From bad to verse

Getting tired of it all now...

2010-09-28T22:34:00.002+01:00

So, it's been ages since I had time to sit down and write anything in here. And indeed, truth be told, perhaps I should have just left it that way! Not much to tell really, just the usual twelve hour days in school trying very hard to keep up with the marking and planning. Plus trying just about as hard to maintain an outside life. Well to be frank it's all going to hell in a handcart lately! There is so much involved with the Curriculum for Excellence in schools these days that the amount of paper it generates is positively staggering! So much for the paper free office and the eco friendly, waste not want not, green stuff!! Can't get teaching the wee dears for all the planning and evaluating needing done!! So it's a bit of 'give 'em stuff to do and then sit and try and catch up on the paperwork!' instead of all singing all dancing active learning. Honestly, the powers that be have no true concept of the amount of guff this system generates. Yet we are expected to serenely sail on, producing leaders of the next generation..... pshaw!
so that's school.
Life?
Well it sucks like a toothless budgie! The Theatre side of my psyche is being sorely tested these days and I feel deep down that my continuing with the local group will not be the case after the children's show. The theatre has been refurbished. It looks, smells and feels totally different to what it used to - that's to be expected. What I didn't expect was the realisation that I am gently being ousted from the post I've held for the past 11 years. All aspects of responsibility are being taken away and given to others without so much as a by your leave, and I have felt severely patronised by newcomers who seem to think they know all about it and can do it so much better than I. Well good for them I say, after this last production in March I will just hand the whole address book to them (or maybe I won't) and let them get on with it! Not sure yet exactly how petty and mean I will decide to be come the revolution, but I am not going to be particularly heplful!! I may take up painting, sewing and writing again! Joy!! Who knows, I may even start doing housework again! (steady!)
Anyhooo, we'll just wait and see what happens over the next wee while. Rant over, normal service has been resumed...
Till next time...

Aahh Me!

2010-08-16T22:39:00.002+01:00

Well another school year begins and another job rears it's not so attractive head! Should have been covering a maternity leave in a nursery but another teacher has (finally!) decided to retire and so I'm back into a P6 class and all that brings with it. Unfortunately the teacher concerned, knew she was retiring before the end of last term and opted not to share this information with anyone who ought to have known. Subsequently she did no prep work for the new term and I am now running like a headless chicken trying to pick up where the last class teacher left off! I have a whole class to set up and no time to do it. We had half a day today and have a full day conference tomorrow. Children are back on Wednesday so I'll have to go in after the conference and work till the Jannie throws me out!
I suppose you could say I will thrive on it but I am not so sure. The class is small, only 22 children at the moment but there is a strong possibility of two more before the end of the week and a potential for at least another four before Christmas. Onwards and upwards I think - no point in being grumpy, this is the career I wanted to have, I can't help but wish it were my calss for the whole year and not just until February when the Mat. leave ends. Oh for a class of my own!!
On a more positive note, both girls did really well in their exams. Jen is starting at Stevenson to do her HND in Classical Music, she'll then go to Napier to complete her B.Mus. Victoria is started in fifth year and looks like having another good year - she has subjects she did very well in with her standard grades and her plans seem to be all under control.
Everything else is bog standard normal, except for the fact that Paul has managed to get us all wirelessly linked and now I don't have to take turns on the computer!
Until next time...

Back in the old routine...

2010-04-09T10:18:00.002+01:00

Well good news for me!! I have been successful in getting onto the SLC supply list and have work lined up from Easter till Summer!!! Fab fun all round. I'll be working for a Headie that I worked for before during my Classroom Assistant days and so I know I'm going to be completely happy and relaxed about things. Looking forward to getting started on the 19th April. Working between two schools - so plenty of scope.
Just have to get the workshop production finished and get my series of six workshops planned and then I can move on to other things!!!
Life is good at the moment, let's hope it stays that way!
Till next time!

All downhill till Easter...

2010-03-16T19:28:00.002Z

Well here we are, the weather has decided to pick up a wee bit and there was actual sunshine over the weekend!! Yes! There were people out in open topped cars, riding horses, cycling, walking dogs without wearing coats (that's the walkers, not the dogs...) and all sorts of malarkey! My current contract draws to a close on the 1st of April and I'm living in hope of something coming up for the next term. I've been for the first of my two interviews - made a bit of a fist of a couple of the questions, I now believe there is such a thing as studying too much for something - I think I was concentrating too much on trying to recall my notes instead of just answering the questions!! Point made and taken, thank you! Tomorrow is the second and I'm off now to have a last read over of my notes and then I'm off to do some Workshop admin and poster making and have a wee glass of wine and then off to bed. Will report back later in the week, hopefully with some good tidings....
Till next time!

Once more into the breach....

2010-02-23T22:41:00.007Z

Well that's the second application form this week! Yes peeps! It's that time of year again. Every NQT, supply teacher and part-timer will be on their mettle for the next few weeks! This is almost as regular as the lambing season; every February/March cometh the 'Bulk Interviews' (West Lothian) or the 'Round Robin' (South Lanarkshire) where the teaching sorority goes into a frenzy of form filling, trying to write something spectacular. Attention grabbing headlines on a boring On-line form are not easy to manufacture but still we try, in the desperate hope that this year, maybe this year we'll be one of the successful ones, one of the ones who actually get given a job that isn't a temporary contract or Maternity cover. Doing a Mat cover in the school I'm in at the mo' is not a bad thing as the Headie is one of the application form considerers, she's helping sort the wheat from the chaff and if I don't get an interview it won't be for lack of trying!!! The Depute checked over my form, as did my ex- Headie from my previous school and both declared it a good form, coupled with the rather super (if I say so myself!) Headteacher's Report that the Headie gave me should hopefully get me a chance to sparkle in person and hypnotise them into giving me a permanent post contract in a smashing school with no behavioural difficulties and a pupil base of angels who want nothing more than to hang on my every word as if they were pearls of wisdom, while they work hard at being the best class in the Universe.... well I can dream can't I? Have also completed one for my Local Authority who have at last lifted the Recruitment Freeze and are looking for Supply staff. Mind you, I'm not daft, if I were to be offered a post in my current Authority then I would definitely take it - in this jobs climate one can't be too choosy!! However, getting onto the Supply list makes me eligible to apply for any permanent posts that come up in the future, so here's hoping!
Speaking of climate; it's not been as snowy as I'd expected. The forecast keeps saying it's gong to be a white out but although the frost is doing it's stuff every morning and nice and crisp it is too, the snow has not really made much of an appearance this past week. Note well my friends, now that I have said there is no snow you can practically guarantee the blasted stuff will be all over the place by morning.... Perhaps the Spring will soon come around and we'll have daffies nodding their pretty yellow heads all over the verges.
Funny how much I find I miss typing stuff. I would love to be able to write a book but that would require a plot and a beginning, middle and end. The creative writing course I did with the O.U. was great fun and fairly got the creative juices flowing but as happens, life takes over and the reality of why I was working for a degree jumped on it and squashed it flat. I have three or four notebooks with ideas, phrases, titles, characters and setting jotted down in them. Not in any particular order, they're not the bones of an epic tale or anything remotely organised like that. I love pomes. I use that word as I don't think my doggerel can really expect to be called poetry. Some of them I am quite chuffed with, others probably need a years' work just to be readable. Never a great fan of the Haiku with it's seventeen syllables I had a bash at some. Wrote a couple of contrived poems from given titles then, creatively and independently, I did one I was quite proud of with a rhyme sequence on the third lines, the name of this format escapes me for the moment, I recall having it described by a tutor and realising that I had written one without really knowing that it was a specific poetic form!! Was I chuffed? You bet your little pink bootees I was! Maybe one day I'll go and dig out my verse and publish it all here. That'll sort out the men from the boys, we'll soon see who can stick it out and who says "The hell with it, I'm off...." I would like to think that one day I will sit down and have a crack at a wee novello or maybe a few short stories. Along with the painting that I've put on the back burner since taking up teaching and the Cross-stitch I never got back to, perhaps when I eventually retire I will myself trying to fit in so many hobbies that I will give up and just spend my life Twittering, Blogging and watching re-runs of Dr. Who and True Blood. (the sublime to the ridiculous) on the telly. Joking apart, I've always promised myself that I'd re-write the scripts I created for the Junior Workshop as children's books and possibly self illustrate them too; who knows, maybe one day. In the meantime I'll keep buying the Euro Millions Lottery tickets when it's a Rollover week and give my mind a wee treat imagining what I'd do if my numbers came up.......
I suppose I should go and get myself off to bed now, it has been a long day and I am somewhat knackered. Early start and hair to wash in the morning so it makes sense not to sit here any longer. So, better shift it then....
Till next time,

And that's one month gone....

