Saturday 26 March

Not so sunny today and a spot of rain but Him Indoors had a go at the garden.  There's a bit in the far left corner that's not had a prune for a while, if ever, so it was time to cut back.  I like our garden: it's very low maintenance and despite what others say (you know who you are!), once a garden's laid out and planted with shrubs, you only need to spend about an hour a month on it - as well as cutting the grass from time to time.  We feed the birds too and it's soothing to see them hopping around and hear them singing their little hearts out.

Cracked on (again) with the essay and just need final proofing.  What a time for the printer ink to run out.  My beloved has promised to rush out early in the morning to get a new one.

Friday 25 March

A quiet day: school where half of them are sick with flu, home, essaying, dinner, a bit of TV and then bed. Watched the film 'Ghost' for the first time - think we were overseas when it first came out and it's taken 20 years for it to come on the telly for us to watch.  It was actually better than I expected - Demi Moore isn't everybody's first choice and certainly not mine, but she performed pretty well and I thought Whoopi Goldberg was brilliant as usual.

Thursday 24 March

There's lots of colds and flu going round school at the moment - I'm being very positive about not catching it and staying well away from students.  We're just about to have spring break so not the time to be feeling low when you have a few days off.

Today felt very brief  - essay, school, home, essay, dinner, bed.   Night, night.

Wednesday 23 March

It feels like summer's here with temps of 18C today.  People were out in flipflops and T-shirts making the most of it.  My beloved was out to lunch today so after work I was on my own in the living room reading with the door open when our neighbour's cats came wandering in.  We don't know exactly where the two of them live but they often come into our garden.  They had a good nose round but as soon as I moved they scarpered.  I told them I like cats but they weren't having any of it and stayed firmly out of reach in the garden.

Students had to write a summary of something we read in class on the ISS.  One of them had completely misunderstood it and wrote that the astronauts 'live in a 3 bedroom house in the space'.  Mmm.  and I thought we'd been doing so well.

Spent 4 hours on the essay.  Just another section to do and then hopefully post it on Monday.  I'd hoped to send it off on Friday but having the weekend as well should make sure it's well proofread.  Just feel so knackered and mustn't rush or it'll all go wrong.

Tuesday 22 March

Am trying to find out exactly what the government is going to do about student visas after their debate today in parliament.  If our lower level ones can't get visas to study in UK, it may close the school down.

I had a routine mammogram this morning.  My first appointment was a few weeks ago but it was a Thursday afternoon when I'm teaching so I changed it online.  The date of birth drop down menu rather cheerfully started at the year 1900, so after lots of scrolling forward got to my personal year (unusual for me these days for date of birth, they often start at about about 1980 and I have to scroll backwards).  When the date to book a new appointment also started at the year 1900, I got slightly irritated - what is going on with their programmers?  Then in the post on Saturday I got 2 letters from the Health Authority, one telling me off for not keeping the original appointment and the second one giving me an appointment for today.

Previous years my appointment's been at the Bromley site which is about a mile and a half outside Bromley centre, so needing 2 buses to get to as there's no parking, free or otherwise. This appointment was at the trailer in the Sainsbury car park with lots of free parking so much more convenient and also on a bus route.  While I waited, my beloved went and bought a few bits in the supermarket.

Then home to another 4.5 hours essaying.  Finally found the reference but annoyingly it didn't say what I thought it said!  Have had to change things slightly to be more precise.

Monday 21 March

Jemima observed my intake talk today in the lecture room.  She's from the company that provides the online learning site that school signed up to in January.  Apparently student usage from our school is way higher than any other school and they want to know what we're doing to encourage our students.  I gave her feedback too particularly re the new log-in screen which you can only access once.  Depending on numbers, there are different rooms that we do the intake in.  Our computer room can only take up to 15 so when we're in there, each student can have their own computer and sign in, create their own user name and password.  But when there's more, the lecture room is used and I can only show them online via the IWB.  The difficulty is you can't access that first time log-in screen (unless we create a new fake student every week, but that would be time-consuming and I think our number crunchers would have a fit at statistics being skewed).  She promised to ask her 'people' if they could do something.  We'd also like teacher-only areas so that we can talk to each other, send staff meeting minutes, reports, etc.  I'd like to be able to use it at home on Safari too but that probably won't happen and I have to remember to use Firefox instead.

Students dribbled in throughout the morning.  There were 3 starts to the test because they came in at various times and then one guy didn't arrive until midday - 3 hours late - apparently he'd got on the wrong bus, didn't know where he was and it'd taken him that long to find out and get back to us.

More writing.  I lost a reference and spent ages looking for it.  My beloved helped too but it's not turned up yet.  Am annoyed with myself - why didn't I write it down!

