As is typical, at the time when I really need my voice, my energy, my enthusiasm and all the zeal I can muster, I have lost my voice, feel rather ill and a bit sad. Not helped by the inclement AKA bloomin' freezing weather! However, despite this, I am soldiering on through. Wednesdays are my hardest day, even though by rights, Tuesdays should be harder. It's the three full hour lessons of Year 3 recorders that are the main killer as I need to be able to sing above the sound of 31 raucous beginner recorder players as well as Singing Assembly, Choir and a year 4 lesson. Luckily, the year 3 lesson plan worked out to a certain extent as it was the lesson where I finally show them Every Good Boy Deserves Football and Face in the Space for reading the stave and then they have to read and write down the notes for Jingle Bells. Happily, I must have taught it fairly well, despite feeling awful, because actually, most of them got it right and those, with maybe 2 exceptions, who needed help, corrected their work well. I guess it just proves that something good can still come out of something that might otherwise have been not so good. Also, a lovely year 4 class were very kind to me and when I apologised for how awfully I had demonstrated something they had to sing, one boy said, "It wasn't bad Miss and it was the best you could do with your voice the way it is." (he's in the same class as the 'Hickory Dickory' girl mentioned last week.)
If you are in the habit of praying, please can you pray for good health, a voice and energy so that I may get through this season. I desperately need my voice for Friday night as the combined year,3,4,5,6 choirs are singing outside for the lighting of our school Christmas tree for the school fair and usually this requires me bellowing out the tune as a keyboard cannot be heard outside!
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
TARDIS Tuesday- Into the Dalek- Clara Oswald.
Hello there,
And here is my version of it. The original coat (from ASOS) is very hard to find and always very expensive. I found a jacket which has also been made out possibly the same vintage blankets or material. It is from Urban Renewal if anyone has a burning urge to find it. The jumper is the same jumper, it is from Topshop and is easy to find for charity shop prices on eBay.
The shorts are another Clara item but realistically, they are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too short! I wore them most of the day under a black skirt!
She also wears a gold double-circle necklace.I also found a similar necklace for 99p on eBay. I thought this was a really pretty necklace so it seemed worth buying it.
What do you think?
xx
I'm back for another TARDIS Tuesday featuring my favourite character Clara Oswald.
In the episode above, Clara Oswald wears a very eye-catching eye-print shirt for most of the episode, but she wears this outfit at one point in the episode. It consists of a tartan-vintage material coat, a red jumper and some sort of short black bottom half- possibly skirt, possibly some shorts.
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| Image borrowed from www.clarawhocosplays.tumblr |
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| Image borrrowed from WornonTV.net |
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| Image borrowed from CoolSpotters |
xx
Sunday, November 26, 2017
5 brooches #65
Hi there,
It has been a terrifically busy weekend, all of the tasks and events were enjoyable but nonetheless, rather tiring. Thus, I don't really have anything profound to say that can be posted fairly swiftly in order to facilitate a rapid going to bed!
Thus, my good old brooches are here to show you their finest clothes moves. Hope you see something you like!
It's a little harder to see here but there are matching Love pins on my lapels which came from Primark originally.
It was all fairly subtle today! Any favourites?
xx
Thursday, November 23, 2017
20 things to be thankful for.
1. The children who were trying to remember the Hurdy-Gurdy who called it a Hickory-Dickory. When I giggled and said that she was very close, the others came up with equally humorous variations on this!
2. The lesson observation that I prepared for last year that I chickened out of and somehow the observation has coincided again so most of the detailed prep and plan was done!
3. The delicious stir-fry that I prepared tonight. I am SO glad that I couldn't be bothered to cook vegetable stew as I discovered the Tofu in the fridge's use-by date expired today!
4. For whoever put The Apprentice on Youtube! (Update-boo hiss! Have been blocked by the BBC!)
5. My lovely choirs- I am so happy with them!
6. The heating engineer who fixed our heating.I am SO glad to have central heating working.
7. My lovely fleecy hotwater bottle who was a saviour over the 4 days of NO heating!
Now resumed the next day...
