2024 Weeknote 36

I'm in mark review purgatory. There isn't much time to say more.

Back to work. I've been to the gym every day. No knitting. Only television I've seen before. Falling into bed and immediately to sleep. I have read almost nothing but I have started taking the Conn Igulden book I started in May to my lunch duty in the toilets every day, because obvs I'm not eating lunch in the toilets. 

I did have my hair cut in the last week of the holidays and got to hang out with the niece. This was approximately 476 years ago. 

This week I'm off to Oxford for the day on Friday to start my masters!

2024 Weeknote 34

It has been a month that has included many swims, the seeing of sights, the catching of planes and trains and buses, the eating of gelato, the application of sun screen and the celebrating of my birthday - just a standard August. 

I returned from holiday towards the end of last week and have since spent my time mooching and doing, hmm, not sure what. I did all my washing, does that count? We packed up a load of rubbish and took it to the tip. I've been to the gym several times, completely obsessed with Brat (I'm so late to this party) as a workout album (I'm so old) to the point where I actually looked forward to it. Thursday was results day so I got to see everyone at work. Then I had to go to the doctor to be told I am now diabetic - news that they thoughtfully texted to me as I lay by a fancy hotel pool, on my actual birthday. I've therefore had quite a long time to process the news and it wasn't a surprise, given my genetics and size. Hopefully my new gym habit will help me in tackling it. 

On Thursday evening I drove to Portsmouth so that I could go to Victorious with Mother Hand yesterday. It was my first visit to the festival, though I'm still a bit sad I didn't make the effort to go last year, when Jamiroquai played. This year I swiped a ticket because the Friday acts included Snow Patrol and Fatboy Slim. We had a Friday brunch at our favourite cafe (this time the cafe lady did actually give me a hug and we friended each other on Facebook which was nice) and then headed down to the common. I wore a new Rosa Bloom acquisition and felt very festival-ready. 

We had a good wander around, had some tea at a stall, then Mother Hand went home for a nap and to feed to cat, while I sat in the sun at a picnic bench with a cider and read my book, periodically stopping for a musical interlude. Louis Tomlinson came on and complained that it was windy; I was sitting almost exactly where we used to have to play lacrosse all through the winter when I was at school and I thought, Louis, until you've been here in a PE kilt in January, you don't have anything to say. Idles were very good, as might be expected for a Bristol band. I teamed up with another woman on her own and we watched each other's stuff so we could go off to the loo or to buy food or more cider. Mother Hand returned for Snow Patrol and then I went and joined the crowds for Fatboy Slim. He is indeed getting on, but it was a great set and I was very pleased to see him live, 90s teen that I was. 

Yesterday I went to brunch with Mother Hand and her church friends and then for a quick dip before coming home. I always leave Portsmouth feeling a bit sad to leave, but must keep reminding myself that I am never having to go to work while I'm down there, so life can really be cafes and beaches and lie ins, and that I almost certainly wouldn't swim every day if I actually lived there full time. 

One more week of holidays and then it's back to school. 

2024 Weeknote 30

 A good holiday week indeed!

Two swims, as documented in Tuesday's post. Then a third swim in Bristol harbour, which I hadn't meant to book. I was quite grumpy. They were late starting again and wouldn't let me in without scanning the QR code, when I'd left my phone in my car. The lady at the desk held onto my phone when I asked if there was anywhere to securely store it. When I got out, she was trying to convince a passerby to come back and swim the next day - 'Use it or lose it!' she said. I'd love to use it. I'd be there every week. But you need to start on time, ideally have somewhere I can change (hats off to the old lady who went full frontal facing outwards along the path getting her nethers dry yesterday morning, cannot WAIT to be that age of not giving a damn) and also somewhere I can put my bag where I don't think someone will just lean over and nick it on their way past. It's £7.50 a swim and these are basics. I could also do without the loudspeaker pumping questionable musical choices but that's probably just me.

