Back to School

Well school holidays are finally over, but I certainly made the most of them. On Saturday night Will & I, plus 4 others, went to the Prince concert at the O2 arena in London (formerly the Millennium dome). Now I'm not the biggest Prince fan in the world, but I got the tickets because I had heard that he is amazing live, & always puts on a good show. He didn't let us down either... It was brilliant, one of the best gigs I've ever been to. He has been around for so long you forget just how many hits he has.

We were lucky enough to hear nearly all his big anthems on Saturday, with the exception of 'Little red corvette' & 'Raspberry beret'. He had rehearsed 150 songs for the 21 shows he is doing in London, & was mixing up what he played each night. We were also lucky to get 6 encores, whereas another friend who went on another night only got 1. He was a fantastic performer, & superbly arrogant with it. At one stage he made a hugely theatrical gesture with his arm & announced "so many hits, so little time..." His band was also superb, especially the saxophonist Maceo Parker who used to be the bandleader for James brown. We also got a surprise guest appearance from the Black-eyed Peas who guested on one of the songs, which was very cool. The O2 arena was bit of a revelation as a venue. It has loads of bars & restaurants, & we also had seats with an excellent view of the stage, which was in the shape of his famous sign. All in all it was a great night out.

Earlier on Saturday Will & I had driven to Dartford. Our new bedroom is huge, & Will planted bit of a seed by saying that it really needed a 4-poster bed... We started having bit of a look, & found a lovely solid pine king-size 4-poster on ebay. We put in a bid & won it for £82!!! It was pick-up only, hence the trip to Kent. Luckily it fully disassembled, & we managed to fit it in the back of Will's car, with a little bit of over-hang. My friend Nic has also just moved not too far from Dartford, so we also combined the bed pick-up with a visit to her new place. There are a few picks of the bed (which we need to get drapes for)& the dining room & lounge of our new house below.

Sunday night we had the traditional hog roast at school. It's a casual party they have each year the day before we go back. It helps the new staff put names to faces, & isn't a bad way to ease back into the school year. Monday was a day of meetings, which was very dull, but a necessary evil I suppose... Today it was only the new kids in, & I didn't have to do a huge amount, so got my classroom sorted & got myself prepared for the new year. Tomorrow the whole school is in, but it's lots of admin stuff like assembly, sorting timetables, checking games kit, getting mouth guards fitted etc. Period 4 is the only lesson that is actually taught, but I happen to have a non-contact, meaning I don't actually start teaching till Thursday. Tomorrow afternoon is games, & I'm doing my usual under-14 boys rugby for the term. It's pretty much rugby overload on Wednesdays as I then have my own training later that evening.

By the way, thanks to Will we FINALLY got our land line sorted. Send me an email if you want the new number... That meant we finally got our Sky+ installed, just in time for the rugby world cup... It's fantastic, well worth the wait.