The return of MOF

It was great getting my car back, it finally managed to pass its MOT (WOF equivalent for you kiwis out there). Touch wood it will keep going for another year, the mechanic did say the engine was starting to rust pretty badly...

I've survived the first week back at school, but it has been pretty manic. It's all very well only having a 3 & a half week second half-term, & believe me, I AM excited about it, but you do need to fit in the same amount of work that you would in the usual 6 weeks... Luckily my classes are all on track, my GCSE exam class (year 11) have already finished their 2-year course, so we are doing revision in preparation for their June exams. In fact I've spent most of this evening marking some revision chapters for them, so thought I'd write this as a bit of light relief before bed...

Will & I had a very nice weekend. On Friday night we spontaneously decided to go to the 'George and Dragon' for dinner. It is a lovely pub in the countryside a few miles from school that serves fantastic food. We went with Steve & Kate & Annabel from school & had a really nice evening, even if the taxi driver on the way home ripped us off! After coaching my boys' rugby Saturday morning I had a productive day around the house/garden. I finally got some of our seeds for the vege garden underway. I've got squash, pumpkin, courgette & sweetcorn going in my propagator, & Will is doing the rest in his. Things like the carrots, lettuce, rocket etc we'll sow straight outdoors. I've already had sweetcorn shoots appear in the propagator which is pretty impressive after 3 days! I also potted some geraniums that Will had given me for Valentines day. They were 12 tiny little plugs when I got them, but they are now big enough for small individual pots (well, yogurt containers actually!)

Saturday night we went to Allan & Wendy's engagement party in the common room which was another very good night. Wendy teaches maths with me, & has the distinction of being the only English person in the department! They are looking at a winter wedding this Christmas.

Sunday I had rugby, & we had another loss. This time it was to Wimbledon, away, & we lost 10-0. Bit of a bugger really because we beat them quite comfortably at home. They wanted (needed) it more than us though, as they are in danger of being relegated to the division below, whereas we are comfortably mid-table. They were very fired up, & came at us hard. Today I feel like I've been run over by a truck! My back/neck/shoulders are killing. My thumb is currently a lovely shade of black, but I can move both joints so don't think I've broken anything. Don't worry mum, I am fine, really...

The nights here are starting to get noticeably longer, & it really feels like spring is on its way. I took the photo below walking home from school at around 5:30pm, whereas it wasn't that long ago that I was walking home in pitch-black.

Right, bed calls before I turn into a pumpkin.