The Most Terrifying Children's Movie Scene Ever...

I present to you... a short scene from Disney's 'Return to Oz'.

Even now, watching it back sends shivers up my spine.

(For the fortunate few who have not seen this clip, Dorothy needs to steal the Powder of Life from the evil witch, Mombi, who has turned her friends into inanimate objects. Mombi chops off the heads of beautiful women and keeps them in glass cabinets in a long corridor, so she can wear a different head each day. The Powder of Life is kept in one of the cabinets with one of the sleeping heads, and, well... I'll let the clip do the rest. Scary stuff...)

A Cookie Question...

I have a question.

It's a question that I've recently shared on Facebook, so forgive me for repeating myself.

A couple of weeks ago I was at Newcastle Station, with 5 minutes before my train was due to arrive. Then, I spotted a Millie's Cookies stand. I love Millie's Cookies. So I skip over, ask for a small selection and produce the correct money for my purchase. Then I turn to walk away.

'Hang on!' calls the Cookie Man. 'I just need to replace the till roll'.

'Don't worry about it' I say cheerfully, well aware that I have 3 minutes before the train pulled in.

'No, no, you must wait for your receipt...' insists the Cookie Man, before leaving the stall presumably in search of a new roll of paper.

Needless to say, I ran for it.

Then, yesterday, I buy a double chocolate chip cookie from Tesco. The same thing happened! I give the correct money, they insisted on making me wait for a receipt.... I don't need a receipt for a cookie. I give them money, they give me the cookie, end of transaction. I cannot imagine a scenario where I would have to prove that I bought a cookie. Like to some non-believing friend, 'Don't even act like I didn't get that cookie, I've got the documentation right here...'

Why is that necessary?!

On a similar note, while on the subject of stupid transactions, why is it that every time I go into McDonald's and ask for a plain cheeseburger, they ask 'Would you like cheese with that?' Without fail. Go on, try it...

What I've been up to lately...

I have nothing in particular to blog about but I feel it's time I did, even if only to set an example to other, rubbisher (yes, that is a word... just accept it, I'm a teacher) bloggers. So let me fill you in on my life over the last couple of weeks:

- Last week I went on my course to Warwick. The drive was long but the food was incredible. I always feel like I don't belong in situations like these, where everything is really pretentious and there are four different types of bottled water on every table (I made the mistake of pouring out sparkling water by accident and spent the rest of the morning trying to drink it... seriously, who likes that stuff?) I find that my accent changes a little bit around these people too- I try to pronounce all my words properly, but just end up sounding ridiculous. Still, it was nice being around other phonetic spellers and chatting to people who had been through very similar experiences to me. So that was good.

- I also went to Newcastle last weekend, which was great. I hadn't seen my uni friends since the summer, and it was good to know that no matter how much time passes, when we all meet up it's just like we're back at uni. I also managed to pass on the dreaded 'YOU'RE' comeback, in the hope that it would then go out of my system. You know the one...

'This is stupid'.
'You're stupid'.

'This is boring'.
'You're boring'.

'It's really hot in here'.
'You're really hot in here'.

(That last one doesn't work quite as well...)

It's getting out of control and driving people crazy, so it's stopping as of now.

- I'm really getting into my Mr. Men and Little Miss books at the moment. Reading them to my class is my favourite part of the day... and I can pretty much always get some kind of moral out of it! But recently I discovered something that made me very sad. This was it:

http://www.mrmen.com/

The good ol' Mr. Men TV programmes, filmed in the 70's and 80's and probably one of the best things about my childhood, have been revamped in America. It's now called 'The Mr. Men Show' and is all American and rubbish. I hate it when they do that! Makes me so mad...

- I saw the film 'Stardust' last week, and fell in love with it. I know I might not have the best reputation when it comes to film taste, but this really is one to go and see. Do it!

- I finally joined the gym as a full-time, 'go twice a week or else pay a fortune' member. Just so Stacey would quit nagging me. ;-)

There's not too much else to report really, life is very busy right now (am off to Nottingham this weekend, am sooo never getting my reports done) but I'm feeling quite content with my lot at the moment. No doubt that will change with my next complaining post, so I thought at least if I write it down, I'll read over it when I'm grumpy to remind myself that I'm really not all that hard done by.

A Poem and Some Thoughts

Here is the poem:

The ravenous rhino
Is big, strong and tough
But his skin is all baggy and flappy
Which means that there's plenty
Of room for his lunch
And that makes him terribly happy.

- Rumble in the Jungle

Now that I have your attention, here are some thoughts (which are completely unrelated to the poem):

- This week has been really busy for me. I feel like I haven't sat down and relaxed for a long, long time (if I have actually sat down and relaxed with anyone reading this, then you may keep quiet). I've somehow managed to involve myself in both the Songsters and the Timbrels at Hadleigh, which has meant that suddenly there is always somewhere that I'm supposed to be... For example, we had a festival last night which lasted nearly 3 hours without a break. Great fun was had by all!

- I've also had Parents Evening, which went really well. It was very hectic and stressful but it was worth it to hear all the nice comments. I did feel a little sorry for the parents with appointments after 9pm, as I'd been talking non-stop for 3 and a half hours by this point and was starting to come out with complete rubbish. I'd start a sentence by saying something like 'Fred needs to learn that different mathematical vocabulary can mean the same thing, for example add and takeaway'*. As I was knocking back orange juice by the wine glass, one parent even asked if I was actually drinking Buck's Fizz...

- Yesterday I had a really fun day out in London, and was very lucky to experience the Hard Rock Cafe for the first time! I'd recommend it to a friend. So if you are a friend, then you should go. But beware of the desserts... I'd just been fitted for a new uniform in the morning and paid quite a lot of money, only to find that it no longer fitted in the evening.

- This next little while is also going to be very busy, with trips to Warwick, Newcastle and Nottingham all within two weeks. So apologies if I don't manage to post very much. But I will try.

- Haven't been to the gym for ages. And eaten out a LOT. I feel like I've let myself down a little bit...

- Finally, a 7 year old child said this to me a little while ago now, but I found it really funny. Here is October's Quote of the Month:

'What is the point of putting a word in the dictionary when they don't even know what it means?'

I take the dictionary and look at the page. It states:

'doubtful - not sure'

Love it.

* The correct term would have actually been 'minus' or 'subtract'. There, don't you feel like you've learnt something new today?

As This Seems To Be An Acceptable Form Of Blogging...

Sorry for lack of posting.

Parents' Evening this week. Been manic.

Just got back.

Exhausted.

Update soon.