2010-02-01T22:11:00.002Z

Crivvens, where did January go? there was I, feeling all smug about not letting the year race away and when I turned round it was February!! It's already on the slippery slide and gaining momentum by the minute. Haven't booked any holidays yet as have yet to decide where we might like to go, we've also to consider what it's likely to cost as the prices seem to be a bit steeper this year, or is that just my imagination?
I've more or less decided not to make any special plans for the next wee while, there is so much of life in a state of flux at the minute it's practically impossible to make any! I know what I'd like to achieve - mainly in the house - but as I am working at the mo' it's unlikely to happen. So I'll just plod on doing a wee bittie here and there and maybe it'll all come out right in the end.
The new school is pretty good, although I'm finding the sheer size of it a bit daunting. Double classes makes for a lot of children and a lot of staff; who are very nice by the way, that's the staff mostly, the kids are a variable feast.... some horrors, some wee sweethearts, and the usual motley collection of swots, middle of the roaders and refusers. The class I have are, on the whole, a good enough bunch, just a few who could make you want to rip their throats out.... The previous incumbent in his infinite wisdom (translate that as sheer bloody laziness) did not, however leave a forward plan. Apparently it was 'my responsibility to write one with the stage partners'. Neither did he leave his daily diary pages so I could see what the class had covered and at what pace. So perhaps that's the reason I'm feeling somewhat stressed just now and why the month has hurtled by, I'm trying to do the job, discover what has been done in the past and plan for the rest of the term! No pressure!
The applications for the next lot of jobs are out now and need to be submitted by the 28th Feb. Unfortunately it has to be accessed from a school PC and to date I have been unable to get on - some glich in the server won't let me on to the council intranet. Further to this we have been told that the 'norm' (this will be my third year in the bulk interviews) is not happening this year. Instead of all who apply, Probationer teachers, those on supply who want permanent, those who want a transfer, getting an interview regardless of the application form, the forms are to be graded and matched with Headteachers comments and reports. Ones and Twos will get interviews, threes and fours won't. In past years everyone was seen, allowing for personality to overcome a poor form - not everyone writes a good form after all, but now we are all going to have to sparkle on paper like a ballroom dancer's bodystocking. Ho hum, I'm going to have to get on the case as soon as I figure out how to get the blasted form opened.

Here I go again, I keep telling myself I won't rabbit on about teaching and jobs and the like, yet there I am doing just that!
What else am I doing? The workshop is moving along rehearsals are going fairly well, we just need to pick up the pace a wee bit. I have three Wednesdays that I have courses or Parents Nights to attend so we have to be up to speed with it all before that happens. Going this weekend to see the Hall we will be performing in in April. The Young Farmers will have the scaffolding up and the stage extension up so that will be good to see. We're working in a measured area so, hopefully, we'll be able to hang a backdrop a metre off the back wall and get access to both sides of the stage without having to go offstage - there are steps up to the stage from the back area and if we can have the cast on the stage ready to come on without having to come up the steps to do so, so much the better. Costumes are well under way and Jenny is gathering props already. David is looking at how we will set the scenes; we've been dicussing a simple but effective method of ringing the changes using a stone cloth as a static back with various embellishments to create the different scenes. As always, we all pool our knowledge and experience and I fully expect we will come up with something fairly innovative again. The team are truly brilliant and I am so lucky to have so many talented and dedicated people pulling together. We're all working on the kids show and we'll be working together on the Panto along with a few more talented people - I fully expect it to be a blast and although we are not certain of getting the Theatre back in time for putting it on I have booked the Hall as a stand by. Just hoping for a biggish cast to pull it off!
But there I am again, rabbiting on about the end of the year and we're barely started. Maybe I will just toddle off and watch/listen to Terry Pratchett's lecture instead of rambling here. Yes, I will do just that. Night night.
Till next time.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-10T19:53:00.002Z

Yes, I know it's the 10th already and most of you have forgotten about the new year and are well on the way to planning for Easter and your summer holidays but I'm determined to let the year happen slowly instead of it's usual breakneck slalom down to the 31st Dec!
Starting a three month supply job in a school in Livingston tomorrow, it's a maternity cover for a P6 class and I'm looking forward to it immensely. Well in some ways anyway, in others I'm quaking in my boots. From what I can discover this school has some different ways of working than others of my ken. they use different materials and schemes of work, which is okay, but I'm nervous about not getting up to speed when there are children who need to be getting tested on their next levels! I have been informed that it is not possible to do any photocopying or find any resources by oneself. There are two staff members who do nothing but, and all requests have to be in a wee blue book and submitted well before the event, so that means I could have a few difficulties until I get organised. As the school is open plan I'm not sure whether or not I'll be able to use music they way I usually do for settling down and doing creative work or for finishing and tidying up. No doubt I'll find out fairly quickly! I understand I have a couple of stage partners who job share the other half of the P6 class and I'm looking forward to meeting them. I've never team taught before so this is all new and will be very interesting and useful for future job applications. Yes, I'll still be looking for jobs even though I have this one. I need to be on the ball and get my fingers into any possible pie as quickly as I can as the probationers from this year will be on the lists soon too! So that'll be me competing with all the unemployed from my year and last year as well as this year! No pressure then!
The workshop is well under way and the rehearsals are going well. We will not be able to use our theatre as it will still be closed but instead will use another hall in the next village. This will be a huge learning curve for all of the production team - we'll be somewhat out of our comfort zone and have to really think about our staging and scenery. The cast are showing great promise and I think this could well be one of our best shows, it certainly has a lot of good catchy songs and that's always a bonus!
Getting asked to vacate the PC now as there is, apparently a need for someone else to use it! As there are no emails in their inbox and the IT skills are limited I suspect there may be a very basic recreational use on the cards.....
Till next time!

All downhill from here!

2009-11-19T08:46:00.003Z

Well that's the official start to the silly season. A house here in town has not only got it's Christmas tree up in the window, the lights are also on! I have, in the past, when in the throes of Panto insanity, been known to put the tree up early but I never lit it (except to check the lights worked) until into December. Those days are long past as the girls have been helping trim the tree and put up the decos for years now, but still... The street lights are up as is the town tree (and it has it's lights on too!) but they don't come on until the Christmas Shopping night on the 27th November. I like that. I love when it's chilly (but dry) and maybe even a bit of fog swirling about. It's atmospheric and gets the idea of Christmas and giving, up and running.
Otherwise it's all downhill from here as the panic over how much there is to do sets in and the ulcer develops it's own ulcer. All for the single day in the year that should be the most relaxed and loving. Sigh! I'll continue to dream...
Till next time.

Picky, picky, picky!

2009-11-17T19:34:00.002Z

I thank my learned friend for reminding me that I did indeed post a vast quantity of Christmas cards without stamps last year. However, these were the hand deliver cards that ought never to have seen the outside of a pillar box, let alone the interior aspect!! You know it only takes a moment of inattention or a second of relaxed concentration and the ensuing chaos leaves a lasting trail and memory! I will be using two distinctly separate boxes for this years cards and making a point of putting the stamped cards in one and the hand deliver in the other!! Roll on! I love a challenge......
Till next time!

39 days till Christmas!

