Time flies...

Well, doesn't time fly...half term came and went and I have been back at school a week, with parent evenings next week to look forward too...

So, the rest of half term...

Carl, Dave and I went to the NME Awards tour on Monday night (I got a ticket for Chrismas from Ross and Lou) and saw Mumm-Ra (who were good), The Horrors (who were shockingly bad - lots of flashing while lights and screaming 'singer' who loved himself a bit too much), The View (who are far better on CD than live - I wasn't impressed) and The Automatic (who were cool!))

I went back to Potton on Thursday to see the folks, who are OK. Their fireplace FINALLY arrived and looks very nice indeed. Dad has to have an eye operation (squeamish-squermy-yuck!), but it is on his bad eye so at least he'll be able to see a bit afterwards! Mum and I babysat Joshua on Friday morning - he is soooo cute and kept saying Dadda to everything and da (like ta for thank you!)

While I was 'back home', Carl decided to do some DIY. He sorted out the internal garage door, making it open into the garage, rather than into the hall. He then decided to move the 3 bedroom radiators, so they'd be under the windows (more efficient and freeing up wall space!) He was going to do it earlier in the week, and decided against it, as it was a BIG job, only to do it anyway because he didn't want it to beat him! Check out http://rayspics.blogspot.com/ for piccys of Carl's handiwork!

On Saturday night we met up with Lou, Ross and Dave for a "quick drink at The Cock", which turned into a session, ending up at the new Po residence, drinking too much, eating vast quantities of biscuits and cheese (which was very tasty, and Lou kept saying "I can cut more cheese!") and crawling into bed at 3am a bit drunk and trying not to fall through the ceiling (the floorboards were still up in parts of all 3 bedrooms due to the moving radiators). We were a bit hungover the next morning!!

This week at school has been quite good, doing a major science 'rocks and soils' session! Next week we have Egyptian day and parents eve. Sadly due to having to move Egyptian day from last week (because of the snow day the letters didn't get out in time) we have Egyptian Day on the SAME day as the final parents eve...Mmmm...not sure the eye make-up will come off in time - may have to do it in costume!!

Dave, Ross, Carl and I did the quiz at 'The Cock' on Monday night, coming joint 2nd...well actually, not-joint-2nd, as afterwards we discovered that the team marking ours marked one wrong when it was right....but then there was the spanner/wrench answer (In Cludo which weapon was missing: rope, candlestick, dagger, revolver and lead piping - we put wrench, but the answer was spanner (but it is a wrench in America/Canada!) and it was marked right), so we decided it was karma that we didn't get our £1.50 each prize money!!

Carl and I got tickets to the IOW festival this year. We are taking Carl's little sis. The line up is really good, and coz Carl's folks are islanders, we get to sleep in a bed each night!! Woo-hoo!

The pain was worth it!

What a great weekend! Carl's parents came up and we had a special surprise for them on Saturday (it was/will be their birthday pressies this year!) as it is Barb's birthday next week.

We set off at 10.15am (having got halfway there are realising we'd let our picnic lunch at home!) and arrived at 11am, after taking a long route there and getting a bit lost!

On arrival they still didn't know what the surprise was!! When you get there there is a dirt track and a few metal huts. Barb's only guess was "Are we driving a tank?" Ha ha ha!! Charlotte guessed when we met the people who ran the place (as one of them was wearing a cap with it on.) When we told them, Barb's face was a picture, as she's wanted to do this for years! We were clay pigeon shooting (or clay tile shooting as it is now known!)

We had a safety check before getting down to it! Barb didn't seem to care if she hit anything or not!! We did tiles that went across the sky infront of you, those that arched towards you and some that went away, before doing 2 tiles at a time and a flurry competition! We all managed to hit some (Carl and Bern did the best!) In the flurry, Barb and Bern were together (6 for Bern and 3 for Barb), then Charlotte and me (we both scored 4 each!) then Carl and Barb (Carl got 10 and Barb got 2 - and one was twice!!) Bern got the most tiles in the 2 at a time bit, so he got a little trophy! After a lovely cup of tea we headed off for some lunch (at 3pm!) and ate at the Swan before heading home, collapsing and comparing bruises (I won!!) We then watched a couple of movies, played Simpsons Operation and ate our picnic!


