Recently

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Eating:

...kale from my own garden.  So happy these plants have made it through Winter and are growing again!  The kale is fresh and young and delicious. I picked an absolute mound today.

....Hairy Bittercress.  I learnt about this from Leon Lewis last year and have been spotting it on the streets but not picking it (pollution). However, today I noticed it growing in the pot with my olive trees.

...out of date chocolate from Bruges last year which I discovered in a drawer at home. It still tastes fine. Some of it was used in some chocolate rice-krispie cakes which I made in the holiday (with krispies which expired in Oct 2021- they taste fine!) 

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Watching:

... Guys and Dolls- the Immersive Experience.   It was a spur of the moment idea of CBC's to go and see it with his mum and sister on Saturday. He'd seen it with school.  We were in the standing seats.  The stage came up and down in blocks and you moved around.  It was absolutely amazing to be up close to the action. I was inches away from the feet of the main characters at times and got a couple of cheeky smiles from characters and even talked to one of the crowd!  

...Gladiators:  The BBC has brought back this great show! My new favourites are Nitro and Giant!

....Colin Baker's era of Doctor Who.

...The Apprentice- love it!

Reading:

...a fantastic range of children's fiction this month.  The last one was Robin Stevens' The Body in the Blitz which was very clever! I'm going to try and review them soon!

Grumping about...

...my school choosing to wear PJ's for World Book Day this year.   I am not alone in this unhappiness as one of my favourite year 6 girls wrote me a message AGHAST when she heard the news. We have plotted to rebel against this by wearing vintage nightwear as worn by characters in books! So we shall be in role.

Celebrating...

...my birthday.  I got a few nice presents and some pretty cards. A couple of lovely books, a new blue bike helmet, a voucher for Seasalt, a fleecy wearable blanket thing and a lovely piece of flute music. CBC and I went out to our favourite Thai restaurant for dinner and they brought me a coconut ice-cream sundae and sang me Happy Birthday. The ice-cream was delicious! I'm not usually a sweet coconut fan.

Playing...

a beautiful piece of music by Ethel Smythe. Her Serenade in D is absolutely wonderful! Do listen.

Realising...

...I love being in my house when it is daylight!  I always feel so lucky to be at home considering I am so busy.

What have you been up recently?

xx

Recently

 Watching:

Gilmore Girls

I love, love, love this programme! It's so wholesome and innocent and makes me long for a simpler time and small town life!

The Partner Track

All Creatures Great and Small series 3: I love James Herriot so much and this programme is really touching!

Simon Reeves South America (BBC) : Unbelievably beautiful but also heart-rending. So much of the world is exploited by Big Business. I really have felt upset by seeing how badly some people are treated by a world that just keeps taking from their country and landscape and 

Eating:

I made delicious pesto pasta with courgette, pepper, tomatoes, shallot and pak choi. Very sad that CBC was zonked out asleep and didn't eat it. He'd said he wanted to go to dinner but fell asleep and wouldn't wake up.

An excellent lentil and vegetable stew. Under the guidance of Sandra (Multicoloured Madness), I soaked my lentils first and this has really helped me to avoid the digestive difficulties I have with them often!

Delicious 

Playing

Mozart Symphony 39,

Bartok Piano concerto no2.

Schubert Unfinished symphony

Ruth Gipps Horn Concerto

Listening to:

Ruth Gipps Horn concert-  This is a brilliant piece!

Mozart Flute concerto in G major -  went to watch CBC play in our local orchestra's concert- first time I've ever been in the audience!

The Lark Ascending by Vaughn-Williams- it is 150 years since he was born this month so I've been playing this to the children.

Florence Price Juba Dance- a very exciting and uplifting piece from her symphony.  She was the first African-American woman to have her music played by a major orchestra.

Discovering:

That there is a Refill eco shop that has opened in our town! They have REFILL CRISPS and Chilli rice-crackers. I went there for the first time on Saturday and bought lots of snacks!! 

Also, cannot believe that my neighbours, 2 along, who I met at church, run a refill eco-business! I can now go practically next door to fill up on cleaning products and washing up liquid!

Some interesting fungi growing around a tree stump in the front of school.