2009-11-16T10:13:00.002Z

Well, sorry, but as my dear daughter took it upon herself to drop that little bombshell on my poor unsuspecting head via Twitter this morning I have been inconsolable. Therefore I decided that everyone should be just as miserable, so there!
Christmas! Crikey! How time flies when you are enjoying yourself... sorry that was a reflex reaction.... where has the year gone? As you will no doubt realise I'm still housebound, sort of, I have managed to get one day a week in a local nursery, but as it's minimum wage it's hardly setting the heather alight! Still collecting dole and still looking for that elusive job.
Not sure if I have finally contracted the horrid swine flu or not. Have had the most awful sore throat and yukky productive cough since last Wednesday but am still realatively able to function - I think if it were the real McCoy I'd be lying in a darkened room somewhere moaning quietly and wishing for oblivion. There again, I'm used to working through things like this and not being off work just because I've a 'bit of a cold' so it could be my work ethos gene is keeping me upright! Vic was off two days last week with something similar but returned to school this morning - I'm not so sure she should have been going in; it would appear that a vast number of staff and pupils are already off and maybe she should have stayed at home, but I wrote the note and sent her off! More coffee needed, excuse me........
That's better! So, what have I been up to? Not a lot obviously, the ever present mountain of laundry is slowly beginning to diminish as I tackle huge chunks of it at a time. I may even haul down some curtains before I'm done, but don't quote me! Very gradually the mess that doubles as our living space is getting sorted. The dining table has appeared like a genie and is now sitting there smugly; daring anyone to dump stuff on it's now empty surface. The Halloween boxes are re-packed and ready to put back into the loft and I have put up the extra shelving in my study and shall make headway with the school stuff tidying in the next few days. When I put the Halloween boxes up I'll bring down the Christmas cards and make a start on writing them. Hopefully I'll be able to cut down on my postage a bit this year as last year I posted over 60 cards! That's a lot of pennies when one has no wage!! The plan is to get the cards written early and go round hand delivering them wherever possible! I have started my Christmas shopping; got a couple of things last week and the week before. I spoke to two of my friends who are in much the same financial boat as I am and we have finally seen the light and agreed not to exchange gifts this year - we usually give each other wine and biscuits and give the kids money, daft when you think about it! So we will send cards and that's all that's needed! Does this mean I'm finally becoming a responsible adult who deals with things in a practical manner instead of the previous 'what the hey, it's only money' approach I used to have? Sigh! Maybe. Then again, maybe not, as I'm still on the lookout for funky stuff for the few pressies I am buying!!
I'm thinking about getting my Christmas decorations up as soon as I possibly can too! Why? Because I love all the sparkly stuff and twinkly lights! I end up rushing at the last minute to get up all my stuff and more often than not don't do half the job I want to in getting it just right. Maybe this year I'll get it done properly with all the lights arranged exactly as I like them and the cards will go up as they come in and not lie in a huge pile till after my birthday and then get flung up any old how.
Hey ho! Have to go and get the next load of stuff sorted for the machine and ironing. May you all have as much fun getting ready for Christmas as I will.
Till next time...

This is getting boring...

2009-10-26T11:16:00.002Z

Why? Because I still have had no indication of there being any work at all from any quarter. Short of going out in a sandwich-board offering my services (and yes, it crossed my mind!) I have no hope of anything yet. Local Authorities have practically no jobs to speak of in any area let alone teaching, and I am now looking at trying to get a job in a local coffee shop when it opens next week - but as there are hundreds of people looking for work - the chances are slim to say the least.
Anyhooo... Biggar Little Festival drew to a conclusion last night and was I glad? Yes I was! Not because it had been boring but because it has been so busy! Biggar Shorts last Monday was frantic fun - finally managed to get a grip on most of the dialogue, but mega thanks to Gil who kept an eye on me and gave me the subtlest prompts to keep me moving through the sticky bits! Mostly Musicals on Friday was great fun! The Vaughn Williams came together at last and I think it went down well. The rest of the show was pretty good too, though the Rossini may have just slipped a bit in the last section.... however the wine was flowing after in the bar so that was all right then! In fact I found I partied a little harder than I would normally have done and the results were not happy at all. Discovered that Champagne and red wine truly do not make for a happy mix. Saturday was a bit of a washout as I was not firing on any cylinders for most of the morning. Did not dare to drive till late in the afternoon...
Not to worry, I will get back to having a glass of red eventually - perhaps just not this week....
Final barge at the theatre emptying and clearing this week and next. The last items need to be packed up and put away. Juniors Halloween party on Wednesday night then the Farewell Fling on Friday 6th November and then we're shut for the duration!
Ah me! The end of an era indeed.
Till next time....

Foiled! And I don't mean covered in silver paper!

2009-10-09T12:42:00.002+01:00

Well they say the best laid plans gang aft agley and it is yet another truism. Decided to thrust myself into the Borders schools today to repeat the exercise of Monday and introduce myself around and hand out my card so they can contact me directly for supply. At the optimum moment a text popped up on my phone from a friend who should have been snugly at work in her Borders School Office asking if I were going to Livingston as she would accompany me if I were. At this point I realised that Borders have one day more of holiday than South Lanarkshire, who are in school today but off next week! Confused? So am I! Why can't they all take the same flippin' holidays? Then we could all plan trips and excursions with our families and so on! I've not spent October break with my girls for three years because the holidays in Lanarkshire are different to the Authority I'm working in!
Anyhoooo. As previously stated the Stane primary job is a burst, still hoping for a bite at Cleland and have spent the morning writing applications for Priorsford in Peebles and Newmains at Wishaw. From one end of the country to the other!! Just hoping I get an interview for at least one of them! In the meantime, I'm still plodding through all the job search websites I have in my favourites list in the vague and vain hope that a job I could do (perhaps not in teaching) would pop up - it would have to pay reasonably well and not be too far away, hours? Monday to Friday 9 till 5 would be perfect. well so long as it had a minimum of 15K in the paycheck..... or more..... so any of you blog browsers out there who are drawn to this blog for what ever reason, if yo have a job in need of filling let me know! All sensible suggestions considered! Dearly Beloved suggested I go and see if Tescos are hiring...... don't fret, he still is able to walk!
Off now to make a bite to eat for lunch and to study my lines for Biggar shorts, then it's a bit more ironing accompanied by Bleak Expectations (guffaw!) and then into Lanark to collect Victoria from her last day of Work Experience (maybe with a large bag of biscuits in tow!) and back here to yet more housework type stuff. Ah me! A woman's work is never done!!
Till next time...

National Poetry Day

2009-10-08T10:38:00.005+01:00

Today upon the radio
...I learned something I did not know.
......This day, it would appear to be,
.........Is to be filled with poetry.
............Now I've been known from time to time,
...............To pen an epic tale in rhyme,
So here upon this blog I scrawl,
...Dear reader, here I give my all!
......It's been a busy time all told
.........In job hunting I have been bold;
............Pro-active is the phrase I spake
................Whilst touting an employment break.
I went to schools and left my card
...Contacting me should not be hard.
......Supply you need? I'm on my way,
.........I'll stay all week or just the day!
............So far no interviews have come my way
...............One possible said 'no' today.
But that's okay, I'm not upset
...There will have been, I'd like to bet,
......At least four hundred folks applied,
.........And I can always say I tried
............To write a real exciting sheet
...............To make them put me on the leet.
However it was not to be
...The other job? I'll wait and see.
......Now I have to go and play
.........At housework for the rest of day.
.............I hope you have enjoyed my rhyme
................Fare thee well, until next time.......

Oktober-festers more like...

2009-10-04T18:18:00.002+01:00

Eugh! Weather is practically bi-polar, one day lovely and sunny, the next gale force winds and monsoon type rain. Still no work and none of my applications coming up with anything positive. Have started the rehearsals for the Juniors' show and have it cast. Now just need to sort out the dates for the performances and make sure everyone is able to be there and then it's onwards and upwards!!
Our Biggar Little Festival week is almost upon us and I'm now back against the wall trying frantically to learn songwords for Mostly Musicals and script for Biggar Shorts. No matter how much time I try to give myself for these tasks, I always end up at the last gasp, giving my ulcers, ulcers in a vain attempt to at least appear in control of the situation...
House is still like a squat - have pushed vacuum about a bit but need to get stuff shifted and either dumped or put away. I suppose I ought to have spent the time out of work getting the house sorted out, but the advent of the Corn Exchange refurbishment knocked that on the head. We have till the 7th Nov to get every stick and scrap out, either to the dump or to storage. I must say it is immensely satisfying to see the order created from the chaos it was, but I can forsee future moans and groans as people realise just how much stuff we had to get rid of. I mean we only have two storage units and we have all the lights and tech equipment still to pack up, not to mention the scenery, curtains and props. In contrast, the house will be here when I'm not!!
Have an evening service to participate in tonight so I'd best be off and get the guitar out of mothballs.. suppose I'd better cut my nails too.....
Till next time,

Yah Boo Sucks!

2009-09-02T10:02:00.002+01:00

There, that's just how I feel today! Getting fed up with the continuing lack of a job, but now hoping to get a crack at one or two in yet another Local Authority! Started filling in Application forms yesterday and had to stop at midnight as the eyes were giving up! Talk about complicated!! Some of the questions were sensible and straightforward and some were just evil - I don't see how you can answer the question about why you think you are suited to the job fully and then answer a question about what qualities you will bring to the job without duplicating information. They even give you a space to give any relevant further personal information that you may not have mentioned anywhere else!!!! Talk about overkill? Anyway, I have till the 14th to get the applications in so am having a short break off the brain busting to see if things clarify and gel in my brain before I go back and compose my final answers.
Missed the chance of going to Edinburgh and listening to another concert today as was in with a chance of a supply post - unfortunately I didn't have the Special Needs experience wanted.... so it's just keep on trying!
Will spend the day gathering books and old videos for a Tearfund Coffee Morning which is taking place this Saturday and in doing so will clear my lounge of stuff and generally make things neat and tidy - well that's the plan anyway!
Built my Ikea CD tower and started to fill it - blimey I have a lot of CDs! I think I may even need another one to put them all in! The DVDs are going to go onto the bookshelves that I am clearing out - so there will also be a few DVD racks going to the Coffee Morning sale unless anyone wants them - I have 4!! On that note, maybe I should go back into Twitter and make that known..... Hmmmm.........
Till next time.

