Today

Today was a much better one than the last two which, in the interests of positivity I won't go on about. All I will say is that inset days are not what they used to be. Now the initial ones of the year are always about the behaviour policy and repeat training about child protection which is obviously important but could be done in half the time. The reason it was even more frustrating to sit there this year is because of the need to sort out the nursery! As you will see below, that need is quite great. Anyway, today has been the start of our home visits which I enjoy for themselves, and also as a mini adventure around Woolwich, finding its little hidden back streets and small wonders. 

The vast and featureless new nursery playground in the morning fog.

To the left, the building work continues.

One part of the pile of stuff we have to sort through. This is the stuff that we sent to storage two years ago.

The things that were brought over from our temporary classrooms. Just dumped! 

The Rowan tree covered in beautiful berries.

Now the start of the home visits...

We found a great and new place to park, with no restrictions and lots of interesting things to look at. This is a pile of wood chippings mysteriously under a tree, with lots of mushrooms growing out of the top. You have to look closely.

The view looking down the hill from the carpark. Yet another of Woolwich's many pieces of hidden wasteground which is great for wildlife. It is full of dumped furniture hiding in the long grass but does look good at a glance.

Some unskilled Millwall graffiti. Nice choice of paint colour though.

A cheery looking no parking sign. One of my favourites out of the ones I have photographed so far. It is supported by some sort of official police notices.

Near to here I had a lucky find of three wooden drawers from an old desk-the handles look 1930s but I don't know. Dovetail joints and a good size to make a stack of shelves.

Isn't this lily amazing? One flower but all those huge leaves.

A sunny playground with child art.

A slinky alley cat. This one reminded me of Cassie, except it is much thinner. She is getting a bit rounded and needs to go on a diet soon I think!

Back to school in the afternoon and I saw this builder scattering grass seed. Not sure if a hi-vis jacket and hard hat are strictly necessary for this kind of job!

Back home, and a crow is bothering the cats by sitting on top of the chimney and cawing. The end of a pretty good and productive day. More of the same tomorrow!

Mallorca

Just a few (!) photos from our long weekend. We went to the island of Mallorca, and stayed not far from Palma. It was lovely! We were lucky enough to be upgraded to a family room which was on the terrace just above the beach. The weather was perfect, the water was warm, Palma was beautiful and it was a lovely thing to do on the last weekend of the holiday as there was no time to fret about going back to work. I have chosen some of my many photos from around the place. Not much explanation needed really!

The view from our room.

 Steps to the Cathedral with these green man water fountains.

 A massive cruise ship that was pulling into Palma as we watched from near the cathedral. It just looks like a building has been placed dangerously on a boat.

 

 

 

 This was one of the few cats we saw. It sat on this light near a restaurant and was lit up. I wonder if the light was warm.

We had an interesting trip back, surrounded by this very posh family who had four children, two of whom were well behaved and two of whom were not. One of the not so well behaved children was a little boy of about three. He was very clearly and well spoken and was asking lots of clever questions such as why was the plane going backwards? ( We were reversing to go to the runway.) Instead of answering him his Mum basically told him to be quiet, so he kept repeating the question more and more loudly. Shortly after this she said to him ''Soon you will go to school, and your teachers will ask you to sit down and be quiet!'' Well you can imagine my thoughts at this point. I was extremely tempted to turn around and let her know that before I asked him to sit down and be quiet (!) I would praise him for asking such good questions! I didn't though! He was a very interesting child. They all had great names which I made a note of on my phone in case I ever want to write a short story about them! 

Work has not yet managed to spoil my holiday mood though it came close. The morning was related to planning but was a bit of a repeat of things we did last term so I could have been doing something more useful instead. The afternoon was spent trying to clear up the dirty heap of stuff that has been dumped moved into the new classrooms. I went for a pizza with my friend in Blackheath after work and that was nice. I am going to try to go in early tomorrow so I can get something useful done before yet more inset, involving things I have done before. 

Life Ring

I didn't name this a life ring. My friend came round for a cup of tea, and said that she liked my 'life ring' and I thought that was a good name for it. It says all it needs to around itself. It is needle felted onto polystyrene, a tip from Linda Sue, and it did take a very long time. The font is a circus font I found on pinterest. I love painting lettering, and I found that I also enjoy needle felting it!

 This didn't take a very long time. It is also on polystyrene, but a piece of packaging rather than a bought piece, and it was quick to do.

We just got back from an extra little holiday which was just lovely, but now I am about to go to bed, and in the morning it is back to school! Oh well, it had to happen eventually! I currently feel refreshed and well rested, which will last approximately one day I expect!