Wishing:

That we had booked a holiday for half term earlier! We almost booked a holiday and then it went unavailable just as we were booking! We can never get our act together!

Half term happiness

 Hi All,

Greetings and hope you are well!  It's the last night of the half term holiday and I've finally made it here onto the blog to show my face!

I have to say, this holiday has been a really good one for a few reasons and has been a much needed antidote for me.

• We spent 6 days in Antwerp plus night at a hotel 5 minutes walk from St Pancras station. 6 nights away in a new place!
• Having a complete change of scene was just what we needed
• The weather blessed us for much of the time in Belgium there was sun and not too cold- made such a difference to mood.
• We had a really lovely apartment in a really nice and salubrious part of the city
• Really comfortable bed meant I had lots of sleep.
• Most nights we went to bed at a reasonable hour (e.g. before 11pm and slept through the night till 9am). I didn't have my waking up fretting at 5am for no apparent reason despite being exhausted and not being able to go back to sleep again.
• Eating lunch and dinner out for 6 days made such a difference in terms of energy and enthusiasm
• Antwerp is lovely!
• I got to meet one of my favourite blogging friends (more on that soon!) and feel so grateful and glad for our friendship.
• Bought a couple of nice things in Antwerp (see previous point!) 
• Feeling so refreshed, having got home on Thursday night around 9.30pm, the next morning, we awoke at a reasonable hour and because I felt so replenished, I was able to get right on with hoovering, some cleaning and tidying, putting washing in, putting washing away and getting on with the previously insurmountable pile of marking that had been building for a term and a half.  I am ashamed to say I had got completely behind on all that marking and had not been recording the results in my assessment sheets. Well, I worked my way through pretty much all of it and put the data on sheets. I was then able to do my 540 reports (fairly easy as only had to report an effort and progress grade but doing that for 540 pupils,checking against data takes a while) and get on with some of the planning that I had got behind on. I still have some work to do on that (but because I haven't got Mount Marking looming lugubriously behind me, I don't feel so worried and overwhelmed about it) and one or two other bits but I will get it done.
• Doing the marking, I was very proud of my Year 6's who nearly all did well in their Listening to Baroque cantatas and concerti and were able to name an impressive array of Baroque composers as part of one question.  This was work from that last day of the half term and the kids were really enthusiastic during their listening lesson.  I told the children about Bach's Coffee Cantata as an example, a secular cantata about a girl who was obsessed with Coffee which they found hilarious. At the end of the lesson, they begged to hear it (we'd been listening to a cantata about hunting) and when they listened, one of the 'cool' boys found it so entertaining and funny that the girl was singing, "Coffee! Coffee!" in an operatic voice, that he kept giggling!
• Read 3.5 good children's books which I look forward to sharing with kids at school.
• Had a nice lunch out on Saturday late afternoon- new cafe in town was empty and we had it to ourselves for a yummy lunch.  Whilst waiting for my food, I managed to nip to the library to get a book out (I think it was National Libraries day on Saturday or something?) and nipped into the Charity shop and picked up a cute lightweight top, a brilliant Jennie Maisels pop-up Grammar book and a Harry Potter for the school library.
• Put together some cute outfits- felt inspired to do this!

I'm going back tomorrow feeling lighter and long may that feeling last.

Hope you too are well and refreshed!

xx

Life recently

 Hello there friends,

I hope you are well. I've struggled a lot this past week or so.  I've found many things hard. I've just felt miserable about everything.   School and the fact it's looking likely that the building issues won't be worked on and won't be finished this year at all- the thought I'll have to be nomadic for longer than a year.  Everyone who ends up in a conversation with me about it says, "Get a job closer to home," yet, they don't seem to think about the fact that my type of job doesn't come up that often and the fact that I really do love my school. Just searched and nothing.  Also got lots of work but don't seem to be able to finish it.  Also miserable in general.  I really want to be able to talk about my feelings and how I am feeling and why and realising that I just don't have that close female friend who I can talk to about things that might help.  Felt like I'm on egg shells.  Also anxious about the world in general. I've come to realise how much I overthink and worry about things and then bottle up my feelings and then when they come out, they don't come out how I want to. Feeling misunderstood etc.    The housework is never ending and everything just gets dirty and messy as fast as I clear up and there's never time to completely finish it.  Waking up early when I really need to sleep.   Having a mild cold this week (did 4 Lateral tests- all negative). Wanting to go somewhere at half term but CBC and I not being able to make a decision about where and it getting closer and closer and then feeling really annoyed and him having FOMO about everyone else having more fun in life. I'd love to just lie by a pool but a) flights- not eco friendly and b) he doesn't like that type of holiday.

