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of axes, arrows, and elbows

Halfway through half term and so glad for it!

Work has been trundling on okay - I've put in a request to go to a conference at the end of November but haven't heard anything, so will have to chase that up when I get back next week. It's a conference I went to last year - the first one - and it was really inspiring and interesting so I'd love to go back. Also, they've got my picture in their website and email header so I kind of feel I should ask for a discount :P
It's a two-dayer in Birmingham, so I'll need to find out soon if it's been approved so I can book some accommodation.

I went back to the archery club and was given an introduction by one of the guys there (who got some brownies in return for his kindness), and came away with a truly spectacular bruise on my wrist and elbow because I kept catching myself with the bowstring, which was pretty sore. Turns out have bendy-backwards elbows isn't all fun and games! I did, however, get to act like a 7 year old boy at work by sidling up to people and going "Do you want to see my bruise??"

In the first week of half term I went on a National Trust Working Holiday, the first time I've ever done something like that. The weather was miserable on the run-up and I spent so long wondering why I'd thought that booking a week working outside in Wales in October would be a good idea, but thankfully when I actually got there and got stuck in the weather was beautiful!
The holiday itself was basically a week coppicing a bit of woodland without power tools (lots of hand saws and axes involved) so it was really hard work but really satisfying, sharing accommodation and working with a dozen strangers. As well as the weather, I was a bit worried about that too, as my anxiety can go either way in that kind of situation. It went really well - the group was super friendly, a real mix of ages and backgrounds, and everyone was really sociable which helped me a bit.
On the Friday (the last day) the rain descended and parts of the wood turned into a bit of a quagmire, but it was only a couple of hours before we headed back to base so nobody was that bothered. I took my gaiters off when we got back and have never seen such a crisp mud/no mud line on a pair of trousers before.

This week I'm a bit wiped after a solid week of physical activity (not generally my thing). Yesterday I did a wee photo shoot with my friend for her author's picture for her new book which I spent the morning editing, and am hoping to get back to the archery club tomorrow to see if I can manage to avoid hitting myself as often as the target.

I'm trying to push myself on with bread baking - I can feel myself improving as I get the hang of it and it is so satisfying! I'm getting much better at making good tasting bread, but good looking bread is still rather far out of reach.
I've found I'm good at getting a sourdough starter going, but less good at actually keeping it alive. As I type I've got a wholemeal loaf proving for the first time, so we'll see how that goes!

(no subject)

Aaaahhhhh I've emailed the archery people this might be a thing that's happening!!!!

Their next beginners' course is next weekend, but hopefully they'll have another one soon if the waiting list is full, and I can't go on the Saturday unless it's after 5 because I'm working, but it'll probably be an afternoon thing. Fingers crossed the next one will be on one of my weekends off.

In other news, the first week back at work was rough, as expected. I actually fell asleep on the couch on Thursday night (which I never do), and of course we had the usual nonsense of management making changes that directly affect various people's actual jobs without any prior warning, which is always fun. But powering through! Actually doing my job once the kids are back is always much better than the endless start of term meetings on the first few days.

Entry tags:

books,
personal

Summer round-up

Summer always feels so long that it comes as a shock when it's over. I'm lucky in this, I know, but it is a weird feeling.

Back to work next week, so figure I might as well do a wee update.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: contemplative

Entry tags:

books

Books? Books!

I've finished a couple of books recently which I wanted to share my thoughts about.

( Fen )

And also ( The Bedlam Stacks )

Sorry if that got a bit rambly, but I'm a bit tired and hungover and just wanted to spew some words out.

Current Mood: satisfied

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Weekend

After the hectic week, I had a great weekend with some pals in London.

