Waffle and happy things

 Today, I wore my Cath Kidston train dress for school because I am teaching Year 1 some activities connected to trains. (I taught the other two classes on Tuesday and sadly missed thinking of this!). I didn't say anything but wondered if any child would notice. Lo and behold, a cute boy put his hand up and pointed out we were doing train rhythms and I was wearing a train dress.  He was rewarded with a Dojo point for that!

For aforementioned train lesson, I usually use a tub of whistles for one of the rhythms. I originally got them when I worked at the Royal Academy of Music.  We had our Christmas party in 2006 and we had those crackers with musical tuned whistles in them (imagine some of the finest music professors in this country playing tunes on them- it was brilliant!).  At the end, when everyone left, they just left their whistles on the tables so naturally, me thinking I was going to be a teacher, I grabbed them- about 38 of them.  Every year subsequently, I used them for this train lesson.  Unfortunately, in the whole big music room becoming a classroom, they have completely gone AWOL. I strongly suspect they are in the cupboard in the hall and are stuck behind the partition as they don't seem to be anywhere else.  I wandered over to Home Bargains opposite school on Monday night to see if I could find any alternative whistles. What I found was packs of 6 Party horns for £1. I bought 3 packs and took them back.  They worked REALLY well, the kids loved them and they were easy to dip in a tub of Dettol so that I could clean them between groups of 7 kids using them.

I've been harvesting SO much Rocket from my Raised Bed. I've been sharing it with colleagues and friends and everyone has been raving about it. I've been eating it for about 7 weeks now.  It's massive!!!

Last week, I picked the first of the Strawberries. A week later, I've already picked over 150 strawberries. Today, I picked the first blueberries.

Sunday, I took CBC for a walk around the field behind our house (it's a nice circular mile (and a bit) walk. Happily, I noticed a cherry tree in the boundary between the field and railway line and managed to pick about 45 cherries.  Then, as we walked along the street adjoining ours, I noticed a cherry tree in the flats carpark that it is clear no one gives a stuff about picking cherries from (they were all over the ground). I picked a load here too.

15 sticks of Rhubarb on Sunday too.

My perpetual spinach seems to have bolted and gone to seed but I just keep cutting the stalks and eating them and it keeps growing.

More COOP bargains this week. On Saturday night, I ended up having to go to the COOP at 9.45pm again as we were making Dhal and had no coconut milk. Again, was a fridge full of bargains. I got a litre carton of Hemp and Oat milk for 15p, a bag of chillis for 17p, 2 bags of Tender Steam broccoli for 56p each, a Large Chocolate Trifle for 68p (at least 4 large servings), a large tub of tomato soup for 48p. Then, Monday night, when I went to Home Bargains, I walked past the fridge and got a Chicken, bacon and pasta layered salad for 10p, a Ginster's Beef pasty for 10p, a Ham and Cheese roll for 10p and a bag of mixed salad for 10p! Bargains!

Because of the train strikes, I had to come home early and I had a lovely sit down on my swing seat in the garden with a pot of tea and some crisps. It was a delight. Also, because I JUST missed the connection train at my interchange and had to wait 25minutes, had a nice little mooch round the posh charity shop by the station. It was lovely! Came home with a lovely &Other Stories dress and a Monsoon top and a solid pair of Maracas for school! Didn't need them but it made a grumpy wait pleasant.

I appointed some kids as Logistics Managers for choir. Their job is to move all the tables and set up the chairs as it was becoming a real bind me trying to do it alone.  The funny thing is, they take their job very seriously, and when I was getting cross with children chatting in choir, they came up with a seating plan for the kids and a strike system for bad behaviour and are totally bossing it with making me not the big bad wolf.  They literally don't care what the other kids think of them and it is really funny!

We didn't end up going to Somerset at the weekend as CBC got Covid last week but luckily, he's been pretty ok with it and I have remained free of it! I was thankful for a weekend at home.

Last week, we had been to see Jacob Collier at Brixton Academy (I DO NOT LIKE BIG CROWDED CONCERTS). It was actually brilliant though and we even got to see Stormzy who came on as a guest and duetted on a wonderful song about faith.

After I went to see Newen Afrobeats a few weeks ago, I played Seun Kuti and some Afrobeats music to the kids and all the teachers were really enthused by it! 

Here endeth the waffle.

xx