Katie's Random Thoughts

Hansel and Gretel

2009-06-08T19:00:00.002+01:00

One of my favourite topics in Literacy has to be 'Traditional Fairytales'. Children just don't seem to know as many stories as they used to, and it's always surprising how many haven't even heard of classics such as Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin and Hansel & Gretel. So every morning this week we've read a traditional story together, and it's been lovely. This morning, my story of choice was Hansel and Gretel.

It was horrific.

I'd already explained to the class how there are many different versions of the same story, and how authors such as the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson weren't afraid to write about unpleasant events and people. (As an example, we compared two different versions of Little Red Riding Hood- one where the wolf swallows Grandma whole but then gets sliced open by the woodcutter, and another where a book falls off a shelf onto his head, giving him a headache so he forgets about eating Grandma in the first place and becomes a much nicer person.)

But it was only when reading Hansel and Gretel that I realised how scary some of the stories really are. Not only do the poor children have abandonment issues after being left in a forest by their wicked stepmother (on three separate occasions), they then get tempted by a seemingly lovely lady who has lots of sweets and goodies, and promises to take care of them. Only it turns out that she's actually a cannibal who loves eating children, and one of them gets locked in a cage and is force fed until he gets fat enough for a juicy meal. While this is going on, poor Gretel is made a slave and has to work all night and day, terrified of the wicked child-eating lady. (I have never seen my class so gripped by a plotline...) It all turned out alright in the end though, as Gretel eventually pushes the woman into her own oven and cooks her alive. And they lived happily ever after.

Terrifying, non?

The best part of the lesson was when I asked "So, what do you think the moral of this story is?" to be greeted with the reply, "If you see a gingerbread house, don't go inside it".

I thought that Hansel and Gretel would make a rather good horror movie. But when I browsed YouTube for a cartoon version to show the class, I discovered that some bright sparks in South Korea had already jumped on that bandwagon. You've got to admit, the music is a little creepy.

You can't stop the beat...

2009-05-31T18:04:00.013+01:00

I love a good ceremony. Yesterday, we went to Daniel and Louise's wedding. Here's a picture of the happy couple:

Lovely.

At the reception, I was lucky enough to witness some rather splendid dance moves. Normally at weddings (especially at Salvation Army ones where the guests are sober), people tend to play it safe with the side-shuffle-in-a-big-circle option. If you look carefully, you might even notice it in the background...

Matt and Chris then attempted to re-enact a scene from Grease:

Finally, Ben and Glyn partnered up for a classic Barry White number:

Diversity, eat your heart out.

A week (or three) in pictures...

2009-05-19T22:22:00.005+01:00

I was browsing through my phone when I realised that there were a few photos on there that I'd neglected to upload onto Facebook. And each one had a little story, so I thought it would be nice to put them on here instead. Unfortunately, it's taken about half an hour to work out how to upload four photos to this blog, so the post might be a little shorter than anticipated.

Here is a photo from my Bank Holiday weekend. Suz, Mike and I went on a little picnic to Danbury Lakes, only to discover it was pouring with rain when we got there. Not to be put off, we sat in the car and ate our sandwiches whilst admiring a family determined to share their lunch on the grass under a huge umbrella. So very British.

Last weekend, Heather and I went on a very special outing to Westfields. It was special because all she had ever talked about was her desire to own a Louis Vuitton bag, and finally her dream was about to come true. Doesn't she look happy? (The fact that she could have put a deposit on a house for the amount she paid for it is irrelevent...)

Here is a lovely photo of Heather and I playing with Ben's Warhammer figures (or is it figurines?) We tried to make their arms move, but I don't think they were supposed to. When Ben came into the room and saw what we were doing, I actually thought for a moment that he was going to kill us.

Lesson learnt: Warhammer take a long time to make and are NOT toys.

Finally, we were at Adventure Island the other day, debating whether to go on the new ghost train ride. However, when we tried to go on it, it was closed. We were a little upset until we read the sign outside the ride:

"Oh, they're RE-MAGICIALISING!" Ben said. "That's ok then..."

Eavesdropping in the playground

2009-04-23T20:11:00.005+01:00

"I can blink with my eyes closed."

"I promise my lips will be as closed as a mouse."

"Mrs. Smith hurt me."
"Don't be silly. How?"
"By telling me off. She hurt my life."

"My mum is gonna name my baby brother Toby."
"Really?! My invisible friend is called Toby. He's a donkey."

"Why do they call the small chocolate bars 'fun size'? I think it would be more fun to eat a big one."

Mabuhay!

2009-04-14T10:14:00.007+01:00

So, I'm finally back from the Philippines after a long and rather stressful plane journey. I flew with Singapore Airlines, which meant that I had to change planes in Singapore. Unfortunately, it stated on my itinery that I would only have 45 minutes stopover time to make the connecting flight to London. Even more unfortunate was the fact that the computer system crashed in Manila, so my plane was delayed by an hour. Assuming I'd missed my flight (and a little disappointed I wouldn't get to ride in one of those beepy car things between the terminals) I sauntered off the plane in a leisurely fashion, only to be greeted by a man at the gate shouting at me, 'Are you London? Then GO! GATE 4! They are all waiting for you!' I ran onto the plane, at which point I realised that a whole cabin of English people (I hadn't seen an English person for two weeks) were glaring at me, as they had been waiting over half an hour. Of course, I wasn't the only person they were waiting for- there were about 15 of us- but still...

And while I'm on the subject of airports, does anyone else have a silent competition with the guy standing next to them at Baggage Reclaim? I do it without even realising. You know what it's like- everyone else seems to always get their luggage first, until there's only a few of you left. It feels like you've been standing there forever and know the people standing next to you really well, even though you haven't actually said a word to them. And the whole time you're thinking, 'I really hope my bag comes first... please be first.... come on...' I don't know why I bother, I always lose.

Anyway, this post was supposed to be about my holiday. I had a fantastic time, although it was rather different to last time as part of the holiday was spent in a province called Bicol, which is in a really remote part of the country with no internet access, phone signal or even proper roads! This was because every Holy Week my mum's family travel there (it was where they grew up) to take part in a town procession on Good Friday, as it's a Catholic tradition for them. It was a world away from the luxury I was used to in Manila, where all my aunties and uncles have lovely big houses with air conditioning and maids. By the time we reached the town it was very dark, and the house was literally in the middle of nowhere, near a tropical forest. Once I'd got used to the cockroaches and frogs (which seemed to be hopping about everywhere- I can't stand frogs!) I realised that I needed to relax and stop being so high maintenance. And once I did that, I had the experience of a lifetime. There aren't many places where you can drive around and see wild monkeys by the side of the road, and bats high up in the trees. I also got to see some amazing sights... here are a few photos from Bicol:

This is Mayon Volcano, the largest and most active volcano in the Philippines. Although you can't really see it here, it's in the shape of a near-perfect cone. And looks pretty impressive at sunset.

We visited some nearby natural hot springs, where the clear water flows straight from the volcano itself. It was a beautiful place and very refreshing!

When my uncle told me he was taking us on a boat trip to a desert island, I assumed he meant a modern motor boat. Oh, how wrong I was... It was a pretty cool way to travel though. Even though the boat owner laughed at me when I asked if he had any life jackets.

There was literally no-one else on this beach apart from us, not even any locals! And I saw some little sword fish when I was swimming. Very cool.

So that was the province of Bicol. Here are a few more photos from the main part of my holiday, which was spent in Manila:

Villa Escudero- where you eat lunch next to a man-made waterfall, with your legs dangling in the water. Fact: Filipinos love to eat. (Every meal is a feast, and during the meal they discuss the what they're going to cook for the next meal...)

Rafting. This was very hard work. And we couldn't work out how to turn the raft around, so in the end we just stood up and turned ourselves around to face the other way. Much easier.

My cousin Mikee and I at Camayan Beach Resort, in Subic Bay. Another stunning beach.

AQUA PARK!!!

There's so much more I could write about, but I feel this is a long enough blog post. Here is a photo of the whole family- these are my first cousins, aunties and uncles on my mum's side of the family. It was fantastic seeing my Auntie Linda again and her daughter Trisha, who I'd never met before as my auntie moved to Canada years ago. I was also reunited with two of my uncles, who hadn't seen me since I was 14 (they're usually abroad as they're both ship captains).

They're not a bad bunch, really.

To fill you in...

2009-03-29T18:51:00.005+01:00

Here are the last two months summed up in statistics:

4 The number of incidents involving police that I have driven past on my way home from work- a car crash, a motorbike accident, a fire and a stabbing! (I should point out that all of these incidents occurred in Thorpe Bay or Southend, not in Leigh... Enough said.)

2 The number of places a little boy in my class had managed to break his ankle. Neither of us realised his ankle was broken, so he proceeded to do his spelling test and Show and Tell. What a trooper.

5 The number of choirs I currently belong to. It's great to be a part of so many little communities (some them overlapping) but I have a feeling something will have to give soon... I turned up at my friend Claire's gospel choir rehearsal the other day with 2 music folders, neither of which were the right ones.

7 The amount of Easter related chocolate gifts I received at the end of term. Only two of them were actually eggs- the rest were various farmyard animals. Yum.

1 The number of times I filled up my car with petrol before realising I had left my purse at home. My dad had to come to the rescue, as usual.

100 The amount of pounds I would have won at the casino (at our staff do last week) if I had been gambling with actual money instead of play chips. They had special 'training' tables just for us- I am now an expert at Blackjack. Although I spend most of the evening pretending I was in a James Bond film...

10 The average number of times I check facebook in a single day. Something has got to be done about this.

6 The number of musicals I have seen so far this year. Joseph, Hairspray, Beyond the Barricade, Chicago, Wicked and Flashdance... All of which were fantastic!

3 The number of times I have tried to eat at a Nando's restaurant this week, and failed to secure a table. That's three whole days of daydreaming about a lemon and herb chicken pitta with extra cheese, wasted.

19 The number of hours I have to spend on a plane by myself tomorrow- I'm off to the Philippines again to visit my relatives. I'm very excited!

30 The number of panic filled minutes I have just spent looking for my passport in preparation for said holiday. Argh. (I did find it...)

Another short conversation

2009-02-09T17:40:00.007Z

Child: What's a stick insect?

Teacher: It's an insect that looks just like a stick. And, (realising this description isn't helping), it has antennae sticking out of its head.

Child: Why?

Teacher: A stick insect uses them to feel and explore the world around it.

Child: Really? I bet it can see really far away too. I wish I had ten eyes sticking out of MY head.

A facebook note

2009-02-07T09:39:00.002Z

25 Facts about me

1. When I was 16, I was in a sketch with Ant & Dec and Blue on SM:TV Live, doing exercises in a 'gym' sketch.

2. I used to go the cinema solely for the purpose of buying 'Toffee Crisp Popcorn' until eventually they sold out and stopped selling them.

3. Whenever I have a task or challenge to complete, I like to pretend I'm on 'The Krypton Factor'.

4. On two separate occasions, I've been completely and utterly lost in a foreign country on a bus with a driver who spoke no English.

5. One of these places was Rome- my favourite city in the world.

6. My favourite meal is the 'half pizza, half pasta' meal at Joe Rigatoni's in Durham. Nothing else can quite compare.

7. I'm in the Salvation Army, which is a huge part of my life.

8. I LOVE musicals- my current favourite is Hairspray.

9. I am three eighths Filipino, one eighth American, and half English.

10. I occasionally suffer from sleep paralysis, which means that I wake up completely unable to move. Sometimes this lasts for a few seconds, sometimes up to 2 minutes.

11. Last year, I found a two foot long orange snake in my washing basket. After three hours, we realised it had escaped from our next door neighbour's (semi-detached) house!

12. During a sponsored skip in Year 6, I managed 125 skips in one minute. I've never been able to do it since...

13. I have been known to drive a fifteen minute journey to Tesco Pitsea in order to buy one Krispy Kreme doughnut.

14. I once got stung by a bee when I tried to do a cartwheel on the grass and didn't look where I was placing my hands.

15. On a flight to the Philippines, I once received a free upgrade from Economy to First Class. That will never happen again in my life, but I can safely say it was the best 18 hours I've ever spent in the air.

16. When I was younger, I had two gerbils called Bubble and Squeak. They had to be separated when they started to fight, but consequently both died of loneliness. A sad, sad tale.

17. I am lucky to be surrounded by people who are able to make me cry with laughter on a regular basis. Especially Heather, with whom I've developed a strange and unique sense of humour...

18. I've been on some unusual day trips to countries such as Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia.

19. My first year at Durham Uni was one of the best years of my life- independence, great friends and not a care in the world.

20. I get really annoyed when people confuse 'your' and 'you're'.

21. Once, on a romantic Christmas trip to London, I suddenly got hit by a virus and was violently sick in the middle of a packed out Leicester Square.

22. I've tried to give up chocolate for Lent for the past three years, but have never quite managed it...

23. I still believe that half birthdays should be acknowledged and celebrated.

24. I'm not sporty, artistic or musically gifted. But I am excellent at writing limericks.

25. When I was little, my ambition was to be the girl who dressed up as Tinkerbell and got to 'fly' to the top of the castle to light the Illuminations Fireworks at Disneyland. It still is, if I'm honest...

A short conversation

2009-02-05T19:13:00.003Z

Year 2 pupil: Miss Allen, look at my new book. Are you a parent?

Me: No

Year 2 pupil: Are you married?

Me: Erm, no.

Year 2 pupil: Oh, that's alright then. This book says 'Adults: KEEP OUT' so when you're an adult, you won't be allowed to look at it anymore.

A bit of spontaneity

2009-02-03T22:06:00.006Z

I'm not a spontaneous person. I need to know exactly what I'm doing, usually months in advance. But tonight, as I was looking through old family photos, I realised that I really missed my relatives in the Philippines. And then I did something about it. Suddenly, instead of spending the first part of April in a rainy cabin with forty Year 6 children on the Isle of Wight, I'm gonna be spending Easter weekend here:

My family had already planned their Easter break, and asked if it was ok if I tagged along to Mayon Volcano (which is an active volcano- I'm not sure how I feel about that) and the hot springs and waterfalls surrounding it...

It was a difficult decision, but they managed to twist my arm! So it's all worked out rather well.

In other news...

-I'm currently in the middle of 'The Shack' by William Young. I know I'm a little late jumping on the bandwagon, but if you haven't read it- do! It's excellent.

-When bowling at the weekend, I was amazed that the 'chuck and wish' technique I've used since I was seven finally paid off- first strike ever! (This doesn't count Wii bowling and bowling with the barriers up- I've scored many strikes on these occasions...)

-I thought I had more to say, but it turns out I don't.