After delivering the crate of wine I'd taken down the road for Lynne at Christmas, we headed into the National Gallery to see the The Lion and the Unicorn Rachel Maclean exhibit, which was brilliant. The Lion and the Unicorn itself is a 12 minute short film, with Maclean acting all the parts. The sound is all from archive footage of the Queen's speeches, and interviews with David Cameron and Alex Salmond in the run-up to the Scottish indy ref, with the characters lip-synching along.
The visuals are amazing, and really put me in mind of 18th/19th century political cartoons, with the iconographic representations of the Lion (England/Cameron), the Unicorn (Scotland/Salmond), and the Queen (not the actual Queen, although she uses her voice). It is bright, bold, and funny (although with recent news the Salmond bits felt a little bit uncomfortable).
As well as the film, there was also a display of pieces from her I Heart Scotland project, which is similarly bright and bizarre and hilariously imbued with Scottish low-culture (to the point where I kind of wonder what people who haven't had prolonged exposure to Scotland would make of it). I really loved the John Knox series (one including him standing triumphantly with his foot on the severed head of Mel Gibson's William Wallace), and It Is Finished, a brilliant satire on most artistic representations of the eighth station of the cross, with Clyde (the mascot from the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games) carrying a wind turbine.
Some of the pictures are on her website (http://www.rachelmaclean.com/i-heart-scotland/) if you fancy a look, but sadly the film, although on Vimeo, is password protected.
If you're in the London area I would really recommend it - free admission! (how else would you get Scots in?) - but it's only on until the 3rd of February.

The Maclean exhibit was on in conjunction with The Monarch of the Glen's exhibit, so we popped along and saw that as well. It's always interesting seeing these artworks which have become so reproduced and commercialised in the flesh, when you can see the details that don't quite make it through translation.

After that we wandered around Soho for a bit to kill some time (we managed to end up going through Piccadilly Circus and I remembered why I never go there) before heading back to Brixton. had a couple of drinks at Pop Brixton and were overcome with envy at everyone we saw eating, while unable to get anything because we had reservations. The restaurant we went to, Jalisco, is in Brixton Market, and we met one of Lynne's flatmates there for dinner.
I went for a burrito (the size options were "large" and "massive", which I appreciated), which was really tasty but could have been a bit spicier. David and Lynne's flatmate had been before, so I asked their opinion on the spice scale (can we, as a society, standardise this please?), but apparently I like things spicier than they do, because I wish I'd gone up a rung.

We carried on to another couple of pubs and headed back to Lynne's for midnight-ish.

I stayed with Lynne, and this morning we went on a walk around Brockwell Park and over to Herne Hill, where the market was on. There was so much amazing looking food I didn't even know where to start, and in fact didn't buy any at all (we'd just had breakfast and I wasn't actually that hungry).

What I was most looking forward to was going to Herne Hill Books, which is an absolutely tiny and really well curated independent bookshop. As always with bookshops, I went in thinking I would just have a nose around and scope it out, but came out with three books. They are:

Fen by Daisy Johnson, a short story collection I've had my eye on for a while
The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers, a novel about a gang of criminals in late 18th century Yorkshire, which I've also had my eye on for a while (no idea why this one appealed, obviously)
Salt on Your Tongue by Charlotte Runcie, a non-fiction book about the relationship between women and the sea through history and mythology, which just caught my eye in the shop

I'll try to say a bit more about them here as I read them, but I'm excited about them all. I was actually really disappointed that I was driving back rather than getting the train because I couldn't start one straight away. Side note: I am never going to drive to Brixton again if I can help it because oh my god London drivers and traffic are both crazy. I've driven to Greenwich to David's before, which isn't so bad, but those extra few miles make a helluva difference.

Current Mood: tired

Entry tags:

play,
work

Work ramblings

Ooft, it's been a bit of a week. This is going to be something of a rant.

