Crashing out as I type...

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

Busy, buzzy and brainbustin'!

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

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

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

Till next time....

Jolly good lunch - hic!

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

And the band played on....

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

Holiday? What Holiday?

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

All becomes clear!!

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

Nobody tells me anything!

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

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