Time Off

This Sunday, being the beginning of the last week here at Queenswood, there were no students arriving, which meant no placement testing, and no reason to do a single minute of work on a Sunday.
So I didn't do anything. I went to stay with Carollyn and Baska in London on Saturday evening, I watched Ten Canoes (which is brilliant, and having also seen the 'making of' documentary, I am amazed it ever got made at all!), I slept 11 hours, I moved from the bed to the sofa, and then I sat for 6 hours, getting up only twice, absorbing the luxury of internet on my own computer, and doing things like downloading podcasts and uploading photos.
I'm not up to date with the photos yet, but there are a few more "Montreal in May" pics on Flickr, and all of my photos from the few days I spent hitching in Wales in June. Paris and Berlin will follow when I next have internet on my own computer. I'm not too far from being up to date, though, as I have taken a total of about 5 photos since I arrived here at Queenswood a month ago - I'm too busy. It's a pity, really, as I have done a few crazy things, such as dressing up to MC the kids' theatre show every Friday night - I've been a witch and a pirate and an artist and a queen, and I think I'll be Hamlet this week, and I haven't got a single photo of any of them.

How 'bout this then?

Yay for comments on my last-but-one post!
I just had the thought that maybe "101 Places to Go with a Purple Pashmina" might be even better.
But I'm pretty sure I won't get around to doing anything until I've finished work here in about 3 weeks. Or after the travelling I'll be doing for the two (or more) weeks after that.
You can tell it's slightly quieter here already, though, as I have time to write this. Not much time though... And I should begin to spend any free time I have (ha) on planning the aforementioned travelling. We don't have flights or anything yet - just a vague plan about Ukraine and Istanbul. Sean? Are you doing anything about this? As a mere lowly teacher you must have more time than someone as important as moi...
Better get back to work...

Oops

I discovered yesterday, that for the last 3 weeks, I have been washing my clothes in dishwashing powder, a large box of which sits next to the washing machine in our staff kitchen here at Queenswood, tempting all launderers with the handle of a little scoop just visible. It wasn't until I looked for the dishwashing powder to put on a load that I realised my mistake.
Oops.
On the bright side, my clothes are all squeaky clean and streak-free!

Memoirs

I mentioned my "101 things to do with a purple pashmina" list to one of my teachers the other night, and he said "That sounds like the title of a book". Which made me think that maybe it should be. Perhaps if I ever write my memoirs, that should be the name. I think it says something about my lifestyle - everything I own must be multi-purpose so that I don't have to carry much and I make do with the things I have rather than owning more - and my purple pashmina has been with me since my first teaching job in China in 2002, which was the beginning of my current way of life. Also it doesn't come up at all on a google search, which means no one has used it yet, which is nice.
Maybe I should start by changing the name of this blog. I've been looking for a new name for a while. What do you think?

bump

My last post was so depressing that I feel I have to write something, anything, else to bump it down the page. Unfortunately, I'm busy being the Director of Studies at my regular english summer school and don't exactly have time. Today though, being Saturday, I am only working a couple of hours, instead of the usual 15, and I plan to fit in a swim and a sleep as well. The kids are all off on excursion, most of the teachers are away, and most of my work can wait for tomorrow. It's all so quiet! Just as well though, as after 7 days of going non-stop, I needed the rest!

Finally leaving Cold Ash - Cold Ash, United Kingdom
visited Aug 18, 2006
We´re finished. finally. And tomorrow we set off for Edinburgh, travelling, once again, by thumb, which should be fun, in the UK. So this is the first entry of a New Itinerary. As the planned middle east trip is obviously not going ahead, we´re heading down through spain and portugal to morocco instead, flying from Glasgow to barcelona (we weren´t going to fly, but we found flights for a total of 27pounds each,which is pretty good). I realise I haven´t been updating this much, but I have put on all the cities I´ve been to on excursion I think (though only once each), and I´ve written a few posts on www.nontravelblog.blogspot.com and my whole class have been updating www.katsstudents.blogspot.com regularly, if you are lacking something to read... I will try to keep this updated while we´re travelling, but internet time is often rushed, and I don´t have time to do it properly. And this time, I´m NOT travelling with my laptop! So I can´t write posts offline. I thought it was unecessary, and I should learn to live without it for 4 weeks. I´m sure I´ll get withdrawals, but I´d rather that than lose it or ruin it by taking it hitching with me! I´ll write more when I can.