And the beat goes on...

2009-08-31T10:27:00.002+01:00

So here we are on the cusp of September and nothing changes! Still out of work and looking for supply to keep the wolf from the door. Had a very interesting experience in the local job centre where I went to 'sign on' as it were. Apparently all the National Insurance I've paid over the years is not necessarily enough to ensure my getting what folks of my generation would call 'the dole' or is currently known as 'Jobseekers Allowance'! It is a strange thing to be told that I can work up to 16 hours per week and still be entitled to this allowance, yet if I do one day as a supply teacher (7.5 hrs) I automatically become exempt as the salary for one day supply is so much more than a weeks dole! Similarly, if I do one day's supply, my claim has to be closed; ergo if I do one day supply my claim closes and I don't get any money from them but if I don't get any further work and have to go back to them, I have to start again with another claim!!! Surely this is the most ridiculous thing ever? Why can't it be sensibly dealt with? As 'Big Brother' knows all about my working career and what tax and N.I. I have paid over the years, knows where I work and for how long, then why is it so hard to compute that I'm not working and automatically pay me my unemployment benefit? Is this not a function that the wonderful computers of our era could be harnessed for? After all, there surely is very little of our lives that is not recorded somewhere, somehow.... not that I'm paranoid or anything......
More pleasant things have happened thankfully. Went into Edinburgh with the gang a week past Saturday - they went to see Amanda Palmer and I went to see 'The Time Traveller's Wife' in the pix. They had a whale of a time and I sort of enjoyed the film but perhaps would like to see it again to make some sense out of bits of it! It flies in the face of all the previously mooted theories of time travel. Any other thoughts of time travel seem to have agreed that it would not be a good thing to meet oneself as this would create a paradox, or a matter/antimatter problem, the assumptions being that the same molocules or atoms. I forget which, cannot exist in the same plane in duplicate, if you see what I mean. In this film the main protagonist not only meets himself and speaks to himself, he actively seems to manipulate or organise things that will happen, or set up cover for eventualities. Very strange, but very poignant and a bit of a weepie!! Maybe one to get out of the cheapie bin at Morrisons in six months time......
After watching the film I went down Lothian Road and sat in a pub drinking coffee - yes! Me! - and studied my script for Biggar Shorts while I waited for the boppers to return from the concert. The journey home was hilarious, hysterical at points even!! So, a good time was had by all and we slept soundly that night!
The following night Jen and I went with another friend, Alison, to see Bryn Terfyl in the Usher Hall - brilliant! What a voice the man has! I loved the music and the programme he opted to perform. We were in the organ seats and although Byn had his back to us most of the evening he turned around and sang to us a couple of times!! We even had a singalong! Not quite Kareoke but fun nonetheless. The lyrics were printed in the programme for each piece he sang, this made it so much more interesting to listen to for some reason! I think because when you listen to something you maybe don't know well or have never heard before you concentrate on the words and maybe miss out a bit on the performance. This way the words were there and one could really appreciate the full beuty of the delivery with all its dynamics and nuances! Fabulous!
So... back to the mundane and ordinary again. As I am not working it seems I am expected to tote that barge and lift that bale and get the house into a sparklingly immaculate and pristine condition, as well as complete all laundry and ironing and cook from scratch tasty and nutritious meals!! Where do they get these ideas?
Till next time....

Time vanishes in a flurry

2009-08-16T01:44:00.002+01:00

It's late and I'm supposed to be heading off to bed - big day tomorrow, going into town to a book signing. I'm not a particular fan of the artiste involved but the girls are keen. So it's up and at 'em and Devil take the hindmost.
Had an odd sort of holiday, with no teaching job in the offing I've been exercising my ulcer and stress muscles over the past few weeks. Have managed to get onto the supply register for Borders region and that is good, but I still have to have a disclosure check done, they can take weeks, before I can actually do any supply work. West Lothian has nothing coming up and South Lanarkshire are ditto. I've been very fortunate that friend Rosemary has given me holiday cover shifts in her bakery - I've had fun and earned a few bob but it's hot and heavy work at times - I don't know how she does it day in, day out! I'm still hoping a miracle will ocur and that I'll get a post in a school that will develop into a permanent one! But I've rabbited on about this before and so should find other things to blog about. Or even to rant about as I am wont to do in here! My most recent annoyance is that the Panto I've been working on, along with a whole production team, has been pulled. Not because it was no good, but because the refurbishment of the theatre is now actually going ahead. This is a two edged blade for me; on the one hand while I'm delighted that at last we will be getting the, well, quite frankly, desperately needed, work done on the Corn Exchange, the Workshops' autonomous use of the building will be no more. The community use of the building will see to that. While this is good for the community I see it as being a bit of a knell for the workshop, which will no longer be able to operate in the way it has done for years - putting on less well known and even experimental productions which stretched the membership and helped them grow as performers. Instead productions will need to bring in as near to capacity audiences as possible in order to pay for the hire of the theatre and so on and so forth. My pet peeve is that the rewrite I did of the Panto included topical material which will not be remotely usable next year - that's if we do it next year of course, I may get gazumped and find myself pushed out to make way for other productions... My Junior workshop show has also been affected as the theatre will not be open in time for our usual calendar slot in March. Instead we have to go into April, after the Easter holidays, which is not good, you always lose ground over a holiday and the older members are involved in the Gala and the practices for that begin immediately after the Easter hols, so it is a potentially lose/lose situation for the show. As always, I will endeavour to remain positive and upbeat, but one can only have the rug pulled out from under so often before one says "enough is enough"
It is now very well past my bedtime and so I must go and get some shuteye - I started reading a book last night and have no recollection at all of what I read, so I might just go and have another scan over it and see if anything is familiar.
Till next time.

Happy Holidays!

2009-07-01T23:51:00.003+01:00

It's finally here! The summer holiday!! How can I contain myself?! Off up to Dornoch for a couple of weeks with the laptop, books, Nintendo, Dvds, iPod, audiobooks (thanks David!) memory sticks to sort and tidy up, scripts to rework, type up and learn respectively. Walks to take, sights to see, Torchwood to watch, sleep to catch up on, food to cook and eat, how the dickens am I supposed to fit all this into a fortnight holiday? Answers on a postcard please...
Had a lovely day in Glasgow on Tuesday - bought more stuff to read, watch and to listen to and walked the feet off - good times! Weather is being particularly good at the moment and it is making such a difference to life - the sun seems to inject one with a sunnier disposition than is normally elicited by the usual drizzle and chill we are accustomed to suffering in July!
However - wondering whether I'm going to manage to get the packing done without a major hassle. the washing maching has decided to sulk and tossed it's agitator bars out of the drum and I'm hoping for a visit from the engineer to sort it all out tomorrow. Unfortunately I can't tell when he will turn up so will have to sit tight and wait for him, and then it's a hit or miss whether he'll be able to fix it or not.
Got sight of some pretty funky drawings of proposed plans for a building I'm fond of - they look awesome and I can't wait till they become real. I have some misgivings about the operation of the building once it's been altered and the role my interested party will have to play within it, but am prepared to sit back and watch and learn before throwing my hat into the ring!
Had a rather heavy day, working in the bakery - a few shekels to subsidise the lack of gainful employment in my chosen career. It was very hot work and I'm totally cream crackered. Going off to bed now having indulged myself for a lot longer than I would normally - sitting here reading blogs and Twittering, chatting on Facebook and writing on my own blog. In between times I'm swatting an incredibly annoying fly which is bibbling about in front of my face and once I'm finished here I'm off to get the electric tennis racket and will then proceed to fry the offending insect!!
If I don't see you before I depart for Dornoch, have a great time doing whatever you'll be doing, and remember, Life is not a rehearsal, but don't do anything I wouldn't do! (Gives you plenty of scope!)
Till next time!

