Trees....

Yes, I've always had an interest in trees. Xena fans may remember I had an article posted on Whoosh on "Gabrielle and her Relationship to Trees". Plus, I was a Greenpeace ages ago, and still contribute to Friends of the Earth!

Anyway, this is a bit of a whinge about my neighbours - they all keep chopping down their trees! OK, so I know trees can cause problems. Who can forget my lovely trip to Mia's a few years back where a large branch fell on my rental car a few hours after arrival! However, one bloke a few doors up from me has just has the most beautiful elegant silver birch hacked down, and the ones next door to him had a gorgeous Cedar in the back garden that has now sadly gone.
Now, I myself have a rather problematic (ie gi-normous!) flowering cherry tree in my back garden, but I really love the blossom in the spring, and listening to the wood pigeons, and watching the squirrels run up it. I am NOT chopping it down!
People these days seem to be obsessed with block paving and neat over manicured gardens. OK, so when I look at the jungle at the back of my house I sometimes thing favourably about concrete, but I want to see GREEN when I look out of my windows - not grey! It's not even as if these trees were blocking the light.

Anyway, while I am totally incompetant as a gardener, I wanted to put in my word for trees. No hugging though...

Long Time, No Blog...

Just not got round to blogging for a while. Sorry.

Today's subject: Tennis.
I was watching some of the ladies final of the French Open today - and what an embarrassment! I have always been a big fan of women's tennis - I still miss watching Steffi Graf, always did love seeing those Evert/Navratilova duels etc. It always annoys me that so many journalists and commentators are so condescending about the women's game, but right now it is very very hard to stick up for it! There were no really outstanding woman athletes on show in Paris at all unfortunately. The best players - the Williams and the Belgians - were either not there or not on form, the other good players like Capriati, Mauresmo, Davenport are just not up to it. Neither of the Russian players are really top class Grand Slam champions. The women's game badly needs the top players back on peak form.
I knew things were bad when I was avidly watching Tim Henman - who I can't stand most of the time! The men's game on grass at Wimbledon is a huge bore for me. Just serve, serve, serve. YAWN!! However, at Roland Garros, it was actually really enjoyable to watch Henman's server/volley game come up against the clay court specialists.

Of course typical Tim - brilliant for an hour/shite for an hour! And typical English media were going nuts about it. That's the thing that annouys me the most abou tHenman. How he is the ONLY tennis player who matters to the British press.

Anyway, barring Steffi making a comeback, I just hope Serena, Venus, Kim and Justine get fit. A few years ago the women's game was constantly thrilling - remember Capriati's amazing comeback? The rise of the Williams, the Belgian renaissance. Let's hope the women's game improves soon, because the Ladies tournament at Paris was just crap!

Well, poke me in the eye with a sharp stick...

Well, poke me in the eye with a sharp stick...

OK, DON'T poke me in the eye with a sharp stick, but I sort of did it to myself today.
Went for a fitting for contact lenses. I'm really a very happy glasses wearer, but with this round-the-world trip coming up in the summer, I wanted to try out some cheap daily disposable lenses so that I can actually see the ground rushing towards me when we do the tandem skydiving etc.

I was also hoping to see a bit more of these dolphins we are due to swim with too, but apparently water and contact leses do not mix. Hmm...anyway, the experience of wearing these lens was wierd, mainly because I actually SAW myself without glasses for the first time in 30 years!! Photos just aren't the same thing - it was just so bizarre for me to look in a mirror and see myself glasses-free! (OK, so I can see myself without my specs, but I have to be withing a nose length!)

Anyway, all was going well until it came time for me to take them out and put them back in. Left eye - no probs. Bit wierd, but fine. However, for some reason my right eye just would not cooperate. You really shouldn't flinch from yourself should you, but I could not force the damn eye to stay open while I poked in this lens. Consequently, I have to go back on Friday for another lesson! The shame! I'm a special needs pupil!!

Any useful tips greatly appreciated..

Can I just say, little girls are SUCH a pain!!! I've had endless trouble with the girls in my class these last few weeks cos all they ever do is fall out!! I almost wish the boys in my class would have a punch up, just for a bit of variety!!
I suppose we can all remember being 8 or 9, when all that mattered was who was your best friend and how upset you got if you fell out with them, but it's a real pain in the neck! I'm tempted just to give them a slap! One of the problems is that I have tons of girls - 20 girls, 8 boys - in my class. Never a good think. Balance is what you want. Plus also a bunch of the girls I have are such utter drips! Someone says "I'm not your friend", and they burst into tears... I really have to bite my tongue not to just yell "pull yourself together you wuss!!"
Anyway, social worker Cath is in residence rather than the teacher these days I think!! YUK!