8. The Lesson observation that went, against my own judgement, well! I hate those things! They never get easier, no matter how long I teach.
9. The nice surprise in the Budget from the Government yesterday meaning I will have to pay a lot less Stamp Duty when I buy a house! Who'd have thought the Government would make it into my 10 things...!
10. The nice chat I had with my Mother-in-law tonight.
11. The joy of getting to see most of my family in one place on Sunday!
12. How nice it was to hear my readers preparing for our Christmas performance at school. They were super excited and had practised really well already!
13. The joy of awaiting two unexpected parcels in the post from Blog friends YAY!
14. Wearing my Supercalifragilisticexpialidocius necklace today!
15. Children who I taught to sing and play, "In and out the Dusty Bluebells" in a lesson this morning, coming and telling me later, that they were playing it at playtime!
16. For the lovely individual that nominated me for the Lifestyle category of the UK Blog Awards. I don't know which of you it was, but you are an absolute sweetie for doing that. I wouldn't stand any chance in winning it, my blog is so tiny and in my opinion, a bit too sloppy for something like that, also, I would be a bit worried about parents or pupils somehow accidentally finding it so I don't know if I could/should accept the nomination but it gave me a warm glow to read what you/they wrote about my blog!
17. Tidy, clean house! We started at the weekend as living in a mess was not conducive to happiness, but then I ended up doing loads more on Monday night as our lovely landlady was coming round to let in the plumber on Tuesday so it is nice to have a tidy house. Plus I did lots of those yucky cleaning jobs that I keep putting off like wiping down the bins and the suchlike.
18. For CBC agreeing to do what he hates- accompany me for a Bee Keeper's dinner tomorrow night- I am lucky that he is willing to do it, albeit with abject moans.
19. For the opportunity to play the music from The Snowman with my orchestra, Kensington Chamber Orchestra this Saturday in Maida Vale! I have long loved this music and it is a sheer delight to play it at long last! I am so grateful to be able to play my flute in such a good orchestra.
20. For a home, safe and warm when so many don't have this.
What are you thankful for today?
2. The lesson observation that I prepared for last year that I chickened out of and somehow the observation has coincided again so most of the detailed prep and plan was done!
3. The delicious stir-fry that I prepared tonight. I am SO glad that I couldn't be bothered to cook vegetable stew as I discovered the Tofu in the fridge's use-by date expired today!
4. For whoever put The Apprentice on Youtube! (Update-boo hiss! Have been blocked by the BBC!)
5. My lovely choirs- I am so happy with them!
6. The heating engineer who fixed our heating.I am SO glad to have central heating working.
7. My lovely fleecy hotwater bottle who was a saviour over the 4 days of NO heating!
Now resumed the next day...
8. The Lesson observation that went, against my own judgement, well! I hate those things! They never get easier, no matter how long I teach.
9. The nice surprise in the Budget from the Government yesterday meaning I will have to pay a lot less Stamp Duty when I buy a house! Who'd have thought the Government would make it into my 10 things...!
10. The nice chat I had with my Mother-in-law tonight.
11. The joy of getting to see most of my family in one place on Sunday!
12. How nice it was to hear my readers preparing for our Christmas performance at school. They were super excited and had practised really well already!
13. The joy of awaiting two unexpected parcels in the post from Blog friends YAY!
14. Wearing my Supercalifragilisticexpialidocius necklace today!
15. Children who I taught to sing and play, "In and out the Dusty Bluebells" in a lesson this morning, coming and telling me later, that they were playing it at playtime!
16. For the lovely individual that nominated me for the Lifestyle category of the UK Blog Awards. I don't know which of you it was, but you are an absolute sweetie for doing that. I wouldn't stand any chance in winning it, my blog is so tiny and in my opinion, a bit too sloppy for something like that, also, I would be a bit worried about parents or pupils somehow accidentally finding it so I don't know if I could/should accept the nomination but it gave me a warm glow to read what you/they wrote about my blog!
