Thursday, 26 December 2024
2024 Round Up: Health
Sunday, 22 December 2024
2024 Round Up: Reads
A year in which I just surpassed the number of books I read last year. I was well ahead of myself after the summer holidays, but then that all stopped when I had to start reading for the Masters. I could have added a large number of academic articles and books about assessment to this list, but I don't think anybody is going to be superkeen to read about the finer points of validity.
Fiction
The Vanishing Witch - Karen Maitland - I fear I might have run out of Maitland books to read now. They are deliciously creepy.
The Ottoman Secret - Raymond Khoury - love a bit of Ottomans but when I got it home from the library and realised it had a commendation from Lee Childs, I nearly took it back - not my sort of thing. But it was pretty good. I do like a counter-factual.
An Inspector Calls - J.B.Priestley - we dressed as characters from this for World Book Day so I thought I'd better read it. Meh.
Lone Women - Victor LaValle - not at all what I was expecting but very enjoyable. Horror set on the American plains.
Copper Sun - Sharon M Draper - teen fiction about American slavery. Jarring because the ending is not miserable and therefore feels ahistorical. But it is for teens, I guess.
Still Life - Sarah Winman - this took me a while (followers of my weeknotes might recall) but once I got going I loved it. I still think about these characters and it gives me a strong yearning to see 1950s Florence.
Stormbird - Conn Igulden - I enjoyed this more than I expected to. It was given to me by a tutee way back in 2015 and was packed into a crate of books I brought from my last job, that still languish in the garage, 8 years later. I picked it out and thought I'd better read it or get rid. It was a good story of the early reign of Henry VI but it wasn't exactly gripping - I started reading it in May and put it down numerous times to read other things. Still, Igulden has written a lot of historical fiction so it is good to find a new author to work through.
Wild - Cheryl Strayed - a reread of this one, I really like it. I know it's not fiction but it didn't quite fit on the other list. I've visited a fair few of the places on the PCT and the reread just makes me want to pack a bunch of stuff and give it a go. I'm not kidding myself that I'd make it even more than two days, but it is a nice dream.
The Family from One End Street - Eve Garnett - a childhood book I wanted to reread. I remembered a section of it where the oldest daughter irons a green silk petticoat and shrinks it but for the longest time, that was all I could recall. Eventually the internet caught up and I was able to find the name of it through searching the story I remembered.
An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears - this took me a while but I really liked how the story is expanded in each subsequent retelling. In the final section, there's some consideration of how history is told with a strong nod towards Thucydides, that made me think - if I was cleverer, would I recognise that each section is told in a different historical methodology?
Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfield - another childhood book I powered through in a few hours. Then Facebook started serving me ads for Ballet Shoes on stage this autumn. I really do find this level of knowledge about my life pretty creepy.
The Wolf Den - Elodie Harper
The House with the Golden Door - Elodie Harper
The Temple of Fortuna - Elodie Harper - these three make up the Wolf Den trilogy which is set in Pompeii in the years leading up to and immediately following the 79 eruption. It was pretty atmospheric to read them with a view of Vesuvius.
Weyward - Emilia Hart - I read this in a day, on my way home from Amalfi, and I really enjoyed it. Three lives and how they intertwine. I went back to bits of it to reread in the subsequent days.
Act of Oblivion - Robert Harris - Harris never misses for me but it was particularly interesting reading this shortly after the Fingerpost book, because both are set after the Restoration. There was some character overlap. I've struggled a bit with a paucity of 17th century contextual knowledge in my A-level teaching, so these books are really helpful - this one particularly provided some good insight into why the relationship between England and its colonies was already a bit stale even in the 1660s.
House of Odysseus - Claire North - Ithaca was one of my favourite books of 2023 so I was delighted to find it was the first in a trilogy. I haven't got more than two chapters into it yet, though.
Salt to the Sea - Ruta Sepetys - the story of a group involved in a real-life naval disaster in the Baltic, towards the end of WW2, told from four different points of view. I found the jump in narrator a little frustrating at times, as the chapters were sometimes incredibly brief, but it was a good story.
A Little Princess - France Hodgson Burnett - a comfort read when I had toothache. I got through it in one evening. I think it's interesting to return to these books now that I know more about the history of the time in which they're set. A dashing young soldier, a diamond mine, brain fever, exoticism from India, etc.
A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles - there is so much to love about this book. It is taking me a long time to read it but I really dote on the writing, sometimes rereading pages just because I think it's so beautifully phrased. I had it from the library and then had to buy it on my Kindle because I couldn't read it quick enough.