Never a dull moment

2009-06-07T13:36:00.004+01:00

It's been a while I know but I have been trying to get an awful lot of stuff done. With little success I might add!
Still on supply, still no sign of a job of my own and still no signs of there actually ever being any jobs available for us poor out of work teachers! I may have to rethink my career change and go hunting for a different one. Maybe a few shifts in the Co op each week to keep the wolf from the door. Who knows where it's all going to end up but I will not stop trying.
All things seem to be drifting to an end this month. Our favourite TV programmes (not that we watch many) are all at the season finale stage, Ashes to Ashes, Desperate Housewives and The Apprentice - all done, so to speak. We have the summer(?) to get through and then the next onslaught of stuff we like will appear. Torchwood, Dr Who and maybe one or two other things might grab our attention and we'll be hooked for another wee while!
Soon I'll be starting the next theatre things, the Juniors show and the Seniors' Panto. The music for the Panto is a truly eclectic mix with literally something for everyone! The Juniors show will be a lot of fun I think, but in both cases I need to get a bash on and get the scripts sorted out. The fortnight break up to Dornoch will provide me with a good opportunity to get things organised and brought up to speed. Laptop, scripts and a few books will see me through, will listen to music and really chill out. But before I get to that level of nirvana I'm going to have to get a grip on the house and get it shipshape and Bristol fashion! No easy task as it turns out, as the days I was expecting to have clear to catch up in look now to be filled with working days - not that I'm complaining - I'm very grateful for the work - and the wages, I just had not planned to be working the last week of term and had decided to get on with some heavy chores before the holibags in that time. Now I have to revamp and see what can be done in evenings. Got the garden, such as it is, done yesterday and will attack the ironing tonight while watching the last episode of The Apprentice. The rest will have to wait and see what time allows for.
So that's how far we are - not much further that before really but, hey what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

Till next time,

Once more into the breach...

2009-05-09T15:26:00.002+01:00

Can't remember if I've used that title before...... never mind. Only another seven weeks till the summer holidays and still no word of a permanent post. However, I have two days booked off at BQ and two more weeks at the other school - possibly four, as the teacher whose P5 class I will be taking is going into hospital for a procedure I have had done myself and I don't see her getting back in two weeks - I couldn't have gone back so quickly, anyway, got two weeks definite work so that's good. Who knows, might even get up to the end of the term out of it? But I'll not be holding my breath or counting my chickens just yet.
I haven't done multicolored text in this blog at all, I used to do each paragraph a different colour in my old AOL blog.... Maybe I'll start doing it here too! I lke a bit of variety and colour about the place! So, what's new? Apart from the job thingy, not a lot. Still working my way through the bags of stuff I brought home - although I have managed to get some of it stuck up into the loft it will still need me to go up there and sort it all out into the correct boxes. I did have a wee trip to Ikea and purchased some magazine files and large cardboard cartons and am gradually filling them. Who knows, I may even get around to typing up and printing off the contents labels I am planning to make for them!!!! Have also been attacking little bits of the house and clearing out one area at a time. It's been quite good having the opportunity to have a few extra days with no-one in the house to get on get things done! I remember reading somewhere that when you have a humoungous amount to plough through you should set small targets for yourself. 'Select a shelf or a drawer or a small area and spend no more than half an hour sorting it out.' I must say I have found the positive mental glow of achievement from doing things in small bytes, as it were, is quite stimulating! I've been plodding on through the filing and sorting of the den and every so often I stop and go and do a small task somewhere else. It really does work and I commend the idea to the house!
Other things I have been doing is sorting out the prospective music for the Panto. Had a long chat with two friends who will be majorly helping in creating the music (we're recording it all at a friends' studio) and made massive inroads into the playlist. To say it will be an ecletic mix may be a bit of an understatement. Further comment will follow as we finalise and tighten up the definites and scrap the possiblys. Still haven't finished revamping the script but this has to be done in conjunction with the music as I have to set up the song in the preceding tract of dialogue otherwise it turns into a play with songs flung at it. Definitely having a Twilight scene though! No details till I have it all written as I would not like a random browser to perhaps hijack my idea.
Heard on the Radio that some lucky duck has won £110,000,000 on the Euro Lottery. Spent a pleasant half hour with a coffee contemplating what I would do with that amount of money. Suffice to say my family and friends would benefit, as would my Church and our Theatre. I know the house I'd buy - and yes, it is empty and for sale at the moment - how I would renovate and decorate it, I'd buy a small cottage nearby as well and employ and install in the cottage, a housekeeper and gardener (It's huge!) and we would absolutely have a dog!! Clearly I would not have to work but would probably do a bit of voluntary work in the local hospital or find something to fill my days other than reading, painting and playing with the dog. I'd want to learn Italian and go to Italy and see all the great art and architecture. I'd love to go Australia and America - not necessarily on the same trip! I'd love to go to Cape Town in January and experience the summer there.... all pie in the sky, but it doesn't hurt to have dreams and ambitions. Mind you, if this is what I'd like to aspire to, I suppose I'd better start buying lottery tickets...
Well that's been a bit of a post, haven't done this for a while! I must try and do this more often, but if I don't, well, perhaps it's because I don't have anything to say. Anyway, this'll do for now,

Till next time.

There's always a reason....

2009-04-25T01:30:00.002+01:00

Well, have now got two weeks work in this school. Have discovered why the room was as it was - an open day was meant to have happened on Thursday and the plan for the start of the week was to sort everything out and get it into place - kids helping as it's their project and the diary was going to be ad hoc to accommodate this! Fab idea and one I can accept quite wholeheartedly, knowing that plans can change in a school from hour to hour, never mind day to day, but, nonetheless we must all be very aware of Murphy and his Law, which categorically states that anythng that can got wrong will go wrong! And even if it's all going to be 'as it happens', a draft or outline plan of the intended events would keep things sweet!
This is going to be a funny old weekend - Alistair is away to Blackpool for the Accordion Championships and won't be back till Sunday night and I've got tons to get on with and yet I know there's a clearing of the dunny happening in the theatre later today (Yeah - Look at the time posted! This is when I get the computer without interruption!) Not sure I can really spend my time clearing out the theatre when I have such a midden at home to contend with. Still trying to get my school stuff sorted and put away, and it's all very well saying well just chuck it out - I will (hopefully) get a job soon and will need it all again! So I'm thinking I'll maybe phone and see who all turns up at the theatre and if they have enough bods will forgo the pleasure of raking the dunny out! Then will get some more of my stuff sorted and filed.
Need to go to bed now as feeling very, very tired and must close my eyes soon. Before I do so I will wish you all a peaceful and refreshing night and see you in the morning!
Till next time!

What a day!

2009-04-20T18:17:00.003+01:00

Crikey Mikey! has it been a day? Yes it has and it will continue to do so until later this evening! Got a supply job this morning at a less than scintillating school (won't name names - never know who's reading!) to take a P5/6 class. First impression? My God! They've been burgled! No timetable, forward plan or weekly diary evident. Couldn't find jotters, textbooks, paper. Kids did not know which groups they were in (some didn't even know there were groups!) Some jotters were missing, there was no note of where the homework spelling was generated from, how the reading groups operated, the room was a tip and the kids were not exactly setting the heather alight with intelligence! Or enthusiasm! Sick teacher had taken the class laptop home and so I couldn't access the smartboard, couldn't access the internet, couldn't sign on as a teacher to the system, so it was all systems hang on a wee minute there, maybe you'll just have to do it the old fashioned way! Had to give the whiteboard a thorough clean tonite before I came home as it was nearly as black as the chalk boards! and I'm going in again tomorrow (with a vague chance of a few more days - it's all money!)
When you walk into another teacher's classroom and find this level of mess - nothing labelled clearly, subject books in one place , tidy shelves etc. it makes you look at your own classroom ethos. I always felt my class was not as tidy as it could have been and spent a long time trying to get it sorted. However in comparison to what I spent today in, mine was just fine. At least I had all my language and maths textboks and jotters together in labelled areas. My Forward plan was always on my desk and the diary page for the week on my desk. There is a chance I might get a few more days work in this school, if so I will have to get a large box and put all her stuff in for her to sort out when she comes back - I know I'm not the tidiest person on the planet, but I really cannot work in this kind of mess! In the meantime I must go and get a diary page photocopied up so I can leave a note of what I've done this week for her. Sorry to use this space to pour out my woes, but the teaching community is such that one really can't trash another teachers' rep. or one disnae get any other offers of work!
That said, I'm off to get something to eat and to get ready to have all the hair ripped off my legs and from under my eyebrows. Who says I don't know how to enjoy myself?
Till next time...

Mental free fall......

