friday follies

Well what a whirlwind of a week! Am beginning to think that this has become a regular catch cry! Examinations, assessments, marking, report writing and editing seems to be the de rigeur at present! Tonight was the fifth round of debating and our school won five out of six debates! A wonderful result for our students and their coaches! It has been a very busy week and I am looking forward to the weekend!

I was actually looking forward to a big run tomorrow, to clear the stresses of the week, until I took off my boot and noticed that my foot was swollen and bruised in part. Not sure how it happened. It felt a little sore today and now it really hurts!

I think I may need to see the doctor! Not happy! I love the exercise I do first thing on Saturday morning... but now I can't do it. Very disappointed. Perhaps I could ride a bike or something... or swim... something without the impact of running.

Whatever you do this weekend, may it be filled with much joy and relaxation... maybe a good time to start reading the book for my book club... 'Trust' by Kate Veitch... or perhaps finishing Steig Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. After all, it's raining and is shaping to be truly an Autumnal weekend of cold weather!

It's Friday!

I cannot believe it is Friday! It has been such a terribly busy week but such is the life of a school teacher. This week our report comments for the year 12 (final year of high school) students were due. I had to edit all 134 comments in under 24 hours. I find that the pressures placed on subject coordinators to be at times unrealistic. Technically I should have had at least two or three days to edit them (but that is never the actuality given staff are always in a hurry to try to finish them)

I think term two is always the busiest term of the year, given the nature of the reporting that takes place for year 12. I know that next term will be the same, though things are getting easier as I know that I am becoming better prepared for these moments!

What do you have planned for the weekend? Well I hope to go for a long run tomorrow morning and then have a girly day with my mum, sister and niece. I think that we will go shopping together, take my niece to a bookshop and read her a book and then have afternoon tea "with pretty flowers on pretty cupcakes"

I also have plans to read, bake, cook and hopefully buy knitting yarn! Oh, and then there is the Womens' Health Magazine festival at Victoria Park in the city. I would also like to go to it!

Whatever you have planned, I hope that you enjoy it!

Mother's Day Weekend

Well what a wonderful weekend of sunshine, good times and many laughs. The week that past is but a distant memory and the weekend certainly lived up to the hopes of many.... firstly it was my father in law's 60th birthday party which was just fabulous! This was on Saturday night. Mark and I helped decorate the venue on Saturday morning (after my 7km run) and it really helped to create a positive and festive mood so early into the weekend! Buying gifts for my mum and sister for Mother's Day was a treat! I love spoiling them with something they would not ordinarily buy for themselves! The party itself was a blast! We had a jukebox and there were so many people from my father in law's life - various old work friends, family, friends all came together to celebrate! So many good stories were told; we even played celebrity head!

Sunday - today is Mother's Day and it is a day of mixed emotions in our home. My husband's mother died 16 years ago, so he always finds the day a little difficult. This sadness has compounded in recent years, as both of his grandmothers have passed away in the last five years and both of these women were instrumental in raising him and his brothers, helping his father when their mother died at a young age. After a delicious lunch with my mother and sister and family, then visiting a friend who recently became a mum for the first time to visiting the cemetry certainly had quite an emotional impact on the both of us. Dinner with my father in law and his wife tonight was lovely and to just relax together now, planning a New Zealand holiday is relaxing and enjoyable.

I hope that your weekend was relaxing, enjoyable and filled with happy moments with good people!

TGIF

Oh what a week! What a working week! No truer words that 'thank God it's Friday' were ever uttered! After a week that saw wonderful things happen in the classroom, to wonderful debating results and a great presentation, to disappointment after disappointment by people charged with responsibility (our debating draw changed mid competition and the convenor failed to notify us and I found out by accident on the day of...) to educators not supporting each other, rather the opposite... really left me feeling drained.

I'm not the only one... I don't know that anyone in my department left work this week feeling refreshed or otherwise. My trip home from debating was 73.4km according to my gps. To put that into perspective, I could have driven to Wollongong (south coast which is less than 73km from my place. I could have also driven to Palm Beach which is also closer than Emu Plains)

Don't get me wrong... I don't mind the travel but had I have known that I was travelling that distance, I may have made arrangements to stay in the mountains or something else... in any case I should stop being self indulgent, but having been sick this week has just made me look forward to the weekend!

I look forward to posting a blog post that is positive and reflective of a rested teacher!

Sans voice

Well yesterday I was at work at feeling rather lethargic. This was an extension of how I felt on Saturday and much of Sunday. I felt really tired but pushed through the day, as most teachers I know would. I felt as though I could fall asleep at school but thankfully I made it through the day.

This morning I woke up with a croaky voice and feeling not the best. I think for about fifteen minutes I debated the merits of going to work and staying at home. Why is it that school teachers find it so hard to take a day off when they are feeling under the weather? It is ridiculous and defies logic, but there I was, seriously contemplating how I would get through the day. Positively ridiculous but I seriously contemplated going to work. Better judgement prevailed.

It has been a largely uneventful day. I went for a walk this morning with my husband and then had a coffee. I spent the morning and early afternoon doing some marking (at the local library which is like a sanctuary) The rest of the afternoon has been spent on the lounge, sleeping and intermittently watching the food channel.

I hope to be feeling stronger to go to work tomorrow. I have hardly said a word and my throat does feel much better. I am a little less tired but I know I will definitely get an early night's sleep (as I have every night for the last five or six days)

Saturdays... lazy, lazy Saturdays

So how has your Saturday been? I knew that today was going to be a slow moving day because I had (for the first time ever) cancelled a training session because I was just too tired and my body feeling somewhat run down. I pride myself on living a very healthy and active life, though the start of this school term has really taken its toll. I can't really place my finger on the reason... it just seems to be very busy for everyone. I say this all the time (in fact I think I said it last year as well - I don't quite recall such a busy school year) but it just seems to get busier and busier. In any case I enjoy what I do, though I am somewhat alarmed that I have slept most of today. I do feel a lot better for it.

I did visit the day spa today and enjoyed a scrub and vichy shower. It was lovely just to be cocooned in this shower, with lovely soothing tunes as a backdrop to the lovely shower. It was a decadence I have for a while not indulged... possibly because I have been too busy. It was certainly a spur of the moment decision and I am glad that I took it up, because I came home, had lunch and then slept the entire afternoon!

I rarely sleep all day on a Saturday or a weekend. Not because I wont allow it, but I just don't need it. Needless to say I feel the day has been lovely and I do feel so incredibly relaxed.

I made a delicious chicken and vegetable soup for dinner which Mark and I just enjoyed.

I am going to do a little marking now, before retiring with a good book and getting more rest.

I hope that you have enjoyed your Saturday...no matter what you have done, whether it be slow or otherwise.

Prostate Cancer Research Ball

Tonight I attended the Prostrate Cancer Research ball. It was a 'Hollywood Glamour' theme and it was lovely to have the opportunity to have some fun whilst raising much needed funds into cancer research.

I wore a long black dress with what I call my chandelier earrings and some gold heeled, black patent leather high heels. I felt a little glamorous and my friend Samantha wore a vintage 1970's woollen dress. My friend Mireille was completely stunning in a long velvet black dress with a pattern down the side. She looked amazing!

There were Charlie Chaplin tribute videos, a myriad of entertainers singing the tunes of the 30's and 40's and early 50's of that Hollywood era.

We listened to a Professor and a couple of doctors talk about the important research that they do. I felt so privileged to be able to go to this ball and raise money. We didn't win any of the raffle prizes but that didn't matter.

Hope that you had a wonderful Friday evening!