Coming up for air

Today, I have had a day off. I have watched all three episodes of the spooky Remember Me that I recorded last November and haven't yet had time to watch, plus a film. I spent 4 hours chattering in a cafe with an old PGCE student who's moving to Dubai. I visited the supermarket in person, instead of quickly doing an online order of all things I have previously ordered because I'm too busy to browse for new food. And I have knitted. A LOT.

I know this is over-exaggerating, because I am very good at not working on Saturdays and I did have Wonderwool weekend not so long ago, but today feels like the first day I have had actually not working or with a deadline hanging over me since January. It has been an epic few months. I had a deadline for a piece of writing today; last weekend I was working on assignments for the exam board course; the weekend before I was presenting at a history conference; the weekend before was all Y13 and Y11 coursework marking; the weekend before was Wonderwool and worrying about all the work I had to do and when I was going to do it and coming home and working all Sunday evening; I can't remember the weekend before that but I do know that I was too busy to adequately prepare the ski trip video. The weekend before that I was in London for a course, and the two weekends before that was skiing. And you might remember March.

And the revision! Oh, the revision. Three after-school sessions a week. A parents' workshop. I'm going in next Sunday for the last gasp with Y11. And also Ofsted came back for an unannounced follow up to their January visit. They didn't see me, but it just added to the melee that was term 5.

So, today has been a bit weird, really. I've been drumming my fingers and fidgeting and constantly wanting to get up and come upstairs to do work. I have work to do, but thankfully none of it is particularly arduous or pressing. Tutt keeps reminding me that I like hard work; she is right. But, damn. This is starting to get silly.

On the plus side, I did get to meet Lucy Worsley whilst at the history conference. Lucy Worsley! I was star struck. I was chattering to a co-presenter when she walked past and we went and hung around until one of us (him) managed to pluck up the courage to ask for selfies. Her lecture was very funny: showed us a picture of her trying on the crown jewels and told us a good secret about how they figured out the anniversary of Hampton Court is 2015. I'm taking it to the grave Lucy, I swear.

More blog posts to follow, of course, now that I am temporarily free of deadlines. I've got two weeks until marking starts so I am hoping to make the most of it. The publisher has already opportuned on my brief window of time between the end of marking and the summer holiday - a period of roughly two weeks. So, it's nice to be in demand and stuff, but, come on.

Life Update

I'm sure I could quite quickly find out, but I can't remember the last time I went more than a month without blogging. But, there it is - March is always busy and this one was even more so.

However, I don't like it when I miss out on blogging for a goodly amount of time because it's like there's a gap in my memory when I look back over the year (and obviously, this blog is mainly for me to remember what I've been doing), so here's what's been occurring -

1. Half term
I went to London. I had a meeting with the publisher about new projects, I went to see the wedding dress exhibition at the V&A (amazing), I booked a facial at Bliss which they had to cancel, I stayed at the Russell and ate at Yo Sushi three times in as many days, and I did the final two days of my exam board course. They were even more interesting than the first two, incredibly, and I ended up sitting opposite someone who works in the same town as me. Small world.
Upon returning to the west country I went for Chinese at Tutt's. At the end of half term I went and had lots of gin in Bath with both Louises. Good times. I wore heels and curled my hair and everything.

2. Early March
It felt quite breezy, early March. I didn't have much on. I had to go back to London for another publisher's meeting and from there, ventured into Essex to see Tutt. I said I would never do it but the lure of the beach was too strong, and anyway, the train ticket was expensed so it wasn't too much of a financial commitment. We planned our holiday to NZ next summer.
People offered me various additional jobs, writing and the like. Some difficult decisions have had to be made. The exam board recruited me for yet another training program. More trips to London are in my future.

3. Mid March
The ski company told me they were shortening our trip by a day. Much back-and-forthing ensued. It was exhausting, and felt impossible to deal with. I sort of buried my head in the sand. Tutt came to visit. Honestly, it's almost like she's not moved sometimes.

4. Late March
They rolled out the red carpet for me. First time for everything!

The crazy really ramped up. I travelled from Wiltshire to Manchester to Herts to London to Bristol in 5 days, which REALLY messed with my sense of time (like I'd missed a weekend) and then at the end of that week, I got on the bus to go skiing. Mental. I was presenting at student conferences in Manchester and London (as pictured above), which was fun as always, and attended a really excellent teaching conference in Herts, and on the Sunday I met Tutt and we went to Trailfinders to get hypothetical pricing for the big NZ trip. I went to dinner with my fellow presenters in our usual Cartwright Gardens tapas spot and found, to my horror, that my old halls of residence were now merely a dusty hole in the ground.
I also squeezed in a return visit to Bliss for that facial I'd tried to have in February, which they generously gave me at a 25% discount to make up for the inconvenience of previously cancelling. WINNER.

Then there's been skiing, but I've got some pictures so I'll share that another time.

And other than that, the only thing that has been taking up my time is Bikram Yoga. Long-time readers may be astonished to hear this, given my previous unequivocal stance on the matter, but, having learned to love yoga in a room of a regular temperature, I decided to power through and have found myself becoming just a little bit addicted to it. It makes me feel amazing (afterwards) and I notice improvements every time I go. I still can't do all the postures but I don't care too much. It's a huge time suck as the class is 90 minutes and takes place in central Bristol, so the entire endeavour requires three hours, including showering. My sleep quality is improved, though, and my skin feels much softer, and it has made me feel a bit calmer, especially during Mental March.

Phew. I'm glad that's over. I knew when I got the student conference dates last summer that it would be a total mission, so close to skiing, but I didn't expect it to be quite so relentless. I dread to think of the marking pile I've got waiting for me at school, which has been strenuously ignored for a good number of weeks now.

Spring is definitely here now, at least, and I feel re-energised. The tortoise is out of the loft, sun spotting in the garden. I've has several days of sitting around and Zoe came to visit yesterday for a catch up. I almost feel ready to go back to work (but don't tell anybody).