On Sunday we visited Donnington Castle before heading into town to show them around. We had tea and a pasty in the West Cornwall Pasty Co shop (very tasty!) In the evening we went to Indigo Bay for an Indian, which was very yummy. We then attempted to play the Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit game - which was very hard and I think I only answered 2 questions correctly! Oh well!

Tonight we are off to the NME music awards tour in Reading to see The Automatic and The View - Excellent!

Snow day!! Or should it be Ice day?

Shock of shocks, the school was closed today!! What a lovely suprise! It was only decided at 8.20 this morning. Have to say, today would have been a bit on an anti-climax after yesterdays fun events!! Anna and I were very pleased with this result - an extra day to do stuff!!
I stayed at school until 1 o'clock, catching up on bits and bobs, marking and tidying up, before heading off to the tidy-tip with the Lower Juniors recycling for the half-term, followed by trips to homebase and B&Q to get a fuse for our shower (which stopped making hot water earlier in the week! Cold showers are not good when in a chilly house, in winter!)

I did recieve some sad news today though. I found out someone I knew passed away yesterday. I knew she was ill and the outlook was bad...she was the lady who first got me to go to the Salvation Army sunday school when I was about 6 years old. I have very fond memories of her.

Tonight we have Carl's parents and Charlotte visiting for the weekend...if they make it through the weather!! We have a suprise planned for tomorrow...but I wont say anymore in case they see this!
Lou and Ross are moving today too! Yay! I am going to pop over shortly to help bubble wrap stuff - love bubble wrap! *pop*
Also going to the NME award tour in Reading on Monday (thanks to Lou and Ross as it was a Chrimbo pressie!) to see The Automatic - really looking forward to it!

Caro text me today with a classic Comedy Quote from Spaced. (Thanks mate!)

Tyres: Mine's a pint of the black stuff.
Mike: You can't drink a pint of Bovril.

No Snow Day!

Hmmmph! So about 100 schools in Northants and Berks were closed today, but not us!! I started off being a bit miffed by this...and ended up having a fabulous, but exhausting day!!
We made snowmen in the morning - as part of DT and PSHCE (construction and teamwork!). The children had to create snowmen in small groups which had to fit a hard hat on, withstand a snowball pummeling and look pretty!! The children were in their element and we had some super snowmen (as well as a few 'snowcones.') This fed nicely into an extra-long playtime where all the Juniors were building snow 'things' - we had a snow throne, a snow turtle and a VERY large snowball, as well as snowmen and snow dogs!!
In the afternoon we were building bridges...out of food!! It was great! They had lasagne sheets, spaghetti, sponge fingers, malt loaf, potatoes, curley-wurleys, strawberry laces, chewits and bread sticks to work with, and their bridges had to be over a certain height (so a 7cm tank could fit under it), a certain span (to cross the river - yes a tank went under it but we had no boats - and none of the children noticed!!) and be strong and stable enough to hold a train and it's track! The children created some brilliant bridges - whcih worked! I was so impressed - one of those feel good lessons!!
All in all a good, but exhausting day...right, I'm off to bed!!

Comedy Quote: Black Books (season 1)

Manny: Do you think I should wash my beard?
Bernard: I think you should wash it, yeah. Then shave it off, nail it to a frisbee, and fling it over a rainbow.

3 days and counting...

...until half term!

I was off school yesterday as I was poorly sick :o( I started at the end of last week, just in time to feel pants over the weekend! Great timing! I still felt awful yesterday so stayed at home, watching rubbish daytime TV and having no energy to do anything much.

I am feeling better today, so it was back to school...where everyone said I looked ill! Thanks!! I thought I looked ok!! Luckily it was PPA this morning, so only a half day in the classroom, which was plenty!

Looking forward to a week off...where I can catch up on stuff and relax a bit!

Comedy Quote: One of my faves from Spaced...

Brian: Do you think I should lose the waistcoat.
Tim: I think you should burn it. 'Cause, y'know, if you lose it, you might find it again.