Dancing on Ice

2009-01-20T21:19:00.001Z

On Sunday, myself and three friends from work went along to see Dancing on Ice being filmed live in Borehamwood. Because our tickets didn't guarantee entry, the process involved queuing for hours in the freezing cold. We were about halfway in the queue with around 200 people in front of us, so we thought we'd be fine! How wrong we were... the guy handing out wristbands ran out just before he got to us, apologised and explained that there was a huge guest list, and we were now on standby. Most of the people behind us were told to go home, but as we were clutching standby tickets 11-14, we waited. And waited some more. Eventually, at 6.30pm (we'd arrived at 3.40pm) once everyone else had been seated, an announcement was made saying that the first 20 standby people were allowed through... we were VERY lucky.

Now, my friends and I were split up because the only seats available were the ones where friends and family of the celebrities participating hadn't turned up. However, this meant that we were sitting in the VIP area! So it all worked out well. I was sitting with the entire Nolan clan, my friend Janine was next to Alan Carr, Jo was next to Kevin Pieterson (who was rather handsome) and Marie was next to the hosts of Loose Women. And there were a few others we bumped into during the interval, such as Suzanne Shaw and that Angelica Bell from CBBC. Poor Angelica- I made the classic mistake of thinking I knew her when she turned around. Before I knew what was happening a 'Hi!!' had escaped my mouth and she was looking a little blankly at me before politely saying 'Hi!' back. How embarassing! I felt like a prize idiot... until my friend Jo had to step over Graeme Le Saux to get to her seat and did exactly the same thing, but louder: 'Oh, HELLO!' she exclaimed before realising what she'd done. It was very strange.

Has that ever happened to anyone else?

Anyway, we had a fantastic time (even though we were all sitting on our own!). The performances were amazing and for just one single moment I had this thought:

'I want to be a professional ice skater when I grow up.'

Then reality struck and my world came crashing down around me.

'You're 24. You're a teacher. You have no balance or co-ordination. It's too late.'

It was very similar to the time I realised that at no point in my life will I ever grow up in Dublin and have a genuine Irish accent.

Sigh.

Still, if Coleen Nolan can give it a good go, so can I... (the ice-skating, not the Irish accent!)

Birthdays

2009-01-18T12:51:00.007Z

January has been a busy time for birthdays. As usual, I successfully managed to make my birthday celebrations last about two weeks. There was a work birthday meal, a trip to see Joseph (Lee Mead was amazing!), family meals and an afternoon in London with uni friends (where we found the perfect combination of ice cream shake at the Haagen Daz cafe- Belgian Chocolate and Vanilla). However, the highlight was most definitely the princess themed birthday party meal which Ben threw for Stacey and I (we share the same birthday). We had the whole upstairs room at Ask to ourselves... and a good time was had by all. And I've decided I quite like being 24.

This week, it was Susanna's turn to have a birthday...

She looks like she's having a nice time, doesn't she? Well, she was... until we asked Ben to take a photo of us. Unfortunately, Ben couldn't quite grasp how to take a photo, and took a video instead. Check out Suz's face when she realises what's happened:

Hehehe...

Happy New Year!!!!

2009-01-01T23:32:00.003Z

It's 2009! A year in which I intend to be a better blogger. However, I'm really tired right now and have to take my car to the garage tomorrow (not to the vet, as I told Susannah earlier tonight!) at a ridiculously early hour. The last time my car was MOTed and serviced, it was a disaster- the blog post I've linked to here was just the start of it, as my brakes failed the day after it passed its MOT and I had to fork out even more money. Fingers crossed they don't rip me off this time... (I'm going to a different place, don't worry!). Anyway, the point is that this is another lazy post, but I will blog properly soon.

I took a pretty cool photo last night at a party I went to (more on that soon) and thought it would be quite nice to have as my first blog post of 2009. So here it is.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Test your observation skills... Whodunnit?!

2008-12-15T08:41:00.003Z

The holidays have started and I'm feeling very Christmassy. I've already caught up with one or two friends I haven't seen in a long time, and over the next few days I'm really looking forward to catching up with some more. There have been cosy Christmas gatherings round friends' houses and lots of carol singing... I love this time of year! And it wouldn't be complete without one of these:

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Does that make up for the lack of posting, Matt?

Meh

2008-12-03T20:30:00.007Z

So, the last couple of weeks have been reeeeeeally busy. And so are the next couple of weeks. I'm becoming one of those people who have to make appointments in order to catch up with old friends. And nobody likes that person. So if you're reading this and I've been a rubbish friend lately, I'm sorry...

Starting with the most recent and working backwards, here's a brief update on what's been going on in my life right now:

> I've finished writing my reports. That's the main task that's been occupying me over the last two or three weeks. But now they're done and dusted. Whoop!

> Actually, that previous statement is a lie. The main task that's been occupying me is my shiny brand new Wii and Wii Fit. It was supposed to be a Christmas present from my parents but it arrived through the post after a particularly bad day at work and I figured I would treat myself. Totally worth it... It's amazing! (Apart from when it tells me that I've been snacking too much this afternoon, or that I'm a couch potato because I can't hold 'the plank' position for more than 10 seconds.)

> I went to Cambridge on Saturday with Matt, Christina and Glyn. It was full of people saying things like 'I like to think that if music hadn't existed, then I could have invented it,' and 'To me, this clock represents time being eaten away by our mundane daily routine.' Or something like that. I was just mesmorised by the little blue lights on the clock.

> We recorded our very own Christmas single at the last Straight Ahead rehearsal of 2008. It was a lot of fun. We did a cover of 'Feed the World'- Here's us shouting 'Happy Christmas!' at the end (apparently you had to shout to the ceiling instead of into the microphones...):

> Hadleigh band visited Belfast the weekend before last, and Heather and I tagged along as talented 2nd Horn players. It was great! Although I'm fairly certain that over the entire weekend, I managed to eat more than I could lift. Here's us on the plane:

There are only 6 and a half school days left til we break up from school! I am VERY excited about the buildup to Christmas and catching up with lots of old friends- roll on the end of term!

Boysie

2008-11-30T08:26:00.006Z

We've been up since 6am as my cocker spaniel, Boysie, was yelping and seemed really confused. He was slipping all over the place and bumping into everything. So my whole family took him to the emergency vet- it turned out he had some kind of tumor and needed to be put down. It was very emotional. I've had Boysie since he was a puppy (14 years ago- he was very old!). My dad got him for me after my mum passed away, so we've been through quite a lot together.

He was a lovely dog- he had the sweetest temperament and was very soppy. He was also afraid of EVERYTHING (lightning, strangers, cars, the little squeakers inside dog toys...). Whenever I was upset as a kid I used to sit under the table with him and and hug him- it was the only thing that made me feel better! It was really sad coming home and not hear his feet padding through the kitchen coming to greet us. Still, at least he's not in pain now.

Boysie 1994-2008

Yes, he really wasn't the bravest of dogs. But we loved him very, very much.

This is my wish for you...

2008-11-16T13:39:00.008Z

"Comfort on difficult days,

Smiles when sadness intrudes,

Rainbows to follow the clouds,

Laughter to kiss your lips,

Sunsets to warm your heart,

Hugs when spirits sag,

Beauty for your eyes to see,

Friendships to brighten your being,

Faith so that you can believe,

Confidence for when you doubt,

Courage to know yourself,

Patience to accept the truth,

Love to complete your life.” - Anonymous

A close friend of mine from uni gave this quote to me (as part of a photo in a frame) on our last day at Durham, and I just found it under my bed. I thought it would be nice to share it.

So, last weekend at Carus we looked at influences, and how we influence the people around us. We took it in turns to share with each other a person or group of people we have influence on. Then somebody from the group would pray for that person. Now, I chose my place of work as somewhere where I feel I should have influence, but find it hard with so many restrictions in place to really talk about my faith and what I believe in. So somebody else prayed about that for me, and then we moved onto the next person and I kinda forgot about it all. Until the very next day, when I got to work and found a very excited little girl from my class and her mum waiting for me. "WE SAW YOU IN THE LORD MAYOR'S SHOW!" they exclaimed as I got there, and they proceeded to ask me all sorts of questions about the army. Her mum then passed the headmaster and mentioned to him about seeing me, and he came up to me asking if I'd do a whole school assembly about the Salvation Army and what it was all about! Which took me completely by surprise, as our assemblies are nothing like that usually. And although my close friends at work know where I go every Sunday, most of the school certainly don't. So I'm really looking forward to that.

It was only on the way home that I started thinking about the day before and remembered that prayer. And it made me wonder whether sometimes prayers are answered in such unexpected ways that it completely goes unnoticed. Maybe I need to open my eyes more to what's going on around me...

Drenched

2008-11-09T09:22:00.009Z

So, I eventually got hold of a proper hat. Which is just as well, as yesterday was the Lord Mayor's show. And the weather forecast?

Saturday

heavy rain

Great. Still, not to be put off, the Household Troops and the Hadleigh Timbrels (guess which group I belong to...) set off at 6.30am (seriously, who DOES that?!) and made our way to London. We had an hour of waiting around in a damp, underground car park, followed by an hour of waiting in the rain, but once the parade got going it was really good! Despite the torrential downpours there was an excellent turnout and the crowd were brilliant, cheering and clapping and encouraging us on through the rain. I felt so proud to be part of it all, especially hearing people saying things like 'Oh, look! It's the Salvation Army! HOORAY!!!'

However, there's only so much freezing, heavy rain you can take before your morale starts to go slightly, and as we made our way to Embankment to recommence the march after lunch, some soldiers (of the non-Salvation Army variety) stopped a couple of us and said 'You've lost it. You've lost it, haven't you...' before proceeding with a beautiful rendition of 'You've lost that loving feeling, woooah that lovin' feelin'...'. On spotting our tambourines, this was then followed by various chants of 'GO ON, SHAKE IT! SHAKE IT BABY!' (I did threaten them with 'I'm gonna shake you in a minute', but I'm not sure they heard it, as I said it in my head.) Heather and I just ignored them and carried on with our little game 'See Who Can Hold The Most Rain In Their Hat Without Spilling Any'. I won.

Oh, by the way, if you're reading this and don't have a clue what a timbrel is, then click here. I probably should have explained that at the beginning.

Anyway, imagine how excited we were when somebody sent a text saying they saw us on television! Fantastic. Totally worth getting soaked. Then imagine the slight disappointment when I got home, eagerly put the recording on and saw this (skip to 0:47):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00fh4xq

I was just off to the left. Still, we got a mention and everything- pretty cool, eh?

I'm still not a fan of the navy felt hats though. I ended up with navy dye running all down my face for the duration of the parade. Did I mention it rained?

My New Hat (A blog topic suggested by John...)

2008-11-02T16:03:00.005Z

Yesterday, I was supposed to go to Trade to buy myself a new one of these for the Lord Mayor's Show:

I hate these hats. With a passion.

Anyway, by the time I got to London it was closed, so I bought myself this hat instead:

But now I'm not sure how I feel about it. And I'm pretty sure it doesn't go with my uniform.

And that is the story of my new hat.

Don't worry, I'm still here...

2008-11-01T23:12:00.012Z

Half term is pretty much over. Rubbish. I know I haven't posted for a little while, but there have been lots of things going on, such as...

Fajita night- My teacher friends and I had a little dinner party. Here's a lovely photo of my friend Claire after a couple of glasses of Diet Coke:

A trip to Bristol to visit Glyn's brother- They have the poshest cinema and shopping complex there I've ever seen. Check this out... (The cinema has a bar and a restaurant!)

(Next time, if we save up, we might even be able to see a film there.)

Day in London with people from uni- Always great to catch up with these girls. We don't do it enough...

Reading about the Lego man who was washed up on Brighton beach:

How funny was that? If you haven't heard about it, read here.

Attending the annual Festival of Remembrance- If I haven't dragged you along to one of these, count yourself lucky. This ceremony is a good three hours long without a break... (Think how you felt after watching Titanic at the cinema. But with less popcorn.) Although I have to say, the actual ceremony and the RAF band and the international solo violinist and the singing company and the band AND the songsters were all very good in their own right, and the whole thing was very well done. But an interval would be nice. Especially when you're stuck outside in the foyer because there's no room for you in the main hall. Heather was very impressed by Winston Churchill's words of wisdom (somehow she hadn't heard them before), and felt very proud to be British:

So that's what's been going on in my life lately. Next weekend I'll be doing my first ever Lord Mayor's show- watch this space!

6 days til Half Term!

2008-10-18T16:18:00.006+01:00

I'm about to enter the 8th week of the first half of this term. It's a significant week. I have never, ever had to work for 8 weeks in a row without a break. Not during school, uni or certainly not during the last three years as a teacher. Yes, it's been an especially long half term and I am tired- I think it may even be the reason why I haven't blogged as regularly as usual! It's not been the easiest of starts either- my class can be quite hard work, but am slowly beginning to see a change in them. So that's good. One of my lessons in particular had a real impact on my class this week- one mum came to see me after school yesterday to relay the following conversation she had in the car with her son on the way home the day before:

Mum: How was your day at school?
Ethan: Ok. But isn't it terrible about Louis.
Mum: Which Louis? In Year 3?
Ethan: (ignoring question) It's so sad that he had that accident.
Mum: Oh no! Is he ok?
Ethan: He went blind.
Mum: (horrified) Oh my goodness! What happened? Is he back at school?
Ethan: (looks at her like she's an idiot) No mum, he's dead now.
Mum: WHAT?!

As you may have guessed, Ethan was talking about Louis Braille, who we're currently studying in History.

In other news...

-Ben, Heather, Rich and I went to see Wicked last week- it was brilliant! Due to increased workloads, being part of a bigger community with the Wickford and Chelmsford guys (although that's great!) and Rich living in London, the four of us don't get to spend as much time together as we used to, so it was really nice to spend some quality time catching up and seeing a show.

-I've seen 3 films at the cinema recently- How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Mirrors and Burn After Reading. All three were quite good, but Mirrors was a mistake, as I keep having nightmares about it. It's basically about this guy who works in a derelict, run-down department store, and starts seeing things in the mirrors there, as well as at home and in his car. His own reflection starts making him do things. Not nice when you have drive home late at night afterwards along the A130 with only your rear view mirror and reflection for company.

-Flight of the Conchords has appeared in the On Demand section on BT Vision, so I've finally been able to check out what everyone else has been raving on about for ages. It's hilarious. I've only watched a couple of episodes so far but this song really made me laugh (for the few who haven't seen it, it's a comedy about two guys from New Zealand who are in a band, and each episode has a couple of funny songs in it). Enjoy:

- Finally, I've been researching the Salvation Army initiative Journey, and would really like to go on some kind of 'Encounter' as it's something I've wanted to do for ages. However, I've asked for more information, I've emailed them, I tried ringing them (no answer)... I even tried sending a message to one of the guys in charge of it on Facebook, but received nothing back. So if anybody knows anything about it or where I could get some more information about how to apply (I've been to the website but the application it tells you to download already assumes you know about the dates and different expeditons), could you let me know? Cheers :)

What goes up...

