Blue Monday

Who could fail to love the Adriatic? Surely this must be the most calming picture I have yet posted for Blue Monday.

I was trying to be all arty with this shot, thinking I would have it enlarged and hang it on my wall. Maybe one day I actually will.

It's the end of November, and by the way, not that I like to toot my own horn*, but I have managed 45 posts in spite of it being such a busy time. Go me! Only 25 posts left for the year, then. Eminently doable.

* A lie. I love showing off.

Random Panorama

I have put a couple more inches on the Telluride but I am tired of photographing it in poor light so I am not going to do a weekend WIP post about it today.

Instead, I thought I would share this marvellous panorama that I took from the roof of one of the publishers I'm working with, back at the end of September. The offices are at Blackfriars so there is an awesome view of the river in both directions.

You can see Tower Bridge to the left and the London Eye to the right; although it is not distinct in this picture, the House of Parliament are also here but appear behind the London Eye, even though they're on the opposite side of the river. I always forget that the Thames undulates so much.

Bonus selfie, too. It was a good day, although it was another one of those meetings that really probably could have been an email.

Weeknote 28/11

This week I have been mostly...

Knitting:
The wondrous Telluride. I'm in love. Can't wait for it to be finished, although I keep looking longingly at the Schachenmayr I bought in the summer and coveting a glowing hat. Maybe tomorrow, if I can squeeze an hour out of my day for knitting.

Going to:
Bath Christmas markets. I bought a Christmas pudding, drank too much mulled wine and managed to leave my handbag in the restaurant. Good times. (I did remember before we'd got too far away, luckily).
Coffee with Tutt on Friday night. She is working even harder than me. We're both reaching the end of the tether.
I went to Tart today with my friend Sian for lunch and a catch up. Tart is pretty quiet these days; I fear it's had its day, though I think it is still as fabulous as it always was. I had pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. It was a win.
I also managed to get back to yoga today, though only for the hour's rejuvenating class. Still, better than nothing.

Eating:
Whatever I can cobble together out of the fridge. If it were left up to me I'd be eating overnight oats three meals a day at the moment with some avocado on toast thrown in (and I was eating it before Nigella put it on TV before you say anything). Luckily Mr Z likes to cook and is kind enough to do my lunch jars.

Learning:
I've done some work on enquiry this week, to present at the inset day we had yesterday. I presented with a local primary colleague I met on Twitter, who I love working with: she is very steady and sensible. Our workshop went down a treat and I got a bottle of Cava to say thank you: just what I needed considering I was feeling really very tired after all of Thursday night's drinking.

I have stashed it under the stairs.

I've also been reading and learning about the structure of DNA. It's in the book. For over a decade I have parroted that the structure of DNA was a vitally important medical discovery without really understanding why it was important; I think I finally get it now, though.

Obsessed with:
Not much, really. This week has flown by, thanks to there being only three teaching days in it. I'm trying to read here and there for the book but it's difficult to find a bit of brain energy at the end of the working day.

I am a bit obsessed with why my blog is telling me I only have 1 post tagged "Tuesday Ten", though. I have well over 100. I don't understand. But I'm not obsessed enough to investigate further.

Entertained by:
The Help. I have seen it before but it is an excellent film. I really must read the book.

Feeling:
Determined. The end is in sight. My deadline is in three weeks; then I can set about fixing the mess that three months of semi-neglect has created in my classroom.

Fave Friday

I'm currently trying to put into words why the discovery of the structure of DNA was such an important medical discovery, so time is short.

But here is something that is a brand new fave: I discovered today that Amazon now do same day delivery, and it's free as a Prime customer. Ordered a book at 10am and it just arrived. Evening delivery so I don't have to get it sent to work, I just have to be home by 6pm.

Awesome. How long til we get the delivery drones?

Throwback Thursday

I'm just back from a lovely evening in Bath. For the second year in the row I spent tonight wandering the Christmas market on opening night (never particularly busy, if you're wondering), drinking mulled wine and then having dinner with friends. Tomorrow is inset day, so no work needs to be done (although I am leading one of the sessions so I should really go to bed shortly).

Last year we combined the wander and dinner with a wine tasting party for a friend's leaving do.

Even more fun than tonight. Tom had to present to the whole staff on assessment the next day, but I didn't really have to do anything but listen, so that made it marginally better.

Hopefully this will become an annual event. It is very kind of school to time the inset day so cleverly.

Today I wish I was...

SKIING.

This is the view from our local Tahoe beach this summer. Look at the slopes! I got very excited. Mr Z muttered about it all looking very steep but you can see there are plenty of gentle trail runs there. I have been doing ski trip stuff this week which made me think of it. Based on where we were on the lake, I surmise that this is part of Heavenly. Here's a picture I found on Flickr of the view the other way.

This photo was taken by Rob and remains his copyright, naturally. I hope Rob was on skis when he took this picture, otherwise it would be a tragedy.

I know it's really a good thing that last year's ski buddies didn't sort out a New Year's holiday this year because I'm knackered and really need to stay at home and rest and knit and stuff, but I am a little sad that I have to wait until Easter to ski. And a little sad that the ski company changed our resort from Spain to Austria. But at least it's still skiing!

Tuesday Ten

Carole invites me to consider...

Ten things for which I am thankful

1. That cold didn't turn into an 8 week monster (so far, anyway....it is nearly gone. I am almost back up to full bellow)

2. I have a warm, comfy house to go home to every night with a warm, comfy husband who makes my lunch every day.

3. I have more work offers than I know what to do with. Sometimes hard to be thankful for this one but I do realise I am very fortunate.

4. The book is ALMOST FINISHED (in spite of number 3).

5. I have good relations with my family members.

6. I have a spare bedroom crammed with gorgeous, gorgeous yarn and sometimes even enough time to pursue the hooby.

7. There is only one more teaching day left this week.

8. I've learned the value of saying little.

9. I'm going on three foreign visits with the school next year.

10. I have a £10 Boden voucher burning a hole in my pocket and it's pay day tomorrow! Woohoo!