If
you listen very carefully you will hear the sound of the printer in my classromm purring away - printing off the work that the children have done. James has spent the whole day in school sorting out our ICT problems - he has worked like a Trojan and done all that we could ask him to. Now we have computers that work, printers that print and the net system connects us all.
I am a very happy bunny.

How many?
Well, if I own up to the number, then tell you what I was trying to do, you might not laugh so scornfully...? FOUR - yes 4!!
I did it one month early, then lost the papers... then forgot to take the reminder with me, then messed up the V10 so it had to be done twice. The lady behind the counter recognised the original cheque and laughed, then finally - after all the refilling of forms asked me to go away - very politely. She was lovely, but really I should be able to tax my car by now without all this trauma. Shouldn't I???

Woahhhh!
Things have moved beyond the realm of reason.... If there are any regular readers out there ...? they will know that I have a friendly mouse family in the garden which feeds on the bird food - sometimes eating the bits that the messy birds drop, at other times they jump onto the feeder, cling on for dinner, eat the nuts then scoot off underground.
However,.... today they have started to play whilst I am out there eating my own dinner. This is one step too far, not only this one step - they have been dancing the two -step -going- too- far -dance.
Let me explain, whilst lying in bed at night trying hard to go to sleep, I do not appreciate a mousetrot above my head from the family who decide to visit overnight. That attic space is for my use only - junk and Christmas is stored up there, it is not offered on rent to four footed families, so..... I have visited the local hardware store.
They sell a mouse poison which guarantees not to poison the mice...yessss, that's right. It affects their digestion, but doesn't poison them. So what does it do? Give them the runs? Hallucinations? Wind? Am I going to be disturbed by mice with indigestion? How loudly do they trumpet?!!! I am going to put this stuff down and see, I do not like the thought of them getting in to the kitchen, not only from the point of view of meanness _ I don't want to share the food, I also don't want to have to clean everything out at this moment in time, so the invite is not there. Get it mouse?(Does this sound as if I am getting cross? Too true!)
When I go to bed tonight, I wonder what the sound effects will be? Munching first I hope, then - wheezing? coughing? the sound of mice falling over after being not-poisoned? I will let you know!
Meanwhile, the wrens are still shouting at me for enjoying the garden during the day, the mice are getting cheeky and joining in the repast, and the wasps are frantically looking for a winter's place to hide. Who said the country was peaceful?
Here I am utilising weapons of mass destruction and swatting the bugs. Blair, Bush? Huh! Wimps.

I really enjoy
that feeling of belonging in a staff of a school - and at my present job, everyone is wonderfully supportive. We can work through the lunch hours, or we can meet in a room and have a silly laugh. It really is one of those things that make the job worthwhile. I will let you know about the aggravated father - I don't yet know what I have done to upset him!

SAS
Survive all s......... - we did survive the visitors, thanks for the comments! And now I shall start to live a real life for a couple of weeks - except for filling in the tax form..... if only I didn't get paid a few pennies to coach cricket, I wouldn't have this annual agony.
My daughter's college friend has just given birth to an enormous son - so welcome Cole Benjamin to this funny world. Livvy is very excited about him and desperately wants to see him - NOW! The sad things is she is moving home this week-end and can't tooottle off to play surrogate aunts. She has spoken to him on the phone though!!?

A Lovely Day In Worcestershire.
This time we did not get lost, we deliberately went to look at a church that my mother has never been to visit. Believe me, she has seen many of them in the county! This time though - it was a first. And a lovely one too - quite different for an old English church, but let me take you on a guided tour round, it was at Cotheridge, just between Worcester and our favourite pub!



This is it - do you see what I mean about different? It is quite old - there are Norman bits still standing. (Lucky old Norman...)

The view as you look out of the entrance.

Lovely barrel vaulted roof, very plain.

They have decorated the church with local hops, this pulpit looked lovely.
Through the screen into the part with the altar.

Lovely Victorian stained glass erected in memory of a local dignatory.
There are three windows in the screen, this was one with mum sitting in the box pew in front of it.

And the joke is....
definitely on me. If you look at the last photo - the one of my garage, well now imagine the steps at the side with about 8 sacks of donkey dung on it - again! I've just noticed that it shows the beautifully painted decorative bits though - those were the ones I was painting when the step ladder hooked itself under my underwear! Come to think of it, I am so glad there was no dung there that day!!

The hat from Gozo
It came out from storage again today, we have had the most wonderful sunny day. it has been a real treat to sit out in the sun and enjoy the warmth when you've mentally accepted that autumn is coming and this will not be a possibilitiy again until next year. Lurvely...

Last year my son helped me to put some lathes and clematis wire over the garage roof for a clematis to scramble over. He thought I was mad and that it wouldn't work. I am so pleased with the result - true I did have to do a machete act when I returned from holiday, it keeps out the unwanted visitors too, but it has worked.

There are also successes elsewhere in the garden

and the sedums with kaffir lilies are a wonderful red splash.

