I was very proud of the cast, they did a fantastic job! From that I went straight into producing the Youth show; I Love the Knightlife, another very successful venture, happily turning out to be soooo much better than we had hoped. We had four weeks between our productions but Fiona and I worked very closely to double up scenery, sets and props wherever possible and the transition was practically painless. However, the leap into the Senior show was a much more traumatic one. The Youth came offstage on the Saturday night and the stage was stripped to the walls by teatime on the Sunday. Our long-suffering and wildly putupon Theatre Manager yet again had to pull out far too many stops and dismantle the scaffolding that holds the set together to rebuild an open set. Thankfully, we were able to bully him into allowing a bunch of us to go along and help and subsequently we got more done than had been anticipated. Still, he had to take a week off his work to go in each day and build the hinged flats needed for Me and My Girl. I had designed the set decorating and, again working to in close harmony with Daphne the Senior's producer, had managed to use slabs of my Alice set for her Harefield Hall set. Thanks to the wonders of overhead projectors and acetate slides I was able to draw the other parts of the flats in no time at all and with Katy on board we managed to get all the other set painting done over about four evenings. It was a fairly marathon sprint and not one I would be at all keen to repeat. The first run through of the dress rehearsal was absolutely abysmal and I was seriously concerned. However the second run seemed to jildi them up a bit and the show went down very well with the initially poor, but latterly excellent, audiences.
As the theatre needs to close for several months after October for renovations and repairs we are doing a Christmas Revue instead of a Panto. This is mainly down to the problem of venue - we have no idea where we will be able to perform and when, so we need to have a moveable feast, as it were, that can be rehearsed by individuals or small groups and then knitted together nearer the time. This approach bodes well for the next proposed production. As venues are relatively hard to come by, I considered the possibility of doing a full workshop production where each section has it's own parts to learn and rehearse but then all come together for the full production. As the rights for Joseph and his amazing whatzit are not available I racked my brains for another property that could use Juniors, Youth and Seniors. Oliver has been done to death and besides the rights will be unavailable due to the imminent West End production. The only other one I could think of was The King and I. Having tentatively suggested the idea to Fiona, Iain and a few others I am gratified to tell you that we are indeed going ahead with this idea. Rights being available, we should be into rehearsal in August and performing in March!! I am looking forward to the year as it will give us lots of opportunities to do real workshop with the kids instead of only having the time to thump the next song, the next scene, into them on account of them having to carry a whole show on their own. The shared responsibility means there won't be quite the same stresses. Mind you those stresses will likely be replaced by others of equal if not greater value, as Fiona and I try to get the adults to raise their game to the same levels as we expect and get from the younger members..... Meow! Claws away! I'm hoping we are able to book the High School for the show as the stage is much bigger than the Theatres' and we will be able to run a humungous cast!!!! Deep joy! and if they get their acts together they should be started in August too and get the four part singing done properly, instead of having to cut things out because they don't have the time to learn it properly!! Also, routines will be better polished because there will be time to actually learn something other than two steps to the left and then two to the right!!!
Oh I am going on a bit, I need to go upstairs and get on with my report cards now - I should have written five tonight, but the way things are going I'll be lucky to get one done! I still have to get on with my final profile too and get it finished - like there aren't enough things to stress about this week? Still no signs of a job but still hoping!
Till next time

Goin' on a job hunt...

17 March 200818:05:32 o'clock GMT Feeling Anxious Hearing Songs from the shows

Well, that's it started - the hunt for Red October has nothing on the hunt for a teaching job! There are hundreds of probationers out there all looking for jobs and there are very few jobs going. Why the powers that be feel this constant need to train new teachers is beyond me and other proabtioners I have spoken to - and that's more than just one or two! Competition is tough and only the outstanding candidates are going to be successful - well that lets me out... I had my bulk interview the other day - the council have to interview all the probationers working in their authority - and while I think I answered the questions quite well, I'm not convinced I would have been outstanding! With a bit of luck and a tail wind I may manage to land a supply job - not ideal but better than a poke in the eyes with a sharp stick! I'm not at the stage of trawling the internet yet but once I go on spring break next week I may very well spend and hour or so looking online to see if any jobs are coming up. Quite enjoying working away from South Lanarkshire - I don't bump into the kids in the Co op and I can be me at Church and Workshop and not 'Miss'. Though truth be told the travelling is starting to get on my nerves and the cost of fuel for my big bus is making large inroads into my salary.
Feeling shattered this week as it's getting close to the hols. Last week was a real treadmill - final rehearsals for the workshop show and Dress Rehearsal and perfomances for the School Show! No wonder I feel like a dish rag! The house looks like a bomb site and the girls are hard at work studying for exams - hence the housework not having much importance these days. I can see I'm going to be spending my two weeks holiday cleaning this pit of a house. Not such a terrible thing mind you - as the girls will be at school and DH will be at work I will have the house to myself and therefore will be able to chunter through the rooms one at a time and clear the junk into black bags which I will then take to the tip!! And who knows? I may even manage to get it all done and get more of the attic cleared!!! Fun and frolic aplenty! Who says life is boring?
No time to blether further - gotta get going and get dinner started and then get my hurdies up to the theatre to get the foyer tidied up and get rid of the extra stuff that's lying around. Floor gets painted tomorrow night and first night is Wednesday - lots to do and not much time left to do it in!
Till next time

