Going up north

So, we're off to Derby* for a weekend en famille. Simon and his brother will play golf. I'll proof-read reports,** we'll eat gorgeous Indian food and his mother will snipe enough at him to make me laugh at least. Have a lovely weekend all.

* I know not really "up north" ... but north of the Watford Gap at least!
** I'll bet all you non-teachers out there are really jealous aren't you?

Bless you!

In September I will have been teaching 10 years. That's 10 classes of 30+ At least 300 in my care without the after school IT/French/art clubs, without the lunch times as senior lunch time supervisor, the residential trips, the skipping groups, the sports days, the world book day reading sessions. That has to be thousands of children. But one group will always be more special than all the others in my heart.

Pares, Alexandra, Summer, Kirstie, Daniel, Joshua, Adam, Grant and all the others in my first class. 10 years ago they were 5 year olds on that first school day (for me) in September. This morning I heard that one of them was killed last night! Details too sketchy to quote. Circumstances unexplained and horrifically brutal.

Pares,
my heart and my thoughts are with you tonight ~you were a wonderful little girl and as almost a young woman you deserved to show us what you could do! I will always remember you!
Love,
Miss Collins
x

What a difference 2 days make

Unconscious mutterings #229

I say ... and you think ... ?

Compulsion :: necessary
Spiritual :: thoughts
Spray :: sea
Compatibility :: matched
Pursuit :: chase
Fake :: boobs
Mobile :: phone
Ceremony :: wedding
Ribbons :: Maypole
Mozart :: Austria

Lamb and fig tagine

I kg lamb neck fillet, cubed
2 onions, sliced
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp cayenne
½ tsp turmeric
1 cinnamon stick, crumbled
¼ tsp chilli flakes

1 large can of chick peas
1 large tin of Italian tomatoes, drained and chopped
2 potatoes, diced
2 carrots, sliced
4 oz dried figs
2 courgettes, sliced
2 tbsps fresh coriander, chopped
Juice of ½ lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Place the lamb neck fillet, onions, garlic cloves, paprika, ground ginger, cayenne, turmeric, cinnamon, chilli flakes, salt and pepper in a pot and cover with water.

2. Cover with water, bring to the boil and then turn down to a simmer. Cool for ½ hours.

3. Add the chick peas, potatoes, carrots, dried figs and the courgettes and cook for a further 30 mins.

4. Adjust seasoning, sprinkle with fresh coriander and lemon juice just before serving.

Serve with harissa over steamed couscous.

As mentioned ... even better the next day!

So ............

Well, June around here is looking much like May did - not a whole lot of blogging going on. Too much work to do to be honest; report writing, Get Active Week and then a wonderful week in Brighton with two of my favourite men ... well two of them other than my husband I mean! You know what I mean don't you?

After bombing out of leaving school on Friday I managed to reach Seaford by 5.30 - the view from the flat window always entrances me - sky, sea and cliffs and Kev and I happily sat munching olives, flat bread and houmous washed down with the odd swig of wine until Ahmad arrived home at 7pm. Such a lovely relaxing chatty, foodie evening.

On Saturday we headed for Brighton for a little bit of shopping - there's a fantastic food shop (well 2 of them really owned by the same people), called Taj in Brighton selling whole, organic and speciality food. Amazing middle Eastern and Asian deli counter and vegetables that I have no idea what to do with :o) We bought flat breads, olives, heaven fruit - Ahmad didn't know the English name ... like a mixture between a plum (texture) and an apricot (colour) and a little bit peachy (flavour) with four large glossy pips inside. Beautiful but as to what it's called??? I Google'd Middle Eastern Fruit looking for a clue but you don't want to know what pictures that dug up!

Then after a quick coffee we strolled down to the sea front to play a game of Bingo / Mingo ... surely you know the one? You sit and watch the world and it's inhabitants go by and decide if they are lovely enough (it's a fickle personal judgement on your part) to score a BINGO or not ... and therefore mingo! We played for a (shallow) hour or so, all three of us matched BINGO on more than one occasion and I figure that in Brighton if we'd wanted to take it any further the lads would have had more luck than me :o)

Unfortunately yesterday I had to come home.

