A rollercoaster of a weekend...

This weekend has been crazy busy. But in a good way. It started off on Friday, when I FINALLY got to see Mamma Mia! This made me very happy:

I was really excited by this point (probably to the point of irritating), as not only were we about to see the film I been going on about for months, but we were going to the Odeon in Leicester Square to see it! I was very impressed by the free souvenir programme, but not so much by the leopard print seats. Nevertheless, I absoloutely loved it...

On Saturday the Hadleigh youth (with a bit of Southend and Wickford mixed in) went on a day trip to the big, enormous, giant, humongous, GREAT Thorpe park! And it really lived up to its name. I felt a little sorry for Rich, as I convinced him to come by telling him we could visit Thorpe Farm. But when we got there it turned out they'd got rid of the farm a couple of years ago. Cue a slightly subdued Richard... until he discovered the wonder of the Rumba Rapids. See if you can spot in this video:

a) Richard comparing the whole experience to a high budget action film

b) Heather getting increasingly irritated with the video camera/the fact she was getting wet... we had a conversation prior to the ride along the lines of:

Heather: Will I get wet? I'm not going on it if I'm gonna get wet.

Katie: You won't get wet.

This was Heather after Rumba Rapids:

And here's a little slice of the fun:

It was a great day out, although some of us got wetter than others (as some chose to queue up for Stealth instead, which terrified the living daylights out of me):

Finally, it was Farewell Sunday today, which meant saying goodbye to our corps officers at Hadleigh Temple and Richard. Ben and I wrote an 'Ode to Richard' and shared it with the rest of the corps during the meeting... but I'll leave him to blog about that. It was really sad saying goodbye to the Wrights- they've been excellent officers and will be missed very much! I spent most of the afternoon feeling like I was in 'Challenge Anneka', running round Basildon trying to find a photo processing shop and suitable photo frame for Richard's leaving present before the shops closed at 4. It was worth it though. You'll just have to imagine this photo in a frame, wrapped in Indiana Jones wrapping paper:

Boxes

Every month, a worship event called CARUS is held at Mashbury. Last night's event was really good- it was given the theme 'Dreamtime' and involved us writing down our dreams for ourselves and dreams for the community on two sides of a large cardboard box. After that, we rebuilt a massive 'house' of boxes and it looked quite impressive. Until, that is, someone came up with the idea of playing Jenga... and taking one box out at a time. Here was the eventual outcome of that game:

I think Ben was pretending he was in some kind of disaster movie where he was trapped under rubble. I then tried to get an action shot of Glyn jumping mid air into the boxes, but all I managed to get was an action shot of a box:

I think Christina got more than she bargained for when she tried to join in the fun:

And it wasn't all playing with boxes, there was some worship and thought-provoking stuff in there too. One thing I realised is that I don't really have any 'crazy dreams', dreams that are very unlikely to come true but are an ambition anyway. I'd like to have a few of those.

It was a great evening- if you've not been to CARUS before, come along next time!

Happy Half Birthday to me!

I've been looking for an excuse to wear my new birthday hat for ages. I'm officially 23 and a half! And also happy half birthday to Stacey, who is 21 and a half today. Hooray! :-D

(It also happens to be Glyn's actual 25th birthday today- happy birthday Glyn- but as that's not quite as important, it can go in brackets.)

The children in my class all bought me John Lewis vouchers and expensive gifts, which was very generous of them... (although there's a slight chance this was due to the fact today was the last day of term-a happy co-incidence). Today was rather emotional, they've been a lovely class this year and I didn't want to let them go- there were lots of tears all round! It's so frustrating moving them on just when you're starting to see them really improve. It's always my favourite time of the year though- it's so rewarding to see how much the children have matured and how grateful their parents are. I'm very lucky that, for all its faults, teaching certainly isn't a thankless job. (Not at my school, anyway!)

Right, as a little half birthday treat to myself, I'm off to buy a Sat Nav. (I should've invested in one ages ago, I spend most of my life being lost...)

(Oh, I meant to add a Quote of the Day- our headteacher retired today and everyone in the class wrote a little message in his leaving card. Good thing I checked them though, as one boy had made a slight spelling error: 'Dear Mr. Chandler, I am very sorry you're living.' Oops.)

New Blogger!

Chris Carter (the one in the middle that's not me or Charlotte) now has a blog. Hooray! The blog world isn't dying after all...

Three facts about Chris:

- He can play the Euphonium . Very, very well.

- He recently auditioned to play bass guitar for the ISS (International Staff Songsters). And it went rather well... watch this space!

- He doesn't like parsnips. Not even a little bit.

For more information about Chris, you'll have to check out his blog :-D

You know you're a teacher when...

(Courtesy of a teacher friend...)

-You realise there are never enough pencils/gluesticks/scissors in the world.

-You see a child misbehaving in the supermarket you automatically give them "the look".

-You've programmed yourself to say "oh my goodness" when something goes wrong.

-You get excited in Hobbycraft!

-You can maintain a straight face in ANY situation.

-Stupid names of children in your class become the norm to you. (Don't even get me started...)

-You want to choke a person when they say "Oh, you must have such FUN everyday. This must be like playtime for you." (John, Andy... take note!)

-You also want to stab any person who says the following with a compass "Teaching? That's just about learning how to write on a whiteboard right?"

-You can sense misbehaviour without actually seeing it.

-When a lunchtime supervisor/helper/TA comes into your class to complain openly about them, you find yourself saying "OH dear, how sad" in an overly dramatic way! (I hadn't even realised I did this- but I do. All the time.)

-You say things once, then repeat them, then ask if everyone understands what you are saying, before repeating again.

-The people you work with (aka the children) are obsessed with finding out what your first name is.

-You secretly love it when a child in your class has a birthday- CAKE! (Woo hoo!)