Recycling
Hmmm. That's sounds like an ominous hum doesn't it?!
This year I have graduated to the much admired group of of people who have been able to get rid of many things that I have had since childhood. One type of things, was lots of books. The local book shop in Newport had started to buy second hand books, so I decided it was time to clear some of thosebookshelve that I had erected in 2000, so that any new books might have a place higher than ground level.
I asked first if they wanted books of a varied nature - we are talking music theory, pond plants, reading poetry and various dictionaries. Is that called a catholic selection? I don't know. Anyway, feeling very pleased with my strength of mind, I took in four boxes of books. The gentleman asked me to come back to discuss the price as he would need to look at them. Fine _ I thought, I will, I can do this now - get rid of things.
When I did, he was ill. So I left it until they told me, then he was still ill. So I left it and went back three weeks ago, he made an appointment to see me after visiting the very condescending book binder. Interesting, he had one of my books in his workroom. Hmmm.
Well, to cut a three month story short, I finally managed to see the people today - they accused me of
lying about the books, that I had already been paid - etc etc. I have not felt so demeaned for years, I almost burst into tears. Is this what business is all about? Destroy the people that you wish to deal with?
Sod that! Smallwood Lodge will find that it is not good tactics to rubbish your customers. The internet will be my route to book buying in the future. At least then I will not see people turn their back on me whilst they are supposed to be discussing the matter.... you will be glad to know that I did not say out loud that manners maketh man. Ooohhhh, I thought it though!

It must be a day for making me cross .... on the new recently there was a piece about training middle class children to look as if they had nothing that would attract muggers. Hang on here... shouldn't the police be catching the muggers instead of telling others how not to upset them? Where are we going?

Keeping going....
The printer now works - so we can all produce some work, labels and planning. The computers have been cleansed so we can use the internet! Wonders will never cease, the technician who came to do the job did agree that 'lessons have been learned.' from this bug. Oh good! I am so pleased. However, we are not allowed to be sarcastic in this job, so I won't be...

The journey to school is beginning to show its patterns. If I leave before eight, then I run the risk of meeting the school bus, a huge lorry - one of those dislocated ones, and a delivery van. Very hair-raising on narrow country lanes, as you may well imagine! If I leave at eight, then I usually only meet the bus, however, postponing departure time to ten past eight means that I run the gamut of the locals driving into Newport. That is proving to be even more uplifting in the wig region; these car drivers are still wondering who I am and why I am on their road and forget that I might have a right to be driving towards their village.
Tomorrow I shall take some time off to walk alongside the canal which runs through the village - all very rural and pretty. Perhaps I shall start my connect8 there. The challenge this time is to set up a site that is better than last time and to size my photos better. I am encouraging the children to enter as well, we have a professional photographer in the parents' ranks, so why not use her I thought!
Meanwhile, if I failto blog some days, please understand that I have started to work on the proposal for my thesis, so I am probably burrowing in a book!

I have been told off!
There firend - I have written out my lines, I am sure that is what you wanted me to say - not in the hundreds, but I think 8 is enough for a Blog!! (I had a major panic yesterday about this teaching lark, luckily Lardy Girl 1 sorted me out so all is well. She gave me a severe ticking off and offer of help today so I calmed down, drank only one gin and all was sorted.)
Went in today and had a lovely day, only half the class this morning so that's bliss! I also get the more advanced group - something that has not often happened in the past. I can discuss something with them, sort out their queries and then they do the work! This is wonderful, children from my last school had probelms with the latter part of the agreement!
As part of this new attitude tawards my life, I am going to roast a duck for supper, pick the beans, dig up the spuds - I never plant them they self seed every year and are a surprise crop! then warm up the smelly Somerset Brie to eat with one of my own home grown apples and treat myself to a glass of wine.
Roast duck anyone?

Wellllll......
Some things I kept records of, others I will have to sort out when the time allows, but the comments and some links are back. I think we need a new impetus to the map though - but I have forgotten how to do it, duh.

It's Sunday, so I'll just nip into ...............school!
Yes, that's right - school on Sunday! I wanted to rescue some furniture from the dump, so I had to do it when the head wasn't around!! Then threw out a lot more stuff, put books out so that the short people can actually see what's there, then came home via the dump so that I could throw away my sorted clothes before I changed my mind and rescued them! I know my failings - !!
It has been bliss to be at home in the daylight again - the winter is always a trial because you never see the garden in dayllight during the week. The autumnal flowers are looking good, the Kaffir lilies splashing red everywhere, they are beautiful. I have some very late spinach comming up and have bought some organic slug control to see if that works, I really don't want to lose all of the crop to the little varmints, but I don't want to cause the birds any problem - there are so many visiting now it would be a pity to poison them!!
Now I must redo all the links that I lost when this blog went awol.