It's Oh So quiet.....

26 February 200821:21:04 o'clock GMT Feeling Hopeful Hearing Nothing - sheer, blissful silence!

Here we are, nearly four weeks to the day since I last spouted forth any gems of wisdom or clear thought on these pages! The house is empty, one child at Samba band the other at theatre workshop, DH is out working and I have the house to myself!!! What to do? Do take this opportunity to throw off all my clothes and tear around naked? Do I go and try on my evening dresses and/or wedding dress to see if I can still get into them? Should I go and raid the freezer and finish the 2 litre tub of cornish vanilla ice cream I know is in there? Maybe I should go and find a film I want to see and go and indulge myself with chocolate, wine and scented candles. Perhaps I should take the chance to go and have a long luxurious soak in the bath with no-one shouting through the door? And so do I do any of these things? Well you'll never know, 'cos I'm not telling!!!!! But bear in mind that I am sitting here blogging...
Moving from the realms of fantasy into the more mundane, I should be trying to write a short story or two. My study buddies are still studying with the OU and are very good at encouraging each other to keep on writing. I've lost my OU link now and can no longer have online typewritten chats, but we do email and they keep me in the loop. The latest one is to write a short story of about 1 X A4 page for a given title. Colleen (as usual) has done a stunner on our first effort and no doubt when Linda gets hers onto the page it will be equally as good. How these two haven't been published yet I cannot imagine! It's okay - I'm not going to bore you all with the details and all the things we decide to write about, but I feel I should at least try to find some time to get some of the thoughts I have for stories down on paper. Colleen sent me a beautiful notebook and I started to make notes in it but I've gotten out of the way of it. The usual suspects, lack of time, too much to do in other areas, all tainted with the fear that I can't really write for toffee in the first place! Linda sent me a book on writing for children, this is a major thing for me, I really would like to turn the scripts for my early Junior shows into childrens books and illustrate them too, but, time.... maybe once I find a full time permanent job and the pressure eases off a bit I'll manage to get back into things. I've had to give up my art class for the time being as I spend my weekends either doing stuff for school or trying to remind myself what colour the carpets are, as I hoover threee weeks dust off them!
Still having the clear out, it's turning into an early Spring Clean (either that or an extremely late one!) Went into the loft to get some stuff and was horrified at the state of it! Paul and I have already take bags and bags of rubbish out and dumped it and the place was looking not too bad... or so I thought. For some reason the most recent things have been taken up and dumped and to look at it you'd hardly know it had ever been touched! I'm off the two weeks before the schools here and am already planning to spend at least one day up there sorting things out and getting more stuff ready to go to the dump. That along with a planned day into Glasgow with pal Anne and a couple of lunch dates with other friends I haven't seen for ages should give me a fine time for my holidays! Mind you, knowing my luck any interviews I manage to get invited to will probably fall in the holidays... so maybe my plans will come to nothing. Perhaps I shall just wait and see.
The job market is particulary thin at the moment, not much on offer. Have submitted the required application to the authority I work in just now and would like to submit applications to the other authorities adjoining my geographic location, however, there are no vacancies and only probationers may apply internally for any jobs that may be coming up! Most authorities have online submission and you need job codes and reference numbers, so I can't even blag my way in on the strength of having worked in my domicile authority for 5 years as a classroom assisitant! Now wishing I had gone to Jordanhill instead of Moray House - Authorities only want their own probationers, the rest of us won't get a look in! Still miffed at the other girl from here getting the only prob. job in the area, especially as I particularly asked for local and she had ticked other areas! No rhyme or reason to it. Interviews apparently start on the 6th of March, so keep your fingers crossed for me!
On the up side I am heavily involved in the end of Spring Term Production of The Rocky Monster Show! I am Directing and Co-Producing and assisiting on set design, costume and make up! It's a middle and upper school project and basically all hands to the pumps! I have rehearsals every day at lunch time and after school on a Monday, Production meetings every other hour (or so it feels!) or at least one a day, and it's all meant to happen in less than three weeks! NO pressure then! I'm just hoping it all comes together - we're dropping curriculum stuff like hot potatoes and I'm now beginning to panic about my forward plans - the one I should be fulfilling and the one I'm going to be writing for after Easter! Every available hall time is being used and I'm getting cover on a Friday to take Principals out for extra practice and its all rather frantic! Observed lesson next week and can't recall how many more still to be done and all this as well as revise education policy for the interviews and try to clear the stuffed up head and prove I can speak like a normal human instead of a baboon with a cleft palate - yes! Yet another cold! I was hoping that I was past all this but here it goes again! I blame DH - he brought it home from one of his pupils and passed it on to me - darned cheek! But I'm getting my own back - I'm saving the germs up to give him back on his birthday!!!!!
Well that's the first family member returned so there goes the peace and quiet! Anyhow, you've probably got much better things to be doing than continuing to read this drivel so I'll pack it all up and say goodnight, Goodnight!
Till next time!