2009-04-14T20:19:00.002+01:00

This has to be the busiest two weeks holiday I've spent for many a year! Dr Who exhibition and the Zoo one week, Cinema and Nandos, room clearing, furniture shifting, shopping and trip to Edinburgh (hello again Fopp!) the next. How does one cope? Still trying to fit the quart of stuff I brought home into the pint pot that is the wee room. Making headway but only just. I can see it's going to be a fairly long process and not one that can be rushed. Trying to decide which box a folder should be put in is becoming tricky; I'm all for A Curriculum for Excellence and Cross Curricular links in teaching but it makes it really hard to know where to file things. Have more large grey crates up in loft and the plan is to put all my old Uni stuff up there where it can be accessed if needed, leaving the shelf space in the den for my current stuff. All topic specific stuff will also go up there in properly labelled boxes - I feel a trip to Ikea coming on! again, easily got at if and when needed.
Still no sign of a job or even any supply yet, mind you, the schools are still off and perhaps I shouldn't expect to hear of anything till Monday at least. Come to think of it I'll probably have to get up and be all ready to roll at the drop of a hankie if anything does come through. Can't think what I'd have to take with me apart from a packed lunch, my coffee and my mug, a notebook and my pendrives - I have a lot of stuff in them that I could use if I needed them. I've been putting wordsearches and pattern sheets into a lever arch file, maybe I should take it in the boot along with other possibly useful things in a crate, then I would have a few photocopiable resources up my sleeve to assist me. Even so, still living in hope of a permanent post coming my way sooner rather than later.
Victoria is now 15 and didn't have the best birthday she could have. The plans we had made were kind of changed when Papa decided he wanted to take her (and us) out for lunch and to the cinema. Unfortunately this didn't take place till the Monday, so, only a day late. Then he decided he didn't like Nando's, nor her choice of film, so it was a bit of a burst balloon. Anyhoo, she liked her drum mutes and made out like a bandit in the cash stakes so has plenty of dosh for buying more stuff for her drums! (Remind me - why am I encouraging this!?) There was some talk of a new camera but I think the drum kit kitting out will come first!
We are officially a 'Twilight' family; well the female contingent anyway! I've read all of the books, Jen is on the third and Vic is on the second!!! We've seen the film (yes I know, now try the stew) and enjoyed it. I know we are possibly not the target demograph but it's nice to read what I would call an 'old-fashioned' style of book. None of the usual graphic descriptions of stirring hormones getting into the swing of things with blow by blow accounts of who did what to whom and for how long. Yes it's all a bit slow and soft focus but, as I said, it makes a wee change from the in your face stuff churned out under the heading of suitable literature for pre and pubescent girls. Jaqueline Wilson books are in schools but I find them a bit overpowering and cringemaking especially for the more innocent souls who have to read them and then try to analyse and comment on them - not all children have alcoholic, tattooed Mothers or dead sisters and fathers who are absent. Real life scenarios? Not really. Oooh! A rant! That's unusual!
Ho hum, look at the time! I've been on here for ages and I'm getting aggro from the big 'un who wants to go online for yet more music! I'd better go and let her on.
Till next time!

Thank you and good night!

2009-04-04T16:17:00.002+01:00

Well that's me finished up at school! My maternity cover has ended and I have had to empty the cupboards and bring home all my guff. I am in awe of just exactly how much guff I had actually taken in to school and will be on the ball for my next job - certainly won't be taking as much in again! (that probably comes under the heading of famous last words) It was a sad time too 'cos I really liked my class and am sad to be leaving them - the lack of wages for the rest of the year is a mere side issue. Have had 'the letter' from the council telling me that I will be "considered for a permanent post" once all the compulsory transfers and everything else have been dealt with - which probably means that I'll still be huckling round for supply work this time next year! I have the next two weeks to get the house straightened out and hopefully cleaned before the better weather! Then I am praying I get another long term supply to take me up to the summer and with a bit of luck I may have heard about a job by then. In the interim I'm hoping that if any supply comes up in BQPS I'll get a phone call to go in. I'm planning to go back for the centenary celebration in May/June and see the gang again, but would really like to get some paid work in the meantime!
Never mind - there's always the Co op, or M & S might need staff.....
Till next time.

The end of an era...

2009-03-30T19:42:00.002+01:00

So, this is my last week in Bellsquarry. I finish up on the 3rd and that's me done and dusted! T'other burd comes back on the Monday after the hols and I'm searching for supply work! Have put an application into other regions but so far no good. Am having to write forward plans for the returning teacher (of a sort! I don't know what she will want to be doing for the next term and so will be only creating a skeleton) I've also got the report cards to write so there go my Easter hols! The house is like the proverbial bomb site and in grave need of a good and thorough clean and tidy. What with the latent school work and the domestic stuff and the two booked off trips to places West and East in the first week of the break I don't see me wearying much! Will also be looking at my pantomime script over the break and updating it and the music contained therein. Yes, glutton for punishment that I am, I will be directing this year's festive frolic for December along with pals Mary and Rosemary, as well as continuing with the Junior Workshop who will be putting on a show in March. In between times I will be learning songs for the Mostly Musicals night in the Biggar Little Festival and learning lines for a one act play in Biggar Shorts - same festival!
Anyhoo, can't sit here gassing all night... I need to go and do stuff upstairs and then slope off ot bed for another chapter or three of my book - number three of the Twilight Quadrilogy - yes I know it's written (allegedly) for teenagers but I'm enjoying the escapism and as I'm on book three in less than two weeks I think I can safely say they're an easy read!
Till next time!

Nearly there.....

2009-03-14T09:11:00.002Z

So tonight is the last night of The King and I and Boy, Oh Boy! has it been a hard trot! I honestly had my doubts as to whether we would actually get here with any semblance of a show - fit to show a paying audience that is - and here we are. I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised at the phenomenal ability of people to find amazing reserves of energy and ability when the chips are down. Mind you I still wish, wholeheartedly, that there had been the opportunity to record every show - the outtakes reel on the finished DVD would be priceless! So there it is, done and dusted and only tonight to get through. A humungous learning curve for those of us in the Directing seats, mainly with a view to the logistics of creating a single entity out of three usually non-related groups. Lots of lessons learned. Mind you, Fiona and I did a lower profile exercise in a similar vein when we did Dream On, we combined the Juniors and Youth for that and we did a pretty good job, even if I do say so myself. I think the secret is to have people on the team who know what they are doing, and to let them do what they do best. I've been extremely fortunate to have very skilled and talented people involved with the Juniors, and, while I can have loads of ideas of how I'd like things to be/look/sound, I ask the experts and take advice! There have been times that one of my more nutty ideas has been run with and the result has been terrific, but that's all down to the people who know their stuff being willing to 'have a go' (probably just to shut me up, mind you!) and we've learned another way to do something or have another option up our sleeves for another time. We learn from each other and develop. that's how it should be. There's no point in going off with half -baked unrealistic notions, reality check at all times thank you! That said, I think that when the chips are down, the airy fairy ideas do tend to become entrenched in what is actually possible rather than the idealised aspirations they begin life as, and while this is all well and good, wouldn't it be so much easier, less stressful and altogether more sensible to start small and allow it to grow and develop organically; morphing into something wonderful, rather than a high maintenance, mega octane-fuelled bitch-fest where everybody is sick of everybody else 'knowing better'!?Ain't that the way of the world!?
Enough ranting!
Well on that particular subject anyway!
Back to the job situation; or lack thereof! Current maternity cover supply finished on 3rd April and nothing on the horizon so far. Had an interview last Monday for the previously mentioned 'some jobs in various locations in August' along with the other two hundred souls, all searching for the same Golden Ticket. Talked a mile a minute, budgie on speed, gibbering away, tryng to get all the stuff I wanted to say into the short allocated time. As a reflective practioner I have concluded that I've either talked myself into a job or out of a career! Watch this space! (no, it doesn't do tricks!) Should really have spent time filling out an on-line form for Supply in the Borders and get it in but not sure if I want to tie myself up to all points south for supply work - the cost of the petrol and the travelling time would be really detrimental.
House is looking like it wouldn't be out of place in a war zone. So it will be nice to have a bit of time to start getting it back into shape again. It'll be nice to have a chance to get the laundry completed in a reasonable length of time and to rediscover the bottom of the ironing basket! I may even reacquaint myself with the vacuum cleaner you never know! Okay, I hear you! So if the house is such a tip why am I sitting here tripe - ing this blog?
Simple, Alistair has two pupils sitting a music theory exam and I'm invigilating it! So they are sitting at either end of the dining room table and I'm sitting here writing away! Yah boo to you! I don't really watch a lot of telly - I prefer a DVD truth be told - and I'm quite looking forward to slobbing out a few evenings and watching some stuff. A friend lent me The Hogfather and I'm rather keen to see it, that and the plethora of James Bond Films that Victoria got for Christmas!
Okay, now I have to go - while I've been typing this 2 more emails have popped into my inbox. Now there are 26 to be read!!! Busy, busy, busy!
So I'll say 'tara chucks' and for those of you in the know 'Monks!'
Till next time...

Being a busy bunny!

