Weeknote, 11/11

Knitting:
I have got as far as putting the stitches for the back of the angora jumper onto a needle, but I've lost interest again; so today I cast on a new shawl to give to Mother Hand for Christmas.

Going to:
It's been a bit of an indoors week. I went to bikram twice, and I had a parents' evening one night. So, not much to report on this front.

Learning:
That I am not very good at catching a netball and it's best if I stay in defence - at staff vs sixth form netball on Friday.
About A-level politics - we're offering it as a new option next year so I attended an online training about it.

Obsessed with:
Wearing my new blue ombre stripe leggings at aforementioned netball.
The NARS Man Ray make up collection, since I saw a review pop up on YouTube. I hotfooted it out of parents' evening so I could buy some of it before House of Fraser shut on Thursday. It was an unnecessary purchase, particularly in light of the advent calendar, but so. pretty. Now must actually wear it.

Entertained by:
I caught up on Gunpowder this week, which was entertaining although not captivating. I read a review that said it was pro-Catholic because all the Catholics in it were gorgeous, while the Protestants weren't; I thought it was quite anti-Catholic, though, because there was no suggestion of them being set up.

Feeling:
Rested, after a fairly easy work week, a long night's sleep and a long nap today. Although slightly disconcerted by last night's dream, in which I was meant to be delivering two large presentations (one of which is a real thing I have to deliver in July) and hadn't planned either. Probably a sign I should spend part of tomorrow getting on with some non-work work.

Fave Friday

It is with find nostalgia that I remember the advent calendars of my youth. I am old enough to remember the ones that were just a picture behind a window. I was excited every day to find out what was going to be there. When I got one with glitter on it - even better!

At some point in my childhood chocolate advent calendars became A Thing. Now everybody thinks of advent calendars as made of chocolate and, more than any other Christmas tradition, the loss of this makes me really quite sad. There's surely enough chocolate around at Christmas without having to scoff a small piece every day leading up to it.

I mourn the loss of my tradition. But then some genius came up with the idea of the adult, luxury advent calendar, and I am on board with it - not really because it is a countdown to the festive fun, but because it is a treat every day. You might remember that a few years ago I splurged some of my marking money on a gin version; I've still got some of the miniatures, though, because I only got about halfway through before I started to worry what drinking gin every day was doing to my face (it made me very rosy).

This week, I found an extra payment from the exam board that I'd forgotten was coming, so I spent it on this.

The Clarins advent calendar. Not a great picture, but I am trying to avoid the website too much because there's a list and picture of the contents (??!!) and I want it to be a surprise. It wasn't eye-watering, like the one I lust over from Liberty most years, but this is a big step away from the picture only ones of my youth, even when they had glitter.

I'm looking forward to treating myself daily: something that I find very important in the dog days of term, when everything is so busy and sleep is in short supply. Also, I ordered it online and it came with seven free samples, a cosmetics purse, and some sort of loyalty points which mean that the next tube of cleanser I buy will cost me nothing. So basically, I saved money by buying this.

Throwback Thursday

I had a good rummage for a diary entry for tonight. It went on for far too long and now it is far too late, but thankfully tomorrow is Friday. I didn't find anything much of interest. 1994 is the best diary but I was deep in lurve with my first boyfriend at this point in 1994 and some of that stuff is so excruciating I can barely read it myself, let alone share it.

I did, however, find all my A-level Latin books lurking at the back of the drawer, and one of them turned up this gem of feedback, roughly 22 years ago.

I have taken a special photograph of the top section, just in case you can't see it, because it's gold.

Savage. 

Also, a perfect find on a day when I've had to have conversations with parents about lazy year 13s. I was that lazy year 13. It mostly worked out OK for me, especially in Latin. I can probably get away with worrying a bit less. 

I'm impressed to see that we were made to go back and redraft our work, and correct the errors. This is a 'new' fad we're loving in teaching at the moment. Not so new. 