2008-10-05T22:53:00.004+01:00

At my murder mystery party way back in January, we attempted to construct a human pyramid. It wasn't easy. A good few attempts were made in order to achieve as many layers as possible... but in the end we succeeded. And it felt really good. Here's a little reminder of the end result:

However, when I saw the news today, I realised that we weren't the first people to come up with the idea of a human pyramid. In Spain, it's like a professional sport. And a dangerous one at that... (although the news reporter said nobody gets seriously injured). Check these guys out:

Makes our pyramid attempt seem kind of pathetic, doesn't it?

My favourite part was in another video where the news reporter stated (as it collapsed):

'At this point, any pain was swept away by the joy of success!'

Really. I'm not totally convinced...

A Pro-Active Post

2008-09-27T17:44:00.003+01:00

I have lots of little jobs to do this weekend. Being a natural procrastinator, I'm not looking forward to getting any of them done. So instead of cracking on and attempting to decrease my To Do list, I decided to create a procrastination pyramid. I'd read about them awhile back (when I was writing my dissertation I looked up 'procrastination' on the internet, and found this...) Basically, you write down all the things you need to do, with the most important near the top. Then you get to work on the less important tasks to put off doing the tasks at the top of the pyramid. By the time you've done a couple of the tasks near the bottom, other stuff has come along to be placed at the top, so everything can be shunted down on the pyramid. Get it? It's called Structured Procrastination. I'll let you know if it works...

Hmm. Creating the pyramid took longer than I thought. Still, I've made a start as I am currently updating the ol' blog.

In other news:

- I had to play in the annual Staff vs. Parents netball match today. We beat them 10-6, a much better result than our 18-8 thrashing last year! Everyone took it incredibly seriously though, and have sustained minor injuries because of it. Meh.

- We had a great time at the Wickford Curry & Quiz night yesterday. Our team came second, pipped to the post by some team who knew what a baby whale was called. (It's a calf, in case you're interested.) Well done to everyone who organised it! :)

- Heather and Chris, who were both showing signs of becoming great bloggers, appear to have lost motivation slightly. A temporary lapse, I'm sure...

- Tim has disappeared off the face of the earth completely. As has Richard's actual blog. Idiot.

- Graeme is long overdue for an update. As is Andy.

- However, on a more positive note, John has uploaded some interesting travel vlogs. You'd be fooled for thinking was in Australia, as something odd has happened to his voice since he's been away. Still, it's worth a look. Glyn is also back, attempting to blog every single day for a month. Never gonna happen...

Farm Limericks

2008-09-20T22:54:00.004+01:00

(Inspired by today's visit to Jimmy's Farm.)

I once met a sweet little pig,
Who looked so cute when trying to dig
But the problem I'd get,
(If said pig were my pet)
Is the fact he'd turn ugly and big.

There once lived a cow on the farm,
Who seemed to have plenty of charm
But when his praises were sung
He would stick out his tongue
Causing kids to leap back in alarm.

It should've been me...

2008-09-19T17:58:00.001+01:00

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Dancing through life...

2008-09-12T23:18:00.005+01:00

It's been a really busy couple of weeks. I'm back at school, my new class are hard work (I even managed to lose one today on the way to assembly, just because he felt like going somewhere else... got him back eventually though!) and I'm constantly really tired. Nothing has really happened worth mentioning, but I thought I'd guide you through some of my emotions over the last few days.

I've laughed at this:

(Courtesy of a boy in my class...)

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Wooden shoe
Wooden shoe who?

Wooden shoe like to know...

Haha. Gets me every time.

I've cried at this:

It really is one to go and see, although I think it's best to read the book first. I won't say anything else as the blurb on the back of the book says: "The story of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the jacket, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about." Effective, non? It sucked me in anyway.

And I've spent most of the week singing along to this:

Dancing Through Life- Wicked OBC

I also happen to quite like the Disney video (some people have way, way too much time on their hands... )

Finally, I've been quite annoyed at this:

I'm having trouble adjusting to the new Facebook. Why mess with perfection?! Argh.

Ok, so I'm aware that this is a bit of a nothing post. But I felt I should entertain you with something whilst I figure out something interesting and worthwhile to say. I'm sure it will come.

Ripley's Believe It Or Not

2008-08-31T16:01:00.004+01:00

For my friend Meghan's birthday, I treated her to a day of fun at Ripley's Believe It Or Not, a new attraction in London. It's a museum with all kinds of weird and wonderful exhibits- here are a few photos from our day:

Here is the biggest rocking chair ever! The staff were really nice too- they tried to take your photo so you'd pay £8 to buy it, but when you said no they offered to take a photo with your camera instead. (Also, when I said I wasn't a student at the entrance and didn't have any vouchers, the woman whispered, 'Oh, that's ok, I have some here...' How nice.)

Hang on a cotton picking minute... Where are Meg's legs?!

This photograph didn't come out too well, but there were thousands of multicoloured dots rotating round the tunnel, and it looked fine as you stepped onto the walkway... but as soon as you do all sense of balance is lost and it makes you really dizzy! (My dad went a couple of days later and actually fell over.)

There were lots of funny tricks and surprises as you make your way round, but I don't want to spoil it for you in case you plan to go. And you should, because it's excellent! A great family day out. Oh, and guess who I bumped into...?

Remember him?

Yes, it was none other than my mate Robert Wadlow, the world's tallest man, who I'd last visited in Copenhagen in February. I complimented him on his new suit. He showed me his family album. Good times!

BLOG UPDATE

2008-08-18T17:44:00.003+01:00

Heather Orford now has a blog. She said she'd start one if I could think of a really good name for it, so I did.

That is all.

Dancing around the world

2008-08-17T16:08:00.002+01:00

Ok, so I didn't find this by myself (credit to Estelle Blake at Summer School) but here is a really cool video of a guy who thought he'd travel all around the world and video himself doing the same ridiculous dance in each place. So simple, yet brilliant.

(He also recently created a 2008 version, where loads of people from each country dance with him...)

On a completely different note (although just as ridiculous), I have had two extremely dappy moments this week that I would like to share with you. The first occurred when I scraped together just enough change to buy a car park ticket and stuck it to my side window. Then I got back in the car to make a quick phonecall, and promptly wound down said window. The car park ticket was immediately lost somewhere in the door. So that was Idiot Moment Number One. Idiot Moment Number Two occurred when my parents prepared a lovely roast dinner on Wednesday, giving me the one job of making the gravy. However, I must have been talking and/or distracted by a shiny object, as I made the classic Uncle Albert mistake of pouring coffee over everyone's dinner. Fool.

Summer School 2008

2008-08-13T21:05:00.007+01:00

I'm not really sure where to start with this one. This year's summer school (the first one I'd attended since 2004) was exhausting, challenging, exciting and lots of fun. So I shall write under those headings:

Exhausting

I have really grown old since 2004. Back then, I went the whole week without a single nap. This year, at exactly 2pm every day (apart from Wednesday, when some friends came up for Oscars night- more on that later) I would retire to my room for a sleep. For a good hour. And even then, I ended up looking like this after the week had finished:

Challenging

Now, there are two kinds of challenging. There's the 'fun' challenging, for example trying to get a Jaffa Cake from your forehead to your mouth without using your hands (it will come as no surprise to you that I failed this particular challenge...):

And then there's the 'challenging' challenging. And in a lot of ways I found the week really tough. There was my cell group of 16 year olds, who I initially really struggled to connect with but by the end of the week felt like we'd all come a long way, learnt a LOT about each other and that it had been the making of me as a cell group leader- a learning curve indeed!

Also, I'd chosen the Social Action option this year. Our leader, Jo Taylor, was excellent- so passionate about social justice and determined to instill that same passion in us. And she did a very good job. I came away from the week with a real drive to Do Something- we'd spent some of the week helping a charity called 'Re-Cycle' prepare old bikes to be shipped off to Africa (where bikes are life-changing), and would like to carry on helping those guys in some way. One quote that really stuck in my head was:

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."- Edmund Burke

So will keep you posted on that one!

Exciting

The entire summer school was split into 8 tribes (I was the leader of The Flowerpot Tribe). Each tribe had to make a short film in preparation for Oscars Night. Ours was called 'Overfield', (a variation on 'Cloverfield'), where the students get a little too curious about what was beyond our field boundaries at the University of Essex... Anyway, we won the much coveted 'Best Film' award, at which point I couldn't even imagine winning an actual Oscar, the feeling was that good! I think we look a little famous in this photo, like we've just been snapped by the papparazi (although I think that was the idea):

However, whereas all the other award winners when home with actual Oscars (well, garden gnome shaped Oscars), Chell hadn't bought quite enough, so I was handed a bit of playdough instead. Rubbish.

Fun

We had a really, really fun week. There were lots of silly games, running jokes (who knew that holding a banana to someone's ear and making them pretend to have a conversation would never, ever get old, no matter how many times you did it...) and late nights where we would literally cry with laughter over the most ridiculous things. I made plenty of new friendships, rekindled one or two old ones and had a brilliant time. Roll on next year...

Yes, that is toilet paper wrapped round my head.

Top of the mornin' to ya!

2008-08-12T11:23:00.012+01:00

It HAS been a while, hasn't it? I haven't been really been at home for the last couple of weeks, hence the lack of blogging. But don't worry, all that is about to change. However, because I've done a few different things (and would like to blog about them all) I shall blog in bitesize chunks. Starting from the most recent event... DUBLIN.

Yes, John and I recently visited Dublin. When we go abroad the places tend to be rather random (Kaunas, Riga and Bratislava to name a few) but for once I got to choose. So Dublin it was! And we had a great time. After a lie-in (we left at 5.30am instead of 3am) we went to the airport and managed to get to Ireland without any real hassle (apart from nearly missing our flight waiting on a bacon sandwich and scrambled eggs... luckily John has the superhuman ability to inhale his food). And the whole visit was kinda like that- no hassle, no rushing around, no transport issues. Naturally, much of the time was spent doing things we could have done in London- for example Wagamama's and shopping in HMV and H&M- but it was nice to do it in a different place. Dublin is a really good city for walking (and man, did we walk...) as everything is fairly close together. I was a little disappointed that there didn't seem to be many actual Irish people around, but it was fun trying to copy the accents of all the American/Geordie/Scottish tourists there too. Here are a few of the places we visited:

Ok, so I can't actually remember what this is, but it reminded John and I of two completely different historical buildings from other countries we've visited. 'Seen one, seen them all' springs to mind...

The grandest post office in the world EVER. A significant part of Irish heritage. Go look it up on Wikipedia.

A rather cute Salvation Army corps building. There are only one or two left in the whole of Ireland, apparently...

Dublin Castle. A little oddly designed, but quite cool all the same.

Not really sure what this is either, but an American guy offered to take our photo here as we walked past. I think it's part of the castle...

We were extremely lucky with the weather too. It was fine the whole time we were there, but as we left the view from the plane window looked a little bleak:

Lovely.

A rollercoaster of a weekend...

2008-07-20T23:12:00.007+01:00

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

2008-07-16T15:46:00.008+01:00

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!

2008-07-11T17:31:00.004+01:00

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!

2008-07-06T22:40:00.005+01:00

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...

2008-07-03T22:56:00.003+01:00

(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!)

To avoid writing reports today, I have:

2008-06-26T20:22:00.005+01:00

- Watched 'Smalltalk Diaries', a series of 15 minute 'documentaries' through the eyes of minibeasts from all parts of the UK, and an insight into what they would say if they could talk. Brilliant. My favourite is the Geordie cockroach. (We are studying Minibeasts as our Science topic at the moment though, so that makes it kind of ok...)

- Made my own Shelfari bookshelf- see side column. I'm quite a big reader and there are a few good ones in there, especially The Book Thief. If anyone else can recommend a good summer read or two, let me know! After putting all these books on my virtual shelf, I then decided it was necessary to locate exactly where each book was in the house and re-read a chapter of each.

- Written two blog posts in two days. When was the last time that happened?

- Re-read every single birthday card I've received over the last three years. It brought back lots of memories and some of them really made me chuckle! I can't believe how we all thought turning 21 was old. Reading old cards has also spurred me to get back into contact with a few friends I haven't spoken to for ages (partly because I'd like to receive a card from them next year...)

- Researched 'Knock knock' jokes on the web. My personal favourite is still:

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Little Old Lady.
Little Old Lady who?
I didn't know you could yodel!

HAHAHA.

- Finally got around to writing down favourite children's quotes/excuses from the last year or so in a little book. This was just after I'd asked a child why he was holding someone else's toy, to be greeted with the reply, 'I didn't steal it, I just found it in my hand...'

- Looked up the theme tune for Greenclaws on YouTube. I figured this might not trigger any memories, so here's a brief description of the programme: Greenclaws was a big green monster who lived in a greenhouse. Every week, Iris would visit Greenclaws. They would put a seed in a plant pot, put the plant pot inside a tree, wait for Owlma (a mechanical owl) to alert them that the plant was ready, answer three riddles/questions from Owlma (which were always along the lines of "Twit twoo, twoo, twit twit twoo?" and then translated into English by Greenclaws for him and Iris to solve), then open the tree to find the plant had grown in to something bearing unusual fruit. Amazing stuff. Now do you remember...?

Right, back to reports. I can hear you all getting your violins out...

Miss Heather 'You Never Mention Me In Your Blog' Orford

2008-06-25T19:47:00.008+01:00

This is Heather:

Heather is very high maintenance. She's also my best friend (admittedly through default- there was nobody else around when I graduated uni...) So, to stop her moaning, this post is All About Heather.

We've spent quite a lot of time together over the last 2/3 years, and have developed a sense of humour which only the other person understands. This means that most of the time we spend together we end up crying with laughter, thinking we're hilarious whilst everyone else just looks on in pity.

A few facts about Heather:

- She was born on 7th September, 1983.

- There is a castle at the end of her road.

- When she doesn't like something, she'll say 'Oh, no thank you. I'm allergic.'

- Furthermore, when she doesn't want to do something, she'll say 'Oh sorry, I can't make it. I have a piano/singing/salsa (delete as appropriate) lesson.'

- She has a (bizarre) obsession with Hanson.

- In the film 'Sex and the City', she cried at the bit where Carrie gives her secretary a Louis Vuitton bag for Christmas.

- She will wear Ugg boots whether it's - 2 degrees or 32 degrees. To get her money's worth.

So that's Heather. We've shared a lot of good times together, and I'm not quite sure how I ever managed to survive without her!

(That last photo isn't really of me or Heather, but I like it.)

Remember that week which featured in my Top 3 Unfavourite Weeks of All Time? It's here again...

2008-06-15T23:07:00.005+01:00

This is my life at the moment:

I'm one of those people who has to wait until the last possible moment before doing what needs to be done. Earlier this week, I was reading through some of my old blog posts from this time last year (it's impressive how much time I can spend amusing myself with my own stories). Anyway, as I read the stressed-out entries of a younger, more naive Katie, I realised that I have learnt nothing- a year later and I have Parents Evening tomorrow and a reports deadline in two weeks, and I'm even more unprepared than I was a year ago. But hey, at least I'm not making Wee-Mees to avoid doing work this time...

(No, instead I'm on here at 11.15pm writing a blog post, the night before I have to be at work from 7.45am-10pm and after a really hectic weekend. How I've grown.)