2009-03-05T21:48:00.002Z

It has been a while since my last blog. It's not because I can't be bothered, or that I've sold my soul to Twitter, or even because I have succumbed and signed on for Facebook (still don't get it!) but because life has been terrible insistent on my playing the game and doing stuff that I said I would do. Now those chickens are coming home to roost! The Am Dram game is getting nothing short of frenetic what with all factions of the Workshop finally coming together to join up the dots in our combined production of The King and I. Not only but also have been making costumes, props and a backdrop, am now 'heid prompt' and additional singer in the chorus (from the prompt pit!) Oh it's a tight ship we run - multi-tasking like fury! Not quite having to climb into a costume and tread the boards yet, but very wary of the prospect... However, this time next week we'll have only two performances left to do and then it will be all over!!! Friends of mine with bags of practical and technical know-how, will be spitting jaggy feathers to see the back of it. Mind you, I'm hoping they'll not run away screaming too far, as I'm kind of going to want to pick their brains for my forthcoming Panto at the end of the year! (My hat is off to them - they know who they are - 'cos they've had a lot to put up with!)
All this notwithstanding, I have an interview on Monday. Before you all yahoo in deep joy and delight at the possibility that I might be getting nearer to a job, let me stop you right there - this is the bulk interview, where all the probationers from this year, all the requested transfers and all of last years probationers who didn't get a job get trotted out and looked over once again, for 'some jobs in various locations in August' As there will probably be around 200 staff chasing what might only be a dozen or so jobs, I'm not holding out much hope! Strangely enough, the Council are still advertising for Teachers to relocate to the area, with packages and money and stuff to sweeten the offer - why? Dear Lord, why? If they haven't got jobs for those of us who already there, where will they get the jobs for incoming workers?
Oh, I really think it's time I went. I'm so tired I could drop off as I type!! Maybe once the show is past I'll get back to dropping a line in a bit more often!
Till next time.

That was the holiday that was.

2009-02-17T21:34:00.004Z

Or so they would have you believe! Had Friday at the dentist, lunch with a friend and a trip to see Oliver in Motherwell, Saturday morning frantically doing the housework I should have had done on the Friday for the visitors coming. Cooked up a storm mind you! Had a pleasant enough afternoon and evening with the guests and did a humungous fry up on Sunday morning for breakfast! Toddled off to Livingston for a couple of hours and then collapsed into my bed shattered! Monday saw me back in the dentist's chair first thing and rushing from there to Lanark to drop off my impression and to catch the train to Glasgow. Met up with the gang and had a rather pleasant few hours stotting about, managed to get some really cool fabric for the dance routine in The King and I and some trimmings into the bargain. Rumbled back to the train eventually and managed to collect my dentistry in Lanark before trundling home. Alas and alack the dentistry was not a success and I have had to go back again this morning to have the work re-done and so am very conscious of a gap at the edge of my smile that may not be filled till Friday! However, this panic notwithstanding, we tripped off into Edinburgh for a change! Had a good gallop around the West End, bought some music and then sloped off along Princes Street. Was 'conned' into assisting in the purchase of a Wii Guitar Hero which pleased Victoria no end and sauntered through the Gardens to deposit music and game in car to leave hands free for other delectations and delight! Up onto Rose Street and into Cex and Fopp for a browse among the CDs (never got as far as the DVDs!) made a couple of (in my opinion) good purchases and perambulated back along Rose Street to The Filling Station. A branch of which we had eaten in in Glasgow yesterday. Good grub and great value for money, but looking at the price list, I don't think I would be terribly likely to go for a drink - £4.75 for a glass of wine a £14 for the bottle!!! From hence we clambered (some of us staggered) up the Mound and down onto the Royal Mile. After a look around the joke shop and costume shop I bought a pair of blue earrings in a wee crafty shop that I am fond of and, having established there was no-one had a burning desire to go anywhere else we strolled along to the carpark and went off to Ikea for the finale of the day. Didn't buy a thing but had a good look round and imagined what I'd like to have in the kitchen if finances would allow! Some really fab stuff in Ikea - we like it. Had a coffee and cake and roamed aimlessly through the Market place and then back to the car and home.
Back to the school tomorrow (that reminds me - I'd better go check the work clothes situation) So I'm off to bed to try and get a decent night's sleep (I live in hope!)
Till next time!

Holiday Weekend?

2009-02-13T17:12:00.002Z

I should co co! Holiday? As much chance of that as there is of sprouting wings and flying. So much to do - so little time in which to do it. Friends coming up from Bury for the weekend, others descending upon us en masse on Saturday night for food and frolicsome Wii fun. And I have to go out tonight to see a production of Oliver over in Motherwell, a trip I really could do without! However, friend's daughter is in it playing the part I once played so maybe it won't be too bad. However this is not my favourite musical by any means. The King and I isn't either these days. Lots of work still to be done and the opening night is less than 4 weeks away. I get a bit annoyed when basic stuff is neglected, like what curtains we will need and where we will get them from, what lights we are going to use, and a whole plethora of other things that were discussed way back but have not actually been actioned.This, of course, is the trouble with doing things with so many chiefs. While it's not really a case of 'somebody else will do it' there is a slight tinge of 'well I said I would need it' with a large inference of 'why has nobody organised this?' I can understand the reservations the youth leader had initially (especially as a lot of them are coming home to roost) but I'll be damned if I will allow it all to crumble thereby giving her or anyone else the opportunity to say 'I told you so!'
As a result am finding myself taking on more and more bits and pieces to try and paper over the cracks that are appearing which is not good for my blood pressure. And let's not even think about the cast member who, having not been at any of my rehearsals, eventually turned up and then began asking unnecessary questions, thereby losing a good ten minutes of my precious rehearsal time! A not entirely tongue-in-cheek comment was thrown out at the first Production meeting, that the Seniors would have to up their game to be on a par with the Junior and Youth sections. Sadly this comment is an unfortunate reality. Less than four weeks to go and scripts are not learned, blocking not integrated and the pressure keeps building.
I've always been a calm sort of person but this is really pushing my buttons. Having to keep a very tight grip on the temper, fastening on the rictus smile, swallowing the antacid like sweeties and trying to get through this. And I said I would be doing the Panto this year? My God, they won't know what's hit them!

Get a load of this!!

2009-02-05T21:09:00.003Z

This was sent to me by my cousin. All Mums, and indeed parents of any gender will identify with the sentiments stated herein!
Enjoy! By the way, hold no liquids in your mouth on first viewing!

One more late night

2009-02-04T22:48:00.002Z

Can't keep doing these late nights. I really need to get an early one, one of these nights! Car is going well - a bit light on the handling but I'll get used to it. Supposed to be another dose of snow tonight but as usual it'll not materialise. I will eventually get the wee room tidied out and the junk chucked but I suspect it'll not happen on a snow day off! Friends from Bury are coming up to visit a week on Saturday and we need to get the place ship shape so this weekend will be spent doing the floors and getting the spare bedding aired - who knows, I may even burst out and wash down the skirting boards! And it's not even Spring Clean time yet! Joking apart, need to get the front windows washed, our window cleaner has not touched them since about September last year, I've done them twice with my long poled squeegee and it nearly breaks my back, but needs must and we will save pounds on the 'leckie' if I can generate some real daylight for a change!
Friend has just had a significant birthday and we are going to go out on Friday for a meal - weather permitting of course - you can almost put money on the snow arriving just in time to stuff the weekend up can't you? Hey! Maybe I could learn how to download stuff onto my ipod instead of going out!! There's a back up plan if ever I had one - chortle!! Oatcakes and cheese are singing their siren song from the kitchen.....
Till next time.

Ho Hum - so much for that!

2009-02-03T21:00:00.002Z

Well the threatened snow failed to show - again! This is the second time we've all been cranked up to ninety nine with the threat of horrendous weather which has simply not arrived! Okay it's a bit slippy and icy what with the chill factors and all that but there is not the 16 inches of snow we had been promised -and that put paid to my plans for clearing out the wee room today - had to go to school instead! Never mind, the trip to Edinburgh Castle was cancelled due to inclement weather and will hopefully be rescheduled before I have to leave at Easter - I'd hate to miss the last bit of my topic. Off to look at my application form again and see how much more I can thrust into it that makes me the perfect candidate for any of the jobs that come up. (deep down I wish there could be a job in my school, but I know that's not likely.)
Still noticing the lack of blogging and the increase of tweeting going on!!
Till next time!

Winter warmers.