Black and white

There's a challenge going round Facebook at the moment to post a daily black and white photograph. Although I enjoy things like this I am less impressed with Facebook as time passes and always a bit sad that I put things in there and then they're very hard to find again, unlike with this blog. So, I'm sharing my seven photographs here, and contrary to the tyranny of the chain challenge, I'm captioning.

1. The view from my desk. This was when I got to work last Tuesday morning. I can forget seeing daylight at either end of my work day until at least March, now. 

I like my desk spot. I thought everybody would covet the window seat and I would find I'd been moved somewhere else when school actually started. Turns out, it's a very cold place to sit (though the books provide good insulation) so nobody else wants it. Win. 

2. My to-do list pad, a gift from Tutt when she witnessed me writing one on the back of a receipt; my favourite coffee mug, all the way from my favourite coffee shop in Truckee, CA (undoubtedly going to be broken before the end of the year, but I am making myself use it anyway). 

3. My daily perfume choice. It's the Eau Vive version. I got captured by a salesman in Sephora who was trying to hard-sell Mr Z on some aftershave. I wandered off but he must have recognised I was the better bet so he followed me. That was in 2015. This is my third bottle. I've never used up a whole bottle of anything before...ever. I've still got the perfume my boyfriend bought me for Christmas 1995. 

4. Bristol Harbour from Pero Bridge. On Friday, school took place at the cathedral, so I walked across this way to get there. 

5. Park Street. I went up there for a course I wasn't booked on - best of wins, because I looked good but didn't have to give up my Saturday. 

There are lights up and it looks lovely, though you can't see them well. 

6. View from the back bedroom on Sunday. I love catching rain clouds when they look like this: disintegrating right in front of my eyes. 

7. Bed. Guess who forgot to take their picture on Monday. 

Travel Tuesday: the Austrian spa experience

No pictures for this one (and you'll understand why by the end).

On one day of our ski holiday in April, Zoe and I decided we would go to an Austrian spa for the day. Zoe found the most highly-recommended local one on Trip Advisor and it was just about doable by public transport, using a combination of the train and a bus, so off we went.

The one we picked was the Erlebnis-Therme Amade. It has a large complex of salt water pools of varying heats, a number of flumes and a separate sauna and wellness centre. We were also able to rent towels, so we didn't have to pinch the towels from the flat we were staying in.

There's a lot on the website about salt-enriched water and how good it is for you, but to begin with it just seemed like any other pool complex in the school holidays. There was a big pool that was mostly outdoors, with lots of jets and showery bits for lounging and chatting; a second big indoor pool with a wave machine, which we didn't try; several hot tubs of varying heats; a very plain pool for actual swimming which had springboards, and a climbing wall erected on one side (very cool and I definitely would have had a go, had there not been an enormous queue); and shedloads of seating for frazzled parents to relax in while their offspring screamed around the place.

We had a good swim and partook of most of the things on this side for about an hour, before deciding to go to the sauna and wellness centre, which made up the other half of the complex. This took some plucking up of courage, because - as the website made clear and as the receptionist stressed to us when we paid - this was a naked area. I wasn't too surprised or concerned about this because, yknow, it's Europe and they're not weird about bodies there. Also, Parpy Jo used to live in Germany and has told me before that they consider sauna-ing in swimwear to be wildly unhygienic.

Luckily we didn't have to strip off as soon as we walked through the doors, so we had a chance to look round. As you might imagine, this side was not crawling with children and was very calm. We found a hot tub, a cold plunge pool, 3 saunas of varying heats, a steam room and some showers inside. Outside was a garden with sun loungers, a sauna with a salt floor, a sauna with a view and some more showers. Best of all, there was a big pool that, like the other one, was half in and half outdoors, with lots of whirly jets and lounging space.

Deep breaths were taken and swimmers were removed. We sat in the empty first sauna for a while, watching the people sauntering around outside in the altogether. Eventually, Zoe said, 'Do you think they can see in?' and we realised that they probably could and we should stop staring.

We tried a few different places before finding a menu of sauna treatments and deciding to go for the Vitamin Bomb one in the sauna with the view. By the time we got in there, there were already about 50 people scattered around, lounging in the breeze from the open windows. Then a man in lederhosen turned up and the windows were quickly shut.