Sunday 20 March

After the excitement of the rugby yesterday, today was much quieter with Him Indoors making a trip to the supermarket to get food and me doing the essaying in the dining room.  I was upstairs initially but that meant that my beloved couldn't use his computer as it disturbed me (I'm aware I am sounding rather precious here) and downstairs I can spread out all over the table which is good as I'm much happier when I can distribute everything so that I can see it all.

I know that I'm definitely a teacher and not an applied linguist.  The theory stuff is all very interesting but until we know definitely how the brain works and how we learn and then how we learn languages, everything is just a theory.  There are thousands of studies into a few students and the researchers make a big song and dance about knowing the latest thing to be known, but the truth is they're all just theories.  It depends on what is being studied, the students being studied, and on top of all that, how the students feel that day.  I've been trying to nail down 'critical period hypothesis today' but with a hundred odd studies, nobody really knows whether starting to learn a second language earlier makes any difference, other than to pronunciation.  We all knew that anyway.

Saturday 19 March

A day of two 'R's - rugby and (w)riting.  Neither went particularly well as all three of my teams lost, unlike last week when they all won.  England played poorly and the Irish stomped all over them, the French annihilated the Welsh and the Scots beat the Italians.  I only have a superficial knowledge of the rules picked up over the last 25 years but it seems that each time I watch a match there are new rules I've never heard of before.

My essay is coming along but still a lot of work needed if I'm to meet that deadline.

Friday 18 March

Amazing.  The whole class was there this morning.  Admittedly one was late, but she didn't go to the party last night and we haven't seen her all week until today, but the others were all there bright and cheerful and on time!  I told them how pleased I was and they complimented me on my dancing last night - oh, the sarcasm.  But I laughed, just to show them what a good sense of humour I have.  The thing is though, that they've all really changed in class.  We get through twice as much work now and they're a pleasure to teach - no more sulky nonsense and they seem to like each more as well.  That is probably the most important part.  Before I think they couldn't stand each other but for some reason have come to accept their little foibles and the class dynamics are now very good.

I got stopped by a man on my way home.  He had a phone and was talking on it and hung up.  He looked respectable but alarmed me by immediately saying 'I don't want to frighten you, but ..'  now there's a good way to frighten someone.   Anyway he went on to tell me that he'd lost his wallet, he wasn't homeless 'or anything' and would I give him £2.  I told him the truth and said that unless I'm going shopping I don't carry any money.  Actually that is true but he did look disgusted.  I wonder what the £2 was for?

At home we had some large flat mushrooms in the fridge that had been there for a while so I found a recipe for stuffed mushrooms using blue cheese.  One of Terence Conran's wives once said that life's too short to stuff a mushroom, but she was wrong - she should have used a microwave.  Yum.

Thursday 17 March

A long day.  Up reasonably early, essaying, then on to school.  Started with a staff meeting, then teaching till 4.45, walked home, my lovely Him Indoors had cooked a delish pork curry with coconut which we had with dhal and rice, then off I went to the school student party at 7.45pm.  I only changed my jeans and shirt but was surprised to see how dressed up some of the students were in dresses and killer heels, suits and ties!  Malika was doing the DJing and everyone was dancing (including me and apparently there are photos - oh dear).  It was a good evening - I wonder how many will make it to class at 8.45 in the morning?

Wednesday 16 March

Another 3 hours on the draft/books after school.  I'm feeling slightly more positive about this one now.  I first received it in December 2008 and have picked up four times before but got bored.  Being given this new deadline has turned out to be a positive thing.  (but I hope I still feel like this next week).  The only trouble with all this studying is that I feel that I'm neglecting family and friends.

Tuesday 15 March

Got a slightly panicked email from a colleague - she couldn't find the CDs for her lectures lesson.  I'd hidden them from sight but forgot to tell her where - oops.  We're the only 2 teachers who use that particular set and they're very expensive but as the last lot disappeared from the staff room I thought I'd remove them from temptation.  We sometimes have teachers in just for a short time especially for summer school and that's when most resources go missing.  It's such a shame that you can't automatically trust people.

Just a short entry today - hit the books again and managed just over 3 hours.  Will look at the draft again tomorrow after school.

Monday 14 March

Only a small intake today but very sweet, quiet students.  Problems can sometimes arise when the range of ability is wide and more advanced students can get impatient but they were all quite low level (address? what is?) which made it fun and we did laugh a lot.

I took in a load of bay leaves which Him Indoors had twined together and the bag emptied almost immediately.  One teacher said 'oh no, don't give it to me, I'll only kill it' which made everyone laugh.  She had no idea what a bay leaf was.  I know she can cook because she often brings in cakes for the staff room but this herb was unknown to her!

