Tuesday 25 September 2012

Team work....

My brother sent me this link which was the perfect introduction for my Year 8 assembly on ‘team work’.

The team work is obvious but I like the music too. Tom tells me that the original was big in the USA, but I’d not heard it before.






Or perhaps with these revised lyrics..


From henceforth my class are to be known as Team GB - a great name to follow on from London 2012.

Don’t you think it has a nice ring about it? I’m not sure that I’d like to be Team SS – sorry Shane! Or even Team SH, not too bad in itself but can you imagine being timetabled to teach the  8SH  IT lesson.........

Saturday 22 September 2012

Bargain hunt?

Ever been to NOZ?

NOZ is basically a tat shop selling end of lines. The closest one to Le Pre Vert is near to the SuperU in Loches, although I have seen one in Tours. I think they must buy up the surplus stock left behind after the sales. Some of this has come from the UK as I've seen Debenhams labels on some items.

A lot of what they sell is tat, but I always pop in because in amongst the tat you can usually find a 'must have' at a bargain price. 

Last time it was this 'pop-up' traffic cone which cost around 3




However my best ever buy was a pair of croc-a-likes.
At 2a pair, these diamond encrusted beauties were a real bargain. They are soooo comfortable that I bought them in three colours!

I suppose that as we have this wonderful new space-saver cone, it’s an ideal time to dump the one that Tim illegally acquired during his days at Loughborough University.

On our next visit to Le Pre Vert I'll pop into NOZ and take some pics of the 'never be seen dead with' variety... 

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Gone in a flash ...

It’s not often that Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins ride their bikes within half a mile of your house. Well, last week they did and I wasn’t there to see them! Stage 5 of the Tour of Britain Cycle Race came up Sandon Bank en route from Trentham Gardens.









Mind you, even if I had been there to see them I doubt that I could have picked them out from the peloton. Tim and Tom went to cheer them on and found it hard to identify individual riders.

This rider was getting a helping tow up Sandon Bank!





It wasn’t the Tour de France but it did bring a little bit of excitement to the end of our lane.

I was at work so missed it all …..


Tuesday 11 September 2012

My weekend ...

It’s not often that I write a diary entry for a blog post but today is an exception.

The weekend started at 4.15 on Friday with early getaway from school. I stopped off at M&S to buy food for the weekend where I chatted to a couple of friends I haven't seen for ages.

Tim was in Scotland and not due home until late evening so my first treat of the weekend, following some soup and a sandwich, was an early night – 8pm. I watched the television for a while but was asleep by about 8.15!!

We’d decided to spend Saturday catching up on some jobs around the house and garden. Just after lunch we went to Terry’s (Tim’s guitar teacher) allotment to pick damsons. We came home with the damsons but also green beans, Swiss chard, Bramley apples, blackberries and a cabbage! On the way home we popped into the supermarket for some preserving sugar and a nice bunch of flowers.


The flowers, with a chilled bottle of La Renaudie Fines Bulles Rose were for our neighbours Gill and Rory who’d invited us to a BBQ. Rhiannon called in for a chat so there was only just time to get ready - a last minute rush as usual to shower and get ourselves presentable!

The other guests were neighbours Bill, Jane, Chris and Alan. The food was wonderful. Jane had brought a delicious German apple cake, which, with gooseberry ice cream, was absolutely scrumptious! We reminisced and put the world to rights – as you do after a few drinks, however on this occasion I limited myself to a couple of small glasses of bubbles at the beginning of the evening. I needed to keep a clear head …

At 10.30 we thanked our hosts and made the long (about 50 metres) journey home. I had a very important rendezvous to keep.

I changed into my PJ’s, dressing gown, socks and walking boots and at 11pm set off for Stafford where I met with twelve colleagues, all dressed in similar attire, for a 10km midnight charity walk through the streets of Stafford in aid of Katharine House, a local hospice.


After a quick ‘zumba’ warm up session we set off. A big mistake  was to start off at the back of the field of over 500 walkers which meant that we needed to weave our way through the hoards. This proved difficult as we were, for reasons of safety, confined to fairly narrow footpaths. The walk was an all female one, although the marshalls were mostly men. Corrie, Barbara and I formed a splinter group with Lizzie and Jenny, a couple of fantastic ex pupils. In ‘route march’ mode we soon moved through the field and finished in just under two hours, which considering it was dark and our slow start was pretty good.


We were met with cheers, a beautiful flower, hot bacon rolls and a drink. I was back home and in bed by 3am tired and with sore feet!

On Sunday morning I slept until about 8am and then embarked on what I hadn’t reckoned would be a marathon damson jam making session. I followed the recipe but it took until about 4pm to wash, make and bottle just 12 pots of damson and tawny port preserve!


Don’t ask…

Just time to make dinner and settle down to watch the closing ceremony for the Paralympics. Another fantastic experience. I thought the closing speeches were very emotional and a fitting end to our summer of sport

School work? No, none at all!

This was the first weekend of my new 'stepping back from work' regime. I’m exhausted but content …