2009-02-02T19:04:00.002Z

It's been a pretty horrid time; this past few weeks. First the car passing over and then the sad realisation that I would need to join in the bulk interviews in order to even get a sniff at a job and open up the possibility of actually having regular money coming in on a full time basis. This would then permit me to perhaps indulge myself in the purchase of a new (or new to me!) mode of transport and further facilitate my continued progress in the workforce!
In the meantime we have been out and about and looking at cars (because even though I can't afford to buy one, I still need one to get to work in!) finally settled on a Fiat Panda and once I have a job, and Jen turns seventeen and passes her test (and actually needs a car to get to Uni or wherever) then it will become her little gadabout. Credit crunch strikes again and we have had to buy it outright instead of arranging finance - so much for the banks supposedly being back in the business of giving loans! HA! So that puts a bit of a crimp in the holiday plans. Unless I can get a full time permanent job we will probably not be able to afford to go away this year. However - positive reframing tool in hand - this might not be such a bad thing, there are lots of bits and bobs needing done around the house - bits of decorating and clearing out and re-arranging that could be done over the seven weeks break. And as we plan to go over to S.A. next year it would be a good idea to get the house ship shape when we have the chance!
So.... that's a wee catch up, I'm off now to watch a movie and have a glass of red - after all it is very likely that there is to be a very heavy fall of snow tonight and I possibly won't be going to school tomorrow so it's out with the wine and chocolate and feet up in front of a DVD!
Till next time!

Bereaved and bereft.

2009-01-23T19:13:00.005Z

My car has shuffled off its mortal coil and other engine parts and left me in need of new wheels but with no permanent job or sight of one this could prove to be difficult. Have a tiny little Nissan Micra as a loaner with an option to purchase at a fairly reasonable price. Downside is that I would not get my weeks' shopping in it let alone the girls and the shopping - so that's a no-no. Will be going to look at a Peugot 206 - slightly younger, not too drastic price but want to drive it about before making plans. At the same time I have been notified that I will have to apply for a job with the council again this year and go into the bulk interviews in March along with all the others in my position (and we are Legion) and this year's Probationers! All for 'some jobs in various locations from August 2009' according to the intranet page of jobs. This could be a very tight summer - no work - no money - no car - no chocolate..... sob, sob, I can't bear it, I have to go and lie down in a darkened room. Or go visit a friend and drink copious amounts of wine...... Hmmmmm.......
Gotta go.
Till next time.

A long forgotten dream...

2009-01-12T21:58:00.002Z

Been back at work one week and already the hols seem like they were months ago. It's been going like a fair and tons of things are popping up all over the term and most need kick off action now! The Scottish topics are paramount - this being the Year of Homecoming, what with it being Rabbie Burns 250th anniversary. (Shamefaced I admit, I don't know if that's of his hatching or despatching!) All the scottish slang, doric and broad scots language is rearing it's Nessie like head and baffling the denizens of Primary 6! All Scottish born and bred but have no inkling of 99% of the words! Not that they are, themselves,beautiful speakers mind you, in fact some of them could do with a lot of speech therapy - it would help immensely with their dreadful spelling! If ye canny say it how de ye expect tae spell it? Then there's the football and basketball tournaments coming up in the next few weeks, a trip to Edinburgh Castle for our Jacobites topic, assemblies, Valentines Day, Mother's Day, our class enterprise Auction, Easter Celebrations, and the School centenary celebrations to prepare for in June and the rest of this term vanishes into a haze of projected pandemonium...
Meanwhile back at the ranch the rehearsals for The King and I continue apace and we have only 8 weeks left to get the whole thing pulled together. Spent time on Saturday sewing costumes and there will be more of the same this Wed and then at various intervals until they are all created and we can relax (?). Cannot rave highly enough about the team who all throw their lot into the ring and work like exceedingly hard working things for incredible lengths of time to get all these things done for the good of the children. It's hard to type with crossed fingers but I do my best!!
Feel like I could have a long sleep and wake up when it's all over but that would require being in a coma and, unless I was guaranteed significant weight-loss and a new wardrobeful of clothes to enhance said weight-loss, that's not an option.
Have finally finished watching all four seasons of Desperate Housewives and am only waiting for season 5 to come out so we can complete the collection. Can't wait for the new series to start!!!! Now we can start on the Will and Grace set that Jennifer got! Then we have the complete set of James Bond films so ironing will no longer be the boring chore it used to be! Always assuming, that is, that there is actually something for ironing - we do eventually catch up and have empty baskets for, oh, let me think, at least 6 hours!
Well the evening has frittered away and it's time I slipped off up the staircase hill to Bedfordshire. It's not this sort of fun at 6 in the morning....
Till next time,

They think it's all over... It is now!

2009-01-04T23:34:00.003Z

So that was the holiday. Two weeks of nothingness, right down the tubes, nothing accomplished, completed, finalised or any other form of closure! Well, unless you count the bottles of wine that clink emptily in the recycling and the peanut bags in the trash! Have spent too much money on stuff I don't really need, like DVDs and CDs and new trousers and jackets for work, and spent too much time slobbing out in front of the telly instead of getting things done. (The laundry is really gettting on my wick now!) And it's back to work tomorrow and the last lap of my Maternity cover supply job. I've been looking for jobs to apply for but there simply aren't any in the area. (I've decided, in a fit of devil-may-care-edness not to go for the ones up in Aberdeen - the commute is just a tad too far, especially in the winter...) I'm hoping against hope that there might be a sudden change in staff in my school and an opening appear, or that my colleague might change her mind about coming back full time and want a job share, 'cos I'd do that just to get a permanent post and a dedicated salary, however truncated. And I still have to compose my application forms for South Lanarkshire so that if a job hoves on the horizon I have the blurb ready to go, ditto West Lothian and Borders. It's a difficult thing to do, I find, to blow your own trumpet loud enough to attract attention and bag the job but not to sound totally full of it at the same time. A complex tightrope to trip along I think. So many folk have told me there will be a sudden surge in jobs in the New Year I am really concerned I will miss out if I don't get on with it! So.... as we all know, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, so that must be where I'm off to.........
Till next time,

and a Happy New Year....

2009-01-01T02:05:00.002Z

Two o'clock in the morning and here I sit trying to type correctly after a half a bottle of Baileys and three glasses of wine. No party, just a heavy session watching the second series of Desperate Housewives and having to make the very difficult decision not to start watching series three until tomorrow!! Went up to the bonfire for a short whiley and supported the Biggar Big Bang Samba Band!! It was okay but truly once you've seen/been at the bonfire you've seen/been at the bonfire and there's not much else to do once it's been lit! It's a great tourist attraction and it's great to take visitors up to watch, if you have some, mainly because they can't believe the size of it and that it's so close to the buildings, and yet nothing gets burnt down! Mind you, every year we say, " Gosh, look at the size of that! They'll never be allowed to light it at that height, the police will make them take some off." But the police never do and every year this two storey sized pile of wood, old pallets and assorted flammable crap is built in the car park in front of the Corn Exchange and set alight shortly after 9pm on Hogmany, attended by, at times over a thousand people!! It's even been on the telly!! Fun and frolic, frazzle yer front while you freeze yer bum! Ain't that the way with fires? Anyhoo, going off to bed now to have a long sleep so I can get up in the morning and watch the next series of DH before I go back to school on Monday!
To all who peruse these meanderings, a Peaceful and prosperous New Year and may it bring you all you wish for yourself, and more.
Till next time.

Drunken Deep-fried Rodent to you!

2008-12-25T01:31:00.002Z

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...

2008-12-21T23:31:00.002Z

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?

2008-12-20T08:43:00.002Z

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...

2008-12-16T19:23:00.003Z

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....

2008-12-15T21:13:00.002Z

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....

2008-12-12T15:30:00.003Z

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?

2008-12-12T15:28:00.001Z

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

Drumming? You call that drumming? Check this out!

2008-12-10T16:54:00.002Z

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.

2008-12-07T09:18:00.002Z

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....

2008-12-06T08:49:00.004Z

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...

2008-11-07T23:54:00.003Z

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'!

2008-11-02T17:03:00.003Z

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!

2008-10-23T16:41:00.003+01:00

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....

2008-10-22T21:15:00.003+01:00

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?

2008-10-21T12:36:00.002+01:00

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!!

2008-10-18T11:09:00.002+01:00

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!

2008-10-18T10:23:00.004+01:00

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...

2008-10-12T11:10:00.000+01:00

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!

2008-10-06T21:54:00.000+01:00

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!

2008-10-04T20:31:00.000+01:00

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!

2008-10-02T17:01:00.000+01:00

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.

2008-09-30T21:32:00.000+01:00

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!

2008-09-30T21:30:00.001+01:00

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....

2008-09-30T21:29:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-30T21:28:00.000+01:00

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?

2008-09-30T21:27:00.000+01:00

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...

2008-09-30T21:26:00.001+01:00

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.....

2008-09-30T21:25:00.000+01:00

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.....

2008-09-30T21:24:00.000+01:00

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!

2008-09-30T21:22:00.000+01:00

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....

2008-09-30T21:12:00.000+01:00

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...