Weeknote, 9/10

Knitting:
As you see from my triumphant Monday post, I have knitted a chunky cowl. It has been less useful than I'd hoped this week, as we've seen an imprvoement in the weather, but I was still glad of it.

I believe I may have finished the sparkly hat, too. Although I wanted something slouchy, I don't think the yarn will lend itself to such a plan, and in any case the crown is very stretchy so the slouchy bit would be very pointy and night-cap like in comparison to the rest. So, it may be cast off this weekend.

And it's not knitting, but I finished my head piece for Parpy Jo's wedding, which is today. Pics to follow.

Going to:
Brown's, with Jen, for cocktails. This was a good night. We cut it short but stood in the street making rude comments about other people's outfits until Dru picked us up, for old time's sake.

A careers evening. I had an idea for one last year and told the administrators for the Federation about it and they loved it and POOF! It happened. No effort on my part, which was nice. It was very well-attended by our target pupil group and there were lots of very interesting employers there, plus a couple of useful contacts I might find to help me wedge some more tech into my classroom.

The sponsored walk. It finally took place on Friday, and my legs still feel like they've been had at with a crow bar. Nine miles of hilly off-roading. I was the first teacher out of the gates, other than the pace setters, and only the 4th back, so I didn't do badly, and I didn't really stop, except for water, which was good and an improvement on the last time I did the walk (admittedly, 2004). I didn't even cheat this time; I usually do, but the sixth form marshalls were well-armed with barbecues and tins of sweets this time which I found very motivational.

Eating:
I made a beef biryani this week, using stewing beef. Traditionally I mess up any kind of beef cookery unless it involves mine or a slow cooker, but I seem to be on a roll (she types, cautiously) and this recipe adapted from Delia Smith's forums was delicious, easy, and made dinner for two plus two lunches.

2 large onions
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 inch piece of ginger peeled and chopped
1 fresh green chilli, chopped
Large handful of fresh coriander
1 tbsp groundnut oil
3 tbsp veg oil
2 tbsp sultanas
500g braising/stewing steak cubed
1 tsp ground coriander
1tbsp g turmeric
1/2 tsp ground fenugreek
pinch of ground cinnamon
175ml natural yoghurt
275g basmati rice
1.2litres chicken stock or water

Roughly chop one onion, and put in food processor, add the garlic and ginger and chilli, fresh coriander and half the almonds, pour in the water and process until you have a smooth paste.

Finely slice the other onion into rings or half rings. Heat half the groundnut oil in a good large pan, and fry the onion for 10-15 mins until deep golden colour; remove from pan. Fry the sultanas until plump, remove from pan.

Heat the remaining ground nut oil with a further 1tbsp of veg oil, and brown the meat in batches until nice and brown on all sides. Remove from the pan.

Wipe the pan, then add the remaining oil and add the paste you made earlier, cook for 2-3 mins to cook out the flavours, stirring all the time. Stir in the additional spices season and cook for 1 min.

Lower the heat stir in the yoghurt, a little at a time. Return the meat to the pan, stir to coat in the paste and spice mix, cover with a tight fitting lid and simmer for 45 mins until the meat is tender. Meanwhile soak the rice in a bowl of cold water for 20 mins.

Preheat the oven to 160c. Drain the rice, place in a pan and add the hot chicken stock or boiled water with a touch of salt, bring back to the boil, cover and cook for 5 mins.

Drain the rice and pile it ontop of the meat mixture, in a casserole. Using the other end of a spoon, make a hole through the rice into the meat mixture. Put the reserved onions and sultanas on top of the rice, then cover the casserole dish with a double layer of tin foil and put the lid on top of that. Cook in the pre-heated oven for 30-40 mins.

Learning:
I'm certain I must have learned something this week, but tbh it passed so quickly I can't really remember what it might be.

Obsessed with:
What my phone can now do after its update to FroYo. I am impressed that I can now turn it any way up and the screen changes, as opposed to just one option each for portrait and landscape; it is altogether a lot smoother and easier to use. The battery drained right out on Tuesday, though; it seems the Facebook app has a bug in the code so I forced stop on at and it's been better ever since.

Entertained by:
I am naturally still loving all the dance shows that are back, along with My Family's Crazy Gap Yah.

Feeling:
Like I'm finally getting on top of things, but not looking forward to next week at all. On Tuesday, I take assembly, then I teach 6 lessons, one of which is an observation by my HoD and a bod from county, followed by teaching a 3 hour knitting workshop, followed by making a presentation to governors. It exhausts me just thinking about it.
At least half term is in sight!

