Holiday? What holiday?

The holidays started on Friday but I haven't sat down yet! Spent Monday in the new school, and Tuesday and Wednesday in the old one! House is like a pit and the packing still needs doing!  And I have all these DVDs and recorded telly programmes to watch only I don't have time to look at them! Sigh! Have to go do last minute shopping for food and final stuff to take and could see it all far enough? May need to go and open a bottle of wine......

Till next time.

All change again!

Well as you might expect from the date, the school summer hiatus has begun.. However, not to be boring, I decided to get into a bigger school in order to have promotional prospects. So it's off to Lawfield and primary 5. Because Rosewell is having major renovations done I can't get in at the moment to get my stuff out, so that's going to be interesting! Tired and in need of a proper holiday, hoping to have a relaxing time in Cape Town. As its winter it will be cold and wet so I can see me spending a lot of my time reading books on my Kindle. Oo it's going to be busy!

Till next time.

Again? So soon?

Jings am I on fire or what? Have taken the notion to write a bit more tonight as I am on holiday, or so you would imagine, however I spent most of today in school trying to get a head start on my forward plans. That and tidy up my classroom.
It was a pleasant interlude in a child free room, iPod playing gently in the background, vanilla candle sending gentle wafts of soothing scent over the room, creating a delightful ambience in which to work. Why can't we have more days like this? I could use one a week for prep and clearing up.
Have found a pile of books while clearing up, books I have to read, so many that I think my proposed trip to Cape Town in July will be taken up with all the iBooks and Kindle books I have downloaded and I will spend my reading time at nights with hands full of paperbacks instead of technology!
Spending tomorrow on laundry - have heaps of ironing and a couple of box sets to watch. I know how to live it up! Just have to decide which one to watch. Ho hum,as long as its fun I don't suppose it really matters.
Kitchen is a bit of a state since I left it half done this morning so I really will have to go get it sorted out before tomorrow.
Will be taking Vicky to Lanark first thing tomorrow morning so will be able to get on with things from early doors - hoping to get it all sorted long before tea time.
Okay. Enough today guff, it's been a not so exciting day and no doubt I will have other things to write about another time but that's it for today.
Till next time....

Has it really been THAT long?

Blimey! Sitting browsing on the iPad and I came across a link to this blog. I haven't written in here since forever! Anyone who ever used to rad it will have long since given up on any current info and so I may as well just give it up and shut it down.
Mind you it's quite nice to have somewhere to empty my brain into, even if it is just a repeat of the previous moan!
What has happened in my life since last I wrote? A million things and more besides. Vic is now at Stowe West doing Technical Theatre and loving it. Jen has gone to Napier and not loving it quite as much as she did Stevenson but still doing very well. She and David also got engaged in February and are planning to wed in July 2016.
I have finally got a permanent post! Yay! At last! I am working in a wee school in Midlothian. I have a multi composite p5/6/7 class who are mainly okay but have their moments! I enjoy it but the usual previous rants and moans can be inserted here! Nothing really changes that much unfortunately.
Am training to be a teacher leader though so maybe there may be a wee promoted post in my future somewhere - that would be very welcome financially. Jen is driving and has the Panda nearly all the time and Vic will be L plate free by the summer and will probably then want the Micra most of the time... I just pay to run and insure them both and hope for the occasional use ..... Well, not really, I have the Micra most of the time just now, but I expect that to change once Vic passes her test..... As I can't afford to run and insure three cars its going to take a Fair bit of finagelling to keep everyone happy and mobile.
Gave the Junior workshop up and started my own group, Shooglestick, we put on Tom's Midnight Garden last year in the Biggar Little Festival and it went down really well, there are less than 20 kids in the group but they are all remarkably talented youngsters and I am delighted to be doing another play with them this year.
Off on the Easter hols just now - not that I will get much respite, going into school on Monday as the Janice is in, so that I can write my forward plans! Nothing changes!
What else? Jen is 21 in May and is having a party so we have that to organise and it will be on us before we know what we're doing. May be going over to Cape Town in July to visit family but nothing booked yet.
We are all keeping fairly well and life just rumbles on.
Maybe I will drop in more often now I have remembered about my blog, however, I don't think anyone but me will actually read it! Not that that is a problem, I shal make it private and keep it as a diary! Ha!
So. Here's till next time.

Getting tired of it all now...

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!

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...

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!