Drunken Deep-fried Rodent to you!

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

A downward spiral it seems...

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

Busy again - does it never end?

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

Growing tireder by the minute...

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

Finally lost it....

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

Sorry, trying to get a grip....

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

Well what about this?

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

Drumming? You call that drumming? Check this out!

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

Till next time

An oasis of calm.

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

Losing the plot....

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