Weeknote 3/7

knitting:
still nothing. I managed one row on the shawl at the conference, but that was it.
I am finding it slightly ironic that I am blogging less too, since even though I seem to barely mention the knitting anymore in amongst all the navel gazing around here, it was knitting that got me back to blogging regularly.
I should try to make myself feel better about it by reminding myself that, actually, I've barely had a moment of downtime for nearly 2 weeks now.

going to:
Lunch by the harbour on a boat with Jo. A precious 3 hours off to shop and natter before the marking started again.

The Y11 leavers' ball. One of my history class, Brad, arrived by parachute jump. Amazing.
Oxford, for the conference. The college dealt with us admirably, since I get the feeling they are not used to being at all flexible and when you've got 100 kids on board, flexibility is vital. We stayed the night in Florey Hall. I thought this meant I could stay up past midnight and not suffer getting up at 6am the next day. I was incorrect.
Tarting around in my new car.
The garden centre, buying new plants. Salad and beetroot.

eating:
cake. I feel like I have had a lot of cake this week, including beetroot brownies from Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache. They were delicious. I made them for Jonts (at work), who observed that they were almost savoury.

obsessed with:
The progress of the courgette plants. One courgette grew - full size - literally overnight on Tuesday, when it rained.
GTAUK. Looking at the list of participants and feeling underqualified. Reading other people's blogs. Talking to them on Twitter. Setting up my own blog so I can start to track my innovations. Thinking about how to take it ofrward after the course - which is still almost a month away.

entertained by:
The kids at the conference. They were inspired. They were awestruck. They worked incredibly hard and I felt so proud.
Our speaker, who I found through Twitter. She's a PhD in psychology an education with a particular interest in underachieving gifted pupils.

fed up about:
how few of my monthly goals I achieved in June! Post on that to follow.
STILL not getting a decision about the ski trip. Not cool. I checked and only have 14 kids signed up, so I am tempted to just cancel the whole thing and go on a ski holiday with Mr Z and friends instead.
The exam board asking me to commit to marking more responses before the deadline because our team is short. ERM, HELLO. Our team is short partly because, against my advice, you took an examiner out for other tasks. You've got a bloody cheek asking me to increase my workload because you messed up! So I think I may be saying no, and you can pay me the overtime rate and I'll do them after the deadline. Also, I emailed you with questions a week ago: sort out your communication and respond. YOU ARE RUNNING A BUSINESS.
I feel deja vu....I have ranted about poor communication in this context before.

feeling:
stressed, anxious and nervy. Like there aren't enough hours in the day. It is better now the conference is finished, but I still have the marking to do. One more week and it's done.

I think I will take Mr Z to dinner by the harbour tomorrow, while the weather is good.