snow day kind of


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 of them spent a fair amount of time with family and friends over there. It sounded fun and warm and they both certainly looked cold as they came in! 

For the last day of my holliday, A wanted to get out of the house so we took some more bits we had decided to clear out to the charity shop down the road and then tried out the new coffee spot in town. It used to be the old public toilets near the train station. It is very lovely and not exactly my decorating style but nice and the lovely lady behind the counter brought us over not just one but two free desserts, which was so lovely but we really couldn't finish them on top of the lovely pie we'd shared already. (We took some home) and then A got on with uni work and I did a bit of admin while we watched a silly series and tucked into chocolates.  
Then back to work for me, I wasn't dreading it, but I wasn't exactly looking forward to work, mainly because I didn't want to get up in the cold, it's the hardest holiday to return from I think. It was my better week in terms of the number of lessons, but the worst in terms of the pain of 2 yr 9s who are just so very hard to teach. But joy - the heating wasn't on. The temperature was very low and before the day even really began a member of SLT came round to explain that we would probably be sending the students home and shutting the school to fix the problem. Bonus day with A. Who when I woke her with a cup of tea, exclaimed 'what time is it!?' thinking she'd slept until after 4. 
With my extra A and BigA time I made my school sandwich into a toastie and did them both one and then a very exciting trip to Aldi. I know how to use my bonus time! A and I then made a Macaroni cheese for dinner and went for a walk to see the frozen pond and a cuppa in The Hub. More bonus wonderfulness - we bumped into U.

Sadly they fixed the heating and so back I went. However on Thursday I had my best work day in years, because A joined me. I had a full teaching day and she we was so useful. Telling each class what she's doing at uni, and for my year 10, telling them more detail incase they actually want to study something like her. My classes were so much easier with her there, she threw herself into the lessons, helping keep them on task and getting better work out of many of them. She'd made us both a packed lunch too which we tucked into at lunch. What a great way to end her stay in London. If I can get her in again I certainly will. 

Oooh and we had a very fun evening with J doing a while jigsaw in one evening. 1000 pieces! 

We took A back to uni yesterday, I have mixed feelings. I'm so thrilled she is happy there but of course I'll miss the cuddles and just having her around. She was very pleased that the house was reasonably clean and as we helped her unpack all the goodies she got for Christmas and Hannuka, I was proud to see she definitely had the healthiest freezer draw! 

We didn't stay long, heading off to see M and D for a delicious evening meal. Lots of driving for BigA! 

hope 2026 continues to be full of sunshine and sparkle and not too much slush. 

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