Have a good week :)

It's a whole lotta' fun...

2008-06-09T22:44:00.003+01:00

For those of us lucky enough to be born in the Eighties... here is my little entertainment clip (read lazy blog post) of the week:

(Check out Pat Sharp's hair. And clothes. Classic.)

I have yet to meet a person in their early/mid-twenties whose childhood dream was anything other than to have a go in the Funhouse...

Half Term in a Nutshell

2008-06-03T20:07:00.003+01:00

See if you can spot...

- Which county is featured (I went there to visit a friend who has just come out of hospital)
- A woodchipper (endless fun!)
- Ips-ich Harbour (you may remember from a previous post that I have a cousin who lives there...)
- London by night
- The lack of legroom at Dickens Unplugged! (A really, really funny show retelling Charles Dickens stories- it was even better than Dickens World!)
- Ben and Rich saluting outside IHQ- Chris took the photo before I realised I was in the wrong pose.

One picture I forgot to include was of Brass of Praise, a Swiss band who came to England to perform at Hadleigh last week (they also performed at the Royal Albert Hall as a little extra gig). They were really good! Unfortunately, they didn't have such a great experience afterwards, when we offered to take them all out for a drink (forgetting we had only two little KAs to transport 16 hungry and thirsty people into Leigh...) It was agreed that while I was playing taxi to the first few, the rest would walk to McDonalds and get picked up from there. Twenty minutes later, I pull up to find them all still outside in the cold. They all ran over and exclaimed:

Swiss People: We need your help! We need your car!
Katie: Why aren't you eating?
Swiss Person 1: We tried to get into the restaurant, but they said they were closed, and that we had to use the drive-thru window.
Swiss Person 2: So we walked to the drive-thru and they ignored us.
Swiss Person 3: (very confused) Then eventually he said that he couldn't serve us as we weren't in a car, and then closed the window.
Swiss Person 4: We said that we were from Switzerland and didn't have a car. He's still ignoring us.
Swiss Person 1: Is everybody this rude in England?

(I should point out here that it wasn't a busy High Street McDonalds. I could understand them being refused if there were loads of cars behind beeping. The McDonalds I'm talking about is just up the road from our corps, reasonably quiet and at the that time of night there were no other customers at all!)

I don't think we made a great first impression. These Swiss people and their high expectations...

The Sexist Book of Cakes... and Rich's birthday

2008-05-26T16:54:00.008+01:00

To celebrate Rich reaching the ol' halfway to 50 landmark last week, we thought it would be nice to bake him a cake. So we had a little Eurovision/Cake Baking session on Saturday night. Browsing through Marion's Cake Decorating Book (1970) for inspiration, I soon noticed it was more than a little sexist...

Under the 'BOYS' section, there were the following cakes:

A football

A cricket bat

And a racing car...

All of these were fine. But under the 'GIRLS' section of the cake book, we found:

A sewing machine

A baby

A dressing table

And my personal favourite... an oven:

Oh, how times have changed... anyway, in the end we decided on a simple train design, complete with any small objects Ben could find in his cupboard. Here is the end result:

Yes, those ARE dinosaurs sitting amongst a forest of chocolate eggs. There's a deep and meaningful reason behind the design- if you can guess it, you win a prize... ;)

Rich was very impressed. We then had a lovely meal at Rayleigh Lodge, which is a very nice restaurant (the double chocolate fudge cake is to die for!) I'm the one blocking out Anna's head:

All in all, a lovely weekend.

AAAARRRRRRRRGGGHHHH!

2008-05-21T19:50:00.004+01:00

What a cruel, cruel trick to play on somebody at 8.30am in the morning...

(My assistant teacher Louise decided it would be hilarious to plant her son's rubber snake in my bag whilst I was taking the children over to assembly- I jumped so much that my hand whacked against the top of the shelf and I now have a lovely purple bruise!)

What a cow.

The Snake

2008-05-17T15:01:00.004+01:00

It was a normal Saturday morning. I was sorting the clothes in my washing basket when I noticed a flash of bright orange underneath it. 'That's weird,' I thought to myself, 'I don't have any orange clothes...' As I picked up a towel near the bottom of the basket, I could've sworn it moved in a slithery way. Strangely, I didn't panic (probably because I assumed my imagination had gone into hyperdrive again) and instead went downstairs to seek a second opinion.

Katie: Dad, you're gonna think this is crazy, but I think there might be a snake in my room.
Daniel: Cool!
Dad: (disbelivingly) A snake. Not a belt?
Katie: I know it's not a snake, but if you could just check...

So the three of us trudged upstairs, me armed with a garden hoe (not completely sure why). Dad rummaged through the pile of washing and there it was: a 2 foot long, bright orange, hissing SNAKE!

We stood there in shock for a little while, then shut the door and went back downstairs. What were we supposed to do now? It was at this point I began to freak out...

I phoned the RSPCA, and after a few minutes of 'If you have found a stray cat, press 1. If you have found a stray dog, press 2...' I was eventually put through to somebody, who said she would pass the matter onto a local centre who would call me back. After waiting for an hour, we called back and the woman apologised and said she'd get back to us. We're still waiting for that phonecall now.

We rang the vet, who said they didn't deal with snakes.
We rang the zoo, who didn't have any 'snake specialists' available.
Eventually, we got through to the reptile centre in Colchester, who said that if we threw a towel over it and trapped it in a bucket, they would send somebody round to come and get it.

They had to be kidding.

The problem was, we just had no idea where it had come from. The RSPCA woman asked if I'd been anywhere, at which point I thought I must've brought it home in my suitcase from Spain last month, or even Lithuania last weekend... (I quickly dismissed it coming from Lithuania- even I would have noticed that, surely?!) The neighbours were out and my brother was convinced that they didn't have a snake as they had a rabbit. So we didn't have a clue if it was poisonous or not.

Two hours later, my brother tried visiting the neighbours again. It turns out that the hissing creature in my bedroom was a friendly corn snake called Wesley, who had escaped a couple of weeks ago from his cage. Because we live in a semi-detached house and I have built-in wardrobes, one of which has loose floorboards, Wesley had slithered his way up and made himself at home in my room! Our neighbour was very apologetic and asked if I wanted to hold him, at which point I very politely declined and asked if he could remove it from my house. My brother was much more keen though:

Impressive, isn't he? I still can't quite believe it happened. I'm scarred for life...

Get your popcorn ready...

2008-05-15T18:34:00.004+01:00

...because I have made my first ever short film!

I recently bought a new camera and have been wanting to test out its video capability for a while. Then last weekend, the perfect opportunity arose when we boarded a bus at Kaunas International Airport, Lithuania. The plan was simple- as we caught our first glimpse of Kaunas, I would capture the initial sights and sounds of a bustling city on a beautiful sunny day.

One hour later, and it would appear that all was not going quite according to plan...

Check out the upper body strength of this little guy...

2008-05-12T22:29:00.005+01:00

So, I was sitting at my computer this evening, trying to find some kind of blog inspiration (in other words, avoiding doing work). As I sat thinking, I kept hearing a 'clang, clang, clang, THUMP, clang, clang, clang THUMP!' So I looked out into the hallway and saw Nibbles II (my brother's hamster) doing this...

If you can't be bothered to watch it for the whole minute, just skip to the end when the camera makes a noise and he lets go in surprise.

(More interesting things have happened this week, but you'll have to find out about those another time...)

Two Stars and a Wish

2008-05-06T20:12:00.005+01:00

Two Stars and a Wish is a marking technique we were taught during teacher training. When marking any piece of work, you're supposed to list two really good things about it (the stars) and one thing that wasn't so great and could maybe be improved next time (the wish). I never really get around to it, but it's a nice idea. I'm going to blog about two really good things that have happened and one not so great, so I thought the title was more than appropriate...

Star One

Scottish Night!

Another fundraiser for our ball, this one wasn't quite so well organised as we decided to hold it on the same weekend as ROOTS. So lots of people couldn't make it. Still, we had a good turnout from our corps and it was loads of fun. It involved some Scottish dancers demonstrating a routine and us attempting to copy it. Here are a couple of photos, just so you can feel like you were part of the magic:

A Scottish dancer showing us some moves.

A wheel.

The biggest turkey I've EVER seen! (Nothing to do with Scottish dancing, but we kept hearing him 'gobble-gobbling' from the farm next door whilst we were setting up...)

Star Two

Those of you who watch GMTV will be aware that a guy called Alan Mechem beat 5000 other hopefuls to win a TV presenter competition last week. Well, on Friday night Heather and I met him out in Leigh! He's a very funny guy and we enjoyed chatting to him (although I had no idea who he was at the time). I know he's not really famous, but thought I'd mention it in case he makes it big one day...

Actually, I just watched a clip of him presenting on GMTV, and I'm not sure he's going to make it all that big. But who knows?!

A Wish

I have a Cocker Spaniel called Boysie. He's 14 years old and starting to feel his age a bit... for the past couple of weeks we've had to take him to the vet because of an ear infection (£70 for some ear drops that spilled all over the floor) and various other minor ailments. Today I had to take him back for a check-up, all by myself. Which was a huge mission as Boysie is TERRIFIED of travelling in cars. He becomes a dead weight so it's impossible to drag him anywhere, and refuses to move. So I spent a good 10 minutes trying to lug him onto the seat and then over onto the passenger side. Here was the outcome:

Useless lump. It took another half an hour before we finally made it to the vet, who took one look, smiled and said 'He's getting better, best bring him back next week just in case!' and showed us the door.

Grr.

(There's no actual wish in there, but it's one thing that hasn't gone that great for me this week. So it does count...)

Pronunciation Problems

2008-05-04T22:52:00.004+01:00

Yesterday, on the tube, two Americans said to me:

'Excuse me, do you know if this train stops at LIE-cest-er Square?'

After correcting them ('It's LESTER Square, innit!') they started chatting about the journey they were making the following day, to a place called 'Looga-Borooga'. After racking my brains for a few minutes I realised where they were talking about.

Loughborough.

We do have a pretty strange language at times. The above conversation reminded me of a chat we had with our stalker, Chris, in Hamburg last summer. It went a bit like this:

Chris: I go to live in Ips-ich.
Katie: Oh, I have a cousin who lives in Ipswich.
Chris: Does she know you don't pronounce the 'w' in 'Ips-ich'?
Katie: Um...
John: (helpfully) You don't pronounce the 'w' in 'Norwich'... Maybe that's what you mean?
Chris: No, I mean 'Ips-ich'. I go to Ips-ich.

The mistake was understandable, but he refused to believe us! (He then hinted that he wanted us to drop him off in Ipswich, but we managed to make our escape...)

While we're on the topic of funny pronunciations for place names, my Geordie friend Laura pronounces 'Great Yarmouth' and 'Bournemouth' as 'Great Yar-mouth' and 'Bourne-mouth' (as opposed to 'muth'). And there's no arguing with her, because that's how it's spelt.

Weird.

You'll either love it or hate it...

2008-04-21T22:57:00.002+01:00

This irritatingly catchy song (if you can call it a song) has been in my head ALL DAY. So now I'm going to put it into yours. It's very, very strange... but I'm starting to think that if I'd seen this programme as a kid, maybe I would've eaten more vegetables.

So, at the risk of losing faithful readers of my blog, here is 'There's A Party In My Tummy' from Yo! Gabba Gabba:

There. That's ruined your day, hasn't it? Just think, you'll never get those two minutes back.

Heather and Katie's Week of FUN!

2008-04-15T00:16:00.006+01:00

So, we're back from the Canary Islands. I'll try not to bore you too much with holiday stories, but here are a few of the things that happened to us...

Our adventure started as our plane descended into Fuerteventura. There was a LOT of turbulance. Eventually we reached the runway and the tyres hit the ground and bounced up and down quite a lot. A few seconds later, we realised that instead of gradually slowing down, we were speeding up. And then a really odd thing happened. The plane took off again. It was all quite surreal and it was only when I looked out the window and realised how high up we were that I turned to Heather (not the keenest of flyers) who looked really freaked out. We then laughed nervously and decided that the pilot must have landed on the wrong island and had hoped that nobody would notice. Ten minutes later (a very long time when pondering your own mortality- why hadn't there been an announcement?! What was GOING ON?!!) the voice of the Spanish pilot came onto the intercom. The static was bad and his English wasn't great anyway, so the announcement went something like this:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, you may be aware that *static* plane *static* circling *static*. We experienced some problem *static* wing *static* landing. We try again. Thank you."

Well, that's what Heather heard anyway. The rest of us heard 'strong wind' instead of 'wing'. Which obviously changes the meaning a little. Anyway, the pilot managed to land the plane eventually, to much raptuous applause, and so our holiday finally began.

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

1) Heather took this without me realising. You can take the girl out of England...

2) A banana split without the banana. We discovered, after complaining, that it really should have been named 'The Banana Flavoured Ice Cream Split'. Rubbish.

3) We went across to Lanzorote for the day on Friday, and did a bit of dolphin spotting too. Unfortunately none of the dolphin photos came out, so here's a picture of Heather and I after the tour guide gave us blankets because we were cold... (it was a boat packed with tourists, and we were the only two who had blankets... such high maintenance!):

Some memorable quotes from the trip include:

'This is NOT what I ordered.'

- Heather, after opening the curtains on our first morning to discover it was cloudy.

'Don't worry, my little fruitbowl. It'll be fine.'

- A man we overheard reassuring his girlfriend. We burst out laughing.

'Please put other bag on scales. Before plane leaves.'

- Impatient Spanish check-in guy at airport.

(After checking passport photo) 'Come again soon, my darlings. You are welcome here always. *sleazy wink* Don't go home, please don't go!'

- Final security check man proving that they don't seem to take their job quite as seriously over there...

We had a brilliant time!!!

Miracle Jesus

2008-04-07T23:03:00.007+01:00

You know those little shops that sell all sorts of bits and pieces, nice for small gifts and tokens of appreciation? Well, there's a lovely little shop in Durham I used to go to when stuck for present ideas. However, when I visited it this weekend, it would seem the owner has branched out into a whole new market niche. In amongst the homemade bookmarks, cute ornaments and those 'Thank You Teacher' mugs (which you can never get enough of), I noticed this:

I thought the 'glow-in-the-dark hands' were an interesting touch. Also, note the fact that this is the 'DELUXE' version. I wonder what the ordinary Miracle Jesus Action Figure does...