All of this is curtailing my imagination when it comes to writing blog posts. I really want to but just feeling sad.

On the plus side, had a lovely orchestra rehearsal on Tuesday night- first one back with my Kensington Chamber Orchestra.  Playing Haydn makes me happy. 

Had a fantastic concert with City of London Winds today in Angel- only about 30 in the audience but we played really well. Visited nice market on Chapel street in Angel- I got 5 large Chicories for £2- plastic free- in your face Waitrose- the only place we can usually get Chicory (NB. CBC is the one who buys it- in plastic)  and 5 mini cucumbers for £1,bag of vine tomatoes for £1 and 3 peppers for £1. All very pleasing.  Also smug feeling of waiting exactly at the right places on all my train platforms so I lined up with the exit.  Only to be understood by saddo commuters in London who don't like getting stuck behind slow people or wasting time.

I ended up buying a Yaz Khan shirt on eBay  Shouldn't have done but it came up and I was feeling sad. As usual, I asked the seller to reuse packaging if possible and she sent a lovely message saying how refreshing it was to hear me say that as people usually moan if she uses old packaging. Shirt came and is lovely!

Year 6 kids did really well on their Binary structure rhythm pieces on Friday morning. I made a new approach to introducing the Year 5's to the Renaissance era this week via Spider-diagrams and a memory game which was hugely successful and they had great fun- good to try a new approach.  A lot of positivity with Year 4 learning about Bach and Bartok on Monday. One child who I have not seen shown an ounce of empathy towards any other human being in the 4 years I've been teaching him, said, "How sad is that Miss, that Bach's parents died when he was only 10."  I could see him thinking about it for a while and it touched me. When people say that these great composers are too far removed from ordinary children's lives, this reminds me that actually, everyone faces tragedy, no matter the age. Lovely time with Drumming club on Thursday night-teaching them the rhythm from Gustav Holst's 'Mars, the bringer of war' and our group interpretation of this.

Also, I made EXCELLENT roast potatoes on Monday night.  They really were excellent despite me pulling off sprouts from them that were about 10cm long!

We went to CBC's brother's yesterday as it was his birthday. We walked about 5 miles from his flat to Hoxton to an amazing Vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant. It was so delicious!!! Well worth the dark walk and late night!

Found out last night that one of my oldest blogging friends, the lovely Lauren is blogging again. This was joyous!

As always, each of you leaving me comments of love and support or just a giggle is always a joy in my week. I wish non-bloggers could understand this friendship we have and how you lot (and indeed I) are not 'internet weirdos' but indeed friends who value each other. But until they know that bond that we all have, they cannot understand!

Hope you have a wonderful week.

xx

Recently

 Hello friends,

I hope you are well. I've gone back into 'exhausted' blogging mode where I don't get around to writing anything!

I thought I'd write about what I've been up to.  Mainly for me but feel free to read!

Went to my Balinese gamelan rehearsal on Thursday night and we recorded our new piece which we commissioned from our Balinese teacher (he taught me when I lived in Bali) as a way to support him through lockdowns in 2020 after he lost all his work.  We recorded it and I ended up having a moment where I had to do double handed playing as trying to play on the offbeats at topspeed was just impossible but it sounded really good on the recording. We all felt really good after the rehearsal. I really didn't want to go but actually, really enjoyed it after I got there! Also, I tried the McDonalds Vegan Plant burger after and it was YUMMY!