I forgot to mention that on Saturday we had workmen outside mending our road.  It's unmade and the council won't do anything about it - even though we pay full council tax, we're not entitled to publicly funded road mending.  The primary school next door is the major user with all the 4x4s every morning dropping off their little darlings and they really churn it up.  There's a park at the end of the road but most people who go there are jogging or walking their dogs.  Anyway, there was a JCB out there all day scraping away but all they did really was spread the gravel around a bit.  I thought I noticed this morning that there were fewer cars - maybe it's a knock on effect of the increase in fuel prices?

Sunda 13 March

Yes, Chippy - you  owe me a shilling!  Just a little bet on Wales - Ireland yesterday.  That was a very good game unlike today's where England were abysmal and Scotland looked  as though they really did have a good chance, even though they've lost all 3 of their previous 6 Nations matches.  Some say that Ireland will be the favourites next week.  I'm not looking forward to it and I don't think I'll be betting on that one.

We cut down one of the 3 main trunks of the bay tree today.  I say 'we' but, of course, it was Him Indoors who actually wielded the saw, while I gave instructions...   I'm taking in a big bag of bay leaves to school tomorrow.  Not very many of my colleagues cook but they may want some.  Otherwise they're being put in the compost bin.

I've finally had feedback on my second essay outline and because it's taken so long, I've been given a 2 week extension.  We can only submit twice a year on 15 March and 15 September so it's pretty obvious to me that I'd better get on with it.  Instead of doing a dissertation I've decided to do the taught track which is 3 more essays.  They usually advise taking a year to do the three, but I've done the bulk of my reading so if I can write this one by the end of the month, that leaves 2 more to do by September and then I'm finished.  Wonder if I can do it?

Saturday 12 March

Have been watching the awful news from Japan.  The people are having a really rough time but seem to be just getting on with what they have to do.  I've never been to Japan but the Japanese that I've met have been very polite, considerate and careful about not causing offence.  It's heartbreaking to see what some of them are going through now.

Had a lazy day.  Beautiful sunshine so a quick turn round our little garden.  It's time to prune the bay tree.  We've decided to take out one of the 3 main trunks rather than prune all around.  I hope lots of people want nice fresh organic bay leaves!  I think I can call them organic.  We certainly never give the tree anything.

Then an afternoon of Six Nations Rugby.  Italy 22 - 21 France.  Couldn't believe it - finally the Italians do it.  Was so happy.  Then Wales 19 - 13 Ireland.  My second and third favourite teams win and the matches were pretty exciting.  I do hope England do well tomorrow against Scotland.

Friday 11 March

This week has flown by.  I've been concentrating on getting the essay finished but a brief summary:
Tuesday: Pancake Day.  My beloved cooked me pancakes for dessert.  They were fabulous - complete with lemon juice and sugar.
Wednesday: decided on a complete re-organisation of the essay.  At my desk till 11.45pm but stopped for a bit of dinner (teaching at school as well)
Thursday: teaching, final proofread, photocopy.  Spotted mistakes in the numbering of the appendices.  Beloved helps.  Correct essay.
Friday: teaching, final print out, (3,970 words, 14 appendices, 1 table), extra large envelope, rush to Post Office, pay for recorded delivery (£5.50 cos it weighed 460g).  Get home, lie-down, snooze a bit and let all the stress melt away.  Fish and chips for dinner with a tasty cider.
Phew.  Now it's time to start on the next one.

Monday 7 March

It's been a silly weekend for news.  A father was at the police station in Bromley with his 13 year old son who was being interviewed for burglary.  As the father heard what his son had been up to, he clipped him round the ear.  The police then stopped the interview and arrested the father for assault.  Madness.  8 SAS soldiers and a 'junior diplomat' got picked up in Benghazi but set free.  What was that about? And the head of Barclays bank got a £6.5 million bonus for 2010.  Beggars belief.

But being Monday it was a good day.  A fine new intake of 14 students from Angola, Japan, S Korea, Germany, Sudan, China, Switzerland, France, Poland, Turkey and Colombia.   What a mixture - they were all chatting away and getting to know each other.

The weather made me feel good too: it was cold, about 3C but really sunny and walking home in the sunshine was quite warm.

Sunday 6 March

It was my brother's birthday today so I phoned him to wish a happy birthday.  He was having a great day - both their kids and partners were there and were spoiling him and he'd been out for a good meal.  That's good: all birthdays should be enjoyable.  Just because the clock is ticking doesn't mean that birthdays can be ignored.  It's a time to relax and let people make a fuss of you.

Chippy had spent the night visiting friends close to us so he popped in for a cup of tea and toasted hot cross bun.  Then Him Indoors finished off the chipping and I got back to the interminable essay.

We watched the last episode of 'Mad Dogs' which literally descended into madness.  They're all very good actors and I kept getting the feeling of 'Lord of the Flies', with the glasses being broken just like Piggy's and putting on warpaint.  But the ending was inconclusive with my beloved thinking one thing had happened and I thought they were all dead.  Who knows?  Maybe it was left like that so they could have a sequel.