I am convinced All Aboard Watersports is secretly totally opposed to people swimming in the harbour. They just keep the whole thing really quiet and seem to be making it as hostile as they can.  

One paddle, aforementioned. 

Two trips to the library to collect one reserved book. A few months back my library card cracked in half, so the library replaced it. The new one had a new number but this didn't occur to me when I reserved a book I wanted online, using my old saved card details. I went to fetch it during their open access hours (no librarian on duty) and the computer said no. Bless that computer, it didn't realise that the person trying to check the book out was the same person who reserved it. It was trying to protect my reservation. 

I went back the next day and reached for my library card, which lives on the dash of my car...no card. I racked my brains. Eventually I realised I must have left it in the pocket of my dungarees, which were at that moment swirling in the washing machine. I (Mr Z) had to switch it off and pump it out to get the card back. 

I returned to the library, the librarian scratched her head a bit and looked uncomfortable when I told her not to delete my old account, but I've had a book on reservation for two months now and don't want to lose my place in the queue. I appreciate librarians and their commitment to good book service but I stood my ground. So I'm probably the only person in the southwest currently using two library accounts simultaneously. 

One coffee meet up with my friend Vanessa in Bradford on Avon, followed by lunch in the same spot with my friend Caroline. 'I've changed friends so she needs a menu,' I told the waiter, who looked completely confused momentarily and then burst out laughing. This is a ritual for Caroline and me, every time my old place of work breaks up. It feels like summer is really happening after this. 

One coffee meet up with my friend Charlotte, in a fantastic new cafe that has opened in the 'wood. Gentrification is in effect. It's still mercifully cheap, though. 

One yoga class, one PT session and one trip to the gym. I do enjoy the extra movement. My sore back enjoys it too.

One online shopping spree that I had been holding off for weeks: I got paid on Friday so I bought everything on the list, apart from the rug that has had its own tab in my browser window for easily a year now. I just need to bite the bullet and buy. 

Mother Hand is up and visiting because Mr Z and I are off to Devon for some camping today. It's our 18th wedding anniversary. We're currently sitting at our computers, he's playing online golf and I'm doing this. Pretty much sums up the past 18 years tbh. 

And the work is pretty much done! It was a long week of script inspection and report writing. I was full of the do-not-wants. But now it is over for another year and I feel like I blinked and missed it all. Rumours abound of big changes to our systems for next year...oh yey, more change...so perhaps I should be pleased for a nice smooth series this year.

I didn't really take any pictures this week. Most of them are screenshots. But here's Lenin asleep with Cecil (or Cyril, I forget), supervising my morning's work. 

A good holiday day

I've been reflecting, over the past few weeks (or maybe months) how much I miss the internet of old. I'm aware that this is me properly showing my age but I really am a bit sad about what it was and what it therefore no longer is. There was definitely a golden internet age for me and that was probably 2005-2012ish. It was after Google and YouTube were launched but before social media was super widespread. A bit of Facebook, maybe, but not a lot of people were using it and all the updates had to follow an is. 'Sally is...' Most phones did not have cameras and, if they did, there was nowhere really to share the pictures anyway. Tiktok was a twinkle in Vine's eye. 

For some of that time I was hopelessly stuck into a particular forum which my life verily revolved around but, to be fair to that forum, I made some friends out of it that are still my friends over two decades later and it taught me quite a lot, about people and having a wide network of acquaintances that can advise you and how to avoid arguing with people and how to win, if you're going to. 

My main reason for internet nostalgia, though, is the blogging. I really miss reading the blogs. Those little windows into the lives of people you were never likely to meet, I loved them. Those blogging prompts I used to do, the monthly crafty scavenger hunt and the weekwords, where you'd post your link to someone else's blog to help drive traffic. I was never that interested in traffic, I'm quite happy with my 7 regular readers (I refuse to believe you are all bots); it was just nice to read what people were sharing. Now that traffic has mostly moved to social media and people don't want to write longform anymore, or maybe people don't want to read it. All those livejournals and bloggers and wordpresses. I fear for the longevity of Blogger, I really do. Perhaps I'm going to need to go back to writing my blog in html and FTPing it onto the domain, like back in the old days (when this was all fields).

