2026 Week 43

The term ended this week, probably just as awfully as might have been expected, with a nasty shock on Monday that is going to have a lot of fallout. Not being mysteriously, temptingly vague, just necessarily vague. Thankfully it doesn't directly involve me but it has left me feeling like I'm in mourning (nobody died). Just par for the course in this horrible term, thankfully now in the past. The only positive thing was that we managed to appoint another teacher of my subject, against all odds and at under a week's notice, so my timetable should ease a bit next term. Just as well because I am going to be doing my job and parts of two others. 

The last day of term was Hallowe'en dress up and I reprised an outfit from a party I went to a few years ago, the wicked witch of the east. It was windy enough to almost blow my house away for real; I had to deal firmly with a shouty parent in it; and when I leaned out of an upstairs window to shout at some truanting students, one of them actually screamed in horror and shouted, 'WHO IS THAT?!' much to the amusement of my year 10s.

It has been a fun weekend. I went to hot yoga and then to Gaz's house where we ate Chinese and sort of watched Strictly with Corners - an annual tradition, even down to the horrible storm I had to drive to and from her place in. Of course today has been lovely. I went to the cinema with Emrys to see Ghosts, very funny. I did a little actual, in-person shopping: a sadly dispiriting experience because of the whole 'find your size online' thing - you're telling me, Uniqlo, that in all your piles and piles of jumpers you don't have room for one XXS and one XXL? And then I bought a dress in Harvey Nicks and they didn't give me the expected 20% discount they were touting all over the shop and I didn't have the heart to ask. People talk a lot about the death of the high street but I'm not sure that I can recommend going in person when I can't try on my size or read the discount Ts&Cs ahead of time. I guess it was nice to actually look at things, though. 

I've continued with the usual knitting project and marvellous book, I want to devour it but I have been pretty sleepy. I've been catching up on Five Star Weekend (meh) and Leaving on Netflix, a very old three-part series with Helen McCrory that was better than I was expecting. Excitingly, I managed to see both the Bake Off and Traitors live, what a thrill - no avoiding spoilers needed. 

A whole week off awaits, though there will be exam board tasks within that. But still...lie ins, lazy hours with a book etc. 

2026 Week 42

A surprisingly good week at work. This might have been down to my complete weekend off or to the fact that Y13 have been in mocks, which has halved my teaching load. Either way, I have been joking that I must be about to die because it feels like golden time. I managed to get loads done. Perhaps the visitors will come next week (it has to be soon) and I can capitalise on this efficient feeling.

A couple of nice social things happened. I went to a supper club at a local charity that was a collab with a restaurant near work and Farro, a bakery I am obsessed with. Unfortunately we tried to go to the actual restaurant, only to discover the dinner was being hosted at the charity premises in Bedminster, so had to do a bit of a cross-town dash; but it was a very informal sort of dinner so it was all good. It was great to have a meal with Parpy Jo and a catch up, such as has not been had for a long time. Then on Friday night I went to see Lizzy's new house (she has been there a year but...) and we had dinner and did some knitting. Socially nourishing is this season's vibe. 

I went to the sauna and to yoga. I watched the Traitors and Bake Off. We started watching War, which I thought would be some sharp political thriller but it turns out to be about divorce and I predict they will reconcile because the whole thing is really being driven by the lawyers. Good characters and wow, what a cast, but I can't yet get over my disappointment at it not being what I was expecting. 

I continued to knit the accordion scarf I'm making for the cleaner at work. I've just joined colour five of ten, so we are getting there. It's a very, very easy pattern but I think this is making me slower because it's just not very interesting. I continue to read Land, which is very interesting. I have had to pause it briefly because it's sucking me in and I can't be doing late nights at this end of term. 

I've spent much of this weekend baking for the school bake sale tomorrow, something I haven't done in a very long time. I made this spiced squash and apple loaf from Riverford Farm; ginger butternut cupcakes from my Dan Lepard cookbook (it must be getting on for 10 years since I made these, ever since Sainers stopped selling pre-chopped glace ginger, I hate chopping the ginger); and snickerdoodle cupcakes with a caramel buttercream. I used the tinned condensed milk caramel for the buttercream and it is awesome, though very sweet. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy baking time: another thing that can come back now the Masters is finished. 

2026 Week 41

A really quite unpleasant week at work for reasons I won't go into. Many things that could be written in my journal of reasons why I will be resigning, but I am starting to believe that I won't need it and I will manage to resign without the support of my previous words; in fact, the difficult bit will be working out the year. 