Naturally, not understanding German, I have no idea what he was chatting about, but there were lots of mmmms and nods from the crowd. Then he started ladelling water from a bucket onto the hot coals, which smelled strongly of lemon. Then - the best bit. He picked up a stick with a towel on the end of it and started wafting it around towards the ceiling, to whip down the hot, lemonny air on us, the crowd.

The Austrians approved. Lots of happy sighing. Lots of people putting their arms in the air and tipping their heads back, the better to appreciate it. I, meanwhile, nearly lost it. Avoiding eye contact with Zoe became paramount. Everyone was so earnest, but I found the whole thing so unusual that I could barely contain the giggles. Luckily, it only went on for about 10 minutes, then everyone came out and was served chunks of fruit from a tray by lederhosen man before going back in for the second round, featuring orangey air and wafting from three sizes of towel. I almost had to stop breathing.

Luckily I made it through without shaming all British people by guffawing hugely at the ritual. We made it out and jumped into the cold tub after a very brief shower; I did accidentally squeeze past an elderly man back to back at this point and then regretted it, but I was trying very hard to throw caution to the wind and live in the lemonny, naked moment. After this we went for a long swim around the outdoor pool until it was time for us to catch the bus back, which we did, sniggering to each other like children the whole way.

Shout out to the lady with the eye catching intimate piercing, and the very proud Austrian who was so very proud of himself for most of the afternoon. We found him a bit creepy, but everyone else seemed oblivious. As I'm sure they were, since this sort of thing is totally normal. They must find British people exasperating.

If you can cope with being naked in public, definitely do this. It was the perfect foil to skiing and you're never likely to see any of those people ever again. I slept like the dead that night and my skin was super smooth for days afterwards.

The Bikram Diaries: 10

It has been nearly a year since my last post, which was nearly a year since the one before. I haven't given up, though I have become something of a sporadic visitor. Recently, however, I've been a bit more regularly so I thought I should check in.

I'm now up to class 93. I was pondering in class tonight, what special thing might happen in class number 100, like I will be able to magically get my bum on the floor between my heels or something; then I realised that was very unyoga and I should be thinking about what I can do new in class 93, so I made a huge effort and managed to grab my left foot from the inside during standing bow. I think this might be the first time that has ever happened. I have read back through all my bikram posts and see I managed it once on the right, but that was when I was going more often and I was two years younger. Sigh. I can no longer get my head on my knee and the days of being able to grab both feet are far behind me. But I guess I will get there if I keep going back.

So, hurrah for foot grabbing. I must make an effort to get there twice a week. I managed to go twice while I was staying at Father Hand's. In the first class I went to, the instructor was English. It was surreal and made more so by the fact he was wearing a headset and kept wandering out of the room, but his voice never got any quieter. The second class, the instructor was the same one I had two years ago. He remembered my name, amazingly. He kept turning the fans on, but I was prepared.

There was a terrible moment after class when I chugged half a bottle of water I'd filled from the fountain, only for one of my classmates to say that she'd had to dump hers out because it was blue and tasted bad. They were working on the water pipes. I got into the shower and then had to get out again because I thought I was going to be sick. It passed; I showered; I turned off the water; I projectile vomited, without warning. Thank goodness I was still in the shower, except urgh. I had to do a good clean of the floor with their nice shower gel. But that could have been the rental car. I tipped the rest of my water away and noticed it was indeed faintly blue. I don't want to know what it might have been. I don't seem to have suffered any ill effects.

Exciting times, getting poisoned at the bikram studio.

I also managed to get Sibling to go by visiting his local studio with him, where my familiar Bristol instructor teaches on a Friday night. He enjoyed it more than he thought and he was quite good. He has even been back without me.

New target: get to 100 classes by the end of the year.

Blue Monday

I took this one on our San Cristobal day boat trip, of the coastline, with the guano that is so valuable (it also stops the dark rocks from getting so hot that the birds can't sit on them. Clever!)

I like this because it reminds me very much of Capri.