Happy New Year!

Only a few hours of 2008 left. I hope everyone had a good year and are looking forward to great things in 2009.

I don't really make resolutions - never seems worth it when you break them within a couple days. I thought I would go for 10 targets for the year - not thought of them all yet but I'll add to the list later.

Targets for 2009

1. Read 100 books - tried it this year but only made it to 95.

2. Finish all my knitting projects - I have 3 or 4 half finished at the moment.

3. Finish my tapestry - started it full of enthusiasm and not touched it for months!

4. Get to church regularly - not been too good this year.

5. Use my sewing machine - keep planning to alter a few things so that I can wear them.

Well, that's 5 to start me off.

30 sec Nativity Story

Found this on Seven Whole Days.

Wordless Wednesday - Construction

Today I have been making flatpack furniture - not finished yet but quite pleased with myself.

Hallelujah

After hearing the new X-factor single it reminded me how brilliant the Jeff Buckley version is.

Why not join all the people downloading this superior version? If you download it here it will count towards the singles chart - apparently its already in the top ten!

Cool Site

Found this site which looks like a great idea and not too expensive - a dress, top or skirt made to your design and to your measurements. The site is called styleshake. Its good fun designing and I think I may well have to order something when I've come up with my perfect design. Here are 3 of my dress designs:

Books I've Read

Saw this on my sister's blog and thought I’d have a go …

This is originally from the Big Read. Apparently they reckon most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Underline those you intend to read. -
3) Italicise the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - J D Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Quite a strange selection, I've read 38, what about you?

Christmas No 1

As a Radio 2 fan, I'm joining in the campaign to get Terry Wogan and Aled Jones to the Christmas No 1. Its about time we actually had a Christmas song instead of just the latest X-factor winner. Join me in buying the single, after all its for Children in Need. You can see the video here.

Wordless Wednesday - Cold

Its been a chilly week in Dorset, no snow yet but who knows.
This isn't my photo, but isn't it beautiful?
You can see some more here.

Wordless Wednesday - Reports time :(

Book Quote Game

"Still nothing."

From Dragonfly by Julia Golding


Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence along with these instructions on your blog, and post your sentence in a comment here as well.
* Don't dig for your favourite book, the coolest, the most intellectual.

Wordless Wednesday - Unpacking

Cool Fountain

I've Moved

I've moved out of school into a nice little flat and the best bit is I now have broadband access. So I thought I could get back into blogging again.
Here is my flat:

Not looking quite so empty now I've moved all my stuff in, but its way too messy for photos at the moment!

Half Term

I had a lovely half term with my parents, even though the weather wasn't great. We had a couple of days of pouring rain but also a couple of lovely days. It was nice to take Mum and Dad to places they had never been to before and to see some more of Dorset. We went to Lulworth Cove and walked over the clifftop to Durdle Door and saw some glorious views.We also went to Brownsea Island, which is a National Trust Island. It is a beautiful island, with woodland, beaches and wonderful views. There are no foxes on the island so the hens, ducks, geese and peacocks all roam free with no fear of predators. It is also where the first scout camps were held and they still go there now.The highlight was seeing a red squirrel on Brownsea Island, right at the end to the day when we had given up hope of spotting one!

Knitting

Not posted anything for ages but after many hours of work I have finally finished some outfits for my friend Lyn's new baby, Noah. I did hope to have them done before he was born but I am a few weeks late. Still hopefully they will still fit him! They are the first baby clothes I have made and to be honest I'm rather proud of myself :> I'm sure Noah will look gorgeous in them.

Zoey the Gibbon

When we were on holiday in Dorset we visited Monkey World and we fell in love with a gibbon called Zoey, who I adopted. I've now found out she has just had a baby, look at the sweet photos!

Easter Holidays

Its been a long time since I wrote in this blog. I had a busy second half of term, not much fun but I made it through with the thought of going on holiday with Suzy and the kids. We had a great time staying at a holiday park just 40 mins from my flat. The kids loved the park, it had a playground, a soft play area and a swimming pool. I think they would have been perfectly happy not to have gone out anywhere, but we managed to persuade them to visit some places and we had a good time. Here are a few photos but you can see loads more here.

At Last!

Half term is here at last and I can have a rest. I am with the parents for the night then off to Worcester tomorrow to see all my friends. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone, its been almost 6 months now since I moved. It will be good to go back to my old church and catch up with everyone. Its been a busy week so it will be lovely to relax and have fun.

One Week to Half Term

I'm feeling ok this weekend but its not been a great week due to a lousy cold. Its amazing how fed up a cold can make you feel! I have struggled through and carried on teaching, as any teacher will tell you, its easier to carry on teaching while feeling ill than to have to set work for lessons and deal with the marking, misunderstandings and general mess ups afterwards, after all if they could just get on with the topics without you they wouldn't need you to teach them! I know with the maths if I leave them work to get on with it has to be extremely simple and straightforward or they will get themselves in a muddle without you to guide them. Now I am feeling more alive again and am looking forward to visiting Worcester to see all my friends next weekend and then spending a few days with the parents and having a proper relax. Living in school is great in some ways, no commute and no bills, but it is hard not getting away from my job and the girls. The weather has been great the last couple of days which helps me feel more positive, hopefully it will last and life will seem a bit better.

Half term draws closer!