Weekword + Fave Friday

This week's word, chosen by Christine at Silver Linings 4 Me, is Senses. She has written a very interesting post about butterflies that I urge you to go and read.

Well, there are five senses (officially) and I usually have five favourites on a Friday so this seems to fit quite nicely.

Favourite smell:
I love grapefruit, and lots of fruity scents as long as they're not too sweet; coconut as long as it hasn't been crossed with pineapple; light, grassy, green scents; fresh lilies; the city when it's been hot and has then rained; the countryside from my car window driving home late at night in summer; the mitten when she's wet; the nape of Mr Z's neck when he's still sleeping first thing; coriander. And probably a dozen others.

Favourite taste:
I mostly have a sweet tooth, but I like things that taste quite fresh, too. I am a fan of Mexican flavours: lime and coriander. And I don't like TOO sweet. Cake is good.

Favourite touch:
I am quite tactile and love smooth, silky things. I can often be found with hair wrapped round my fingers, smoothing it, when it's recently washed and very shiny (right hand side of hair is usually curlier due to this). I like silk and silk blends, alpaca and bamboo to knit with.

Favourite sight:
Difficult to say. I like driving home and seeing the houses round the corner and knowing I'm nearly there. I like looking at shoes.
But these aren't really favourites; a favourite would be something my eye always finds pleasing. In which case, the answer is blue. I love looking at blue things, especially large bodies of water. My iGoogle background is a picture of Lake Tahoe and I find it incredibly soothing. I knit with a lot of blue, too.

Favourite sound:
I like the sound of silence. I seem to have sensitive hearing (whilst at the same time being largely deaf when people are actually talking to me) and I like having it quiet. The TV is almost always too loud for me.
But for music, I would describe my taste as "depressingly mainstream". Last song I downloaded? The explicit version of Cee Lo Green's Forget You. It is very uplifting in an inappropriate way.

A lot of the kids I teach think I have a weird sixth sense, too, because I am always catching people doing what they shouldn't. However, this is a combination of sensitive hearing and being able to read people. If you're looking in your lap, it's probably a phone. If there's a noise and people are looking at a kid, it's probably him/her. If you're whispering about weekend plans in a quiet room, I can probably hear them. It's not rocket science.....but I quite like them thinking I am a little psychic, I think it makes my job a little easier ;)


Next week's Weekword is going to be listed at Mandyland. Join in!

Tuesday Ten

Ten things I regularly say to myself

1. You'll never manage to pull all the greys out. Leave them, it's fine.
2. There is no glory in winning an argument with a teenager.
3. If you eat that, skiing will be much tougher next year.
4. You can definitely have a long nap as soon as you get home if you get up for work now.
5. You promised yourself you'd be in bed by 10 tonight, remember?
6. Yes, but, will you REALLY do it at the weekend?
7. If you do x, y and z, you can probably put off going to Asda until next weekend (or, if it is the weekend, "I'll go in the week when it's quieter". Hasn't happened yet.)
8. You work hard for your money, you deserve the shoes.
9. Go to circuits, you know you'll feel much better afterwards.
10. Why don't you have a to-do list? Make a to-do list. Do it now. (This last usually followed by a period of intense interwebbing).

It's disturbing how many of those things are lies!

A quick tweet share. Having just tweeted something about a cunning plan, I shouldn't have been surprised (but was) that Capt Blackadder responded, via Twitter, to ask how cunning the plan was, exactly. I am loving the randomness.

Weekend FO

*Does victory lap around blog*

I finally finished something!! Which is secret code for, "You must suffer terrible late night camphone pics".



Pattern: My very own Speedy Snood (pattern details can be found in my Ravelry projects or in the blog post linked below)
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky, in 2 shades of blue. Used basically 2 whole skeins.
Needle: 12mm

I first knitted this for someone on the Lush forum as a dupe of something she'd found for crazy money on ebay and it has been cold this past week and I remembered it as being a snuggly, warm sort of thing and heaven knows I needed a quick knitting win, so I bought the yarn on Saturday and knocked it up last night.

Unfortunately my gauge is considerably different. It may be the 3 years of knitting experience, or it's possible that I knitted it on straights last time whereas this time I used a circ, but it's way smaller than I expected it to be. At first I was put off but I quite like it now I've been wearing it round the house a bit, and it matches my winter coat perfectly.



Bizarrely, I just measured my gauge and it looks to be the same....v odd.

