Tuesday 30 November 2010

November Snow

"It's funny how a name can change over time,
From 'friend'
To 'lover',

To 'was once mine'..."

Monday 29 November 2010

also...

I am really really really really really cold.


Really.

dreaming of a...

So, my Christmas tree is up and decorated...

I'm a bit embarrassed by its... prematurity, but at the same time, revelling in its warmth and scented deliciousness.

See, it was either this weekend as a friendly familial affair, or a solo struggle some time in the dim and dismal depths of upcoming December.

So I went with this weekend.


This, combined with the snow and absolute bitterness of the cold, is making me long for holidays, no school, family, open fires, leggings and winter boots.



COME ON CHRISTMAS!!
(hurry up, please)




Le Noel - j'en ai besoin.

Wednesday 24 November 2010

In Brief...

Today I:

- have a headache
- taught for 6 hours
- worked for 8 1/2 hours with only a 15 minute break all day, as lunch was full of rehearsal and assembly
- got excited about music in conversation with the colleagues
- ate 3 clementines
- heard some amazing year 8/9 collaborative composition singing
- line danced with 16 year 10s
- am hoping for a snow day

That is all.

Thursday 18 November 2010

A Few Good Things

Some good stuff has happened this week.

Um, let me just remember what they were...

OH YES!

1. We have created a 'staff band'. We are called 'Staff/Band'. (or 'Staff:Band'. the specifics are still undecided). Mostly, we sit around saying 'umm, do you know what we could play?' and things like that, but sometimes we play stuff. Like I-vi-IV-V chord patterns, and the 12-bar blues. Then we play two or three chords from actual songs, and when we forget what comes next, we just repeat the bits we do know. We are gonna be BIG.

2. We didn't have Ofsted

3. The year 12s heard me playing a song I had composed (I set myself the same task I had set them), and all came in saying 'play it again! play it again!' and then bowed down to my superiority. Literally. (bless them)

4. The department has been overflowing with music-making children, and I LOVE IT! Especially the little group of year 8s that started off as two slightly surly girls, and has somehow expanded into a massive cohort of composing soul singers. A-mazing.

5. I have been remembering how to play the guitar. Well, sort of...

6. The soup I made has lasted 3 meals, and is delicious, despite being an odd consistency and looking a little bit the colour of baby poo.


I think that will do.

I'm now going to go and eat the third portion of soup. Possibly with some delicious toast. And some port. (not too much, though - I don't wish to become gout-y)


Hurray :-)

Sunday 14 November 2010

Notes from the Periphery

I feel like I should write a novel with this as its title.

I feel like my whole life, stuff has happened around me, unstoppable and unimpacted by anything I myself have done.

I feel like I am watching the world and my life disappear, with me as an onlooker, making the occasional comment, or decision that partially deflects its path one way or another.

I see my friends grow, move and change, and I see my family expand and age, and then here I stand, in a stagnant bubble of solitude, contributing nothing of value, and goallessly bumbling along, blindly bouncing off times and places, making no impact on anyone or anything.


Life on the periphery. Not as edgy as it sounds.

Thursday 11 November 2010

also...

...I have been on a CD-buying spending spree.

I am currently listening to:
- Laura Marling, "Alas, I cannot swim" (I went backwards with this one, buying "I speak..." first)
- The xx, "xx" (it kept being recommended, so I listened to it, liked it, purchased it)
- Antony & The Johnsons, "Swanlights" (it has Bjork on it too! Double whammy)

- I have also bought (on a slight impulse), Peggy Sue, "Fossils and Other Phantoms", because a track from it ("February Snow", to be precise) came up on last.fm, and I liked it. So it's on its way. Woo hoo!

- I am also expecting any day now (which I forgot about, til I checked) Foals, "Antidotes", because I heard a track or two, and also liked it, so also bought it.




Amazon love me.



(also, I have just seen a CD entitled "Man Alive"... I want it, just for the name. Man alive, I do.)

The Bleurgh Surge

Today I feel a bit sad.

Melancholic.

(one of my year 7s used the word 'melancholy' the other day. I was impressed)

I'm pretty sure it's because I am very very massively tired, and 7pm this evening marked the end of a pretty high level stress full week (not counting the 5 hours of teaching I've only half prepared for tomorrow), so I'm kind of experiencing that post-stress surge of bleurgh.

It's possibly also because I haven't eaten proper food since Tuesday evening. I mean, I have eaten food, but it's mostly been cornflakes (I've run out of substantial cereal), school sandwiches (which are actually pretty good. Today I thought I was buying a wholemeal baguette filled with turkey with some delicious stuffing type stuff. I was wrong. Thankfully, I like brie, cranberry and leaf. So not bad - although yesterday's was a ciabatta mostly filled with onion, which is not ideal), and Dairy Milk.

So I think I will go and eat something cooked, and a bit meaty. Possibly.


So anyway, farewell Ofsted. Thank you for your disinterest, and bizarre probing questions, I hope you were impressed.


Fin.

Monday 8 November 2010

November November

I love November.

It has that magical transition from late Autumn to Winter feel to it - those days where you suddenly realise it's dark and miserable and only 4 o'clock in the afternoon, which sparks those memories of walking home from school in the cold and dark, and getting wet feet and frozen hands, then arriving home to a proper fire and warm lights, and closing the curtains on the rain and the cold, and eating hot toast, made from real cut-it-yourself thick white loaves, spread with delicious buttery goodness...

I also love bonfire night. Definitely one of my favourite nights of the year. All that standing around, wrapped up in far too many layers, watching explosives that emit feeble showers of sparks, and flapping around flaming metal wands, writing your name in sparks and conducting silent bonfire night big bands, and trying to guess the chemical in the firework that created that particular colour, and choking on the massive amounts of smoke being released into the atmosphere, and taking pictures of yellow squiggles that look much more impressive in real life, but you miss them, coz you're too busy trying to take their picture...

Things I don't love about this particular November are:
- Parents' evenings
- Too much to do and not enough time to do it in
- Ofsted
- Awkward logistics

But, having said that, parents' evenings can be quite entertaining - I always enjoy the challenge of finding which good thing to say to the parents about their child, and scrutinising their reaction to try and work out what they think of their child's ability, or about music in general, or about the school etc.

Also, we were given exactly as much time in a day as was necessary, so it's how I use it that matters.

Anyway, speaking of which, I should be doing something more productive than this... like, making toast or something...

The end.