Friday night, I went to another rehearsal for the City of London Winds (concert next Sunday at 4.30pm at St Silas Pentonville if anyone is interested!).  Again, I really wasn't feeling like it but actually enjoyed the rehearsal very much. It's really interesting to play in a wind band again, but really nice it is a really good one.  The other two flutes were much more friendly to me this time so that helped and the music is quite interesting.   Had delicious noodles beforehand from my old local Chinese. Two evenings on the trot with food on the go.

Had a lovely games evening at our friend Lara and her husband's 1300th century cottage.  Delicious veggie chilli and apple crumble and hilarious fun with the board games. We went shopping beforehand and I got some bits and pieces from the Refill shop in town (not my regular one)- it had some interesting Rigatoni pasta that is much cheaper than my regular refill shops so good to stock up on that.  Also bought 4 brilliant kids books in the charity shop 4 for £1.50 one of which I have been wanting to buy for ages as it is in a series I love AND a replacement of CBC's glass reusable mug that he smashed accidentally. Also stocked up on my favourite unpacked deodorant from Lush.  Had a bit of a nasty start to the afternoon which sent my anxiety levels absolutely sky high but I'm not going into that here. 

I am grateful that Sunday morning, I slept in as I have really struggled to sleep recently and I am so grateful to have been able to sleep.  I missed getting to church but I caught up with the team service on YouTube and was able to make notes at my leisure and really enjoyed the calm time by myself but still feeling I was part of the service. An excellent sermon from the team rector.

Enjoyed a sunlit walk by myself- it made me feel less anxious about things and was much needed exercise.  Also had a good catch up with my Mum on the phone and then with my dear friend Jane from my old church.

I cooked a 5-days out of date Veggie Lasagna for dinner (CBC bought it from Charlie Bigham at Waitrose but as I've been out for a few nights and he didn't eat it and didn't want it on the evenings I WAS in, so it's his fault! :0)   )  along with Broccoli and Kale- stupidly managed to boil the veg without water but actually not for too long so it gave it quite a nice taste! Also cooked the 4 beetroot that have been mouldering in the fridge for 2 weeks and roasted them with sesame seeds as an experiment- it was a success!

Had a funny moment on Wednesday where I ended up having to ride on the pavement part of the way to school from the station. One of my year 6 boys (one of the complete nightmare class when he was in Year 3-4 but actually, we get on now really well) raced past me and I ended up feeling really competitive and somehow managed to sail past him on the road at the last junction and win in a race he didn't know he was having with me- he laughed every time he saw me that day and said, "I can't believe you beat me to school!"

Last week, was dreading a Year 4 lesson where the children had to write out of their melodies they have been composing onto the stave as well as doing some sorting of statements connected to drones and melodies and actually, the children really seemed to enjoy it and pretty much all of them successfully managed to do it, give or take a few exceptions. It's usually a really painful lesson but I used the format I had created in lockdown last year for them to do it which worked really well in real life rather than online. So some positive from remote teaching last year then!

I was thinking about how awful the current year 6's were when they were in Year 3-4 (this being the year group that made me cry!) and thinking how much mixing their classes and them maturing has made a difference and realising I actually quite like them now. Funny how things change, eh?

Starting back with my Kensington Chamber Orchestra on Tuesday night! Very excited to be back but sad our regular conductor Tom is not able to make it back from Berlin for this concert!  The programme looks and sounds yummy! Concert on the first Saturday in March- hurrah as my other orchestra was cancelled!

Read a couple of book Whodunnits these past few weeks! A lovely one translated from French, I've read 2 in the series before about the bookseller Victor Legris and his amateur sleuthing but really enjoyed reading another one!

Anyway, enough waffling- I am going to try to get to bed at a reasonable hour despite the fact I've not done everything I needed to do.

Hope you are well.

xx

Recently...Happy things this week.