I am NOT a morning person, but this week I've been having new windows and guttering fitted. So while its my half term holiday, I've been us at 8.30 each day to let it workmen, and then get to sit in all day while they rip things off my house! Anyway, been watching some daytime tele, and mainly all the house makeover programs :) My current favourite is Houses Under the Hammer. It's about houses sold at auctions and what people do with them. I've decided if I ever have a few hundred thousand (Ha! In my dreams!) I'll be a mini property developer. Some of these people make very easy money - thousands at a time.

Another philosophical point to ponder: why do ALL workmen take 2 sugars in their tea or coffee??!! I don't use sugar at all really, so just save the odd sugar sachet (pinch them from restaurants etc) but these workmen have almost cleaned me out of sugar! I can make them one drink tomorrow and that is it! I almost had to buy some sugar today.. Ah well, time they gave up sugar anyway..

By this time tomorrow, I should hopefully be fully double glazed and have loved new guttering that actually works. Oh, and be £6000 poorer....
Saturday tomorrow, no makeover TV I bet. What will I watch??!

I'm getting bored of school blogs - yawn, yawn, yawn!! Decided to blog about something else today: My cars! Yes, far more interesting!! As you may know, I got myself a new Mini One in November. A nice shade of blue (Indi Blue in car dealer speak) with a white checked roof. If you're not interested in cars, just click away now, but I have always been into cars, and can probably still tell you the number plates of all the cars we had when I was a kid! (Another picture of my car)

Anyway, my very first car was a beat up old Renault 4. I loved that car - and did a roof job on that one too! I painted it dark blue to cover the rust! It was an old banger, but a lot of fun. Next came a Fiat Uno - very sensible - very dull! It was also quite horrible to drive, with an engine with the power of an elderly tortoise! Was glad to trade that in for a really cool little car, a Citroen AX GT. That was a fab car - light and flimsy, but went like a rocket powered roller skate. However, it was about as well built as a roller skate too! The driver's door virtually fell off one day when I was getting out! Brilliant to drive though.
Next came another Citroen, a ZX Volcane, which was very lively. A 2.0 litre engine, and a much bigger car. It was supposed to have about 50bhp more than the AX GT, but I never liked it as much. Yeah, fine on the motorway, but for me, it's sprinting away from traffic lights and taking tight bends as fast as I can that I enjoy. The ZX was too grown up for me! It was a medium family car, and I like small cars better.
The Nissan Micra should really have been another in the "sensible but dull" category, but I was actually really fond of that car. It never let me down once in 3 and a half years, had a lot of character, and was a surprising amount of fun for a little 1.0 litre car. Plus I really LOVE the footrest for your left foot - why don't all cars have them?

Anyway, we're up to date now as I waved goodbye to the Micra in November. While the Mini was my dream car, I'm actually only getting to really love it now a few months later. I was just too nervous about damaging it for the first few weeks - and after denting the door, I was even more anxious about it, parking it, leaving it anywhere out of my line of sight! Plus, I was a little disappointed with the performance. The Mini has a 1.6 litre engine, but is quite a heavy little car, hence you really have to work those gears. I was beginning to think I made a mistake and should have bought a Mini Cooper and cut back on the extras. However, now the I've done 1500 miles and the engine is worn in properly, it's running quite a bit sweeter. Plus, I am slightly less nervous and am chucking it into a few corners, whereas I think I was just too tentative for the first few months. Basically, if I just put my foot down and hang on round the bends I have more fun!
I really should have taken Marky up on his offer to have a drive of his Mini Cooper at New Year, just so I could compare I think! (Already planning the next car!)

Anyway, sorry to have bored non car fans! I'm on half term this week, so no school chat. Instead it's a fun week of having new guttering fitted on Monday and Tuesday, and double glazing fitted to the back on the house on Wednesday and Thursday. Great - I get to sit in all week and write cheques for thousands of pounds! Ah well, it'll be nice when its done, but just such a BORING way to spend money!!

A bit of a moan coming up - so what's new!! One of the parents came to me on Friday saying their kid wouldn't be in Monday morning as they were going to look at another school. "Moving house?" I asked? "No, just thinking of going to another school" the parent replied.

This mother is a right pain in the neck - spent the whole of last year complaining her daughter was being bullied, and ended up being brought in to sit in the head techers office to peer through the curtains and see that her daughter kept playing with these girls who were supposedly bullying her. The girl is bright and has settled down now, and indeed, is one of my brightest kids, but the mother is still not happy. Which brings me to my moan...parents!! OK, not all, just some.

One of my most depressing days as a teacher was when I was shopping in Sainsburys and met a parent. "Oh hello" she said, "how are you? You taught my children didn't you but I can't remember your name." Not only had I taught her troublesome daughter for a year (and had her coming in once a week for chats about her behaviour), I had her lively but likable son for 2 years - and he had only just left my class! I had spent many hours trying to help her children, writing reports on them, trying to do my best for them. I could have told her about her son's reading and writing, about his attitude to work, and his quite amazing ability to talk for an entire lesson yet STILL do loads of work!(That used to drive the other kids mad!) I was just depressed because I realised that I could have told her all that, while she didn't even know my name...

