Working in a winter wonderland

It wasn't until I sat down and started reading other people's blogs today that it occurred to me that I should probably have marked the new year with some kind of end of year post. Maybe the fact that it hadn't occurred to me before is a measure of how much regard I actually pay to new year. It has to be one of my least favourite celebrations, mostly because of the enormous pressure to do something original and exciting, while getting ridiculously drunk. All this is topped off by having to kiss a lot of inebriated strangers. I find that nothing you do ever really lives up to expectations. The advantage of being older and boring and married is that I can now legitimately stay in with my close family, eat a nice roast dinner, drink bubbly and play pictionary. Very nice it was too.

For the first time in several years I actually have a new year's resolution. It is to work less during my own time. That means getting over my worries about lesson quality and trusting a little more to my abilities. Some of my best lessons have been ones I have spent only a short amount of time preparing. I've not made the best of starts. I spent today preparing Y7, 8 and 9 lessons in a highly inefficient manner, with about 50% of the time spent staring out fo the window and running over to take pictures of the snow. I do like to get ahead.

The snow today has been fab. Sadly it's now melting. It's 1.9 °C out there at the moment. During the middle of the day it was two or three inches deep and looked magical. The kids on the road were having a great time pulling each other round on sledges and having snowball fights. We don't get nearly enough snow these days. Although I don't want to grumble too loudly as I do have a long commute. Here are a selection of snowy scenes.