Non-fiction
The Witness Wore Read - Rebecca Musser - started off the year with a religious cult memoir. Mormon ones always make me think of the series Big Love and this makes me want to watch it again.
Fearing the Black Body - Sabrina Strings - quite high brow but an interesting glimpse into the way that what is desirable about someone else's body changed as a result of empire and slavery.
How the Word is Passed - Clint Smith - I think this was the best audiobook I listened to all year. I bought it in hard copy afterwards. If you pick one from my list, make it this one.
Prisoners of Geography - Tim Marshall - I wasn't really a fan. Some good bits, some bits I didn't really agree with. I guess it is quite old now.
Uncultured - Daniella Mestyanek Young - I'm running out of books about women escaping from cults (my favourite genre of audiobook) so was pleased to come across this one. She narrates, too. I love those in particular.
Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain - a bit like listening in to some drunk guy's conversations in a pub. But an interesting drunk man with a lot of good stories to tell.
Ultra-Processed People - Chris van Tulleken - not preachy at all, in my opinion (though a colleague saw this in my email sig and told me she did not agree). Just common sense and a good advice.
Leaders Eat Last - Simon Sinek - I should have known better, really - I can't really be doing with these silicon valley self-congratulatory sermons, but since this stuff has leaked quite heavily into educational leadership, it is probably better to read what your leaders are reading, so you know what to expect. It was OK. It sort of fitted what I thought about leadership anyway.
I will say that I blame Sinek entirely for the current craze, at conferences, for starting keynotes or workshops with an extended explanation of the rationale. Yes, fine, start with why, yes, Sinek is a genius, yes yes yes. But in education, we all know the why already. We are already convinced. That's why we work long hours for meagre pay. Just hurry up and get to the what and how, it's what I came for.
Exam Nation - Sammy Wright - I thought this would be more about exams so I listened to it in the run up to my first uni week. It was a bit broader than that. He was an engaging reader of his own work and there are many good anecdotes in this book.
Our Island Stories - Corinne Fowler - I've been familiar with Corinne's work for a long time as her interests bump up against mine in the teaching world. This is a real treat. She narrates stories about different areas of the country and their connection to empire - she walked around each one with someone of note, so the audiobook contains clips of her voice recordings of those walks, which is a nice touch. Not finished yet, I am savouring it.
Friday, 20 December 2024
Fave Friday
Five favourite things I saw in London
We broke up on Wednesday, so I made myself some nice plans in London for Thursday and Friday. When it came to it, I was somewhat overwhelmed by how many nice plans I made, but in the end I found the trip invigorating rather than exhausting - so much so that I wrote this post on my phone on the coach home, after almost a month of not being able to muster the energy to update.
The lights were, of course, beautiful. London seems to have a thing about doing big decorated doorways that I haven't noticed before and I appreciated that a lot too. I stayed near Kensington Palace and I'm pretty sure I saw the king driving past me - at least, if it wasn't him, it was somebody important enough to warrant 8 police motorcyclists blowing whistles and an accompanying 4x4. And yet these didn't even make it into my top 5, so crammed was my 30 hour stay!
1. The Medieval Women exhibition at the British Library
This one is called 'Medieval women in their own words' and focuses specifically on works that were created by or about women, on the basis that much of this is lost or ignored. It was a very interesting walk around and, even though it is not very large, I still spent the best part of two hours reading through everything. It never ceases to amaze me how long the middle ages went on for - this exhibition covered all the way up to Margaret of Anjou. I was also pleased that there seemed to have been an effort made to include women from Wales and Scotland, as well as England.
Illustrated women's herbal. There was a lot about medicine.
2. The Mughals exhibition at the V&A
This exhibition covered the golden age of the Mughals, from around the mid-16th century until the early 18th century, which coincides nicely with what I teach at A-level, coincidentally. There were some beautiful examples of calligraphy, jewels and jewellery, glassware and textiles, such as this huge cotton drugget that would have been laid on the floors of the palaces in the summer.
3. Burhan and Stewart Lee
I met Burhan in 1999 when we were both working the same miserable summer job for the exam board. I see him too rarely (the last time being in 2019) for somebody that I get on with so well. We went for Korean food (excellent restaurant, plus, when I told the waitress in somewhat panicked tones that my phone was about to die, she took it from me without any further questions and charged it, thus saving me from an hour's sad walk back to my hotel later in the evening) and then to see Stewart Lee at Leicester Square. Lee was extremely funny, as I had expected. I booked those tickets when the clips of him ragging on Russell Brand resurfaced over the summer, something he referenced in the show.