Naturally, the way to resist this crumbling of what I loved is to be the change, so I'm not going to say that I'm going to blog more but, here I am. 

I had a good holiday day today. Lots of nice things coincided in one day so that I found myself eating a cottage cheese sandwich I'd made myself as I drove from one thing to another, because I hadn't actually built in any time to eat or even go to the toilet.

I started with a paddle on the Avon. We put in down by the Chequers, the place that I went to back in February when I was trying to use my kayak once per month, only to find the jetty was raised higher than the bank and it was a fair old torrent that quite evidently spelled my death if I were to have put my kayak into it. Happily it was much lower at this time of year, so much so that I had trouble getting in; I was kayaking with two people from work that I don't know terribly well, certainly not well enough to ask them to assist me into my kayak from the bank. Happily I managed to find a slightly lower bit of the jetty to get in and then hauled myself out by stepping on the bank, which was naturally not as firm as it looked but held up OK.

We saw geese, a sleepy and suspicious heron and a few kingfishers. Plus a little lad who proudly announced he was eat breakfast on a boat. 

I went from there to get my back pulled back into some semblance of normal by Jenny. My back has hurt since the start of June, when I was very enthusiastic with the hip thruster machine at the gym. I managed to get it to a point where I could stand up straight, thanks to a combo of a foam roller, a massage gun and a hockey ball, but it has been grumbling on for weeks. I don't love being this age you know, everything takes for bloody ever to heal - that hamstring I tweaked in February didn't feel normal until the end of May, for example. 

Jenny did lots of good sports massaging. I winced into the face hole. It does feel better but alas, the best thing I can do is stay active.

From there I rushed off to the swim lake at Henleaze, at the invitation of my friend Paula. This is a swim in a quarry, but it's far more exclusive than the one I usually go to - it's so exclusive that even the waiting list is closed for now. I idly consider trying to get on it from time to time but it's not close enough to home, really. That said - how gorgeous. I think I prefer the water at my usual quarry but this one definitely wins on surroundings. Grass and shrubs, little windy paths that you can wander down for a more private sunbathe, an ice cream stand, deck chairs, three heights of diving board and even a sauna. The well-heeled of Bristol know how to swim in a quarry, that's for sure. I stayed as long as I could.

Then I came home and did some work because all good things must come to an end.

No pictures. Too much fun was being had. If you want pictures, there's always Instagram. 

2024 Weeknote 29

Another fortnight's leap. Term has ended and a week off has been had and I'd like to say that I feel a bit more human and it's sort of true but...well, the work never really stops, does it?

Work things:

I went to Birmingham for another meeting, my 9th trip to Birmingham so far this year. Me and that 6.44am train are getting very well-acquainted. Gutted there's only a Costa concession open at that time, I do not like Costa. I've made a friend among the group but I fear I won't be seeing much of her next year, as we both have different roles. Slightly jealous that hers is less responsibility. 

I spent the rest of the last week of term supervising the odd student who hadn't gone on a trip, packing my copious possessions and walking them downstairs to my new office (we're gonna need a bigger bookshelf) and fiddling around with bits of work that I thought were complete. This must be a leadership thing, where you have a job list, you do it, and then a bunch of people come out of the woodwork to tell you, actually, we want you to do this instead, or do it this way instead, or could you possibly repeat this work only on a different system? I have discovered that this irritates me to the extreme. I sort of hope I get leadership coaching again next year because, having been in the role for a year, I have a lot more to discuss than I did when I had a coach at the start of the year. I wonder how many initiatives I'm having to initiate come as a result of some man (it's almost always, you know) having his head turned by a talk or even just a winsome smile from a stall at an education conference. 'Why yes, let me impress you with how powerful and influential I am, by forcing a bunch of people I've never met to pay for your service and roll it out to their school, regardless of whether it is actually a good fit for them.'