We've had out-of-classroom enquiry-based group work this week with year 7&8, which we were alerted to last week, and in which I was playing a supporting role with organising the year 8 project. I kind of co-ran it last year with another member of staff, so when I hadn't heard anything I assumed he had it under control and was using what we had last year.
Until he came into my office last... Wednesday? and asked what we were doing. "I don't know pal," I thought, "You and the director of studies are the only ones named in the email", but of course, being eminently friendly and pathologically helpful person I am, ended up basically: creating a booklet for the kids, designing the activities for the morning, working out groups for the kids which would spark minimum arguments, and sorting out timetabling (there was a bit of conflict with the year 7 project in this regard) and staffing. As far as I'm aware he... invited a pal of his to come in for a talk? Which yeah, was an important part, but would have been pointless if I hadn't sorted everything else out.
Don't get me wrong, I like running these things and getting involved with them, but a little bit of a heads-up and some actual acknowledgement would be nice.

So, that was running on Thursday, and the year 7 one was running Wednesday-Friday, which my boss was helping out with. She went home for her half-day on Wednesday afternoon, and I got a text from her at ~5pm that she'd been to the doctor and has been signed off until half term. I do not begrudge her this at all - she's not been great since Christmas, and I'd rather she was off and getting herself better than making herself come in.
Anyway, this meant that I had to basically be three people at once, as I had to look after the library while helping out with the year 7&8 projects, which were both in different places (thankfully the year 7s did come to the library for a bit, which helped). We had enough staffing from their usual teachers, so that was good, but it was annoying that I couldn't see the end results of the kids' work after they (and I!) had put so much effort into it. (We had presentations from the year 8s about birth, marriage and death rituals in various places and cultures, and an assortment of presentations, posters, and boardgames about certain human and animal migrations from the year 7s - they were planning stuff to show to the local primary school kids, so hopefully i'll be able to go along to that).
Also on Thursday I was frantically liaising with our library assistants to sort out Friday cover for my boss (it's my day off as I work all day on a Saturday), while being overwhelmed with emails from SMT about it. I ended up just replying something like "I'm sorting it! We can deal! Just leave us to it!", but that situation didn't help with the rest of it.

While all of this was going on I was also trying to deal with the 6th formers who were absolutely aghast and disgusted that other year groups should dare to use the library. The 6th form have other places they can use to work, so I don't get why a whole 2 days (and not even whole days - 2 half days at most) of not being in sole possession of the space is such a big deal.

Friday was the awards night of a book group my boss runs with some students, which we have already had a massive issue with since it's a couple of weeks later this year than usual, so it coincides with our long weekend. To start out with, we had 3 students who couldn't make it as they had already arranged travel plans, and the ones who could come had altered theirs massively with their parents/guardians. My boss obviously couldn't go, and I couldn't lead it as I've not been through the training, but thankfully the guy who had volunteered to drive the minibus was trip leader trained, so it could go ahead without too much disruption.
That actually went really well: it's a night the students always really enjoy, as they get to meet the 5 authors on the shortlist they've been reading and get their books signed. Usually we have a manic fight through rush-hour traffic to get to the venue on time, but as school had a half day this year, we got to leave earlier, so we got there in plenty of time and the school even let us get some food, so we dropped into a nearby Nandos for an early dinner. It was a much more relaxed affair than usual, and since we only had 3 kids with us it wasn't at all stressful.
The awards went well - the book all of our group had voted for won, which they were delighted with.

In short: phew. I'm covering my boss this week, and she's hoping she'll be back by Thursday. Next week is a regular week so I should be fine by myself, and I have of course told her not to feel as though she has to rush back.

Anyway: today is a nice wee Saturday off for me (and I actually remembered to turn my 6.30am alarm off for once), so I'm going up to London to see David and Lynne, and hopefully get along to the National Gallery to see Rachel Maclean's The Lion and the Unicorn before it closes, because we are all stereotypical Scots Not Living In Scotland. We're going for dinner in a Mexican restaurant in Brixton that David is in love with, but I'm not exactly sure which one. Either Jalisco or Casa Morita - I suppose I'll find out.

Current Mood: excited

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Drivin home for Christmas~~~

Today is driving home day, after a busy week of tidying and seeing people down here.