4. My hairdresser
I think I must be approaching 15 years with the same hairdresser, who now occupies a chair at a salon on Park Lane. This makes me feel extra fancy, though tbf I don't really rate the salon. His cuts are second to none, though, and somehow he manages to blow dry my hair so that the grey falls evenly, as opposed to in two semi-transparent stripes. A true artiste and worth every penny.
5. Two dog owners with their golden retriever in Hyde Park. Said golden retriever was the proudest doggo ever, having caught (or hopefully picked up already dead) a bird. He was studiously ignoring his owners' every exhortation to drop the bird. They had all the treats out, but he was staring into the middle distance with an inscrutable expression that anybody who has interacted with teenagers would recognise instantly as a clear sign that a change of tack is required to move the situation forward. I commiserated with them. 'He had a parakeet last month,' said the man, ruefully.
I also observed a tourist (I assume) trying to get a couple of well-fed squirrels, spread eagled upside down on a tree trunk, to eat out of his palm while his girlfriend filmed him. I wanted to stick around until he got bitten, but I had to get to my hair appointment.
Sunday, 24 November 2024
2024 Weeknote 47
November has been something of a tricky month, hence my radio silence. I came back from half term with a lingering and a toothache, which absorbed two rounds of antibiotics and now no longer hurts, but there is still a swelling and I'm therefore left with a low-level persistent nagging concern that it's going to resurge at the worst possible time, such as on Christmas Eve or the plane I'll be taking to Kazakhstan for new year.
Toothache is so debilitating. One evening I just sat in bed from getting home at 6pm, reading The Little Princess in the dark on my Kindle. Other evenings were not quite as dismal but I was not capable of doing anything at all, really. I have to shout out to my amazing dentist, Bianca, who did a big filling repair in the summer that I thought was the cause of the pain. She saw me quickly, gave me antibiotics and insisted I come back in for another appointment before the weekend, just in case there was any pain, then prescribed more antibiotics remotely and followed up with a phone appointment. She would not charge me for any of these appointments because the filling is guaranteed for a year, even though the x-ray suggested that the infection was on an adjacent tooth.
I think I should probably go back in for the root canal she suggested, to be on the safe side, but I am full of overwhelm at the moment and I just can't envisage how I would fit it in over the next five weeks.
I spent last week in Oxford, which was dreamy. It was mostly bitterly cold and snowed overnight on Monday night - I thought I had packed enough warm things but it turned out, I had not, so the week was chilly. My coursemates are all really lovely and we had a few dinners together in college. I hadn't quite managed all the reading, on account of the tooth, but I had definitely done enough to get the most out of the lectures. Some of it is a bit over my head. I'm not sure how I am going to manage the essay by Jan 7th, but I guess we will just see how that pans out.
Really, I think I am worrying too much. I do have other things to do, namely my job (obvs) and also writing the next round of exam papers, but my job has been doing a good job of staying within work hours so far this year and I am almost done with my exam papers, just three more Q markschemes to write, which I might finish today. It's worrying me because they haven't sent out a schedule yet, in spite of contracting us in July, so I can't get any sense of when the pinch points are going to be. Also I am just counting available weekend days as possible essay-writing time when, realistically, I can work on it some weekday evenings as well. I'm sure it will be OK. It's just been a while since anybody gave me an essay title that I just didn't know how to answer. This happened all the time as an undergrad and rational me knows that I just need to read until something coalesces.
What else has been going on over the past three weeks? I have been listening to Exam Nation by Sammy Wright, which is very funny and a nice foil for the heavier academic course reading. I've been very slowly reading A Gentleman In Moscow, which is truly delightful - one day this past week, I ran a bath and lay in it for 40 minutes reading before lectures started. I love a morning bath. The room I've booked for all the college weeks is cheap because the bathroom is on a different floor, rather than being en suite, but as a result it contains a bath, as well as the main boiler for the whole house, so it is really warm and not one of those dingy plastic cube bathrooms beloved of university accommodation. So, on Wednesday when we finished early, I walked to Lush and got myself a bath bomb. Next time, I will go prepared.
I've been a bit neglectful of the gym. I am currently sitting in my gym clothes, which I put on as soon as I got up in the morning, but don't seem to be any closer to getting to the gym. The weather is howling today. Yesterday, on a whim, I went to Easy Runner in Bristol and had myself fitted for some new running trainers. I used to do running and I really enjoyed it; now the elliptical has started to get a bit easy, I thought I should graduate to a treadmill. I also really wished that I could go for a jog around the park in Oxford, but was stymied by my lack of suitable footwear. Now I have trainers. I need to go test them for a longer run on a treadmill, though.