 The last week:

There were lots of good things:

• I applied for a grant for school last August and was awarded £1000 for some external music workshops.  My family friend/Godmother's daughter owns a workshop company and ran those for us- the children and teachers really enjoyed them and I was delighted to get to see my friend who ran the first day workshops for us. I ate lunch with her and she stayed after school to help me with choir and we did some team-teaching together. It was so fun and it was so nice to see her!
• After choir, I went back with her in her car to her parents house (they are my favourite people in the world!) and I had a cup of tea and good chinwag with them.  Their house looks exactly the same as it has always done and it was so lovely.  My mum called when I was there and to confuse her, I answered the phone!
• On the way back to the station, I went into CBC and my favourite restaurant which does an AMAZING Szechuan Aubergine (and no other Chinese restaurant I know does this) and ordered 2 portions of it plus Hakka vegetable noodles and Garlic Chilli prawns and took them home for CBC and I. It was a wonderful bonus to realise I would be going past this restaurant! Also passed my old childhood home which was so weird!
• Every child in 2 of my year 5 classes was willing to sing a solo in their Medieval-inspired plainchant.  Everyone except 2 children in the 3rd class was willing to do this.
• I made an EXCELLENT vegetable stew tonight- I made enough for 6 portions- it contained 8 carrots, red lentils, 1 courgette, 3 onions, 1 tin of kidney beans, 1 tin of chopped tomatoes, 1 litre of vegetable stock, old swiss chard, home grown onion scapes, tumeric, paprika, marjoram, oregano.  It's nice not to have to think about 2 more meals this week!
• I went to church in my old town today- was lovely to play with the worship band and feel that joy that comes with being in the presence of God and feeling like all is well again.
• The sun!
• A vegan sausage roll and vegan festive bake plus chocolate muffin from Greggs- yum!
• Managed to return plastic and hangers to the dry cleaners in town.
• CBC and I enjoyed a delicious Tapas meal out in town last night- a new cafe has opened in town and it was their first evening event. It was really yummy!
• I cleaned and tidied the house yesterday- it took aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages but I am really glad I did it.  The bedroom floor is clear!!!
• I am playing for City of London Symphonic Winds' next concert and had to go to a rehearsal on Friday night which I REALLY wasn't in the mood for especially as I know NO ONE in the band and the other flutes aren't particularly friendly or welcoming (my friend who asked me to do it isn't doing the concert but didn't tell me until I'd agreed to play)- the music was actually good in the end and it was fun to do even though I was not feeling 100% about it.
• I love watching The Apprentice- so glad it is back on.  The 'Turd' thing is hilarious!
• David Attenborough's Water series is so exhilarating!  I used to hate watching wildlife programmes as a child  but I love them now!
• I'm just catching up on the Emily in Paris that I haven't seen before. The series annoys me but I quite enjoy it!
• I've ordered my Stepmum some handcrafted stained glass flowers for her 60th next week and  the artist posted a picture of them on her IG stories today and they look really beautiful! I really hope she likes them as they are REALLY expensive so I hope they go down well.
• I took a risk on a 'too good to be true cheap priced instrument' on eBay for school and it turned up on Friday and it is AMAZING!!! It's such good quality and should usually cost about £180 but I got it for £25 including postage!!!
• The photo book for my Dad arrived- it looks lovely!
• I did some ironing today. Yes, I don't know who I am either!
• My friend said that my cute year 2 class were so amazing at their music workshopt that she did the same work as she did with Year 4 with them.
• 4 of the cute girls from the aforementioned class came up to me and told me they were playing 'Schools' and one of them was 'Mrs P'- me!! It was so cute!
• Letter arrived from my lovely penpal Katie- we've been reusing the same orange bubblewrap envelope for about 10 letters and when I see it arrive through the letterbox, my heart sings- her letters are SUCH fun and this was no exception! I wish we lived nearer!
• I've had 2 weeks of reading vintage Whodunnits- my comfort food!

The bad:

• My journey to school and back is long and arduous as it is so I was VERY annoyed to discover that the train company has reduced my trains morning and evening to one every HALF an HOUR (usually one every 10 mins). I had to wait 30mins on Monday morning and then EVERY evening home, I missed the conection by 30seconds and had to wait 30mins on a cold platform.  That's 3hours of my time this week spent on a cold platform waiting for a train. SO NOT fair! I pay a FORTUNE in train fares.
• Usually, teaching Year 1 about the orchestra is really fun- they LOVE conducting and being in the class orchestra but it was REALLY hard doing it in a classroom and they were really badly behaved!

What happened to you last week?

xx