Last week the Thanksmas/Friendsgiving went well, even if Lynne got a little amused by me, apparently, charging into the kitchen and taking over (which was what she'd invited me for so at least she wasn't too annoyed!). I do try not to do that, but it just kind of happens. My bakes turned out well - I did have to make the peanut butter cookies, which went down particularly quickly - so that was reassuring.

Tuesday I had a work night out in Canterbury with a few folk from the Development office, of which I seem to have become a sort of honorary member. We did a pirate themed escape room, which I was a bit unsure about but was actually really fun - we got out with 12 minutes to spare! -(and was my favourite of the available themes), then dinner, then we went along to a Ceroc dancing night (which one of the guys goes to regularly), which I was also a little concerned about, having the coordination and rhythm of a three year old, but which was also fun, despite being slightly stressful. They're doing a 6-for-3 offer for beginners, so I might actually go along after New Year if I can summon up the courage.

Wednesday and yesterday were spent desperately tidying my room to make it as acceptable as possible for when my landlady's mum is staying there over Christmas. She came down last night, and very sweetly took us out to dinner at the local Indian restaurant down the road.

So today is Kent to Glasgow, via Greenwich to pick David up.

My main concern is that the kittens will have forgotten me by the time I come back in January, but at least I will be able to catch up with the original tubmeister, Cookie, at home.

Current Mood: content

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Baking is done!

Parsnip, parmesan and sage loaf (unyeasted as yeast is my mortal enemy, I am excited/terrified to find out what it's like)
Chocolate Ginger Tart - this I have made a few times before, but only in miniature, and this is a full 25cm tart, so hopefully it'll be okay.

I'm heading up to London on the 12.15 train, so if I've time in the morning I might also whip up some peanut butter cookies, bc David always loses his mind over them, and his supply of Nutter Butters has been cut off now Lynne's moved back from the US.

I am feeling immeasurably better than I did earlier in the week, which is excellent, and meant I was able to go and play with the kittens today while waiting out various stages of baking. This was amazing because Belle actually let me pat her! She was distracted by what is apparently the most delicious cat food ever, but it still counts! She is still generally nervous around us, but is getting so much better every day. Sebastian is just a proper wee lad, and is in about everything constantly, so there are no worries on that front.

Current Mood: sick

Entry tags:

personal,
work

(no subject)

Work is now done for the Christmas holidays, thank goodness. Sadly I am struggling through the worst cold I have experienced in recent years (and really, is there anything worse than a really bad cold when you have to keep telling yourself it's only a cold it won't kill you while really really wishing it would?), more or less unable to look at a screen for any length of time bc of the glare but having to go in to work bc my boss is off with something actually bad. But it's over now, for a few weeks.

Anyway, things I have to do before going back:

Finish putting together the EPQ booklet for Year 10
Put together my EPQ supervisor training session for INSET on the second day back
Hopefully finish The Echoes Resound (I say this every holiday or half term)
Make food for a friends Thanksmas dinner on Sunday (she has recently moved back from the US)
Play with/socialise kittens (which is difficult with the cold bc we're keeping them in the Kitten Room which is fine if you're a kitten with all the nice comfy warm hiding places, but not great if you're an average sized human who has to sit with their back against the French doors)
Discuss xmas roadtrip plans back to Scotland with David

I may have to put the computer away soon because I can feel a headache coming on, which is annoying. I really want to catch up on all the jsamn chat but it is

Current Mood: curious

Entry tags:

personal

fresh page, new leaf, all that jazz

I'v been meaning to make a dreamwidth account for literal years, but never quite got round to it (or if I did - which I have a vague memory of doing during the LJ ~~strikethough~~ - it was with an old email and I've forgotten all the details), but here I am now! All you need is a push I guess.

I've missed this kind of set up during my time at tumblr - nested comment sections! Separation of interests! Functional tagging system! - and am a bit annoyed it's taken me this long to get back tbh.

So, here we are. I'm going to have to get into the swing of this format of internet again.

I'll likely be using this as a place to put fandom stuff as well as personal posts. If anyone happening upon this somehow has any tips or tricks for me while I'm finding my feet, please let me know!