The rage, eh? It simmers.

I waved goodbye to my long-term colleague and friend Marianne, who is leaving teaching for a bit. Isn't everyone. It was very sad. We've worked together for five years and affectionately refer to ourselves as Hivemind. I'm sort of glad I won't be heading the department now that she won't be in it. It truly is the end of an era. We went out for the boat party and I wore all my sequins again and had many compliments through the night, though the PE teachers looked at me as if I was a gorgon. Nevermind. A girl in the toilets told me the outfit 'really eats' which is a good thing in young person parlance. Another girl came up to tell me how much she loved it and it turned out she was an ex-student. She was on a date. I bought the three of us tequila shots and then decided that was my cue to leave, having never done a shot with an ex-student before. 

Exam marking finally finished today, when I woke at 6.30am in a pool of my own sweat and was too grossed out to be able to fall back to sleep. Now it's just the reports and the endless process of script-reading to do. Hopefully it will be done by the end of this week.

I went on a first aid course for two days. The last time I did this course was in 2021; I'd been out the night before at the not-a-boat party (the skipper 'got covid' the morning of said party, which coincidentally coincided with the England semi-final in the Euros), returning home at 4am, so I thought that was the reason I kept almost nodding off. Turns out, no. It's the course itself. The trainer tried really hard to make it engaging and a lot of it was outside in a field, which did help, but....sort of hoping that, by the next time I need to renew, I'll no longer need the qualification. It is just so dull. 

Any non-work things? There must have been. Hmm hmm. 

I started knitting a new linen top, the one I wanted to finish for my holiday, which is in two weeks. Oh well. At least I made a start on it. I've been swimming in the quarry a couple of times. I've re-read Wild by Cheryl Strayed, which has just made me want to go hiking through California even more than the first time I read it. I've been to lots of the places she mentions in the memoir and the idea of being that remote is very appealing. I've started the Big House Clean of 2024, determined this time to throw out a bunch of things and then hopefully make it easier to clean in the future. In contradiction to this, I've been impulse-buying online, as is my habit during exam season, so I need to have a clothes clear out.

A little shout out for an excellent jewellery business. If you see much of me IRL you have probably seen me wearing a large pair of silver hoop earrings or a smaller pair of gold. The latter were a gift from Mr Z a few years back and the former I bought for myself more recently. The catch snapped on one of the silver hoops and I contacted the company, Catch Rhys, for a repair. I couldn't remember when I'd bought them, couldn't find an order number or details of it in any of my banking. I couldn't even remember which email address I'd used for the order (I have five in regular use, don't ask why, it makes sense to me). I offered to pay. The helpful Rosie wrote back to tell me she had been able to find my order and they were actually within the two-year guarantee. When she couldn't fix them, she sent me a shiny new pair for free. Such amazing customer service! All their jewellery is recycled so I guess my old pair will become something new for them to sell, but still. Such impressive ethics. I can recommend them if you're in the market for something timeless and long-lasting. 

This week coming has lots of nice plans in it. And this time next week I'll be snoring in a tent in Devon.

2024 Weeknote 27

My computer and I have been far too well-acquainted for me to think about using it for personal reasons over the past couple of weeks. Happily, marking deadline is today and even though it will drag on for another fortnight or so, the end is nigh. The end of term is also nigh. I did my three working Saturdays in a row and celebrated by having a three-hour nap yesterday and then going out to a friend's 40th birthday party wearing a playsuit that teen me could only have dreamt of. 

Making inadvisable internet purchases is one of those things I do every exam season (you should see the shopping carts I've got lined up in other tabs at this precise moment) but, when I saw that Rosa Bloom had extended her sizing since last summer, I hesitated for only a moment. I have no idea what else I'm going to wear it for but, love. 