Forgive me Visa, I have shopped.
One week's work, that's all it takes to build up that need for retail therapy! True, Friday was a long day, I left school at 7.45p.m. afteranother massive sortout - of boxes of files from a headteacher who died two years ago, boxes of junk from last term and a computer's filing system. Last term I was good about the shopping for clothes - I just did not buy any, not that this meant that I walked around starkers, but I was being cautious. However, we are now talking about a different kettle of fish, there will be a pay cheque at the end of this month, so off I trundle to Moet at Eccleshall.
They are like old friends, there's always a cheery greeting and enquiries about my life and yours Lardy Girl. The coffee is made and I collect armsful of clothes to try on. This bit is more boring now that I don't get things torn away from me that are obviously unsuitable, but I am a happy little bunny trying on lots. Then I sort out the categories of yes and no, go to pay for them, see some more things, so go back and try them on, take the final pile to the desk to be immaculately packed and pay. They now know that I do not wish to have the total price spoken out loud, whispers are enough for me at this point!
In the past I would go on to Julien's but now there is a shoe shop just up the road, so I go there first. One pair of lovely sandal type shoes fo rthe evening and a pair of boots later, I finally go to Julien's for a meal. He has now gone upmarket which is a pity, lunch time in there used to be more fun, its more staid now - white table cloths, no menu board etc. Pity that! The food remains superb, the little bread rolls still appear with the 'compliments of the house', and the service is good but not so friendly as of yore. The leg of duck was excellent, the butter beans must have been grown in a giant's allotment, they were huge! Coffee to round it off, then home to throw out the old clothes - FOUR bags, yes FOUR!! Two bags of old coat hangers, then things started to look sorted.
The present task is photographing all my shoes so that I can stick a picture on each box and see what I need quickly. Imelda is my fourth Christian name.... this will take some time!
So you can see I have had a good time today!

Mee tooooo!
My firend Lardy girl described herself as cream crackered this week, all I can say is 'Me too!' Let no one underestimate the energy needed to teach children. Left school today at 7.45 pm, arrived at 8.05am. Its a long day with no breaks - coffee or lunch. However, the staff are lovely! Senses of humour abound and we can laugh together. On Monday I am taking my saw into school and making my shelves in my tiny cupboard bigger. Let's see what the head says to that!
Meanwhile the gin bottle provides instant relaxation and Mo will provide shopping retail therapy tomorrow. TGIF!!!

Oh! There's Julien flying over...
I will introduce you to Julien presently. This morning I drove all of the six miles to school, only meeting one bus and one dead partridge. A quiet journey really. As I parked my car the house martins were wheeling overhead, then suddenly it was time for a rest and about a hundred of them landed on the telegraph (why do we still call them that?) wires overhead for a short breather, then off they went again, tweetering and generally flying around in a hooligan-like manner.
School was good fun, the joy of this age group is that you can start to tease them earlier in the year and talk about serious things. I was introducing the topic of Greece today and one child brought to our attention the fact that the loos have a narrow outlet pipe so the loo paper has to be put in a bin, not flushed away. Well, that got me going, I told them about our trip to the Cevennes and how smelly the loos in our hostels became, then looked at their faces and realised that no one had ever taken them up on these matters before. Very funny, it certainly silenced them!!
To less smelly matters, after turning out the PE shed (I'm the new teacher, you get these roles in teaching... not supposed to move heavy furniture?!!! Huh!! Who else will do it?), I walked back to my room and could hear some buzzards screaming quite close. There were three of them flying low in the field next to the school, bickering with the rooks as usual. They are magnificent birds.
So home for a g & t, it was lovely and warm so I sat outside for a couple of hours watching our resident hooligans have their evening of speed flying overhead, with the odd group of geese interrupting them, then Julien flew over. I am so pleased, I haven't seen him for ages. He is the local moaning rook; he flies with the rest of the group but at a slight distance and he moans all the time, "Caw, caw, caw, caw ,caw." The rest move silently across the skyline. The first time I heard him was after meeting up with some cricketing friends at Lilleshall where an extremely good throwing coach spent the whole evening moaning about the ECB to the National Coaches. How odd - to moan directly to the people that you work with - but at a social gathering. Do it professionally in a meeting, not with sundry others gathered around. Directly after listening to the coach I came home and heard this rook flying over and sounding exactly the same, so I christened him Julien. It was good to hear him again, if only because I was so cheerful. Then I had to come inside because it was getting dark and the birds wanted some food.
Blissful day - life is good at the moment.

Day two...
...and it was only 10 minutes into the day when I realised that I had made the correct decision!! There will be bad days and nights, but it is good to be back with short people, their sense of humour and also being kept up to scratch in every thing that I say!!
The head steals everything so I have warned them not to tell him where things are, they did say that they weren't supposed to tell lies... smart alecs!!
So short blog, but yes, the right thing to have done.
And the battery of my whiteboard pen was flat so no fun on that - sob.sob.

Added to that my blog has deleted itself - hence the basic setup with no links - please don't take offence, I will sort it at the week-end!

Day One
A whole day set aside for training when I really could have spent the time in my classroom - the painter finally finished and so I could sort the furniture and then the books.
Aaargh! What have I done??? It's OK without the short people, but tomorrow? That will be another story! I am still going into this class with no records of achievement so I don't really know what work they have covered...... but never mind ay!! I shall spend the day getting them to sort out the labels, photograph the class and write about things. Or on the other hand, I could be doing some womderful art, it's Clariss Cliff for them this term which could be fun all round.
Now where is that bottle of gin?