In spite of this, however, and all the toothy troubles and multiple colds (I caught another one last weekend, though it abated quickly), weight loss still seems to have been occurring, much to my delight. I had a little preview on the scale yesterday morning to check that the enthusiastic reintroduction of desserts into my diet whilst in Oxford had not 'ruined everything' and was pleasantly surprised to see that it had not; if that number holds until tomorrow (I do usually gain a little weight over the weekend, hence my usual practice being weighing just once a week on Mondays, but if it does...) then I will be 29lbs down since the start of the new school year. I tried on my old favourite ski trousers yesterday and they are the most comfortable they've ever been. I remember taking them on the school trip in 2020 and being unable to get the poppers to meet, let alone close.
In fact, there are lots of clothes I can now wear that have not seen daylight for many years. If I thought I had a lot of clothes before, we are now reaching an embarrassing opulence of riches.
What else, hmm hmm. My friend Kaff came over last Saturday for our annual Strictly and Chinese night. She told me about my old friend Tutt's wedding blessing, and how Tutt essentially seemed to make Kaff her bridesmaid without actually asking or telling her until the last minute. We haven't spoken in a number of years. I'm still sad at the loss of the friendship, but happy she's happily married now.
I travelled to Oxford last Sunday in the company of my friends Jo and Kath, so that we could visit the Victorian Christmas market there. Mulled cider, chestnuts, strange crafts you only ever see at Christmas stalls. We ate a lovely pie in an old pub. We browsed the horror section of the Blackwells. A very lovely day out.
I'm delighted at the return of Wolf Hall, love a bit of Rylance-as-Cromwell, and we've binge watched both series of Everyone Else Burns, which was very enjoyable. Second series better than the first, I think - I just think Sian Clifford is hilarious, which gave it the edge.
I'll end with a snowy autumn tree picture from Oxford. I really can't put off going to the gym any longer.
Sunday, 3 November 2024
2024 Weeknote 44
Sunday, 27 October 2024
2024 Weeknote 43
Sunday, 20 October 2024
2024 Weeknote 42
Sunday, 13 October 2024
2024 Weeknote 41
Sunday, 29 September 2024
2024 Weeknote 39
Friday, 27 September 2024
Mexican dense bean salad
I've been experimenting with new lunches this term, ever since I came across the dense bean salad trend on Tiktok. It seems to be very much a thing, though, realistically, I have been eating lunch this way for many years now; I was fondly remembering when I used to make up huge salad jars for the whole week. But it's nice to see other people sharing recipes because it gives me fresh ideas, particularly for dressings, which I'm not good at.
I've figured out that the best long-lasting salads have robust veggies in them and to date, it's usual for me to add a couple of packets of mange tout, but recently I have been going with a coleslawy base, which adds plenty of bulk but not much flavour. This is good but requires some robust other flavours and also something nice, because shredded cabbage is just so...worthy.
Thus I broke my own rule this week and added avocado - which qualifies as something nice - to this one, but it held up well in the back of the fridge (we've got a Smeg fridge and it is actually magic, tbf) for the week. Nobody gasp in horror at this revelation, but I take my lunch out of my fridge at home and it sits on my desk at work until around 1pm, sans refrigeration (yes, even with meat/fish in it, don't come for me, I apparently have an iron constitution) - by Thursday, this salad was not coping with that and had a somewhat fizzy flavour, so I put it in the work fridge (double bagged) today and it was still good by the time lunchtime came around.
- 1 can Mexican beans
- 1 can butter beans
- 1 large can sweetcorn
- 1 bunch coriander (150g, really whack it in there, it's not for you if you don't like coriander)
- 2 peppers, any colour, I like yellow
- 2 avocados
- 300g cabbage
- 2 large carrots
- 3 limes
- 2 tbsp oil, I have cold-pressed avocado oil at the moment because I'm apparently incapable of walking past Holland and Barrett without going in to buy something
- Salt and pepper
Shred the cabbage and carrot. Chop the coriander, except the stalks, and combine with the cabbage and carrot in a bowl. Drain and rinse the canned stuff, add to the bowl. Chop the peppers and avocados and add those too. Salt and pepper to taste. Juice the limes and shake hard in a jar with the oil - mine turned the most wonderful garish chartreuse colour; dress the salad. Shovel into containers. It makes five portions of about 350 cal each and all five of your fruit/veg servings in one meal. I topped mine with Mr Z's Mexican chicken breast.
Sunday, 22 September 2024
2024 Weeknote 38
It has been another wildly busy week, between the mark reviews and the work commitments and writing out the reading list ahead of the first module at Oxford. I made that list this morning; Lenin came and sat in the middle of it, to ensure I carry his muddy paws into the course with me ever day, and then curled up and went to sleep, purring loudly, without requiring a fuss - I found this immensely comforting as the essential pre-module reading runs to two side of A4. I'm not overly worried about getting it done for November, but less convinced of how I will manage for February, when I will also have an assignment to do. Time will tell.
