Weekend update

Friday night - reunion with the girls from school at Puja's place. Fruli, yum yum, Curacao, yum yum, cherry brandy, yum yum, Black label, oh dear. A night of fun and poker, won the first round (whoop whoop) then battled HW till almost 5 in the morning, ultimately losing. Four hours of sleep wasn't good, but the night was worth it.

Sat night - having slept through the day once I got home, went to a wedding reception. Nice and fancy schmancy. Crucially, the news broke that my cousin Dhushi has got engaged to her Muslim boyfriend. Only slightly controversial in the traditional sense - more alarming that now there is only one female cousin before it is officially my turn to tie the knot. Crumbs.

Sunday - went to the gym. Got screwed over by new parking restrictions and so landed myself a ticket. My "unnecessary costs of driving" now exceed £1000 i.e. a whole grand, a whole month's salary essentially wasted due to my poor driving. Don't even get me started on car insurance aka tax on the honest driver.

Aaaaanyway....had a nice piano lesson, then went to play Scrabble with Mouche, CK and Gid. Mouche is alive and well, and we bonded, very nice. Gid won the Scrabble, but that was ok as he had no sleep last night and is busy seeing two different boys on the trot. CK was all good, but then he got a phone call with some bad news about his grandfather. Am still a little shocked on his behalf, but hope he's ok. Had four pints of Guinness and haven't planned any lessons...the cumulative hangover is growing.

Busy day tomorrow, but, crucially, am seeing the doctor to think of ways to fix my head. Sure you'll love to hear the suggestions, so stay tuned.

Shout out to Yeen, by the way, looong blog no see. Nice to have you back.

Thursday

I think today was a bit of turning point. I do have some ranting to do, but I guess it's not strictly ranting since I'm not complaining, more simply stating the facts.

Can't remember if I already said, but my brand new birthday present car turned three years old a coupla weeks ago, and so had to be MOT-ed. And, predictably, it failed. The most annoying reason is that there is no alloy wheel locking kit in the car since the sodding thieves nicked that as well. This means that all the wheel nuts have to replaced, pricey. I think this pushes the grand cost of putting my car in the care of another maths teacher to over £600. Needless to say I won't be doing that again. Apparently the front right tyre also had a deep cut in it, there was some kinda leaky gasket, and something else wrong with it too. Excellent.

I had a double observation (two people in observing) with my Y8s before lunch today. We went to the computer room, and it was mostly going fine, except little D was being a bit of psycho. I knew he was in a hyper mood even as he stepped into the room, but I think the excitement of computers + a room change + having visitors was just too much for him to cope with, and so his behaviour went right out the window. I finally had to kick him out the lesson when he started jumping from the chair onto the desk. Made the mistake of letting him back into the room, where he proceeded to wind up the pupils next to him, then run around the room, then sit at my desk and start writing over the flipchart that I had prepared and was currently being projected to the class. I took him to the LSU straight after the lesson to get them to talk to him and try and figure out what went wrong. A turning point for me really, since whereas before this type of thing would have made me pretty stressed and wired, today I didn't really care. Sure it wasn't a good observation, but what can I do really? Either I am feeling apathy, or I am actually so stressed I don't notice stress any more (this could be true - last night I woke up in a panic at 4am convinced it was time to go to school and so desperately thinking of excuses to get out of it - good stuff).

Anyway, on a good note, my interview at MyBnk went really well. The lady in charge there was really inspiring and we got on really well. The project seems to have a lot of independence for the intern, and it's something that I believe in and think I could actually make a valuable contribution to, so fingers crossed on that front. Also, went and had a drink with the Mulberry TFTs after my interview - they'd had their final assessment today and it all went super for them, so am very pleased. I'm doing my Second School placement at Mulberry in two weeks time, which should be really interesting (all girls, predominantly Muslim, state school with a VIth form - very different to us!)

On a final note, am very much looking forward to the weekend, and as such, I will leave you with this delightful rant from Puja:

Hi girls,

i thought i would email you both and have a rant because the computer system at work has been f**king up since Monday and i have not been able to do any work and it is tres tres annoying. and outlook keeps messing up so i have clients calling up wondering why all of their emails are bouncing back and not coming through. i may scream. but i wont.

also the person i sit next to is somewhat annoying. he constantly (and i mean alllllll the f**king time) slurps/chews/bites away at his nails and hands and its pretty disgusting to be honest. and extremely distracting. but i dont know how nicely to tell him to shut the f**k up.

anyhoo rant over (and i mite add that the slurping is continuing while i write this email) and excitement about Fri!! its going to be lots of fun me thinks. dinner wise - do u want to eat at mine? i though that we could just order a pizza in which would save us having to move and go out and get food. what do u think?