Anyway, I had a very nice time in Durham. Last week I went to the Isle of Wight with Year 6 (more on that later), and during Disco Night they played that Soulja Boy song. All 400 children in the hall immediately commenced this intricate dance routine, which left the adults (who had up to that point felt very 'down with the kids'- we'd just taught the younger generation the Macarena moves) feeling very old and slightly freaked out. Apparently the routine is on YouTube. Being the ancient 23 year old that I am, the only word (and corresponding move) I could understand in the song was 'Superman'- and the next day I couldn't wait to show my Durham friends the move I'd learnt. Laura in particular was very quick to catch on:

The Isle of Wight trip was a very testing time for me- I had to face all sorts of fears and look as though I was thoroughly enjoying every second of it, as some of the kids in my group were more terrified than me. The Giant Swing was horrifying to start off with, as I had to go first and the girl sat next to me didn't want to say 'stop' til the swing was at its highest point (if you've seen the video from the previous post, it was raised so it was actually level with the top bar). In hindsight, I should've known better than be paired with her, as her dad owns Adventure Island... By this time two of the other groups were walking past, and they'd all stopped to have a good look. The worst bit was the fact that it was up to me to pull the tiny pink cord, which then released the swing. After the initial 'AAAAAAHHHH' sensation though, it was really good!!!

Going on the Tunnel Trail was the other really scary experience for me. It involved crawling through these wet, muddy, pitch black tunnels which varied in height (I came out with a headache) looking for a golden brick which, when pulled out, would reveal a secret supply of sweets. Needless to say, there was no golden brick. And when I decided to stay in the one small chamber with a light to look after the frightened children, the light went out and I was left comforting all these crying children who I couldn't see.

Apart from that, it was a really good trip, and the Isle of Wight is beautiful. Have officially had enough of children now though...

A quick update...

2008-03-30T15:09:00.002+01:00

1) Quiz night was a success- we made nearly £200! Thanks to everyone who came and supported us, hope you had as good a time as we did...

2) School production was also a success, although standing on stage door in the freezing cold for four hours on Wednesday and Thursday night wasn't much fun. I am NOT putting myself through it again next year!

3) It's the start of the school holidays- yay! I received two beautiful bouquets of flowers from a couple of parents, and lots of chocolate. For the first time in my life, I have more Easter eggs than I know what to do with... I've never been sick of chocolate before, but that time may be coming :-S

4) I've got a busy few weeks ahead. I'm off to the Isle of Wight tomorrow for an activity week with Year 6 (not sure how I get dragged into all these things, but it should be good- fingers crossed for good weather!). Then as soon as I get back I'm going to Durham for a couple of days to see some uni friends who still live there, and a day after I come back from that am off to Fuerteventura with Heather for 6 days! The next couple of weekends after that am also going to Hertfordshire and Durham again (this time for a big uni reunion). So I probably won't be blogging as much as I'd like... I'm not sure how you'll cope either, but you'll have to try.

I'll leave you with one of the many 'activities' I'll be doing next week. This is the Giant Swing. I'm not sure how I feel about it at the moment...

For Ben Still

2008-03-23T16:34:00.005Z

This week, Ben had his first interview for a teaching post at a local comprehensive school. He's currently doing his PGCE and is in the middle of a placement at this particular school. Anyway, he got the job!!!! So I wanted to make him something really special to say 'Congratulations'. Something with meaning. Something tasteful. Then I saw this and knew I'd found what I'd been seaching for...

I wanted to put my own head on it, but I couldn't as it only had a man version of it (what happened to equality amongst the sexes?!). So I asked permission from the first guy I saw today if I could borrow his instead, and he said yes.

Happy Easter everybody!

Don't send a lame Congrats eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Congratulations Ben! Love Katie (and Rich) xx

Things I Should Not Have Done This Week

2008-03-20T19:06:00.000Z

Ok, so that wasn't one of them- I found this when I was searching for a picture to put on here. Now that I have your attention...

Things I Should Not Have Done This Week:

1) Run over somebody's flowerbed with my car (not even somebody I didn't know, it belonged to a nice guy from our corps who had kindly agreed to host Youth Fellowship last week...)

2) Agreed to be Stage Manager. If I have to move one more flippin' tree... (and no, that shouldn't be my job- I'm somehow involved with the props as well! Such a mug.)

3) Started watching Desperate Housewives. Now I'm addicted. (Not good, especially when I have a million more important things to be doing.)

4) Stood in front of a fitness control freak at Body Combat. If she grabs my arm one more time just to inform me I'm high kicking with the wrong leg, there WILL be trouble.

5) Spelt 'aerial' wrong the top of every single Geography report. That wouldn't be so bad in itself, if I hadn't made exactly the same mistake this time last year. It prompted various Post-It notes from the headteacher, saying things like:

'I think you'll find this type of Ariel is a washing powder.'
'This Ariel was 'The Little Mermaid.''
'This Ariel was, in fact, in 'The Tempest.''

You get the idea.

6) Parked my car under the trees at work. My car now looks as though it's trying to camouflage itself amongst a herd of zebras. Stupid birds.

7) Eaten two of the (rather large) Easter eggs I'd bought for the children in my class. Seriously, what is wrong with me?!

8) Watched a video clip entitled 'World's Worst Mouse Plague'. It led to me having nightmares about mice in my room/at work/in the kitchen for three nights in a row. I think it's given me Musophobia. (If you're feeling brave, the video can be found here. But don't say I didn't warn you...)

Ah, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Two Things To Entertain You

2008-03-13T20:45:00.007Z

Thing One

This is an instant form of entertainment, ideally to watch if bored at work (it's only about a minute long). Can YOU pass The Awareness Test?

Thing Two

This one is more in anticipation of entertainment... a quick plug. I asked Rich for a copy of the poster so I could advertise the event on here, and he gave me an all-singing, all-dancing version of it (it's worth pressing play, the music is really cool!)

In case you can't read it properly, we're having a quiz night at Hadleigh Temple Corps. Come!

Two other points to note:

-> Charlotte Still has finally blogged again... (I feel I should be supportive!)

-> Have added a new blogger to my list, as Paul Mitchinson needed replacing (he was rubbish...). When we visited Nottingham Memorial Halls Corps in November, Heather and I billeted with Andrew and Helen Whitehouse, who were really lovely to us. Andrew is DYO for that divison (East Midlands? I've no idea!) and has started up his own blog. Go look!

And the award for Most Bizarre Product Found In A School Equipment Catalogue goes to...

2008-03-07T17:41:00.004Z

Body Sox. Apparently, these huge lycra sacks 'promote spacial awareness and interaction in children. Once inside, users find themselves in a private domain that lures them into kinesthetic exploration...'

I'm not convinced.

Whilst looking through this catalogue in the staffroom today, I was bamboozled. Yes, you heard correctly. The drama teacher came up to me and said:

'You haven't been bamboozled into being Stage Manager for the school production, have you?'

I reassured her that no, I hadn't. She then smiled and said:

'Oh, so you're ok with doing it then? Great, it will be fine, I know you'll do an excellent job!'

I tried to interrupt with 'I never said...' but she carried on regardless.

'I'll make sure you have some helpers. Thanks, Katie!'

And off she went. As I sat there in shock, trying to comprehend what had just happened, the woman next to me laughed and said 'So, she asked you if Paul had bamboozled you into Stage Management, and then went ahead and bamboozled you herself... I admire her'.

So now I'm Stage Manager. The one job more stressful than Props Co-ordinator (my role last year, after which I swore I would never get myself involved in another production again).

Great.

One year ago today...

2008-03-01T17:11:00.000Z

... I wrote my very first blog entry (thanks for that reminder, Andy!). I've just been looking back at some of my posts and it turns out I've managed to pack quite a few things in- visits to a number of exciting countries, various road trips, lots of shows, encountered a death defying hamster and even acquired a disorder! And for someone who never finishes anything they start (I officially gave up giving up chocolate on Thursday thanks to a massive bar of Cadburys tempting me at the Matt and Chell's house- not my fault) I don't think I've done too badly with the whole blog thing.

Anyway, to celebrate my blog birthday, I drove to Hertfordshire to visit two of my closest friends from uni, Nuala and Lena. Here they are... (Lena is the one on the left and Nuala is on the right- the one in the middle is Lauren, who is living in Madrid now):

I'd forgotten how effortless it is spending time with these girls, how it felt like no time had passed since we last met, and how they still know me better than I know myself! (For example, few people know that I can't stand tomato ketchup and can only ever manage to drink half a cup of tea- stuff that you only really learn from living with someone.) We spent the afternoon doing stuff we all love and miss doing... eating at Wagamamas, chatting about the old days and watching The Nanny Diaries in our jogging bottoms. It really was like stepping into an old, comfortable pair of slippers. It made me feel a little nostalgic and Durham-sick (as you can probably tell).

By the way, don't go and see The Accidental Husband. I just could not have cared less about what happened to any of the characters. EVEN Colin Firth...

Did The Earth Move For You?

2008-02-27T22:32:00.009Z

I'm asking this question because out of all the people I've seen today- people at work, my family, people at Songsters... only one person (and that was Claire Howell, who was probably just being nice) believed that I felt the earthquake last night. But I really did! For those of you who don't know, I live in Southend, which is quite a long way away from Lincolnshire. But there was a definitely a rumbling noise and movement- something in my room even rattled a bit. I was still trying to get to sleep when it happened, which is probably why nobody else felt it- I doubt it would have woken anybody up!

I know I'm not helping the drama queen thing... although after seeing Cloverfield, I have to admit that the thought 'What if someone has awoken a sleeping monster and it's stomping around?' very, very briefly crossed my mind. That is how overactive my imagination can be when it's dark and I'm on my own...

Anyway, not much else to report, apart from that I have relaxed the chocolate ban a little. I am now allowed chocolate mousse and chocolate custard (in other words, school desserts- although those two things aren't usually served on the same day). I tried to explain to the children that the mousse didn't really count as chocolate, but unfortunately the packaging was not on my side:

Finally, I walked into a card shop the other day and thought this card had 'good taste' written all over it:

It's true. They really do have a card for every occasion.

A Funny Coincidence...

2008-02-16T23:35:00.005Z

So, on Thursday we were strolling through the streets of Copenhagen (as you do) when suddenly John spotted THIS:

What are the chances?!
I take back any possible sarcasm from the previous post. Video fireplaces have obviously taken off in Denmark in a big way...

In the same street, I also bumped into this guy (admittedly he doesn't look all that pleased to see me, but maybe he didn't like people leaning on his walking stick):

Copenhagen is GREAT.

Whoever came up with this must be a millionaire...

2008-02-13T19:28:00.004Z

So, today Heather and I were killing time in the Rainforest Cafe shop. We looked around at all the souvenirs- mugs, T-shirts, cuddly animals, monkey hats etc. All pretty rainforest based stuff, as you would expect. Then, just as we were able to walk downstairs to eat, this caught my eye:

GENIUS.

Kids Say The Stupidest Things Continued...

2008-02-08T18:27:00.000Z

I haven't posted about school in a little while. So as a celebration of half term arriving (yay!) here are a few more anecdotes...

1) It was in the news last week that people with the 'blue eyes' gene can all be traced back to the same ancestor, and that it happened due to a genetic mutation. Which led to one child coming to the following conclusion (very loudly at the lunch table):

'Everyone, did you know that all people with blue eyes are mutants?'

2) During the same meal, I noticed that one of the children had 'finished' his lunch in a record 2 minutes and was standing at the door ready for playtime. The following conversation occured:

Me: James, have you actually opened your packed lunch? You can't be finished already!

James: I've finished my lunch.

(I open lunchbox to find a whole pile of sandwiches and some crisps)

James: Oh. I didn't know they were there.

3) Hannah was reading aloud from a non-fiction book when she stated that:

'The Snugglers were very good at hiding things.'

I told her the term was 'smugglers'.

'Yes,' she agreed, before carrying on.

'Back then, there were lots of Snugglers' Caves...'

I have a feeling they weren't as cosy as they sounded.

4) Finally, I set a piece of homework last week which required the children to write a reply to this distressed woman's letter:

52 Wood Lane

Darksville

Thursday 31st January

Dear Class,

My daughter Goldilocks keeps running off into the woods. She won't listen to a word I say. What can I do to make her listen and do as she is told?

Yours faithfully,

Goldilocks' Mum

Year 2 children are supposed to spend half an hour on their homework, and as a class we went through some examples of thoughtful advice that could be given. The children produced some fantastic letters, but one child in particular stood out as having obviously put a lot of thought, time and effort into his reply:

Dear Goldilocks' Mum,

Lock her in her room.

Yours sincerely,

Charlie

Eat your heart out, Jeremy Kyle.

Chocolate Tuesday

2008-02-04T23:00:00.001Z

Yes, it's that time of year again. It's hard to believe Lent is nearly upon us already... I could've sworn Christmas was only last week. Last year, I tried to give up chocolate for Lent. I know it's not very original, but it really is such a big part of my life that giving it up always is a tough challenge. Unlike the year before last, when I gave up yoghurt... (I don't even really eat yoghurt). Anyway, I would have succeeded last year had it not been for those pesky M&M's:

In a moment of madness at a youth event last year, I confused them with these:

In my defence, they really did look like Skittles. When I realised what I'd done (it was quite near the end of Lent too, if I remember rightly) I reacted a little bit like this...

... Which I'm sure went down well during the quiet time of reflection at said youth event (I'm can't recall why we were asked to eat sweets, but we were!) Anyway, this time I will succeed. People have either laughed or scoffed disbelievingly when told about the challenge (apart from my dad, who just said 'Well, I shouldn't worry, you've eaten enough in the last two weeks to cover the whole of Lent...') so I'm determined to prove everyone wrong!

As you may have guessed from the title of this post, today has been spent (and the remainder of the day will be spent) eating as much chocolate as I can. It's just dawned on me that as of tomorrow there will be no more Kisses (of the Hershey's variety), no more Toffee Crisp Popcorn (why even bother going to the cinema?!) and according to Ben, no more Bourbon biscuits. I don't think they count as chocolate. Do they?

Wish me luck.

In the last 24 hours...

2008-02-02T23:00:00.000Z

My mood has gone from this:

And this...

To this:

Hmm. Last night, I went to see 'Mamma Mia!' (as you may have guessed) in London. It must seem like I go to see shows all the time, but I really don't... Anyway, I loved every minute of it and was in a really good mood this morning, humming away to 'Honey, Honey' and other such tunes. I was curious to see how they would fit all those Abba songs into one storyline, but they just about managed it! I'm very excited about the film version coming out in July.

Then, this afternoon we went to see Sweeney Todd, and for the first time in my entire life I discovered a musical that I didn't immediately fall in love with (unlike Tim). It was really well made and the acting was superb, but there was just a little too much gore and depression for me. That wouldn't normally put me off, as I really enjoyed 'Jekyll and Hyde' when it was touring as a musical, but for some reason this one just didn't appeal. It's a first. Maybe there'll be a stage version and I'll really like that.

In the last 24 hours I have also discovered that one of my all-time favourite restaurants (when I was younger) is no longer as magical as it used it be. I won't mention the name of it, but it has moving gorillas, elephants, toucans etc. and a tropical storm every 20 minutes*. Which is all very well and good, but it was very much a case of 'Spot the Waiter'... even when he was delivering water, I blinked and missed him (he kinda threw it down on the table as he ran past). Then, as John was trying to sort out the change I'd left on the table for a tip, he raced past, picked up the pound coins, and disappeared without saying a word! Rude.