Weeknote, 2/10

Knitting:
Sparkly hat. Yawn. I have done very little; but at knitting group I am going to buy some chunky Brown Sheep to make a cowl with. It is starting to be cowl weather, I think.

Going to:
I haven't been anywhere exciting this week! How dull. I have had a hellishly long and exhausting week, involving a long governors meeting, a deeply innapprioriate gesture from a student, an open evening and the cancellation of the sponsored walk, which was the one good thing about the whole week: no lessons on Friday. Unfortunately it was deemed too wet and letters went home on Thursday to say it was postponed until next week.
Since it hammered down all day on Friday I must grudgingly admit they were correct, but that still left me with four lessons to plan whilst also, somehow, participating in open evening. And when I managed to do this, management decided to ring the bell for the end of break 5 minutes early without any warning, so I had to grandstand with my year 9s for additional time. This led to me being fesity and rude to the head, for which I had to apologise.

It really wasn't a good week. Thank goodness Jen is here today and we are going out tonight.

Eating:
Nothing remotely interesting.

Learning:
I learned how to embed an exterior object into the school VLE. I have not yet learned how to make the quiz to go with it. That activity is being saved for next week. However, I was quite proud of the original embedding.

Obsessed with:
Getting the week over and done with.

Entertained by:
Trying to complete all the things on my monthly goals list. Not quite sure what happened to September.

Feeling:
Very tired this week. I have been snappy and unsympathetic. But that's now half way through the first term: more than, really, as only 3 weeks to go until half term. Thank goodness! Hoping for a better, more productive week next week.

Weekword

This week's weekword is TEN, chosen by Domestic Scribbles and inspired by her 10th wedding anniversary. There are lots of wedding pictures over on her blog this week if you want to go and peek!

For my part, I have been racking my brains for a week to think of an original way to do 10. I do 10 every week on a Tuesday so I didn't want to do a list.

I've tossed the word around in my head all week, and all it reminds me of is...show tunes! It made me think of the film Nine, the remake of which I saw last December with Mother Hand and Sib, and which I loved, especially Fergie -



(I feel guilty just picking Fergie out beause, truthfully, they were all wonderful).

It also made me think of the Bellgaio fountains. No matter how often I visit Vegas, I don't get bored watching. The most memorable show was during a Christmas visit in 2003 when they were playing show tunes. It was the song that goes, "One....da da da da dada...." yeah, I don't know the words. It's too bad, because this weekword has had me humming it all week but I cannot figure out what musical it is from!

So instead....the Bellagio fountains dancing to another Fosse classic.



This has been something of a miserable week, and it's cheered me up no end looking at these videos for this post. So, if you fancy ending the week on a high in a similar way, toddle on over to Silver Linings 4 Me on Monday and sign up for next week's weekword.

September Goals Round-up

Finish knitting something - I intend this to be the sparkly hat
No, but I am getting there.

Have a initial consultation with personal trainer lady
Better than that, I have now had three sessions with her! She is lots of fun. We do kettle bells, which are very good exercise.

Clear yarn mountain from between the arm chairs
I need to find somewhere to put it first, and the spare room is already starting to look a little like a jumble sale.

Cut back all dead plants ready for winter (this is one for the end of the month, really)
This isn't finished, but I did make a good start.

Consolidate the four boxes of stuff on the office shelves into three (or less) boxes
I managed to get four into two. Lots of sneezing occurred. I am trying to talk myself into getting rid of all my PGCE notes but it's a battle.

Pack up and post this secret swap gift I have been putting together for, oooh, a month.
It's wrapped and ready to go, but I don't have a suitable envelope for it yet. That's a task for this week.

Post Father Hand Viz and a birthday card
Done. He still hasn't emailed to say thanks though. How rude!

Clear out and consolidate worksheets/paper pertaining to at least four units of work, from my overstuffed and long-suffering filing cabinet.
I am getting there. I cleared out quite a lot of folders and got rid of mock exams going back 4 years from another drawer in there. The problem is, I don't really use my filing cabinet daily, so once stuff goes in there it is liable to stay for quite some time.

Complete my map of the pioneer trail, with online quizzes to accompany it for homeworks
I enjoyed doing this a lot and it has received positive feedback from people so far. I haven't done any actual quizzes, but there are a number of accompanying tasks.

Be in bed by 11pm on a school night, 80% of the time
It didn't start well, but as I got back into the swing of things, my bedtimes got earlier. I have found that I spend a lot more time at the computer now, and a lot less watching TV, so it is easier to slope off to bed any time I want because I'm not waiting for a program to finish.

Not as good as last month - but not bad!