Back at last.....

27 January 200818:43:55 o'clock GMT Feeling Quiet

Forgive me readers, it has been some cosiderable time since my last blog. No real excuse but that I have been terribly busy and have not had the luxury of time to spend disgorging my innermost thoughts onto a screen. You would not have been interested anyhow - they mainly consisted of mental meanderings, maniacally mithering about school stuff and how to get my life firmly back in hand. November and December vanished in a blur of activity. DH went off to Malta to do an exam tour the same week as the panto (that was fun but exhausting!) and so we thought we'd get lots done. Big joke! The Chrissie decorations didn't get thrown up till nigh on the 18th and even then a lot remained in the boxes - just the trees and a few other bits. Laundry, the major bane in my life, mounted to a frightening degree and is still a source of deep concern. The length of time a wash cycle takes is totally ridiculous, I mean, I should be able to rattle at least three loads in an evening, but am only actually managing to get one or if I'm lucky two done at a time. This means the backlog is never really getting cleared. Boring I know but this is one of the things that rambles around inside my head and effectively prevents me from doing other things - sad I know but that's me! Having a fairly hefty bout of not being too well exacerbated the whole 'not getting things done' bit and after Boxing Day I sort of lay about feeling sorry for myself and totally unmotivated to do anything remotely energetic. New Year was a wash out and I was in bed by 11.15 and knew nothing till around 9am on the 1st of January 2008 (Happy New Year by the way!) Back to school and I stepped back onto the treadmill that is the life of a teacher. Remind me, someone, I wanted to be a teacher, why? Time is flying by and I need to get myself up to speed and making some sort of mark on my probation year so that when the jobs come up I am in with a shout of at least one.... trouble is it's so busy keeping up with the basics that extras are viewed with a jaundiced eye!
All that notwithstanding, I have been making small gains in the target achievement stakes. Finally got the dining room decorated and the new curtains, blind and light shades put up. My wee workspace room is still like a tip and is still used as a gathering/dumping ground for all and anything. This makes for interesting resouce finding, I know I have books and things in there -I just can't get to them!!! I should have been doing more clearing and bin bag filling for the tip last weekend but I had a really bad chest infection and had to get the antibios from the doc. Luckily I got them in time to nip the worst of it in the bud and though I've been left with a horrid cough and bunged up nose that is taking time to clear, I didn't have to have 2 weeks off work, which would have been the normal course if I hadn't recognised my symptoms and warded them off. As it was I worked from home on the Wed afternoon and spent the Sat and Sun in bed having a very lazy time.
Needs must and time waits for no man. I have an observed science lesson tomorrow morning and need to go and prepare something fairly spectacular for the class - I should be so lucky! Invertebrates and I have no notion about what to teach. The lesson plans tell me nothing and I have been spectaculary unsuccessful in finding any progressive stuff on the internet. So I'm off to the books and photocopier with a hopeful heart!
I'll try not to leave it so long next time.