Saturday 5 March

We've been planning to do some gardening for ages but it's been too cold to spend any time outside.  So today it was time to bite the bullet and tackle the plants growing up the back of the house.  We didn't do too much: just cut the virginia creeper down to the top of the door (it was up to the gutter) and the honeysuckle to the bottom of the window (a lot of it was dead and it had become very bulky).  Him Indoors then got out the chipper and cut it all up for the compost, finishing it up with a little bonfire to get rid of the final bits.   A good job done but we still need to do something with the trees.  We've only got a small garden so it's important that they get pruned.  The first one to do is the bay tree but we're still unsure of exactly which branches to chop out.  Need to check the internet.

I'm fascinated by where readers of this blog come from.  I can't believe that apart from the 4 I know have read it ('cos I've told them but haven't told many people so far), readers in USA, Canada, South Korea, Russia and Morocco have dipped in.  On another blog I found a 'clustr map' which will track hits on a map of the world but it hasn't updated itself yet.  It took a while to set up because I didn't follow the right steps at first: I wonder if I need to do anything else to get it working?

Friday 4 March

The directors made their annual visit to school today and held a meeting with all staff.  They gave us a roundup of what was going on - new school in LA opening in April, our student numbers up 70%, full school and others in the group also doing well.  They opened the floor to questions: usual ones - we need more parking (parking here? wow, you should see LA!), how about a drop box so we can ask questions at any time (they liked that one), and I asked if they would be investing in more technology, ie more IWBs, computers for students.  Apparently a new IWB was put in this week and another next week, which is good to know as on Thursday afternoon the geography teacher, the maths teacher and I all wanted/needed the computer room.  As I'd actually booked it, I got it but when you have 3 teachers all wanting the same room, things could get a little hairy.  We get on fine, though so hopefully we won't fall out in the future.

The cafe had laid on a buffet lunch which was most acceptable.  Not the usual curly sandwiches from the previous owners, but smoked salmon, various tasty salads and fresh sandwiches on quality bread with desserts too of strawberries and cream.  I just had a double chocolate mini muffin.

Came home to find beloved Him Indoors cooking up a big chilli.  He'd made the beans from scratch and was cooking it long and slow in the oven.  Smelt (and tasted) excellent.

Just under a week to go before sending off the assignments.  I've still not received any response to my outline which I sent off 2 weeks ago, so haven't really got started on that one and have been moving text around on the first one.  I need to stop doing that and tie it down and send it off.

Wednesday 2 March

There was an article on BBC news website about the German Defence Minister having to resign because he'd plagiarised his PhD thesis.  Over 50,000 academics had signed a petition for his removal.  Plagiarism is a huge problem nowadays with easy access to the internet so I used the article in class.  We practised reading quickly (but not sacrificing comprehension) and summarising and then read it intensively poring over such phrases as 'another nail in the coffin for democracy'.  The students' reactions were interesting but mainly they thought that all politicians are corrupt - or why else would they be politicians - so why is anyone surprised when they cheat?

My new shoes that I ordered online arrived.  I'm not that keen on shopping for shoes - the shops always seem to be in a muddle or it takes ages to get served by a stroppy assistant but online is risky because of the fit.   But these fit perfectly - what a relief - and I like them too. 

Went out for lunch unexpectedly.  As I was walking home, my phone rang but by the time I fished it out of my bag it had stopped.  It was HimIndoors so I called him back but before he picked up, he walked round the corner with Steve.  They were on their way to the High Street to see about some food and wanted to know if I'd like to come too.  I was honoured.  We looked at a couple of places and ended up in one that did a meal and a drink for £8.  I chose sausage and mash with parsnip crisps and a glass of sauvignon blanc and the boys had steak baguette and a glass of Merlot.  No cooking tonight.

Tuesday 1 March

I received an email today entitled  'Dental Recall'.  I have all my own teeth so I felt slightly alarmed that part of my teeth were defective and being recalled.  Usually we hear about defective cars being recalled to the factory to have their brakes checked or recently cakes and biscuits being taken off the supermarket shelves because they contained salmonella eggs from Germany.    The email was actually sent by the reception manager at my usual dentist's so I read on: it said my 'oral health review is now due' so in other words, it was time for a checkup.  Why didn't they say that?  I think my grumpy old woman phase may have been in full flow, but the wording put me off making an appointment and  I'm left wondering whether to mention it to my dentist when I see him.

On a lighter note, yesterday I mentioned to my beloved Him Indoors that I wasn't able to access some online journals without paying for articles.  I gave him the name of one particular author and he very quickly found the whole body of work, including access to the journals that had barred me before.  Excellent!

The ice cream shop in Covent Garden has been selling human breast milk and calling it 'Baby Gaga' but now it's been removed by Westminster Council while they check that it's fit for human consumption.  Even the announcer on the news this evening seemed to find that amusing.   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12615353