17. Tidy, clean house! We started at the weekend as living in a mess was not conducive to happiness, but then I ended up doing loads more on Monday night as our lovely landlady was coming round to let in the plumber on Tuesday so it is nice to have a tidy house. Plus I did lots of those yucky cleaning jobs that I keep putting off like wiping down the bins and the suchlike.
18. For CBC agreeing to do what he hates- accompany me for a Bee Keeper's dinner tomorrow night- I am lucky that he is willing to do it, albeit with abject moans.
19. For the opportunity to play the music from The Snowman with my orchestra, Kensington Chamber Orchestra this Saturday in Maida Vale! I have long loved this music and it is a sheer delight to play it at long last! I am so grateful to be able to play my flute in such a good orchestra.
20. For a home, safe and warm when so many don't have this.
What are you thankful for today?
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Tardy TARDIS Tuesday outfit- Peri from Revelation of the Daleks
Hi there,
Apologies for TARDIS Tuesday being tardy, I was out at my orchestra rehearsal last night and returned home rather late so it was BED rather than BLOG!
Today, I am choosing a Classic Who companion to dress up as (well, tenuously). The lady below is Peri Brown who was the Fifth and Sixth Doctor's companion. She was renowned for wearing very low cut clothing, screaming a lot and having to put up with the grumpy Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker's jibes. I liked Peri.
Unusually, in this story, or perhaps not so unusually given the inclement weather conditions of the planet Necrox, Peri is rather covered up. She and the Doctor (in resplendent cape) both don that favoured shade of TARDIS blue. Peri, in the form of this blue pea-coat and beret (and earrings), along with silver brooch and unmatching ski-gloves. Interestingly enough, this is the episode in which there was a clear, glass Dalek!
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| Image borrowed from http://ibw.cwbuechler.com/newblog/?p=2452 |
And here is my rendition of it.
I wore my blue cape which CBC bought me for my birthday some years ago, along with a charity-shopped blue beret which has featured in various outfits on here before. Plus my oven-mitt-looking sheepskin gloves.
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| IMage borrowed from DoctorWhoTV.com |
I added this pearly silver hair-clip to resemble Peri's brooch (sort of) and I also had some blue earrings on which are not really visible in this outfit.
This is a TARDIS Tuesday I have been meaning to do for a year, possibly more and it was only this week that I finally got around to donning the appropriate apparel.
What do you think? Did I get it right?
Would you wear this outfit?
x
Sunday, November 19, 2017
A tasty Veggie dinner
Every so often, I like to share a veggie dinner which I really enjoyed. It's always nice to share different ideas for a dinner- even if it is something fairly mundane, sometimes it is nice to inspire someone else!
Tonight's dinner was a pasta dish.
I cooked enough for 3 people (2 portions for CBC and I and a portion for my lunch).
The ingredients were:
1/2 pack of Halloumi, 225g Penne Pasta, Scraping of Genovese Pesto, Basil leaves, 18 cherry tomatoes, 3/4 Red pepper, 1 leek, 1/2 Pak Choi, Marjoram, Chilli flakes, Pepper, Tomato puree.
I cooked the Penne Pasta according to instructions and cut up the halloumi with black pepper and put it in the oven for 12minutes.
I began by frying the leeks in some olive oil, having cut them into thin slices and in half. I added in the tomatoes halved, peppers and the pak choi along with Marjoram and some Tomato paste and chilli flakes. At this point, I added in some of the water from the Pasta to make the tomato paste become more like a sauce.
I find that if you don't strain the Pasta through a colander but retain some of the water by tipping the water off with the saucepan lid, it makes the pesto go a bit further. Once I'd stirred in the Pesto, I added a little Garlic-infused Olive Oil.
Finally, I served the vegetables on top with the crispy Halloumi on top with some basil and more black pepper.
It was really tasty so I recommend giving this a go!
What do you think? Would you try this?
x
Saturday, November 18, 2017
5 necklaces
I realised, when deciding to put together another 5 Brooches post, that I have mainly worn necklaces recently, so I thought I would post this separately as its own posts.