Chop, chop, busy, busy, work, work, bang, bang!

21 November 2007
23:29:15 o'clock GMT Feeling Silly Hearing A variety of stuff but mostly Josh!!



It's just as I suspected - life doesn't get easier after the October week! It just gets more frantic! They lied!!!!!!!! Had the parents consultations and they were fine except for one parent who decided that I was resposible for the child's neuroses. Yes plural!! Sadly the childs' problems stem from the parent who is as neurotic as they come. Considering the child has been like this since it started school I found it a little hard to swallow my alleged responsibility! However, the HT and PT both agreed the parent was well out of order and basically a nutter who could be safely smiled at while making soothing noises. Honestly, when will these younger generation parents wake up and smell the coffee? If you have kids it is your responsibility to bring them up, teach them manners, respect for other people and other people's belongings. It is your job to explain that when they come to school they are to sit and behave, to be quiet when expected and to get the head down and get on with the learning. Instead we get children who sit there telling us they really don't feel like doing this page of maths and they are so sorry but they don't have time to do homework as they have 'activities' after school most evenings and can't fit the homework in. When the parents arrive at parents night and tell you the same thing, you begin to see the pattern.... Evey child, it seems, is a sensitive soul whose needs must be met individually by the staff in the school. Don't ever shout at the children, not even to get their attention when the class is talking a mile a minute as they come in first thing in the morning, as junior takes things sooooooo much to heart and then spends the evenings sobbing into a pillow, cut to the very quick that anyone should speak sharply to them or cross them in any way. These are the children who have every latest toy, gadget, DVD, playstation game, X-Box and Wii game consoles, bikes and every other popular kiddy thing that is on the go. Yet when they open their state of the art, triple-decker, pencil cases and look amongst the felt tips and compasses they don't have an ordinary pencil, rubber or sharpener to use in class to get through the work. Thirty two children in one room all day can get tiring The marking of their work gets mind-numbing. Preparing lessons that they don't listen to is depressing, but we get there. Perhaps the government should be spending a bit of time training parents to parent properly. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but when my kids came home from school and said the teacher had ticked them off for something, my first reaction was generally "you must have deserved it". Never, "how dare they speak to you like that, I'll have them sorted out!" and until the parents regain some modicum of control and proper balance and perspective within the adult/child balance of relationship, kids are going to be very unhappy for a very long time. They need to learn to be part of a group and to get on with everyone else, at least on some level, instead of the egocentric, selfish, self-serving monsters that are sitting in schools all over the country.
Rant over, feeling better now but tired. Going to bed.Till next time...

What a week....

29 August 2007
22:33:22 o'clock BST Feeling Frustrated Hearing nothing - no time to turn on the CD player...



Well that's us well into the second week and it's been hell on legs!!!! The kids are looking for challenging work and the parents are bound to be wondering when the homework will come home and the reading isn't getting done enough and the maths setting doesn't start till next week and I have just written up all the meetings I have to attend over the next year and blimey!!! I don't know how I'm ever going to fit it all in! I am expected to produce a forward plan by Friday and at time of writing am not actually sure if I'd recognise one if somebody slapped me with it. Blank copies of these shy and extremely rare items are as hard to spot as Giant Pandas in the wild. And still they say, smilingly, "don't worry so much, it'll all fall into place soon!" that's if I don't fall into a state of despair first! Have found myself leaving the house just after 7 in the morning to get in and get as much done before the kids get in and staying til all hours to continue getting things done. Have managed two 12 hours shifts so far this week!!! Not getting in till after 7pm means I'm past eating and as a result I seem to be losing a bit of weight - every cloud..... and let's not think about the hours I put in up on the laptop when I do get in!!
Going to have to watch my writing, I feel as if all I do is moan and complain about the job - I do like the teaching the children part but I much prefer to be properly organised and the lack of timetable and forward plans is making me jittery! I would like to write about the funny things that happen, but I'm a bit too stressed to recall any of them at the moment - no doubt I will be filling this blog with anecdotes before too long (she said hopefully!) Have two meetings in the morning - one with my mentor and one with learning support so with a bit of luck tomorrow will be sorted and the forward plan that is due in on Friday will be somewhere near completion!
Would love to stay and chat but I really don't have the time and feel I should be upstairs trawling through the diary and looking for resources for tomorrow, so I'll cut you lose just now and catch you on the flip side, as they say.....
Till next time...