Busy week!

I'm not quite sure where the time has gone! Thursday was the teachers' strike: I wasn't on strike - different union - and was lucky enough not to have any lessons to teach that day (only Year 11s were in, in common with many other schools in London, I think). H arrived back on Wednesday (minus hand luggage, but he caught up with it later, so it was okay!) and before that I was busy filling in application forms. On Friday we spent the day interviewing pupils with their parents, and at lunch time I got called for an interview (have had it, didn't get it, but was relieved because I spent the last task wondering whether or not I should withdraw, so it obviously wasn't right, but was a good experience and also made me think about the good things about school). Anyway, I didn't know all that then, so the afternoon was spent running around like a headless chicken trying to organise things! Then went home, packed and drove north because we had a wedding the next day!

It was a beautiful wedding. The weather was perfect, dry, sunny, not too cold, not too hot, and we arrived and pulled over just as the bride arrived in her horse-drawn carriage! We met up with some of my uni friends (one of whom was the bride, another one was in the choir), which meant that it was an extra special day. Took loads of photos: the church is a beautiful old one with lots of interesting history and stories, and a lovely big churchyard. The reception was in a marquee in the Bride's family garden, and it was beautiful as well. We had a roasted pepper tart, lamb shanks with mashed potatoes and veg (my favourite!) and a deliciously creamy cheesecake. The speeches were excellent and very funny - discovered that the Groom went to school very near to my present school - and then we danced to a ceilidh band that played sort of French type music, with a hurdy-gurdy and some interesting pipes (Aha! Perhaps they were those French ones we learnt about in school ...). As well as dancing, we talked lots, which was great.

We stayed in a nice hotel, meeting up with my friends in the morning for breakfast, then had to rush back south to prepare for the interview. But first we visited the school, and first impressions were ... not too hot, shall we say, which worried me a bit but also relaxed me. So overall, as I said, I'm not upset about not getting the post, but am now not too sure what to do! I don't want to rush into anything, so, we'll see.

I am pretty exhausted now though, so I think I'll head off for a bit of a rest before facing clearing up, dinner, and planning for tomorrow! And there seems to be a good programme on BBC4 tonight as well. So maybe I'll watch that ... !

The morning after

It was a lovely evening, with a huge piece of salmon, and lots of stunning looking teachers, and some dancing. We left a bit early, just after 11pm, in order to get home - the dancing had just started, really, and there was due to be another couple of hours of dancing, but we'd had a good time and it was nice to leave and get home at a reasonable hour when public transport was still running - and we've another party tonight, so we have to pace ourselves! Am just up ... and have loads to do!

My to do list for today:

Washing up
Washing clothes
Tidying the house
Marking my Year 7 and Year 10 books
Planning an agenda for Monday's meeting
Reading up on methods and methodolgy and really trying to make a start on my dissertation!
Making Christmas cards

Well, I could go on ... these are just the things that come to mind most quickly! But first of all ... have breakfast!