Only 2 weeks to go to half term, I'm thinking I might make it! Feeling a bit less tired and more positive this weekend, but I have a sore throat so not sure its going to be a great week. Last week I was going to give up teaching but now I think I might stick it out for a bit, but I can't see myself doing this for the next 30ish years until I retire. Maybe a break is the right thing to do, perhaps I'll miss it so much I'll appreciate it more if I come back. It certainly means I have some thinking to do.

Quiet School

Its an exeat weekend which means all the girls have gone home. No boarding this weekend and no lessons to teach tomorrow. The school is lovely and peaceful and I can get up late in the morning. The only problem is its been a busy week, I am exhausted and I have a pile of work to get done by Monday. At least I can get a good night's sleep tonight so hopefully I will wake up bright and cheery tomorrow. Today I am fed up with teaching and marking and trying to get mathematical knowledge into brains! I could give it all up right now, but I know that this is mainly the tiredness talking. Still the hours here are not great and I could really do with not feeling exhausted all the time. I've been working it out and I teach a couple of hours extra per week in this job, which of course generates extra preparation and marking time. I could deal with working later and saturday mornings better if it came to the same amount of time that I'm used to! I keep telling myself it will get easier! The benefit is longer holidays, but that doesn't actually help much in the middle of the term. This blog post is turning into a real whinge, maybe I should stop and go get some sleep, I'm sure I'll feel better in the morning!!!

Another Week Over

One more week down, half term is getting closer! Its been a busy week, with a Maths area meeting to go to along with the normal teaching, and several teachers have been off so I've had lessons to cover too. So I've got a bit behind with the marking and had to spend all afternoon trying to catch up. Thankfully it was lasagne for supper tonight, so I decided to have it with the girls instead of having to cook for myself. I have to weigh up the convenience of having food cooked for me with the privacy and quiet of staying in my flat! Mainly at the weekends I opt for peace, but I couldn't resist lasagne! Tomorrow I get to go to someone from church's house for a proper sunday lunch which will be good. Next weekend is an exeat, so the girls go home friday, no saturday school and a quiet school, can't wait! After that only 3 more weeks to half term.

Knitting Frenzy!

I started knitting club on Monday and now all my form have gone knitting mad. Unfortunately most of them have little or no idea so I'm spending my time casting on and trying to sort out mistakes! I'm casting them on 20 stitches but one of them had got to 39 stitches in approx 8 rows! It is quite sweet to see them sitting in the classroom knitting in their free time. I'm now having to get some new needles as I've run out!

Quizzes

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Literature Nerd Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and it's eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works. It's okay. I understand.
Science/Math Nerd
Social Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Musician
Drama Nerd
Anime Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Your score on this personality test was 47%

 

Others see you as sensible, cautious, careful & practical. They see you as clever, gifted, or talented, but modest not a person who makes friends too quickly or easily, but someone who's extremely loyal to friends you do make and who expect the same loyalty in return. Those who really get to know you realize it takes a lot to shake your trust in your friends, but equally that it takes you a longer time to get over if that trust is ever broken.

Personality Quiz
Take More Quizzes

First Week Finished

I'm exhausted and we have only been back at school for one week. Partly its the shock of getting up early again, I'd got used to lazing around over Christmas!

At least this week has been easier than last term, its so scary starting a new job. I hate not knowing the girls names and not being sure where I should be and what I should be doing. I had been at my last school for 10 years so I knew the routines so well I didn't really have to think about them. Getting used to a new way of doing things has been tough and people forget to tell you things so its been a case of learning as I go along. At least now I know everyone's names (the joy of being in a small school) and the general routine of the place, even if I am sure there will be some new surprises this term. I've had evening duty this week, which isn't fun, but at least that is one done this term, and tomorrow I have a couple of hours on duty with the boarders, so not a completely relaxing weekend.

On a positive note, I start knitting club on Monday - there is some great enthusiasm at the moment but we will see who sticks with it, at least it gives me an excuse to spend a lunch hour knitting. I just finished a new jumper, I will get a photo of it to post, its very purple and made with Wow wool (a thick chenille type wool) so should be warm and cosy. I'm very pleased with it, I'm getting the hang of sewing up now so the seams of this jumper are much better than the last one. Next I need to sew up a cardigan, but that involves picking up lots of stitches for the front band and putting in a zip so I have put it off! I bought a book about knitting from the neck down, so my latest project is on circular needles, but the rounds are so long it isn't growing very fast which I find a bit frustrating.

Back to Blogging

It has been pointed out that it is a long time since I did anything with this blog. I blame a lack of time and internet access! However, now I have my laptop, I have made a new year's resolution to get back to blogging and keep anyone who is interested up to date with my news. Not sure that there is anyone out there interested (except family)!!

My life has changed a lot since August. I'm now in Dorset, getting used to a new school and new flat. Its been hard work and I'm missing my friends, but I'm slowly settling in and everyone has been very friendly and helpful. Its tough adapting to a new school though, especially as I was over 10 years at the last one. Its been hard going from day to boarding too, teaching til 5-30 and saturday mornings has been a bit of a shock to the system. Teaching the younger ones has been different but mainly I'm enjoying the change. More activity days and dressing up (see the photos), days off timetable and the girls miss lessons for music, riding and dance lessons. Time will tell how it will go here, at the moment I spend much of my time exhausted but it should get easier as I get used to the place!