* It sounds a little bit like the Jungle Cafe in Southend (minus the tropical storm), but that's not the place I'm talking about...

Have we missed our callings as celebrity lookalikes...?!

2008-01-27T23:09:00.000Z

Probably not. Apparently, according to this website, my friend Heather and I bear remarkable resemblances to Mandy Moore and Kelly Clarkson. I can't quite see it myself, but the morph thing is pretty cool.

Katie/Kelly

%1

Heather/Mandy

%1

On a completely different note, I would also like to apologise to all cookie workers around the country. Awhile ago, I wrote a blog post questioning the importance of receipts at a well known chain of cookie stores. Well, it turns out that post is easily accessible via Google, and as a result someone commented on it stating exactly why they make you wait ages for a receipt you don't want.

Fairy nuff.

Elephants and Other Thoughts

2008-01-19T12:08:00.000Z

I wish I was an elephant,

All big and fat and round

And wander through the jungle

Just elephin' around.

- Rumble in the Jungle

1) Now, John may be better at languages than me (as in he is fluent in five languages and I'm fluent in one) and he may know more about where countries are located (and which places just sound like countries but actually aren't). I even discovered the other day that he can do this*:

(That isn't actually John, obviously)

But when it comes to making elephants out of modelling materials, I think it's obvious who's the expert. After all, I DID do a degree in it (That's not completely true. I actually have a BA in Primary Education... just in case people get their hopes up that a BA in Elephant Art actually exists- although how cool would that be?!) Anyway, using Stacey's playdough gift, this is my creation:

He even has wrinkles! I then introduced him to Wilbur (My Slovakian Elephant- you'd be surprised just how many there are in Bratislava) who I'm pretty sure was fooled into thinking that he was the real thing:

You can tell by the expression on his face... I think I've proved my point.

2) Yesterday, I did something I have never done before. I went to see a film at the cinema... for the second time. And I made three observations:

- If you want someone to get emotionally involved in a film that you really like (in this case, P.S. I Love You) don't let them sit next to Ben. This is Ben:

I should have known better.

- Toffee Crisp Popcorn is my new favourite thing... whoever thought of that idea was a GENIUS.

Yep, it really is 'Five Star Munch'.

- If you agree to share popcorn with somebody, it's probably not the best idea to sit two seats away from them. Apparently it's a little inconsiderate to the person sat inbetween them.

That is all.

* I really, really want to be able to make the water drop sound. So much so that I looked at a tutorial on YouTube... but I still can't do it. And I've been flicking the side of my face so much that my cheek is sore. I've put the tutorial video in the right hand side, see if you can do it (it's only 3 minutes long...) Good luck!

23

2008-01-12T23:59:00.000Z

Yesterday, I turned 23. The big one... (Yes, it has not yet been widely recognised that 23 has replaced 21 as the most important birthday). To celebrate this, I've had a bit of a birthday week. Had a murder mystery party, had a 'surprise' party at school (the organisation skills of seven year olds are so under rated), and am in the middle of the best birthday weekend to date. In the last 24 hours I have eaten no less than three consecutive three course meals (with a fourth tomorrow) and seen the show Wicked, which was AMAZING. It was probably unwise to eat a banoffee pie, popcorn, munchies and ice-cream all within two hours, but it was my birthday treat. I also managed to bump into Stacey in Leicester Square, which was rather random (Stacey and I have the good fortune of sharing a birthday, although her milestone wasn't as important as mine...)

I think people were a little worried that I might start acting my age, as they bought me presents such as these:

A bendy belles Jess, courtesy of Chris. She really is as bendy as her name!

A Hot Hugs cow, part of a present from Ben and Rich. Does exactly what it says on the box.

My very own Mike Wazowski. If you don't know who he is, then you don't deserve to be told... (John bought presents for me in the hope that I wouldn't want any of them, so he would then be allowed to keep them... this was one such gift. Needless to say, he went home disappointed).

I'd just like to make a special mention to Heather's mum, who made me the most delicious, chocolatey birthday cake I've ever encounterd. Here it is:

Finally, for those who haven't seen it, I'll leave you with a little taster from Wicked:

I would like to draw your attention to three things...

2008-01-06T00:54:00.001Z

1) Charlotte Still now has a blog. And her first post is really rather good (there are lots of big words in it that only students truly know how to use...) Check out the link on the right hand side of this blog.

2) While you're looking on the right hand side of the blog, have a look at the two songs I have added... one of which is from Avenue Q, and the other is just a personal favourite. Enjoy...

3) I'm not going to talk about last night, as I think there are others who can sum it up better than I can. Also, I can't be bothered. Thirdly, I don't have any good photos. But I DID want to get this Human Pyramid of Dreams in before anybody else (even though it's not my photo...):

It was my party, so I think that's allowed... Impressive, don't you think?

Some Thoughts Before New Year

2007-12-29T09:25:00.001Z

I was browsing some of my previous posts when I came across the one celebrating my half birthday in blogging. In it, I listed three things to achieve over the next six months. It's occurred to me that none of them are real goals, and I need some purpose (a bit like the guy in Avenue Q... by the way, I will have achieved the second ambition on my list by January- for those of you who care). Anyway, here are one or two New Year's resolutions that I am hoping to stick to in 2008:

- STOP PROCRASTINATING

“Don't wait. The time will never be just right.”- Napoleon Hill

Procrastination is a serious problem with me. I will do anything to avoid what should be done, no matter how important or trivial. I'm gonna sort that out.

- Do something once a week that scares me

“Too often we are scared, scared of what we might not be able to do, scared of what people might think if we tried, we let our fears stand in the way of our hopes. Why? There's really no time to be afraid. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Everything!”- Unknown

I'm very much one for staying in my comfort zone. There's a 'Compare People' application on Facebook, where you rank your friends in certain categories. I came out as 56th Most Adventurous. Enough said.

This next quote pretty much sums up my other New Year's Resolutions:

“Do not worry; eat three square meals a day; say your prayers; keep your digestion good; exercise; go slow and easy. Maybe there are other things your special case requires to make you happy; but, my friend, these I recommend”- Abraham Lincoln

I like that one a lot. So that's pretty much it! Actually, there's one more quote that I came across which I could completely relate to, which I'll share with you now. Sometimes (just sometimes) I can be a bit of a drama queen. If something remotely out of the ordinary happens to me, I will dramatise it until it becomes a scene out of Hollyoaks. Yesterday, there was a power cut at the house I'm looking after, and I was on my own and it was pitch black and I couldn't find any candles. This quote summed me up:

“I have a huge, active imagination, and I think I'm really scared when I'm alone; because if I'm left to my own devices, I just turn into a madwoman.”- Clare Danes

Seriously, at one point I genuinely thought someone had snuck (is that a word?) into the house in the darkness and was hiding upstairs. So my final resolution is to stop making trivial things into such massive deals. Although it does make life more exciting...

Other stuff:

- The guys from Uni are coming to visit me today... I haven't seen them for a while and am very excited about it. I set myself a goal of catching up with as many old friends as possible this holiday, and so far I'm doing pretty well. Here is a photo of us from the summer (to balance out the scary candle man photo):

- We lost the traditional Boxing Day Chelmsford Vs. Hadleigh football match 1-0. But that's ok, because everybody knows we should have won. Again, it was really nice to catch up with people!

- The sleep paralysis has come back. I hadn't had an 'episode' since I posted about it on my blog, but today I couldn't wake up. I can't decide if I'm being a drama queen here or whether it's justified, so I'll leave it at that.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

2007-12-24T00:02:00.000Z

Now that my car is back in my driveway (albeit only for a week as its MOT is due... gulp) I have been able to once more enter into the spirit of Christmas. It left me for a couple of days, but is back now... partly because this whole weekend has been spent singing carols and spending time with old friends, and I know that tomorrow will be exactly the same. Some of us went to the Wickford Christmas Ball on Friday, and as you can see we had a lovely time:

However, one or two of us got a little bit over-excited when we found out that there was White Chocolate Dip...

Anyway, this second picture gave me inspiration for a final Christmas video. It was difficult to decide who to put in it, so in the end I figured I'd do one featuring guys from The Hadleigh Posse (yeh, we really are too cool for school). Everyone has just been round for Youth Fellowship and it's been really nice to catch up with people I don't get to spend as much time with as I'd like. It's one of my favourite things about this time of year! Right, enough babbling... this one is for Ben and Charlotte Still, Rich Wright and Chris Carter. Drumroll please...

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Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

ARGH!

2007-12-19T14:46:00.000Z

This is my car:

Well, it's not actually a photo of my car (I couldn't find the cable to link the camera to the computer) but it illustrates the post nicely. And bears a rather striking resemblance to my car (it's a black KA... although not quite as shiny as this one...)

Anyway, the reason I'm posting is because I'm a little bit angry. I've had my car for over a year and a half and in that time it has had nothing wrong with it, bar a rather strange incident involving loads of grey fluff coming out the exhaust (that's a story for another time). A week or so ago, though, I noticed that one of my headlights was a little dimmer than the other. 'Never mind' I thought, 'I can still see where I'm going'. Then a few days ago, John helpfully/nervously pointed out that neither light was on, and I should probably get it sorted out.

So yesterday I went to the Castle Motor Company.

And there was my mistake.

I took my car in, the car mechanic fixed the headlights (which cost £50) and gave it a pre-MOT, and called me up to say it was ready. Just before I left the garage, he said 'Have you had any trouble with the clutch? Getting the car into reverse?' And I hadn't really. So he said 'It's fine, but it might start going soon...'

Then I left. Soon after, there I was on the London Road, trying to change gear. But the car wouldn't let me... it refused to go into any gear and the car was jumping about all over the place. Now, I'd just like to reiterate that I have never had any problems with my car before. So today Dad drove it back to the garage (we had to drive along the A13 in second gear, and even then it was touch and go) and the man was like 'Yep, you need a new clutch slave. It's all leaking' (at this point my dad wanted to turn to me and say 'Really? What did your last slave die of?' but fortunately restrained himself). Anyway, it turns out that it costs £350 to replace. And I couldn't take it anywhere else as... well, it wouldn'tve made the journey. I do think I've been had... but it would be very difficult to prove it!

So now I'm carless and penniless. It's a very sad situation to be in. And I'm sorry that this has been quite a boring post in comparison with recent ones, but I'm looking for sympathy.

Does anybody out there know anything about cars by the way?

10 Sleeps To Go...

2007-12-15T12:35:00.000Z

I decided that the people kind enough to comment on the last couple of posts deserve a small reward. So, with a little digging (the wonder of Facebook never ceases to amaze me) here is a Christmas present for Andy, Glyn, John and Anna. Unfortunately I couldn't find a happy photo of Andy, so it's his turn to look miserable. Bah Humbug.

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Christmas starts properly for me this weekend. There are two main reasons for this:

1) End of term has arrived (the last day is always great, I get lots of cool presents and we throw a Christmas party... you can always rely on 6 and 7 year olds to get into the Christmas spirit).

2) It's SEEVIC weekend. For those of you who don't know, every year Hadleigh Temple put on a Christmas Weekend Spectacular (that's my name for it, I think it's actually called 'Christmas Unwrapped' this year... Boring). There are 4 performances taking place over the weekend, and we have it at a nearby lecture theatre in the round. It's basically a show with lots of arena items, children's sketches, timbrels, singing and (of course) the traditional Christmas story. I love it! I think I might've mentioned it before on my blog, but it won't hurt to mention it again. And my angel costume is pretty awesome this year. So if you've nothing better to do, come along...

A Christmas Greeting From Me To You...

2007-12-09T20:51:00.000Z

I had a lot of work to do tonight. So naturally, I had to find new levels of procrastination... I apologise to Ben, John, Stacey and Heather for stealing photos without permission! Although I think you'll agree it was worth it. I'll probably be posting a few of these in the run up to Christmas, so be warned if you're not in this one!

Non-Crappy Starring You! eCards on JibJab

Things I have learned from Yoga.... and other news

2007-12-05T22:23:00.000Z

Tonight, I went to my first ever Yoga session. It was quite enjoyable and I'll probably go again. Especially as Yoga can apparently cure all illnesses. Not many people know that (which is unfortunate, as a lot of money could be saved on research), so I thought I'd better share them with you.

Did you know, if you:

- Rub your hands together and cup them over your eyes, and blink really fast, any impaired vision can be improved.

- Stretch your arms out in front of you on a regular basis, you will become immune to breast cancer.

- Stand on your head once a day, your skin will remain youthful.

- Sit on the floor with your feet touching and flap your knees up and down ('like a beautiful butterfly'), then any infertility problem will be cured.

- Spin round and round really fast regularly, you will become immune to all illnesses and live longer.

The Yoga Man told us all the above information was true, because he knew at least four people it had happened to in every circumstance. Stacey and I did very well not to fall about laughing for most of it (although I couldn't make eye contact with her for the whole hour and a half). He also singled us out and said we would be good at 'acrobatic yoga', which added to my suspicion that every sentence that came out of his mouth was a lie. The exercise was good though, if you tuned him out.

Update on other stuff:

- The Christmas production starts tomorrow. It's all a little bit crazy, especially first thing in the morning when I'm running round getting children dressed/looking for lost sheep/dealing with the hundreds of questions that various parents have decided to store up over the weeks and ask me at that specific moment. Then, once I've finally restored order, peeled the excited children off the ceiling and settled them down with some work, someone will burst in shouting 'YOU'RE ON, GO GO GO!!!' and the madness starts up again.

- John and I went to Bratislava on Saturday on one of our random days abroad. It was really, really cool... all cold and christmassy. Imagine the opportunity for christmas shopping and all the original presents we could've brought back. Sadly, I came home with nothing but a cuddly elephant called Wilbur (who I'm pretty certain had nothing to do with Slovakia, and could be bought from any reputable toy store in the UK). But we did have fun seeing the sights, eating food constantly and going to the Christmas market. Here are one or two photos, just to brighten up the post:

The first photo shows the busy Christmas market at sunset, and hopefully conveys some of the some of the great atmosphere that was there that afternoon. The second picture was taken after we caught our first glimpse of Bratislava Castle as we walked into the city. All very picturesque!

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

2007-11-28T23:17:00.001Z

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...

2007-11-27T20:16:00.000Z

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...

2007-11-15T22:05:00.000Z

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

2007-11-04T14:15:00.000Z

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...

2007-11-01T21:51:00.000Z

Sorry for lack of posting.

Parents' Evening this week. Been manic.

Just got back.

Exhausted.

Update soon.

Check these guys out...

2007-10-23T18:32:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, I was trying to explain to my friend Nuala what timbrels are. Every Christmas, the Timbrelletes (the younger, more attractive version of the Timbrels at Hadleigh) perform a jazzed up routine at the Seevic Celebration Weekend (which by the way, if you haven't been to, is worth a visit). Last year we did the Blues Brothers, the year before we did Lulu's 'Shout'... you get the idea. It's all good fun and we enjoy it. But it's difficult to describe it to non-Salvationists. Waving a tambourine around just doesn't seem to justify it. So I looked up 'timbrels' on YouTube and found a really cool routine by a bunch of young people at Northern Summer School 2006. I thought I'd share it with you:

There's a big debate underneath the video on YouTube about whether it's an appropriate routine/music choice for the final festival, but I personally don't really care about that... they obviously worked really hard all week and put their heart and soul into it, and if it wasn't suitable then I'm sure it would have been cut from the programme!