Another excursion - Oxford, United Kingdom
visited Jul 25, 2006
The excursion to oxford was similar to last year but not bad I think. We started by going punting, which was fun, even though we had 4 punts tied together, and my class just happened to have the kind of children who are attracted to the bottom of rivers... Still, no one actually fell in, and I got to do some punting, which wasn´t easy (probably cos of the 4 punts tied together), but fun nonetheless. At least I didn´t fall in! Then we walked past christchrch (look, that´s where harry potter was filmed!) and then up to the pitt rivers museum, which is a wonderland of quirky objects from all over the world, with the real live shrunken heads the prime exhibit. It is actually one room of the natural history museum, but one room that is crammed from floor to ceiling(and the ceiling is about 3 stories high) with display cases so close together you can barely walk between them, and each case is stuffed with bizarre things, and under the display cases are drawers, also stuffed with bizarre things. It´s fun really!

Boiling hot - Cold Ash, United Kingdom
visited Jul 22, 2006
England isn't supposed to boil. not even in mid-summer. It's been over 30 degrees every day this week, and the kids have been impossible in the hot classrooms - particularly in the afternoons. My room is on the corner on the top floor, which means that 2 walls are actually roof (I have to duck to get to the edge of my room). I'm also on the western side, which doesn't help. And my 2 windows only open about 3 centimetres each, presumably to prevent me throwing myself out of them when things get too much. It all adds up to quite an effective sauna. Not pleasant. Just as well I don't have any time to spend in there! Except now, on the weekend. And today, thankfully, it has been cool and rainy. Such a relief! Off now to either watch a quiet dvd, or to find someone who wants to wander down to the pub for a similarly quiet lemonade...

Another excursion - Bath, United Kingdom
visited Jul 16, 2006
I volunteered to go to bath with the Kids and Teens this week. Kate was going anyway, as the weekend excursions are run by the AOs, and I decided it would be nice to have a free trip to bath. We had a sightseeing bus ride around, but my headphones were so bad I didn't really here much of the pre-recorded commentary, which was sad, and then there was an hour of messing about before we went to the Roman Baths, which would have been lovely if they weren't so incredibly crowded. After that we finally got our promised shopping time, but we had about an hour in total, half of which Kate and I spent finding ourselves lunch, as they had run out of packed lunches. Luckily the school reimburses us for them! It was very hot and sunny, and I'm a bit sunburnt, despite the many layers of sunscreen. I can burn on this side of the world, it seems. It just takes a little longer!

Survived Week 1 - Cold Ash, United Kingdom
visited Jul 14, 2006
Very, Very grateful for fridays here. I have the whole weekend off, unless I volunteer for an excursion, which I do, as it's free travel and a free trip to the shops, which are hard to come by around here.

Week 1 Excursion - London, United Kingdom
visited Jul 12, 2006
Our first excursion for the summer was to London, where my teaching partner David and I first shepherded our 18 kids from Westminster Abbey to the London Eye, then waited the required hour to go up in that overgrown ferris wheel, before having a rather pleasant river cruise to the Tower Bridge and back (at least as pleasant as anything can be when accompanied by 112 kids aged 7-13). I still don't like london, but it is a nicer place when someone else pays for it all.

Downe House - Cold Ash, United Kingdom
visited Jul 7, 2006
Finally made it to the Lines summer school at Downe House. More about the lovely, long, frustrating journey later (thanks AGAIN british rail...) The program here is Intensive But Fun (as we are told everytime we walk past one of the million Lines Languages banners that are up all over the school), so I'm working 12-16 hour days mostly, but I get weekends sort of free, apart from sunday evening placement testing, and having to sit with kids if I turn up to meals, which I will, cos sitting with kids for the 10 mins they take to eat, then sitting with teachers for an hour over post-prandial coffee is preferable to starving! and, of course, I seem to have spent all of today either sorting out the displays in my classroom, or fiddling with my students' blog (www.katsstudents.blogspot.com - have a look!) or entering my test scores for the week, or something. And tomorrow I'm accompanying kids to Bath, but voluntarily, so I don't have to spend the whole day with them, and it's basically a free trip to a shop, with a tour of Bath and the Roman Baths thrown in. I'll write here when I can, but as I'm doing little but teaching, I will probably write more posts in the next month to my Serious Blog instead (www.nontravelblog.blogspot.com). Oh, and as you may have already surmised, the trip to israel syria and lebanon is currently on hold until we see whathappens to the region. More about our Plan B later.