Malawi & More

BigA arranged for a little dinner party on Saturday, really lovely and a full range of chats. He made some very delicious food too. That was the most exciting part of my weekend and I mostly lost myself in rewatching Bridgeton. I did pop to see E to go over a song for the Folk singing this Sunday. That was nice.  A very good pal of mine tells me she's having a frugal year because, in no small part because she took so many wonderful holidays the year before. I'm not quite going to hit her 64 but it isn't long until my first weekend away with my mum and sister. Certainly the not drinking for a month has helped us be a little more frugal. I've even been trying to refresh my terrible GCSE french knowledge.  School was fine, a couple of year 7s thinking they could talk their way out of being caught truanting my lesson and calling year 9 students parents because their sons had got into a stage box in the lesson. They are not allowed to do that! Overall broadly fine.  I had a ...

  My pal and I had a delightful morning, the sun shone as we walked to the duck pond through the local cemetery and fed the geese and ducks the right stuff (not bread). We nattered away as we wandered around and then had a very enjoyable lunch at Fieldseat, then more walking and we found all the blooms blooming in the park. Slightly strange that those spring flowers are just 500 meters away from my garden but not in my garden. Anyway, after that pleasant surprise we saw Bruce Castle museum was open so we popped in. It's free. We were so impressed with the newly curated exhibitions. Well worth a visit, I didn't take much in but loved it and would happily go again. They've obviously put time into linking the history to the local area.  We had a pal over for dinner and enjoyed chatting away. I made one of my favourite meals, various Mexican inspired stuff and tried a new version of a recipe for a yoghurt based drizzle thing. BigA was sadly coming down with a cold so he wasn...

  After the usual pottering about on Saturday I set about doing a jigsaw and binge watched a series. I started to listen to the most recent Reith lectures with Rutger Bergman and the first episode was, as he warned, was quite a grim listen. I think this added to a feeling of slight glumness so I resolved to get in the garden and lose myself in a bit of nature. It was mainly picking up cat shit, but still a bit of weeding and looking at the potential of the crocuses, snowdrops and daffodils did cheer me. I did another short roller derby session this week and watched a programme mum had recommended and felt rather smug at our lack of Ultra Processed foods in our diet. Also rather proud of BigA and me for having made it to week 3 with no booze. It certainly is easier when you're doing it with someone. I bought a bottle of alcohol free wine too see if it would help with my craving for a glass. Didn't quite work and I added tonic to it. Nice enough then.  One of the highlights of m...

This week has felt quite different, not least because it was just me and BigA again and I had a slightly changed work week. Two mornings coming in after the sessions I delivered for the senior leadership course. It's strange to think I actually only have 35 teaching days left at my school and it won;t be a simple one with various drama exams taking place. I still find the working week speeds by, even when I had duties and meetings and silly emails from middle managers who really could do with being on one of my courses to help them learn how not to annoy staff with overly curt emails.  I'm most proud of going back to roller derby. I did an hour, and was very sensible. There were 2 other skaters who were returning from injury who were also non-contact and that was useful because we teamed up for one drill and that meant I didn't feel quite so strange. I've also done a bit of Pilates this week, very gentle but also good to move.  A simple week really that ended in a very...

Having got over the horror of mum telling me January is 31 days, I got up for a day of domestic determination. It was a day to wash bedding, water plants, do the ironing and more, all still studiously ignoring the Best Practice work - the PowerPoint is so very dull. I don't remember the first day I did, being quite so uninteresting. But I did get to chat to my fellow facilitator this week and he's lovely and done it loads so that reassures me.  A woke up feeling a bit under the weather so I happily went into mum mode too. I finally got to rewatch Silence of the Lambs, which I'd wanted to watch for over a week. Mainly to see if it was what I remembered and to check if the French and Saunders adaptation was as well done as I recall. It really is. A then put on Bugsy Malone, another classic from my childhood and I did some ironing. That evening A got her pizza fix with a meal at San Marco, with E, D and D. It was lovely to hear all about D and D's trip to Cape Town, both o...

  I'd had a dream that I woke up at 9:15 - I know I have fascinating dreams. But it wasn't so, as it was just after 7 when I realised - at least I got cuddle and kiss from A before she headed off to The Hub for a full day shift. I decided to renew my weights practice and did a bit, mindful not to push it if I'm going to do it often. The weekend was one of goodbyes to family, it's been lovely making new memories over Christmas and it was accompanied with nice food and A working and me reading. 2 books so far. The bliss of not being SLT, no work panic making me do lots of stuff to feel on top of the job.  The arrival of the Ws signaled the joy of 2026 starting. We kinda set out straight away to meet up with D and her family (From Malawi). It was so lovely to see her and we spent that meal mainly checking in on the goings on at SAIntS and laughing about the days we were all there together. Then after a brisk walk home we, as usual, caught up more and had food and played a ...