Hwc is stressing about work a lot so we will have to try and cheer her up! she is def coming but will not be at mine till later - prob about 9ish. but she did say that she will prob stay over so we have the whole nite to play 304 and drink! whoohoo!

righty ho - im going to go and have a wander around the office to get away from the disgustingness that is the person sat next to me.

See u 2mrw dudettes!

Love Puja xx

PS - slurp slurp (one of the ppl i work with described it as 're-juicing'. isnt that the most grossest word ever? i think it mite even be worse than 'moist').

Drinking and Walking

I wanna have a nap but feel the need to update the old bloggy first.

I've spent all day with Y7 kids on the Bridges to Africa walk. 10km, 10 bridges, 1000 kids, and pouring rain. You know I loved it though, actually loads of fun, and our kids were so well behaved and good and didn't moan about being tired or bored or cold or anything like that. Even if they did start thinking about moaning, all we had to say was "think of the children in Africa" and they got on with it. Plus I caught up with lots of other TFers, many of whom I haven't seen in ages, so that was wicked too. A lovely day for a worthy cause :)

In other news, here is what I have drunk this weekend, in chronological order (I love the word chronological, it's ace!):

1. A third of a bottle of cabernet shiraz
2. A pear Kopperberg
3. A vodka lemon and lime
4. A jagerbuller (or Jaegerbomber as Puja thinks it's called, but really she is wrong)
5. A double SoCo and lemonade (I think...?)
6. Two generous measures of Chivas Regal on the rocks (my father is so proud of his daughter's ability to drink neat whisky)
7. A gin and lemonade (we had no tonic)
8. A nice glass of Hennessy
9. A chilled Bailey's with ice


I think there was more in there, but really, how proud are you about the variety and diversity etc. of my drinking? I think I might have had all my units in about 24 hours, but that is a huge improvement from uni times. And sure I have been quite shockingly hungover for two days now, but it was worth it!

Girls, Friday night was ace, we must do it again soon, and not just so that we can complain about good for nothing boys. And Bertie, you musta loved my rambling, and don't worry, you must be good for something, I just don't know what yet.

Right, I still haven't written my Y7 reports properly or my applications for TF summer projects. Onwards and upwards (by that I mean, to my bed!)

Timekeeping

I told myself that I had to get all my work done by 9pm. Lo and behold, I did. Clearly when it comes to setting myself mini-deadlines, I can stick to them. Why is that the case? Well, because this is the very last opportunity I have to plan my full day of lessons tomorrow, so procrastination was down to a minimum and my time was well used.

More generally though, why can't I use my time well all the time...or, more leadingly, why am I often late? The answer can be found in this article in yesterday's Sunday Times. I was surprised at how many psychological traits I share with the chronically late (anxiety, being messy and easily distracted, perfectionist habits, low levels of self-control or a penchant for thrill-seeking...I have all of those to a degree, with thrill-seeking and perfectionism right up there). So that's my excuse then, I was meant to be late.

This is seemingly at odds with being a Virgo, and true, I'm not late all the time - mostly when it involves going somewhere different from my routine. I'd say the best explanation from the list is that I underestimate how long it takes to do something, or even just how short a minute is. This is clearly evidenced in my early lesson plans, where I'd plan impossible amounts of material for a lesson and then feel like I'd failed when we couldn't cover it all. I know that I'd patently be one of those people still reading two minutes later in the test where you're supposed to stop reading after 60 secs. This is actually quite hard though - I did something similar with my Y11s where they had to shut their eyes and put their hands up when they thought a minute was done - the range of time during which hands were put up was hilarious, with one boy putting up his hand after about 20 seconds and another girl waiting for almost 2 minutes!

In other news, it was a training day today so fun and games. All about the new building and our move into it. Cue lots of drama about equipment and classrooms and planning and who gets what etc. Fun.

And finally, it turns out that OFSTED are only coming to see me, not everyone, thus I am the only one who has to prepare all the paperwork. Further, I figure it's quite a big deal. My professional mentor, who consistently ignored my emails last term, failed to pass on details of observations, didn't hold our IRB meeting or tell us our IRB gradings, hasn't got us an SSE, and barely checked in at all, came right up to me first thing this morning to talk about the visit. My subject mentor did the same thing, so it must be important.

Sometime this week I will make a little OFSTED list of things to bring up, that way I won't forget.