No knitting. No reading. Watching reruns of Friends and, lately, the Princess Charlotte Bridgerton spin-off. 

Roll on summer. Four weeks until I go on holiday!

2024 Weeknote 25

Just in case you're wondering as to the state of my brain at the moment, here's an insight: I have been wondering, for the past two weeknotes, why I'm not closer to or yet at weeknote 26, when solstice was last week and the nights are once again going to start drawing in. I started to think I must have miscounted. Only this morning did it click that the end of June marks halfway through the year, not solstice. It's not like I've lived with this calendar for my entire life or anything. 

Work reaches its crescendo this week. Thankfully the side hustle is (currently) going very smoothly this year so is not needing too much of my attention, which is just as well because I have no more capacity. I'm not sleeping particularly well, having been haunted all last week with very vivid dreams that were not particularly nice - not the sort you wake screaming from, but the sort that create an uneasy feeling on waking that persists into the morning. Several of these dreams were about having to move. I'm not going to Google to find out what that might mean. 

I quite often come back to that adage that you can't have more than 10 productive hours in a day. I can't remember where I read it now and I don't know how it's evidenced, but it's something I use to make myself feel better when I realise I've been staring at the wall for an unknown amount of time, in a paralysis of indecision about how to move forward with my work. This week has been OK in terms of work rate but I have had to resort to finding a quiet classroom to work in, rather than staying in the shared office, because either they distract me or I distract them and then nothing gets done. I would have liked to have got more done whilst in my empty classroom, but enough was achieved and, when I'm doing 3+ hours of the side hustle before and after work, it's not unreasonable to expect my productivity in my main job to suffer a little. Most of the time, at this time of year, it's not too important as there's not much to do. This is most certainly not the case this year, though. Somehow I've got three working Saturdays in a row, amongst other things. I started listing my tasks but then remembered that this is not a work space...though I do write a lot about work, don't I. Sometimes there wouldn't be much to say if I didn't. 

Let's try. 

This week I wound the yarn to make a Tolsta Tank by Rebecca Clow. I am going to make the square neck version and stripe some linen I bought at Wonderwool. 

That fancypants little thing twinkling across the top doesn't match too well in terms of colour but it is extremely fine and I plan to carry it along on random stripes here and there for a bit of interest. I'm hoping that more of the twinkle shows up than the orange. I do like the orange tbf. 

Anyway, it would be nice to cast this on as I wanted to wear it this summer, but I am realistic about my chances of achieving that now. I am, it has to be said, powering through season 3 of Bridgerton and if I just had the mental capacity to lift a pair of needles then I might be able to get started. As it is, I have spent much of my free time doing quick crosswords on the Guardian app and fastidiously playing my three favourite NYT games (Wordle, Connections, Tiles), and this includes while Bridgerton is on. I do like Birdgerton but it's not something that takes a lot of concentration. I also find myself really wanting to look up spoilers online because I can't wait to find out what happens at the end of the series, but I have decided I would be happy with either of the possible outcomes and so I am holding off. 

Has anything else happened this week? I gave blood on Wednesday, donation number 23 in 7 mins and 41 seconds (I hadn't drunk enough on Wednesday, really). On Friday night we went out to celebrate Father Z's birthday. I don't see enough of the Zs, I hadn't seen them since Christmas which is embarrassing as they live very close, but I remain perennially bad at families, how does one do them? Sometimes I think I might just pop in but would that be weird? What if they're busy? 

My favourite thing about this week has been the honeysuckle. We have a ramshackle garage next to the house, which isn't fit for much at all, but has proved to be a very supportive space for some honeysuckle, that grows wildly across both the front and back of it and is currently in full bloom. It's nice when I brush against it in the morning and it releases a bit of scent, but it's best in the evening when it's been under the sun all day - the smell is incredible. It doesn't last too long, so I've spent more time than usual sitting outside, appreciating it. 

And now I'm off for a swim in a quarry.