Of course, there are some lovely parents, but a minority of them view us as little more than babysitters, sending in their kids when they are sick because they have no one else to look after them. A recent event had us calling in a parent because her child was covered in spots, and an ex-nurse on the staff suspected measles. The mother was FAR more annoyed at being called into school than for her child's welfare. She returned an hour later claiming she had taken the child to a doctor who said there was nothing wrong with her ans she was "run down". Anyone knows you just cannot get a doctor's appointment that quick, and how many doctors would even *say* that a child was run down??? She just wanted to get the child back into its day care...sorry, education! This same mother had just spent £100 on hair extensions, while her older daughter had told her teacher how pleased she was, because she had managed to buy herself a PE kit from a charity shop and still had some of her pocket money left!

Anyway, it's the minority that just really get your back up and make you wonder why you bother sometimes. There are many compensations, good things about teaching(I'll have to blog about that instead of whinging sometime! ), but I thought I'd rant about one of THE biggest pains!!! Sorry about that..Moan over.

The UK had snow this week - and once again there was total chaos! Part of the problem is that we are just not set up for it. You can guarantee that if a local coucil buys new gritter lorries, it won't snow for years!
Yesterday at 2pm, the clouds rolled in and the hugest snowflakes I've ever seen pelted down. The kids loved it - and it was gorgeous...until I got in my car to drive home at 4pm! EEK!!

Again, cos we're not used to it, Brits don't know how to drive in snow! People were still trying to change lanes quickly, cut into traffic queues and while queuing on hills, were MUCH too close together. I was convinced my beloved Mini was about to roll or be rolled into someone else! Anyway, almost an hour later I got home - a 10 minute journey usually. However, I got off quite lightly. One teacher had a 6 hour journey, and most took longer than me. In nearby Birmingham, it was taking 6 or 7 hours to get out of the city centre. Crazy!

Anyway, turned on the local radio eagerly this morning, hoping our school would be one of those listed as closed...no such luck! After getting caught on the ice on the end of my road, I made it to school and we did our best to advise parents to take their kids home if they wanted - more snow showers were possible later.

It ended up being a nice day - only 8 of my class were in, so we put them all together and just played about. We let them play in the snow just before hometime, and when I went to gather them in I got ambushed!! Snowballs everywhere - and those were thrown at me by other teachers!!

Weather should be back to normal tomorrow, but it was fun while it lasted - apart from the driving.

Well, back to school this week - and boy was it tough going. Not the teaching, but the having to get up early! I am not now, and have NEVER been a morning person!
Also back to the incompetent idiot that is our head teacher. You know one problem with primary schools? Too many women who put up with male prats!!! He had another stupid annoucement this week about giving us some time off - a whole hour in the afternoon, where he could use our planning to teach and thus give us an hour free for paperwork. Like most experienced teachers, I don't write much down for the non-core subjects (Geography, history, music art etc) so how he think this will help is beyond me, as we'll have to spend extra time writing down plans for him now. He seemed to think we would love the idea! But what really got me is that we all thought it was stupid, but no else would say anything!! I questioned him but no one else would. They all just sat there and moaned later!
Despite what some of you at the Ville think, I am seen as the funny loud mouth one at school :) I will always comment and question and am usually the entertainment! But it gets tedious being the ONLY one who will actually question anything. Sadly, I think its a female thing. I don't think he'd get away with it if there were more men around. Still I got my own back by making him do some ICT stuff in front of everyone, when I *know* he is the most computer illiterate on the staff!! He might be a nice easy going guy, but sometimes I yearn for someone who actually has a clue....!

Ah well, Friday night. The best part of the week!!

Happy New Year to anyone bored enough to be reading this!

I am not a big fan of the new year (apart from the Tarts always lovely NYE parties! Great again ladies!!) and I often find it a rather melacholic time of year, however, I am looking forward to a few things in the year ahead.

I have renewed my pland for a great holiday taking in Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. Despite not liking long flights, (especially the leg cramps and sheer boredom) I would love to see this part of the world. However, I am planning something fairly ambitious in terms of destinations - I mean lots of them! Also, bit of a bugger New Zealand being in the middle of winter while we in the Northerm hemisphere are in summer - what WILL I wear!!

I am quite proud of myself for losing a couple of stone and getting fitter in 2003, so one of my resolutions is to keep that up. It's back on the diet after this weekend, and back to the gym. I have never bothered much before, but I surprised myself how good it made me feel about myself. I was always a sporty kid, all the way through university. It was work that made me lazy - that's my excuse anyway! Its easy to think, "I'm tired, I've worked hard, I deserve that ice cream/packet of crisps/bacon double cheese burger and large fries!"

I have a new swimming costume, new tracks loaded on my portable MP3 player, new shuttlecocks for badminton, and am finishing off the Christmas chocolates... here's to 2004!