Last but not least, I thought this blue blouse would be nice with this wave necklace.
Any favourites here? Have you worn any necklaces this week?
xx
Thursday, November 16, 2017
School and the run up to Christmas.
I do love the run up to Christmas. I have been running the Christmas KS2 carol service at school for 9 years now and I wondered if I would get tired of it, especially since it starts at the end of October for me, but no, it is still utterly exciting and fun! There are old favourites that we sing every year- I love getting those out and getting the kids really singing out. There are always different songs that feature every so often or are new. Then there is my annual song which I compose- this was completed over the holiday- it is called Ring out the Bells this year. I was pleased that as I had sung it to the kids, I heard A and M, both accomplished musicians discussing it. M said, "It sounds hard," but A responded, "But it's really, really catchy! Even if it sounds hard, catchy things are much easier to learn- that's what makes them catchy!". Yay! I composed a catchy song. I am pleased to say that they are sounding really good singing it thus far.
We are also singing my Christmas song from 4 years ago, Feel the Christmas beat and my newly-formed Year 3-4 Christmas choir (because we are now too big to fit years 3,4,5 and 6 in the church together) are singing my first ever Christmas song, composed for this school- Manger Lullaby. It's really a delight hearing it sung by younger voices- they have a real sweetness of tone.
The recorders are also split for the services so I'm having to work hard making sure my younger recorder players can play confidently alone for their Christmas service- they are a lovely keen lot.
The orchestra are also a really great lot this year- there are no moody ones who don't want to be there- everyone is keen to be there and works hard. I did an arrangement of Rudolph based on their particular skills which they have learnt in 2 weeks- Mr R who conducts the orchestra said it works really well. Hurrah!
My drumming club are doing a sterling job on learning their interludes for We three Kings of Orient are (a Jazz waltz version! ha ha!) and I saw three ships. It's fair to say I am very happy with everything so far. The KS1 children have pretty much learnt all their songs in assemblies and practices and there is a teacher who is a trained singer (she gets paid work for weddings) who is running it for me this year which is super. She is also taking the KS1 choir which takes the pressure of me a bit. I think it is nice for her to have the responsibility too but it isn't too arduous for her to do it ALL year but have it for a short period of time.
Surprisingly, I have been rather organised and got all the scripts ready and distributed to KS2 already- usually I have a bit of a scramble at the start of December to get them ready.
It's really nice to be organised this year. I am glad I have done it like this because if we do end up moving house in December, hopefully things at school will be ready and take care of themselves!
x
We are also singing my Christmas song from 4 years ago, Feel the Christmas beat and my newly-formed Year 3-4 Christmas choir (because we are now too big to fit years 3,4,5 and 6 in the church together) are singing my first ever Christmas song, composed for this school- Manger Lullaby. It's really a delight hearing it sung by younger voices- they have a real sweetness of tone.
The recorders are also split for the services so I'm having to work hard making sure my younger recorder players can play confidently alone for their Christmas service- they are a lovely keen lot.
The orchestra are also a really great lot this year- there are no moody ones who don't want to be there- everyone is keen to be there and works hard. I did an arrangement of Rudolph based on their particular skills which they have learnt in 2 weeks- Mr R who conducts the orchestra said it works really well. Hurrah!
My drumming club are doing a sterling job on learning their interludes for We three Kings of Orient are (a Jazz waltz version! ha ha!) and I saw three ships. It's fair to say I am very happy with everything so far. The KS1 children have pretty much learnt all their songs in assemblies and practices and there is a teacher who is a trained singer (she gets paid work for weddings) who is running it for me this year which is super. She is also taking the KS1 choir which takes the pressure of me a bit. I think it is nice for her to have the responsibility too but it isn't too arduous for her to do it ALL year but have it for a short period of time.
Surprisingly, I have been rather organised and got all the scripts ready and distributed to KS2 already- usually I have a bit of a scramble at the start of December to get them ready.