Oh and finally, yes, I know, he's totally instantly fit, and has a magnetic personality too. Sadly he is of the others. Boo. Puja, use the comments! I love getting comments, it makes me feel like I'm not rambling away to myself. Even though I mostly am. Right, bed time, it's a school night!

PS Crumbs, I accidentally posted this to the OUWAFC blog, whoops! Sorry MT!

Bierodrome, Instantly Fit People, Finals

Went to the temple yesterday, good stuff. Decided this made me well enough to resume battle so completed Bierodrome Take II last night. Bon. Lots of nice Belgian beer. Music a bit loud and the ladies' lavatories smelt of dried fish, but the barmen were fit. Allegedly.

Puja wimped out early in the game, perhaps in sympathy for the temporarily absent Sparrow. Luckily Jade was able to soldier on and so we completed five glorious toasts.

1. To the beautiful weather and may it last evermore (Puja, Lindemans Cassis, nice toast nice drink).
2. To a happy Tamil New Year for everyone (Me, Lindemans Framboise. Not convinced this was raspberry, tasted more like cherry).
3. To health, wealth and happiness (Jade, Chimay Rouge. A traditional Chinese greeting for a strong Trappist Ale).
4. To fit people (Me, Lindemans Cassis again. Yes, the standard of toast dropped here).
5. To true love and may we find it this year (Jade, two glasses of beer, one passion fruit, one apple. What a soppy toast, bless!)

Realised just now that we missed out Delirium, some beer that Braden was raving about in Montreal. Also didn't drink any Kwak, the good stuff in the sciencey-type glasses. Would def go again then, if only to finish off the menu (we have a looong way to go!)

At some point we discussed the concept of instantly fit people, and decided we didn't really know that many. Our contenders:

They will remain unnamed for legal purposes, and they're not the best photos, but I'd like to point out that clearly my contender, "blue tie", is fitter than the other two. Right girls?

And finally, you wanted to see photos of finishing finals. Well, I sadly can't locate mine, but here are some others:

Thursday and Friday

I am experimenting with orange. I quite like it, although I think it'd be more ace against black.

Following Spurs' defeat on Weds, I taught a whole day on Thursday. Pretty exciting stuff in the afternoon. I was in with Y9 and the Head of Department comes up and asks me to go and get a member of SLT to remove a kid from his class. Given that usually we call our HoD to haul kids outta our class, I wondered who it was that he needed help removing. I duly summoned an SLT member and they got "RP" out the class. However instead of dealing with her themselves, they gave her to me to take back to the lesson I was in. Why? Because they were all busy sorting out a fight between Y8 and Y11 that had happened at lunchtime. Anyway, she obviously caused a fair bit of chaos there (telling the kid next to her to "f*ck off" and calling me a "bitch") before we had to kick her out too (handing her back to SLT in the PE block). The next day, I asked SLT why RP was in school anyway when she clearly wasn't suited to our school life. They said they couldn't kick her out until they'd done everything they could. How is that fair for all the other kids that have to put up with her?

Thursday night went to TF Diners' Club in Waterloo. This one was for entrepreneurs' so had lots of nice chatter with people who owned their own businesses and people who wanted to set up things etc. Wasn't quite as impressed or inspired as I usually am when watching Dragons' Den but one guy in particular (salesforce.com) really sold himself and his business and managed to fight his corner very well (yes, I had indeed had a few drinks and was feeling wonderfully argumentative!)

Hangover on Friday. What a shocking week for being knackered and drinking. Finally I remember why I decided way back in September that it would be smart to go to bed early and not drink on a school night. Obviously, then, Friday is also the day that the maths department is declared unsafe for use and so all our classes are in chaos. Y11 lesson 1 were actually pretty good - breakthrough on the percentages front, whoop! At lunchtime I catch kids climbing up the scaffolding. They run away so I spend a jolly time chasing and admonishing them. Y7 after lunch were meant to have a lesson on angles. Had planned a group work lesson with protractors. Foolishly let them chose their own groups and have to improvise without the interactive whiteboard. Some work hard, others cause hassle. Finally I crack and hurl detentions left, right and centre. Tiring lesson indeed, but mainly because the scaffolding kids stressed me out at lunchtime and I was still wired for Y7. I need to learn to detach.

After that I have to cover 7E during tutor period. I like all the year 7 forms, but 7E are always a hassle. Managed to struggle through a 20 minute discussion on the "pros and cons of teaching" (yep, I often use the kids to sort out my own dilemmas) while various kids fell off chairs, shouted at each other, shook their fizzy drinks cans and sulked in corners. Good stuff. Anyway, I told them they couldn't go home until the pros list was longer than the cons, and then they started focussing, but still, didn't need the hassle.