Unfortunately I managed to clash my weekend with the London to Brighton bike ride.

Unfortunately just getting from Seaford to Newhaven to get back on the main road took an hour.

Fortunately my husband was very happy to see me :o)

Hey!

Off to sunny Brighton for the weekend! Some photos of French France for you to peruse.

Home

So, that's that.
Another holiday over, another term started.

France was as beautiful as usual if a little to wet and windy for my liking. The hotel receptionist (as we booked out last Friday) chortled with amazement that the weather in London was warmer and drier than that in St Jean-de-Luz. "How astonishing is that?" he said, in his charming French way ... too bloody astonishing for my liking!

I ate too much delicious French and Basque food, putting on 5 of the 12 1/2 lbs I'd lost before going away - back to the drawing board with that then! It was day after day of deliciousness ~ Piquillos (slightly sweet and spicy peppers, stuffed with salt cod), Piperade omelette, chicken Basquaise, Pata negra and of course pintxos.

No kids in school yesterday - hurrah. But that all starts again today - *muted* hurrah! Have a fabulous Tuesday ;o)

What? Who? Why?

As you know (actually do you know?) I write some of the questions on Question of the day ... well Q.O.T.D. has a new name name and a new home. so *drum roll* come on over and give us your answer :o) New questions daily.

THAT'S MY ANSWER!
The official question of the day — it’s your daily pitstop for questionable fun!

A bit of a prattle

It'll be June soon and maybe it's the re-turn of warmth and sunny weather but I'm feeling a tad perkier! You ok too?

Saturday was Simon's mini-birthday party - that party which was to have been a huge celebration of friendliness that became instead a smaller yet still lovely celebration of family and friends who are close enough that they are really family-ness. We BBQ'd some pork, laughed and drank lots of beer - well they did. I drank lots of coke with the odd slosh of brandy and therefore was much soberer than people thought I was ;o)

School this week has been really hard (it's only Wednesday morning!) Yesterday I had to tell the current Foundation Stage Leader that actually she is out of a job for September ... and will be moving into another year group and she cried. And it made me feel like shit! But then I suppose with maturity the new job and the bigger pay packet, comes increased reponsibilities and more "feeling like shit-ness!" Hopefully today will be a better day - a sit under a tree and read a strory day, a build the tallest tower you can with LEgo day - that'd be a Jo kind of day.

Busy washing and ironing clothees last night as we're off to France on Saturday morning for a week of sun, sand and pintxos in St Jean-de-Luz - can't wait guys! Of course I shall have to lug the trusty lap-top with me so that I can get on with my school reports that have to be in by June 24th ... 52 of them to write this year which feels horrendous, but that is because I am right at the beginning of them. Right - here I go, have a good day.

Unconscious mutterings #220 aka better late than never

I say ... and you think ... ?

Tumor :: Cancer
Bunch :: Grapes
Gratitude :: Thanks
Feel alive :: Ah ah ah ah ... I know it says Feel alive but Staying alive just popped right into my head as soon as I said Feel alive.
Connect :: Internet
Temptation :: Heaven 17 - what a blast from that past of mine.

Brighten :: Lighten
Jewelry :: Diamonds
Tough :: Tonka toys - I remember the TV ad from the 70s where they made an elephant stand on the back of one of the trucks, ok it was a baby elephant, but hey it was an elephant!
Harmless :: Fun

Lax ... in fact lax beyond belief!

Well, what a difference a May makes ... I obviously don't like posting in May because I haven't been able to manage more than 1 post - pathetic! I'm going to blame it on the pressure of work, my 2nd wedding anniversary and the fact that it's still bloody raining - what happened to that nice weather we were having around Easter? I got sunburnt one day and now I'm just getting foot rot from the sog :o(

Life has been very busy actually ... started new job, leadership coaching, interviewed to employee new teachers, new job made permanaent, teaching, wedding anniversary, Simon's birthday this weekend coming, school reports to write, won in poker last night etc etc etc.

Hopefully I shall post a little more before the end of the month ... and if I don't, see you in June.