It's really nice to be organised this year. I am glad I have done it like this because if we do end up moving house in December, hopefully things at school will be ready and take care of themselves!
x
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
What is it? #58 - the garden edition.
Hello there!
It is SUCH a long time since I created a 'What is it?' post so I thought I'd post one I have been meaning to since July
This here is an edible growth on a plant in my Mum's garden. I wondered if anyone can identify what it is? If you think you can, please leave me a comment below and I will share what it is in a post at a later date.
What about last time's offering back in August?
I included this mystery object up close. It looked like a smiling face but what was it really?
Well,it was actually a cylindrical Stainless steel toilet roll dispenser in the loos at Marks&Spencer, Hexham.
Ha ha, did you see it?
What did my illustrious commenters see it as?
10 comments:
Ha ha, no one saw loo roll dispenser! I love what everyone thought it was though!
Yay!
Hope you are well and please do leave a comment- it's just a bit of fun!
xx
Monday, November 13, 2017
TARDIS Tuesday- CBC Guest edition Matt Smith
Today's TARDIS Tuesday does not feature me....
It features my husband CBC!!!!
Matt Smith, the eleventh doctor, a whimsical and fun dandy, wore this lovely purple suit with waist coat and ubiquitous bowtie. I loved his childish rendition of the Doctor. Bow ties are cool don't you know!
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| Matt Smith- image borrowed from Clothes on film. |
On Saturday, CBC had to play for a Music Festival. He put on his navy suit with bow tie and I suddenly saw an opportunity...
Alas! I do not have my Sonic Screwdriver any more so he used his Shaver as one! I lured him into letting me take photos so he could compare whether to wear Waistcoat or no waistcoat, Cravat, tie or Bowtie.
Looks very handsome, don't you think? Love my Raggedy Man!
I also managed to find his pocket watch which was an unexpected Christmas present from his Brother-in-law last Christmas.
In the music festival, the judge commented on how well turned out CBC's ensemble were! I was rather pleased to escort this rather handsome individual!
I hope you enjoyed CBC's unexpected cosplay as Matt Smith's Doctor!
What do you think?
xx
Sunday, November 12, 2017
The Saffron Trail- Battlesbridge to Danbury
I am ashamed to say that the last stretch of the Saffron trail that CBC and I walked was back in July 2016.
This is a walk which extends from Southend-on-Sea to Saffron Walden in Essex and is roughly about 71 miles. We have previously walked three sections of it (We also walked back in May 2016 and April 2016). Somehow life has got in the way of our completing it.
Luckily, CBC had the bright idea of resurrecting it 2 weeks ago. WKWTTG, CBC's Brother, made the journey from London on the train to come and meet us.
The walk begins in Battlesbridge which is known for its extensive Antique centre. I've been there once. There are some very quaint looking buildings around there so it is a nice place to visit.
Here we are. Alas, I didn't realise how cold it was so I didn't bring a hat so CBC gave me his and I discovered I had stuffed the little scarf that Lisa sent me in the bag.
Amusingly, we found ourselves in a 'pick your own pumpkin patch'. Security was surprisingly good as two members of staff came over to check we were ok and knew where we were going- read that as, "Don't pinch our pumpkins!"
As we neared Danbury, we passed through the Ford where typically, we encountered several vehicles.
Our penultimate stop was in the Danbury Parish church graveyard where I took a picture for TARDIS Tuesday.
We finished our journey in the Griffin pub, enjoying a delicious roast dinner- the boys had Nut Roast and I had Chicken.
We ordered a taxi back to the car in Battlesbridge as it was now dark and I was shocked how long it took. The distance we walked was about 9.7miles but by road seemed much further.
It was a great way to spend our final freedom of Half Term and made us yearn to conquer the whole of the Saffron Trail. I hope I can bring you more installments soon, despite the imminent Winter!
x
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Hugs, Julia
Sorry for not stopping by for a while, I was in a hospital for two weeks. I'm feeling better but I'm still on antibiotics so I'm taking it slow.
Lisa x
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