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Spring has sprung and the Garden of England is covered in...
Mar 21, 2009

...plastic. Polytunnels, cloches and sheets of it all over the fields.

And lambs. Lots and lots of lambs.

Which means it's my daughter Sunshine's birthday! 22 today! How ever did that happen? She's just as lovely and sunny and cheerful as ever. I remember bringing her home from the hospital as a tiny and my health visitor said she would come back the next morning to see how we were getting on. As she left, I really couldn't see how I was supposed to keep the tiny precious bundle alive until then.

Moonlight is growing up too, almost 19 and away at uni. I had a text this week:
"Mum, why are a) essays so awful and b) boys so confusing?".
Oh dear. The essays I can help with. The boys... not so much.
Still trying to work that one out myself.

(3 replies, Latest reply: Mar 29, 2009)

A room full of dead people and teachers
Nov 14, 2008

I might be an ex teacher but I'm still keeping in touch with the teaching world. Which is how come I found myself with a free entry pass on a teachers preview evening to the latest Body Worlds exhibition, "The Mirror of Time" at the 02 Dome. http://www.visitlondon.com/bodyworlds/

I saw the exhibition in 2002 at the much more intimate setting of an ex brewery in East London. It was funny, sad, thought provoking and the choice of venue really connected the visitor with the bodies and the people. They were real.

This time the displays are very well presented in a wonderful space but somehow it feels much less "real" and much more like viewing museum exhibits. The Dome is absolutely amazing and the Bubble has more space but this exhibition seemed too clinical and remote. A lot of the exhibits are the same as in 2002, but they seem to have lost the "shock and awe" power that they had back then. I would attribute this to the vastness of the display space.

About half way round I had a text from a friend who couldn't make it for the teacher event. She said she was "on a hot date!". I sent a text back to say I was "in a room full of dead people and teachers".

My social life needs improving!

(3 replies, Latest reply: Jan 7, 2009)

I am writing in order to apologise...
Sep 25, 2008

So begins a letter I recieved today about "the loss of some personal data in transit". This time from the GTC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/7636822.stm

I believe this is the third such letter I've been sent in the past 12 months. I'm sure by now anyone and everyone has my name, home address, email, date of birth, place of work etc. I'm such a private person too!

(4 replies, Latest reply: Oct 1, 2008)

Oh dear...
Sep 21, 2008

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7624953.stm

In other news, my new job as a teacher educator is going suspiciously well and my students are lovely. Although maybe next year I'll have a class of bankers.

(6 replies, Latest reply: Sep 22, 2008)

Gardening Leave
Jun 5, 2008

I'm serving out my notice at home, which is nice and gives me plenty of time to prepare for my new job. But it does feel strange! In total by the time I start I'll have been off for 12 weeks. I'm told that being off doesn't take long to get used to, but that going back to work does. So we'll see what happens in September. At least the garden will look good!

However, it's given Moonlight a bit of a fright. After a nice idle time of it, pretending there were no jobs around for someone on a gap year, thereby forcing her to sleep til noon then stagger to the sofa to watch daytime TV in her pyjamas and text everyone about it, there's a new regime.

She has had some work in the past year of course, but every single thing has been sorted by me. I've found her work as a film extra, she's done the Christmas Post, worked in a fast food place, done some bar work and cleaning, but for at least half the time since last July she's done absolutely nothing at all, happy to watch me take second and third jobs to make ends meet.

Now that I'm off I make her get up in the morning and if she's not actively seeking work she's doing odd jobs for me. So my shed has been painted, the garden furniture has been oiled, bedding plants have been put in and a friend's fence has been repaired and painted too.

There's been no sleeping til noon, pyjamas and daytime TV. Today she applied for a 12 week, full time, job. Found by me.

(3 replies, Latest reply: Jun 6, 2008)