Flashing the stash

Our moving date is looking likely to be about 2-4 weeks away. It struck us this weekend, how little time we might have to pack if things move quickly. So, we headed off to B&Q to get some packing tape, strong bags and bubble wrap. I decided to start by finding out and bagging up my yarn stash. Just out of interest I thought I'd get it all out at once and see how much I had. So here it is:

I have to say I was a little ashamed of myself for accumulating so much yarn, although I know it's not an extravagant stash (well, compared to other people's). I had almost started to feel like there wasn't that much, till I remembered the existence of this:

Well it's all bagged up now anyway, all 5 bags of it. I also stuffed another 15 bags full of various duvets, spare bedding, towels, winter clothes etc. It's worrying that that is only a small fraction of what is to come. Best not to think about it.

A little better...

Well, I don't want to speak too soon, but so far things this week have been going a bit better. Despite my lack of sleep on Sunday night, everything went well. The kids seem to have stopped hating me and wanting their normal teachers back. My voice is a little croaky. Hopefully things will continue to go well for the rest of the week and the term.

Sorry to say that once I started teaching I found it too hard to carry on trying to write my research proposal. I just couldn't concentrate. I think these things will just have to wait until the end of term. Oh well... one thing at a time.

Back to school

Well my lessons are planned, sandwiches made, bag packed, clothes ironed. I even managed to get to bed at 10.30 pm. Shame I didn't actually manage to sleep. I was so anxious about not being to tired this morning that I couldn't stop thinking about it long enough to actually relax and sleep. Oh well, I've felt worse on a school day. At least I'll be tired enough to sleep tonight.

Hooray!

I am literate, numerate and competant in ICT. :)

Time flies....

...when the school holidays are on and now it's nearly time to go back again. I knew I was tempting fate when in my late entry I wrote "I'll write some more about that tomorrow.". It's taken me over a week to get round to it.

I did get the wedding invitations done but many of them are still waiting for addresses (mainly G's side of things) and I have become distracted by other things. I wish I had bothered to take a picture of the 70-odd invitations sitting drying on the coffee table. It did look cool, but I was a bit sick of looking at them by then.

Last week was fun. I went to a mediocre gig (Minotors, Hush the Many and Fields) at the Cloony, but it was enjoyable. Also spent an afternoon knitting in Pinkphish's garden and another afternoon walking along the coast with her and Snaterkat and having afternoon tea in Tynemouth. On Friday evening Graeme and I headed to Edinburgh for a bit of kilt shopping. We didn't go mad sight seeing, since we've both been there several times, but it was pleasant to sit and walk in the sunshine in the quieter places in Edinburgh.

I paid a visit to the fantastic shop HK, described in detail by Purlpower and am ashamed to say that I lapsed from my pledge, buying 7 balls of lovely sock yarn.

We came back to Newcastle on a lovely meandering route along the coast, stopping at various places along the way.

It's unfortunate to say that this week has been something of a let down. I have a large pile of work I'd like to get through. Some of it is preparation for the coming term of teaching, some of it is PGCE assignments for university, and there's the small matter of the basic literacy, numeracy and ICT tests which I have been practising for and must go and take this morning (grr...). I've also had the crazy notion of writing a proposal for a research fellowship, having read nothing related for 9 months and having no real concrete ideas. It's Thursday already and I'm still not close to my ideal state of super-organised preparation. I'm beginning to accept that I am not going to reach that pinacle of achievement and instead will just make do and get on with things, comforting myself with the thought that at least I finally got round to cleaning the bathroom. Wish me luck in the tests......

YSP and spring lamb

Finally I am getting to enjoy my share of holiday days. We went down to Sheffield on Friday and had a lovely weekend, made even better by the sunshine. On Saturday we went up to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I have been before, years ago, with my Brownie pack. My only memories of the place were of a tree house which noone else seemed to believe existed. It is now all shiney and new, with a posh visitor's centre and galleries. While having a healthy appreciation for craft skills, my family is not what you would call arty, so we were all a bit suprised when my dad started raving about this particular piece. This photo is for you Dad.

It was lovely to see the lambs in the country park area....

...and the leaves coming out on the trees. Is it me or are the trees lagging behind a bit this year? The daffodils have already been and gone.

We ate a picnic lunch and even got a bit sunburnt.

On Easter Sunday we decided not to go too far afield. We headed up to Graves Park, where we spent many weekend afternoon's when we were younger. We all spent a lot of time looking at the newborn animals and saying 'ahhhh...'. These piglets were my mum's favourite. They seemed only to be a few hours old and hadn't been written on the board yet.

There were also some motherless lambs.

Refreshed from the weekend I am now throwing myself into the wedding preparations, which have been somewhat neglected over the last few weeks. The first wave of invitations will hopefully be going out at the end of the week. I apologise to people who don't recieve one straight away. Family are getting priority at this point. I'll write some more about that tomorrow.

Happy Easter

Hooray! I've arrived at the end of term safe and sound. I celebrated by paying a visit to Jen to coo over the tiny Isabelle. She was less than happy at being deprived of her food supply while I held her, but cute all the same.

I followed that up with a trip to the pub and the Lonsdale pub quiz. I didn't make it to the end though. Instead I came home, got into bed and had a lovely 9 hours of quality sleep. I only dreamt once about school, and it was a good dream where kids were all doing what they were supposed to and enjoying themselves too.

In a while we'll head off for a weekend with my family. Hopefully we'll have a chance to enjoyed the promised good weather. Hope you all have a lovely and relaxing Easter.

P.S. Still no sign of the daffodils. Think they're gone for good.

Nearly There

I've nearly made it to Easter. Just three more teaching days and an admin day at school to go. I feel like I've run a marathon already and I am only at the half way point. Fortunately I seem to have relaxed a little. One effect of this is that I am sleeping a lot better and have stopped loosing weight (Wonder how long it'll be before I can no longer fit into my small sized jeans again). The other effect is that I am now feeling more and more like procrastinating instead of getting on with work. Must focus properly on what I am doing. Good to feel like myself again either way.

I've finished another little sweater, in a third of the time it took to do the other one. It's no masterpiece, but I am very pleased with the little flower buttons that I bought in Lewis' on Friday afternoon.

One thing that put a dampner on my good mood yesterday was stepping out of my front door to find that that large (~50cm diameter), ceramic pot of dafodils that I had sitting in my front yard had disappeared. This feels like something of a mystery. I can't imagine anyone getting that far with it on foot. It wasn't light. I've scouted around the neighbourhood and can't see any sign of it (whole of broken). That probably means that someone has gone out of their way to actually steel it. I am quite angry about this, but at least it wasn't an expensive thing. The bulbs are last years and the pot was cheap.

My only hope is that it was a drunken student prank and they will bring it back at some point, instead of letting it fester in their yard. At the end of the day though, steeling is steeling.