Happy Holidays!

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

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...

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....

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!

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......

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!

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.