Finally then, after school "SC" in Y9 is effing and blinding by the office demanding her mobile back. She refuses to leave the premises for about an hour before the police are called and come to escort her off. She still won't leave so they put her in the van and take her to the station. I wonder if she'll get excluded for that? By that point of the day, I wanted nothing more than to just run away, but instead played a solid game of indoor 5-aside and then felt like a million dollars. It's all about the sport.

Glad it's the weekend. Bumped into Dan F from primary school today - am now even more convinced that your mates at 11 will still be some of the greatest people you know. Am now inspired once again, but will focus on not thinking about kids for the rest of the day. One week to half-term :)

Puj, Fruli-frenzy had to be cut short cos they ran out of Fruli! We switched to merlot though, bon. Looking forward to hearing about India!

Wise horoscopes

Firstly a big shout-out to Puja - well done! See, now I feel loved :) And contrary to popular belief, Puja is real. As is Mouche. And my cat. One day you will all be able to meet each other and certify your mutual existence. This day will probably be my wedding, so there'll be cake and saris involved (an unexpected bonus for you all!).

So, what's new today? Well, I think my Metro horoscope says it all:

‘I can see clearly now, the rain has gone,’ sang Jimmy Cliff (amongst others) and that’s your theme for the moment. Scales have fallen from your eyes. Illuminating insights about a person or situation flood in. Like what you see?

Indeed the rain does seem to have gone. And by that I mean, even when the little monsters try and destroy my soul, I can leave it behind me and move on. Let me quickly touch wood now [touches wood] because I don't wanna go back to what it was like last term. But really, I'm reaching a turning point. I'm starting to care about what I teach, and think about interesting and fun and engaging ways to teach it. I'm starting to do all that stuff we were always meant to be doing (differentiating resources, providing EAL support, modelling positive values, taking an interest in my professional development). Despite having an awful awful Y8 lesson (that little monster D is going on maths department report from tomorrow, he is sabotaging that class's learning) I still feel like today that I could be a teacher in the long-run. Yes, I know this contradicts the whole medicine plan, but it's nice to know that sometimes maybe I have found something that's right for me.

In other news, I'm very pleased it's the year of the pig. What a noble creature. Some useful excerpts:"People born in the Year of the Pig are chivalrous and gallant. Whatever they do, they do with all their strength. For Boar Year people, there is no left or right and there is no retreat. They have tremendous fortitude and great honesty. They don't make many friends but they make them for life, and anyone having a Boar Year friend is fortunate for they are extremely loyal. They don't talk much but have a great thirst for knowledge. They study a great deal and are generally well informed. Boar people are quick tempered, yet they hate arguments and quarreling. They are kind to their loved ones. No matter how bad problems seem to be, Boar people try to work them out, honestly if sometimes impulsively. They are most compatible with Rabbits and Sheep." (not sure what the school would say if I got "compatible" with a sheep...)

Sound like me? I feel kinda like I should be an elephant, but pig suits me fine :) Check your Chinese horoscope out here (this site's description of "pig" people is almost me to the tee. Ooh rhyming!

Intimacy

This is the title of the book I'm reading now. It's written by Hanif Kureishi, which sounds like something you could order off a menu:

Waiter: Are you ready to order, Madam?
Customer: Why yes, I am. May I have kohlapuri chicken with peshwari naan, some aloo gobi and some raita? Oh and some hanif kureishi too please.

I guess you could do that with any ethnic sounding name, but Kureishi just sounds so tasty. I'm only a few pages into it, but it's already quite deep stuff. The best lines so far are: "because words are actions and they make things happen. Once they are out you cannot put them back". Very true.

I also like this book because the font is nice and it is well spaced. Yes, I am getting old. Sadly though, there hasn't been any mention of fruit yet, which was a definite strong point of Oranges. By the way Mouche, this book is even more about you than you realise...quite the shocker in fact. I take it you have read it? And no, hurting veins isn't a good thing. I might add some orange Sainsbury's carrier bags to the pile of stuff (henceforth known as PoS) because they are so pretty.

I should be lesson planning, but I think this term I am going to take a more "relaxed" approach to lessons. Blagging is very common in the teaching profession so I think it's time I gave it a go. Besides, blagging is only one letter away from blogging, and I can do that pretty well :)

Puja, I will not be writing in sky blue again until you publicly declare your love for the colour on my blog. Also, I put the chicken stuff in the fridge after you guys dropped me off, but when I woke up on Sunday, it had already gone! I told you food moves quick in my house!