Update on the health kick:

- Gym going really well. Been three times this week. The Legs, Bums and Tums class was led by some sadistic female instructor who had the energy of a hyped up Duracell bunny... am feeling the pain today!

- Been to McDonald's twice this week. That's twice more than I usually go. Ugh.

The One Where Katie Realises Two Very Important Things

2007-10-16T19:06:00.000+01:00

Realisation Number One

Now, I've never really been one to watch what I eat (the 'eat like a pig' comment from a previous post pretty much sums that up), and I'm quite happy with the way I look. However, lately more and more people have been implying that if I carry on eating the way I do now, and carry on doing the same amount of exercise (i.e. nil), then I will be a bit of a heffalump by the time I'm 30. Add that to the fact that I am completely unfit and rather lazy (although I think the former statement may possibly be due to the latter), and the conclusion was obvious. I need to join the gym. I'd also quite like to see more of my friend Stacey, who is great at going to the gym. So this post marks the start of a whole new, healthier, gym bashing, no-more-McDonalds me. We'll see how that works out...

Realisation Number Two

I rarely acknowledge the fact I have great friends. I say 'rarely', I mean 'never'. Mostly because their egos are big enough as it is. But, to give them credit, one or two are particularly good at buying me awesome presents when I'm feeling a little rubbish. So here goes.

My friends are pretty cool.

Cumbria- The Least Eventful Youth Weekend Ever

2007-10-14T18:16:00.000+01:00

This weekend, we went on a mini youth retreat to a cottage in Cumbria. I say 'mini' for two reasons. Firstly, only 6 of us went, which is a rather small proportion of our youth group at Hadleigh. And secondly, it was only for two nights. By the time we'd driven 6 hours to get there it was pretty much time to come back. But we had fun. As away weekends go, it was really, really chilled out. We didn't really do much of anything... saw a few lakes, drove around a LOT, had dinner in a lovely little town called Keswick and watched tv. It was great!

Now, Rich took along his camcorder to record some of the exciting things we did. However, as nothing really exciting actually happened (he managed to miss the few interesting moments, such as a car which crashed driving up a wall on the mountain, but he did capture a good five minutes footage of an empty coke bottle), I look forward to see how his video turns out! I thought I'd capture the excitement myself on a 30 second video on my phone... I've never recorded anything before and certainly never been able to upload anything onto a computer, so I'm feeling a real sense of achievement right now. The fact that the video has no real purpose is irrelevent, I'm just so proud I managed to do it that you can all share in my triumph with me. And I would also just like to announce here that my new phone is awesome.

The others all said that it sounds like I'm recording a video for infant school children. I can't help it if I lapse into teacher mode sometimes (although I like to think I don't actually sound like that in the classroom).

So... ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present to you... Cumbria!

Such a happy, excited bunch of young people. Could we BE having any more fun?!

Kids say the stupidest things...

2007-10-06T15:34:00.000+01:00

This week, we have had...

Child 1- (opens mouth wide) Look, I've got my first cup of tea.
Me- What?
Child 1- Cuppa tea. Mum said. It hurts.
Me- Oh. Cavity.
Child 1- Yeh, that's it.

Child 2- I had such a big fever yesterday that my temperature was almost full up!

Child 3- Ahh I've lost my rubber. Mum is gonna kill me.
Child 4- (matter of factly) No. It's against the LAW.

Child 5- I'm so cold I've got duck spots.
Me- You mean goose pimples.
Child 5- No, duck spots.

And this is the best one:

Me- Does anybody know why we sweat when we get hot?
Child 6- Because when it gets really hot, a bit of your face melts.

It's quotes like these that make my job worthwhile...

A Post with No Real Purpose

2007-10-01T18:02:00.000+01:00

I just feel like I should post as I haven't for a couple of weeks and wouldn't want people to stop checking my blog as its never updated. Only two things to mention really:

1) The other Year 2 teacher and I have been having a whale of a time coming up with our school Christmas production: 'jesus@bethlehem.com'. It's based on a great children's book, all about what would have happened if Jesus had been born today. For example, there's a band (called 'Band of Angels'... hehehe) singing '21st Century Boy' and the three kings travel to see him by private jet. Yep, it's gonna be great. If anybody knows where I can get hold of a life jacket or one of those masks that drop out of the ceiling (oh dear, am having Grease flashbacks) please let me know.

2) We went on our Monopoly Day on Saturday. I'm not gonna say too much about it, as that would be stealing John's thunder (that, and I don't have any photos to make it interesting). But I do want to share a couple of things that I learnt from the day:

Never, ever go to Old Kent Road after dusk.
Don't take your children to Hamley's. Ever. Luckily I didn't have to learn from my own mistakes on this one, it was enough just observing other peoples' children.
The phrase 'Katie, you eat like a pig' can refer to the fact that I eat a lot, not that I gobble down my food in an un-ladylike manner. That caused much confusion and upset.

It was a really good day, and we all had lots of fun... was also really nice to finally meet Anna! Might post again about it once John has updated his blog.

That's all for now!

A Belated Half-Birthday Post

2007-09-18T21:11:00.000+01:00

Those of you who know me well will know that I do love a good half birthday. I've never really grown out of them, and only recently realised that other people have. For example, I turned 22 and a half on 11th July. And this blog turned, well, 0 and a half (or 6 months, if you will) on 1st September. I completely missed it. So I thought I'd make up for it now by doing the classic 'Things I've achieved' and 'Things I'd like to achieve' post. I'll go back to January though as it's hard to think of lots of things I've achieved since March. The list will probably be brief...

Things I've wanted to do that I've achieved so far this year:

Saw 'The Lion King' in London for my birthday, something I've wanted to do for years. Also saw Stomp, The Sound of Music and Les Mis. I'm doing pretty well on the musical front.

Went to Riga and Hamburg (I wouldn't say either of these were an ambition of mine but they turned out to be two of my favourite days of the year so far...)

Was the Props Co-ordinator for a major (school) musical production.

Rode in a limo.

Reached the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower without having some kind of panic attack.

Passed my induction year in teaching and became a 'normal' teacher.

Went snorkelling and rode on a banana boat!

Passed my driving test (on 2nd January, that one just made it onto the list).

Started a blog. Never thought I'd keep it up, but turns out that anything that stops me being more efficient on the work front is a winner.

I'm bored of that one now. Onto 'Things I would like to achieve...'

I still want to ride an elephant. How achievable this desire will be over the next 6 months is unclear.

I would love to see 'Wicked' and 'Avenue Q'. Not hinting there at all...

I would like to somehow gain a sense of direction. I'm hopeless. A bit like Dory from Finding Nemo. I forget where I've been, how I got there, where I'm going... every day is like a new adventure for me!

Hmm, it would appear that I am currently lacking ambition. Although I'm quite impressed at how much I've done this year... really didn't feel like I'd achieved much until I wrote it down. Actually, I'm going to add:

Get paid to stay at a Hilton hotel and eat lots

Just because I found out today that I'm doing that one as part of my job (going on a one day course). So one down, two to go! Woop woop.

Here's to the next six months...

A Very Frightening 5 Minutes

2007-09-09T14:20:00.000+01:00

Lately, when I wake up in the morning, I have been suffering from sleep paralysis. It's never happened to me before, but during the last month or so it's been happening pretty regularly. Never when I first wake up, but only when I have a lie in and go back to sleep, or have a power nap in the afternoon. Basically what happens is this...

I think I'm awake. I try to move, but I can't. As I try harder to move, concentrating all my energy into moving one arm, the deeper I seem to be sinking in this indescribable feeling of entrapment. Then I start to panic. I feel as if I can't breathe, my energy is gone and my body is exhausted. Eventually, I manage to force myself to move a finger, and then it kind of disappears and I can move. It can sometimes last for up to half an hour! It's frustrating and sometimes terrifying.

Anyway, I googled it yesterday. I went onto this website entitled 'Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis'. I skim read the first paragraph, and it described EXACTLY what I was experiencing. 'Phew!' I thought to myself... 'It's not just me'. Then I scan to the bottom of the page and pick out the sentences 'disease involving degeneration of motor neurons' and 'progressive fatal illness'. I nearly burst into tears right there and then, before going back and reading the end of the first paragraph...

'If you've had one of these experiences, then you've probably had a glimpse of how it feels to have a fully developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.'

Thank goodness. I then left the Website of Death and visited the next one on the list, which immediately says:

RELAX! You are not going insane or dying. Sleep paralysis is not harmful. Read 'The Terror That Comes In The Night' for more information.

If only I'd read that one first. Off to Amazon we go...

Oh, and just for your information... Sleep Paralysis is actually 'a natural bodily function that causes us to be paralyzed during sleep. It prevents us hurting ourselves or others during dreams. It's when it follows us into the waking state that it becomes a disorder'

Wow... I have a disorder!

By the way, has anyone else experienced this?

Back to school

2007-09-08T18:44:00.000+01:00

This week has been crazy. From getting up around midday and going to bed around midnight I've had to get used to getting up at 6.30am and still going to bed around midnight. My day has increased by about 6 hours. And man, does it feel like it. I'd forgotten how exhausting it is to have 20 children constantly demanding attention from you all day, and how immature they are when they first come up from Year 1. I try not to go on about work too much on my blog, but today is an exception as it's the first week back and it's been my life... I just want to share a little example of what I have to deal with:

Me: 'Sophie, what are 3 lots of 10?'

Sophie: (bursting into tears) 'I'm sorry, I've got something on my mind. *SOB* At breaktime, *sob* I accidently trod on Luke's crisps on purpose... but I didn't mean to but I did it on purpose and I just know how much he likes them *sniff* and I just can't stop thinking about it'.

What a burden to have on your shoulders at the age of 6. I looked over at Luke and his facial expression was pretty much 'Bovvered?'

Right, no more classroom anecdotes for the next few posts. Promise.

A few observations...

2007-08-29T08:16:00.000+01:00

1) I went up to Durham last weekend for my friend's Sam's wedding. It was the first friend's wedding I'd been to and was a very exciting affair. The girl in the photo is actually my friend Sarah, but I can't be bothered to go searching through for a photo of the bride, so I figured that would do for now. However, my good mood was somewhat ruined on the way home, when GNER did their classic trick of delaying my train by an hour whilst cancelling the next one (for no apparent reason). Both trains were booked full of reservations as it was a bank holiday. Anyway, on embarking the train (after fighting my way through people and luggage) I discovered that a child was sitting in my seat, with her parents next to her. I apologised to the mum and showed her my ticket. She glared at me, sighed and said very loudly 'Right guys, we have to move as this lady wants Laura's seat. She'll have to sit in the aisle or something'. I momentarily felt awful as I sat down, then realised that a) It wasn't Laura's seat, it was mine and b) I wasn't going to spend two and a half hours standing up when I'd spent half an hour on the internet just so that I could make a reservation. It was her responsibility to sort that out, not mine, especially if she was travelling with children! Obviously I only thought of these comebacks after they'd stormed off, so I sat there fuming for the rest of the journey.

2) As you may have gathered from the last point, I'm not all that great with confrontation (actually, I'm very good when confronting on behalf of other people, just not when its down to me). The other day, my friend Ben and I went for lunch at my favourite restaurant in Leigh broadway 'J.T.'s Diner' (doesn't sound all that but trust me, the place is awesome). We ordered our food and waited in anticipation. For an hour. When we got there there was only one other family, but by this time the place was getting pretty busy. I had a view of the kitchens from my seat and I could see the waiter holding up our written order, pointing at us and looking very angrily at the waitress, saying something along the lines of 'What is this still doing here?!' Unfortunately Ben's not all that great at confrontation either, so we both sat there a bit longer, watching the waitress hide other people's food orders under her table so she didn't have to walk past us to deliver food to customers who had been waiting 10 minutes. Eventually our non-confrontal natures paid off as the boss came over and whispered 'I am SO sorry. We've had a problem with our order system. Obviously you don't have to pay for a single thing'. So the story had a happy ending, the meal was lovely and we both ordered dessert, just to make a point. We went away feeling very pleased with ourselves.

3) I discovered that you shouldn't big up a film before you've seen it. Years ago, I saw 'RENT' (a.k.a. 'Aids: The Musical) on stage and absolutely loved it. Everyone who went to see it felt the same. So I got very excited last night when Matt announced he had the film version on dvd... 'It's SO good' I exclaimed about six times before he put it on. It was not good. In fact, it was probably one of the worst films I have ever seen (almost on a par with 'Date Movie). I just couldn't understand how something could be so good on stage and so awful on screen, when essentially all the songs and characters were the same! I think it was partly because you can get away with singing the whole story on stage, whilst it was getting a little ridiculous watching dialogue on tv being exchanged quite unnecessarily in song. For example:

'How are we gonna paaaay the rent?'
'I doon't know, but I have AIDS...'
'Meeeee too'

It does make you start wanting to sing instead of speak though, it makes boring instructions such as 'Pass me the fooork' that little bit more interesting...

How many Dickens characters can YOU name?

2007-08-19T14:05:00.000+01:00

Apologies for not posting in a little while. Months ago, before I started up my blog, a friend of mine came up with an usually wise piece of advice. "Only blog when you have something interesting to say!" he said (as he wrote his third entry on the subject of 'The top 50 Neighbours characters of all time'...)

Well, as it turns out, I haven't had anything interesting to say for a couple of weeks. Not that I haven't done anything, just that my daily activities probably wouldn't provide my audience with the high quality of bloggage that they've come to expect. But that all changed yesterday when I went to...

DICKENS WORLD!

'Where IS this place of dreams?!' I can hear you cry. Well, a few months ago a brand new indoor attraction opened in Chatham, Kent. It's basically a little like Disneyworld, but based on the life of Charles Dickens instead of an imaginary mouse. Actually, it's not really anything like Disneyworld (just realised I'm probably bigging it up a little too much). There are rides, and shows, and performers walking around dressed up in Dicken's characters. It was a pretty good afternoon out, although there's not really enough there yet to make it last a full day. The funniest bit was when we all went into this impressive looking theatre, had no idea what to expect and as the excitement and mystery built up, so did the audience. As it turned out, it was a pretty original animatronics (realistic Charles Dickens like robots) show all about his life and characters. It had obviously cost a lot of time, energy and money to make, but when it finished people all around me were muttering 'Well, that was boring. If only they'd used real actors'. They did have a point though. Sometimes you really can try too hard to impress people...

The trip also inspired me to read more Dickens novels, as I only recognised characters from A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield and Oliver. So I missed out on a few jokes and things. Still, I enjoyed my day! I thought I'd mention it on here as everyone I've told so far has said to me 'That sounds like the worst theme park ever'. And it's really not! (No, that award probably goes to Pleasurewood Hills...)