Happily, I was able to leave at breaktime on Friday and travel to London for an exam board thing, which was a bit amorphous but did involve some merch, including little branded cupcakes, and a catch up with current and previous bosses. Afterwards, we all went to a nearby pub for some drinks with the guys I see every year at the May conference I go to, and usually only then - what a treat to get an extra evening with them. There was a gradual peeling away until it was just two of us but we managed to make the evening last until 10.30. I didn't even really notice I hadn't eaten dinner until I was in bed later. 

It made me reflect a bit about how hard it can be to make friends as an adult and how it's even harder to make friends with members of the opposite sex, due to the obvious. I also met up with this one - R - in July for drinks but it feels hard to suggest meeting just the two of us. How do you do that without potentially sounding like you're asking them on a date? Or does it just not sound like that: is that not what is assumed? I will continue my experiments in this area. We're probably going to the theatre together in December; I finally felt able to ask after five rounds of drinks. Absurd. 

Saturday was a lovely sunny London day; I took myself to the Last Princesses of the Punjab exhibition at Kensington Palace, to a conference at the British Library, then on a long walk to Trafalgar Square via an ice cream shop recommended on Ruby Tandoh's central London ice cream map (I recommend this). Mango and Milo in a black cone. Lush. 

I had a quick wander around the National Gallery which closed much earlier than expected, then tried to catch a bus back to my hotel in Kensington. It drove straight past me but I remembered that, the previous night, I'd been stuck on said bus in traffic not much further on, so I walked its route and overtook it, catching it at Green Park, where a woman was sitting in the actual bus stop on her suitcase (why, just why). I got a very early night after some Sticks n Sushi and some sweet treats from Whole Foods and with the new book I've started, Land by Maggie O'Farrell (superb). I had a very restful night. 

This morning, I went over to Liberty and managed to get their last Bayeux Tapestry scarf. Then home. I am about to go to bed because I am not sure I will be able to hold out and not check my school email, but I want it to be a properly work-free weekend because that is on my early autumn list. It has been restorative and very much needed. Now only two weeks until half term and this week will be much easier because there are exams happening which halves my lesson count. And I have two nice dinners planned and a sauna booked. I can do this. I will prevail. 

As for the rest of the week - a bit of shawl knitting. I have been enjoying Celebrity Traitors and watched Trust Me on Netflix, about Mormon polygamist paedophiles. I had my nails done in a glorious shade of almost-sparkly navy that I can't stop looking at. Not much else to say. 

Summer Holiday Goals

Slowly getting round to posting all the things I've wanted to post. It's been nearly four weeks since dissertation hand in so I am feeling more like myself again. 

Oh look, almost all the failures were chores! I think I can cope with that. 

I think the dissertation was 17,000 words before I went back to work - not too shabby. I didn't quite manage sauna every week but I did do enough sauna visits to count as one a week, just about, so tick to that - and a number of different saunas, too. Plus the hot yogas: I managed to make a very sweaty summer deliberately sweaty. 

There were many swims. I thought 10 would be a challenge and was fully prepare to visit both my local pools if needed but it turned out to be quite easy and it made me go and swim in at least two places I might not have done otherwise. When I landed in Krakow seven hours earlier than Zoe, and then had to queue through passport control for over two hours, throwing myself in a body of water was basically the only thing I wanted to do with the time so I took public transport and then a walk and then had to figure out how to swim with my phone because I was too nervous to leave it on the beach (waterproof pouch ftw). It felt like half of Krakow was down there: what a treat to be a little like a local. 

I stopped counting the places I bought ice cream from because they were so numerous (best flavour: cherry poppyseed in Bratislava) and, although I listed cocktails there, there were also considerably more than five of those (best new cocktail: plum sour in Budapest). There were plenty of novels. I read The Names almost in one day on my journey to Krakow: it was a good distraction in the passport queue. I didn't really rate Yesteryear and James was OK (probably would be better if I'd read Huckleberry Finn before) but I loved the others. 

At home, I finished Euphoria - a fitting end; and we defrosted the freezer early in the holiday so I got it out of the way before the heavy dissertation work kicked in. I went to one Tuesday crafting and haven't been able to go since, but I'm hoping to be a more regular visitor. 

Workfree days? There were a couple. One of the exam board guys finished an email to me saying he hoped the board wouldn't be 'chasing me down the runway with scripts' which they sort of did, a record 44 came through to mark after I'd left the country, but then they did finally stop and I did have a couple of days of holiday when I didn't do any dissertation work, though they were days with excursions or travelling involved. But it was always going to be a stretch and it got me out of some house chores and it was only one summer. Next summer will be much different.