On Tuesday, I had to travel once again to Birmingham, for a day conference of people from across the Trust who do the same job as me. This was all a bit depressing because, firstly, we got a telling off about Trust results (our school results were very good and an improvement on last year, so...) and secondly, I realised that everything this committee worked on last year, gave up additional twilight time for and spent most of the conferences discussing, has now been shuffled off and a new set of expectations has come in instead. 'We know you'll have done this so just copy and paste into our forms,' was the message. Well, I can't do that, because I asked you in June for the planning proforma, and even though I can see this went into my folder in July, you didn't share access to it, so now they don't match and you want me to re-do the large piece of planning work I have already done rather than actually enacting the plan.
Hrmph.
I will be saying all this directly to the visitor we are having this week. They keep saying feedback is a gift. I am feeling in a very altruistic mood. Let's hope I don't come back next Sunday to say I've been fired. Although this might be helpful.
I went to the glow swim after the meeting, it is 2 degrees cooler in the quarry than this time last year but still a very lovely place to spend a twilight. I sacked it off this morning though because it was pouring rain. A lot of quarry people sneer at the idea that you wouldn't want to swim in the rain and I do get that you're already wet so why does it matter, but when you're a head-out-of-the-water swimmer like me, the splashing in the face is problematic.
On Friday, we had a school trip with the sixth formers to Parliament. This involved a 5am get-up for the 6.40am bus, where thankfully I had earphones and went to sleep because the students were louuuuuuud. And it's not like being on a private coach where I can just yell at them to be quiet. We went first to the Churchill War Rooms, which was a great museum, though I only managed about 90 minutes before a combination of claustrophobia and Churchill fatigue got me. From there, we trotted past the statue of Clive to the Foreign Office for a tour - my colleague knows people there. This was really quite spectacular. To begin with it was just a grand old government building but then we went through the Locarno room and, wow. Murals, gold leaf, carpet deep enough to lose a shoe in, the lot. We finished with a peek at Number 10 through the gate (the staff said they'd watched Truss resign here and claimed multiple sightings of Larry the Cat, who apparently has some territorial beef with Palmerston the Foreign Office cat). It was very cool, even more so because the security guard was very moody about a bunch of teen girls twittering past him but just had to allow it.
Me in the Locarno room, what a ceiling.
From there we went on to Parliament for a tour from someone who worked in the whip's office for 20 years and had some amazing stories to tell. I have been to Parliament before, but I don't think I've made it into the chambers - neither house was sitting, as it was a Friday, and that gave us ample time for mooching around and pretending to be important. I managed to snag a cardamom Bun From Home on the way back to the coach station and then the students chatted loudly all the way back to Bristol while I tried to ignore them and read Salt to the Sea, a YA historical fiction I forgot I bought at the beginning of the summer. It's very good.
I've also been getting through the rest of Stormbird (I started this in May) during my lunch duties in the student toilets, somewhere I can't eat lunch but where nobody can tell me off for reading. Students regularly ask about my book so I consider this good modelling.
We've continued to watch Clarkson's Farm. I'm excited about the return of Bake Off on Tuesday.
I managed to mostly keep up with the health kick. No gym on Friday but we did do 15,000 steps and I didn't eat very much because it was such a busy day. I disappointed myself by not doing any form of exercise on Wednesday but I was just exhausted after the early start on Tuesday and the exertions of the day. I was too tired on Tuesday to pack up my gym kit, telling myself I would come home, change, then go out - naturally I came home, changed, but then found myself mysteriously in my new favourite dressing gown (I am now in my dressing gown era) and so just went to bed at 9.15 instead, which did help with the tiredness, it must be said.
I am not feeling so inspired by the linen top now that summer is over, so I have wound some yarn to knit a brioche hat. It's a skein of Isager aran tweed that I bought at the Oxford Yarn Store in 2022 - I was reminded of this when I googled to see how far this place was from my college (a terrifying 220 yards, this is going to get expensive); plus a beautiful, soft DK that I got from the knitting group secret Santa. I'm going to attempt to knit a Beezee but got as far as casting on at knitting group yesterday and had to give up, because who can do a twisted German cast on off the top of their head?
Sunday, 15 September 2024
2024 Weeknote 37
Sunday, 8 September 2024
2024 Weeknote 36
Sunday, 25 August 2024
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.
Sunday, 28 July 2024
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.
Tuesday, 23 July 2024
A good holiday day
Sunday, 21 July 2024
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.