Go to http://www.dickensworld.co.uk/ for more info!

Concert Band Tour

2007-08-06T20:28:00.000+01:00

Awhile ago, I was asked if I would like a free holiday. Normally there's a catch to these things, and in this case it was on the condition that I would be a member of staff for the Southend High School for Boys Concert Band tour to France, Belguim and Holland. I have just arrived back from said holiday and can safely say it was a really good deal. The kids were great and the weather was amazing, and I got to do a lot of fun activities and stay in hotels for free! Here are a few highlights from the trip:

The Eiffel Tower was pretty cool. The band performed just in front of it after we had climbed all the way up to the second floor (normally something I wouldn't even consider doing as I hate heights, but they needed adult supervision).

This was the view. I'm rather proud of myself... I think I've conquered my fear.

Here is a picture of Olivia and I at sunset at Noordwick beach in Holland. The beach was gorgeous and we were really lucky with the weather. We sat with hot chocolate at a lovely beach bar and watched the sun set over the horizon... it was all very romantic!

Chris, Jon Bourne and I in a giant clog. The last time I went to Holland we managed to fit 7 people into this clog. The mind boggles...

This last photo was taken at the last gig in a town called Delft in Holland. Pete Worth (the group leader) is improvising a solo here. Notice the crowd of people in the background! The guys were really, really good, despite the 30 degree heat.

We also went to Disneyland Paris (which was fantastic), Aquaboulevard (a massive indoor waterpark where they initially wouldn't let us in because the boys weren't wearing speedos), and numerous town squares and little villages. A very busy but exciting tour!

Not Tennis

2007-07-25T22:30:00.000+01:00

The week and a half have been great. No work means no getting up early, no deadlines, and plenty of time to invent new games with other people who also have nothing better to do. I also feel I have also achieved something by participating in a sporting activity for more than one consecutive day. I present to you, the reader, the wonderful world of... NOT TENNIS.

A brief history

The game of Not Tennis was invented on a sunny Sunday afternoon when tennis racquets were half price in Tesco and there were no free tennis courts in all the land (i.e. Chalkwell and Hadleigh). It was founded by myself, Ben, Charlotte and Gareth, after we were forced to play in the park instead. Many arguments ensued as rules were made up and contested, and so the game of Not Tennis was born.

The rules of Not Tennis

1) The court must be around twice the size of a normal tennis court, both in width and length (in other words, HUGE). Serves must be taken on the back line.

2) There is no actual net, only a boundary which is referred to as the net.

3) The ball is allowed to bounce a total of twice on each side of the court, allowing time for running.

4) If you hit the ball and it does not go over, you may not have another go... instead it is up to your partner to rescue the situation.

These rules are set in stone. It all sounds rather ridiculous in written form, but it really is a lot of fun to play, especially for people who are awful at actual tennis, as you can just whack it and there is no net to stop it! We have recruited a number of people over the last couple of weeks, including Chris Carter, Will Still, Faye Ivory (not quite so enthusiastic, but it was raining) and Heather Orford, and our aim is to get everyone involved at some point over the summer! So if you fancy a game, come on down...

Hamburg

2007-07-17T09:22:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, John and I went to Hamburg for the day. This may seem a little silly, but it cost less time and money to go there then to visit most places in England, and we'd already travelled to Riga for the day in February, so we kinda knew what to expect. Here is a brief recap of some of the exciting moments of our day:

1) It was really, really hot. There wasn't a cloud in the sky for the whole day and the temperature soared to around 36 degrees. This meant that it took three times as much effort to walk to places, but it also gave the day a real 'holiday' feel! Which is always nice.

2) Hamburg is a beautiful city. It almost doesn't feel like a city as everything seemed so much more laid back than in London! It's very green and has two amazing lakes right in the middle of it.

3) Cyclists take priority over everything in Hamburg. The cycle lane takes up around half of the pavement, and woe betide if you dared cross their path. They stopped for no-one... (we witnessed one girl run into this poor man without any mercy, she didn't swerve or anything, or even apologise!)

4) People don't apologise or say thank you in Hamburg. Just as a rule.

5) We ate in a really nice restaurant which was situated on a river (not beside it, on it) and the food was lovely. It was really handy having John there, as he speaks fluent German and so could order food, ask for directions, get people to take photos etc, whilst I just looked at him in a blind panic every time someone spoke German to me.

6) The real highlight of my day was when I used the bathroom at said restaurant... you have to pay for the privilege and when I was in there the friendly toilet lady said to John 'Your wife is very beautiful' (it was the beautiful part that was the highlight, not the wife bit). Hamburg people are very observant.

7) We had our very own stalker! On the way home, the man behind us in the airport queue introduced himself to us and somehow involved himself in our conversation, before telling us that he was moving to London and didn't have any contacts. From then on in he decided he was our friend and kept trying to find us (which, in the smallest airport in the world ever, wasn't too difficult). I'd like to think that had we not been awake for almost 24 hours, we would've been a little more accomodating and friendly, but as it was we ended up hiding for most of the journey. John didn't help with his constant German/Indian stalker impressions... 'John and Katie, where arrrreee you? I want to play... why you hide from me? I can see you...' etc etc. It was just like being in a horror movie.

We had a really great day, and it was fun to be shown around all the sights by someone who had lived there for 5 months and knew lots of interesting things about the place, as well as all the nice places to go. Even though we were only there for a day we saw everything we wanted to see without feeling at all harassed or rushed,and even though it was pretty tiring, it was well worth the visit!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Little Miss Emotional

2007-07-13T17:28:00.000+01:00

Today was a emotionally draining day. I finally finished school for the summer (hooray!) but this also meant saying goodbye to my first ever class. It's been a rollercoaster of a year and I wouldn't change a minute of it. For leaving presents I had bought each child a Mr. Men or Little Miss book according to their personality (Mr. Cheerful, Little Miss Giggles, Mr. Silly etc) it went down a storm. As the bell rang and it was time to go, I realised that I'd spent a year sorting out their problems, curing the slightest worry or anxiety, generally caring and looking after them and all of a sudden that was gone! They were no longer going to burst into my classroom bursting with news of things they had achieved, and I would no longer be the most important person to them at school. As I was dealing with these thoughts in my head some of them started to cling to me crying, and it took every ounce of strength to hold myself together!

Then I realised that I had £140 worth vouchers, a massive bouquet of flowers, and various other presents waiting for me in the classroom, so I cheered up. The perks of working in an independent school are pretty cool. Especially the seven and a half week summer holiday.

I'm now having trouble deciding what to spend the vouchers on (I know I know, some people have real problems), either an ipod or a digital camera, but I don't know which I would use more, having lived without either for the last 22 years. I'm so behind with the times...

It's official...

2007-07-05T20:36:00.000+01:00

... I am now a fully fledged, non NQT teacher! Had my final ever observation by the headteacher today, and he said "That lesson was excellent. I really enjoyed it. The relationship you have with those children... I couldn't have wished for better." Which was quite nice.

(I'm not usually this boastful, but its been a long journey and I was quite proud of that!)

Bring on the pay rise.

Black Button

2007-06-30T18:49:00.000+01:00

This short video raises lots of issues about the powers of temptation, and is rather clever... Click on the link at the side and it will appear in large at the top of the page.

Which option would you choose?

By the way, I went on a Victorian school trip this week, which is why I'm dressed as a parlour maid in my profile pic. Just felt like I needed to justify that. I was a little put out when one of the children asked 'Did you used to have to wear clothes like that when you were our age?'

Quote of the week: 'My mum can come on the school trip. She's definitely been ABC checked'.

I really should make a book of ridiculous quotes.

Two very important lessons learned...

2007-06-25T17:11:00.001+01:00

Lesson 1

You should never, ever, write a comment on someone's blog then delete it because you have thought of something better to say. It was a very wrong and foolish thing to do, and I am very sorry.

Lesson 2

Never organise a Teddy Bear's Picnic for 80 children when there is only one other adult present.

That is all.

Porn stars, WeeMees and other stories

2007-06-23T13:32:00.000+01:00

This week hasn't been my favourite week. In fact, I'd probably rank it in the top 3 if there was a poll for 'Katie's Ultimate List of Unfavourite Weeks'. Nothing major has really happened, but after being at school for 14 hours on Monday for Parent's Evening, the rest of the week never really caught up. This post probably isn't going to be a very happy one, so I suggest you join the birthday celebrations over in John's blog if you're searching for a more lighthearted, upbeat view on things...

We had our Summer Ball last weekend, which came complete with the school's very own porn star mum! She was sitting on our table and was rather outrageous... the ball was massive yet people sitting right on the other side of the place were catching me when I walked past asking what they were missing out on. I won't go into details but will say that if somebody had said 'Right, there's one person out of these 300 people that makes a living as a porn star' I would have immediately pointed to her.

So then there was longest day in the world on Monday, I wasn't feeling very well all day Tuesday, and by Wednesday I was ready to make a tent out my duvet and hide in it for the rest of the week. On Thursday I met my new class, 18 little bright eyed Year 1 children, and it dawned on me that I had spent an entire year getting my kids to grow up and become independent, only for them to be taken away and replaced with a whole new bunch of 'I haven't got a pencil, can I go to the toilet...' children. And finally last night I went out and got branded on the arm by someone with a cigarette. He then helpfully pointed out that 'if it scars, you'll have a great story to tell your grandchildren about the old days, you know, when smoking was legal'. You can imagine my expression.

But something good did come out of this week. WeeMees, the miniature versions of yourself, are now free! And a very good waste of time should you have 102 reports to write in a week and a half (I don't think next week is going be the greatest week either). Here's mine:

I don't actually walk around dressed as WonderWoman, and I don't really have a dragon called Elliot, but other than that I think it's a pretty good likeness! I'm trying to cut down on chocolate at the moment, which could explain why I've been a bit grumpy in this post. The next one will be better, I promise!

3 more weeks til the summer holidays...

Kiwi

2007-06-13T21:55:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I've stolen this video from my friend Ben, but it really is very funny... its on the right hand side, just click on it (I can't work out how to put the video in the actual post, it's all very confusing). Before you watch it, you should note that the Kiwi is a type of flightless bird. That's very important. When Ben was explaining it to me I thought he was talking about a Kiwi fruit, which is why I didn't really get it at first.

Not much to report really, I saw a girl from Shipwrecked crossing the road in London today, but I think that's probably going below Z list in terms of celebrity. Right down there with Cleo Rocos and Matt Barbet.

(I wish I was blogging back in the days when I was in a lift with Gary Lineker and in a sketch with Ant and Dec on SM:TV... now that would've been good blogging material!)

The hills are alive...

2007-06-06T19:49:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was a very exciting day. As some of you know, one of the Year 3 girls I teach Games to is currently performing in The Sound of Music in the West End. Tickets have been sold out for months and months but yesterday the parents of the child asked if I wanted to go as they had spare seats at the last minute! They were brilliant seats near the front of the Royal Circle, and after a brief panic that we were going to be late (yes, we got on the wrong tube train. Well, the right train, but going in the wrong direction), we arrived just in time. The whole performance was fantastic, the scenery was awesome and Adrianna (who plays Gretl, the smallest one) completely stole the show. At the interval it was all people around me were talking about, and it was really hard not to butt into people's conversations and say 'Actually, she's not 5, she's 8. And I teach her...' But I just about restrained myself. After the show we went round to stage door to meet Adrianna as we were going home with her and her parents, and got to meet all the cast... it was very exciting! On the way home she was telling me about the opening night after show party, saying 'We got to meet Graham Norton, which was cool, and all the Marias, and Nicole Kidman and Matt Damon, who were really nice, and Andrew Lloyd Webber and Bob Geldof and...'

It's a completely different world.

On a slightly different note... Nibbles (the one eyed obese death defying hamster) has, well, died. After a brief debate on whether he was actually dead or not, we buried him in the garden and had a little hamster funeral. R.I.P. Nibbles.

Stomp!

2007-05-31T21:05:00.000+01:00

Wow, I'm really on a roll with the whole blog thing this week!

I went to see Stomp today (as an aside, I did get lost looking for the theatre, BUT I also found myself stumbling across the infamous Cybercandy a.k.a. Twinkie store! So we were lost but had Hersheys Kisses to keep our strength up). When we eventually reached the theatre, we found that we had really good seats (considering they were very cheap- front row, upper circle). And the show was AMAZING. I tend to fall in love with every show I go to see, but it really was incredible. The performers didn't say a word throughout the show, but somehow they managed to make it hilarious, just through the routines and the expressions on their faces! They made instruments out of dustbin lids, plungers, brooms, matchboxes, newspapers, and even kitchen sinks tied round their necks... very impressive.

Unfortunately I have a rather bad cough at the moment, and it always seemed to be during the rare, very quiet moments that I would explode in a fit of coughing after trying to hold it in. I spent most of the perfomance thinking 'I hate people like me' so goodness knows what the poor people around me were feeling. Especially when I never felt as much as a tickle during the deafening crashing of dustbins or stamping of feet... law of sod, that.

Another thing ticked off on my list of things to do before I'm 30...

2007-05-30T13:04:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I haven't actually made a list. But if I did have a list, then riding to Brighton in a stretch limo/hummer would definitely be on there! This bank holiday a friend from work turned 30, and 14 of us planned a surprise limo journey to Brighton for the weekend. We told her we were going in a minibus, and to be honest she was a bit slow on the uptake. When it arrived she said (with a rather confused expression on her face) 'That's a big minibus!' Then, a few minutes later 'It looks more like a limo!' She was still referring to it as a minibus even when the chauffeur opened the door for us and we climbed in...

Anyway, I'd never been in a limo before, and I wasn't disappointed. There were two large screens for watching films, comfy leather seats and an awesome music system! However on the way home on Monday most of us slept the whole way, which feels like a bit of a waste. The next thing to do on my imaginary list is to ride an elephant...

Yesterday, I managed to get lost in London for about the millionth time. Every time I go into London (which is quite regularly!) I end up ringing someone asking for directions. On this particular occasion I was meeting up with two of the girls from uni, and we had a lovely time. Unfortunately we chatted so much on the tube that we subconsciously got off the train, up the stairs, through the barrier and out onto the street before realising that none of us had any idea which station we had got off at! Unbelievable. Then we got lost trying to find Primark, we walked and walked (counting 4 underground stations on the way) before discovering we were going in the wrong direction. And it was raining. We eventually gave in and got the central line just in time for rush hour (people that read John's blog will know just how horrible that experience is...) I really think I've got my comeuppance for the Twinkie incident!

Tomorrow I'm going to London again to see Stomp! Am very excited, it's had really good reviews and I'm looking forward to seeing how the musicians can make music out of household objects. Not so much looking forward to trying to find the theatre, especially as I'm going with my friend Meg, who is more clueless than me. Making me the responsible one by default. In the past year I've managed to get lost finding theatres for The Lion King, Chicago, Les Mis and Evita.

There's no hope...