Another lovely weekend

This week has also passed by very quickly. Time really does fly during term-time. This term there is a staff & scholars badminton challenge ladder being run at school, so Friday afternoon I challenged the kid who was top of the ladder & beat him quite comfortably. We'll see how long I last at the top... On Friday night there were a few staff going out for a curry in Wokingham, but I didn't really fancy it. I had a nice quiet night in with Will, once he got back from his usual Friday night poker game with his colleagues.

Saturday was exeat, meaning I didn't have to go into school in the morning for activities. Instead I went & played touch rugby for an hour & a half. It's a social pick-up game where they also do a few drills & a bit of coaching, & it runs every Saturday, but I usually can't make it because of school. After lunch I went into town & picked up a couple of things that I needed. I hadn't been into Reading since term started 4 weeks ago! Will was busy all day at his University open day, & he said they had really good numbers through the department. He went straight from there to volleyball, so I didn't see him till 7pm!

The weather on both days was lovely. Today we had a leisurely morning, before heading to the supermarket for our weekly shop. This afternoon I had a badminton match against some random guy who had advertised in gumtree for a hitting partner. He used to play a while ago, but had had seven years off. He wanted to get back in the swing of things before possibly joining a club. We played just across the road at my gym which was convenient for me. He wasn't that great, but he got a lot out of the session & did improve. When I got back Will & I both sat out in the garden & did some work. He is currently examining a thesis in his field from a student at Victoria University. One of the professors that he met there during the conference in NZ a couple of years ago (& who my dad used to teach!) invited him to be one of the three examiners for it. This guy should be a great contact if/when we move back to NZ & Will is trying to get a job.

This afternoon we picked another couple of our random squashes. The small one is a rolet, and the biggie is a table queen. We roasted them both & had the rolet for dinner tonight, along with some roasted sweet potato, & beans & carrots from our garden. I've made the table queen into a roasted squash soup, using onions from our garden, which we'll have for dinner tomorrow night.

That's all my news, probably for another week. Tomorrow night I'm going to play a flood-lit game of touch rugby. On Saturday the guy running it said one of the teams is short of a lady if I wanted a game. I'll definitely get one match, & hopefully two.

Dan the man!

I've had a long day at school, & am starting to feel a bit rough to boot, so was more than happy when I came across these pics which cheered me up no end. For the uninitiated, it is Dan Carter, NZ's rugby star, modelling some smalls for jockey. Far too good not to share with the world!!!

It could almost be summer!

This week has also passed in a blur. It is scary how fast time seems to fly during term-time. We have had a gorgeous weekend weather-wise, probably the best since I got back from Borneo in early August. Will & I enjoyed sitting out in our garden on Saturday.
Today I had my first rugby game of the new season. We were at home to Teddington & enjoyed a 27-3 victory. It was good to get both the first game & first victory under our belts. Will came & watched in the sunshine. It was almost too hot for rugby & I've got bit of a headache now, probably from lack of fluids. I am the green & white number 1 in the photo above, lifting at the front of the line-out.
This water-colour above was painted by Richard, my deputy head at Bearwood who also happens to coach my rugby team, and is a man of many talents. At the time of our wedding he promised that he was going to paint us a picture as a wedding present, but that he wouldn't have a chance to do it until the summer holidays. He gave it to us a couple of weeks ago & we love it. For those that don't know it is the back view of Bearwood College. By the way, that glowing object in the sky isn't the sun, it just happens to be the flash from my camera. It works quite well though I think!

Hubby of the year??!

Will is certainly racking up the brownie points at the moment. He has taken 1 weeks holiday, since he hasn't taken any leave at all yet this summer, so he hasn't had a break since the few days he got at Easter. I arrived home from school to find he had been busy doing some cleaning & the washing up. He then cooked a very nice dinner, while I had a snooze on the couch for an hour or so! I felt absolutely shattered & drained tonight, hopefully it's not the beginning of a pretty nasty flu going around school. The highlight of Will's meal was a Turk's Turban from our garden. We grew a bag of mixed seeds containing several different varieties of squashes & pumpkins, & ended up with all sorts of weird & wonderful things! He roasted it, & it was divine.
Tomorrow he is planning a bit of work tidying up the garden. We borrowed a chainsaw off Dinger tonight, so who knows what I will arrive home to tomorrow!

Another week down

Before I get you up to to date with the happenings of the week I thought I'd post a piccie of the new duvet that Will bought as a surprise when I was in Borneo. I didn't want another long & wordy post with no pictures in it! He did a great job, it matches and everything. Not bad for a bloke!!! The velvet heart-shaped cushion was a rather tongue in cheek pressie from Barcelona.
I had a lovely time with Simon on Tuesday night. I cooked a nice meal & we stayed up till the wee hours drinking wine & catching up on life. We taught together at St Peters & he is still there, so it was great to find out what everyone was up to. It is the sign of a true friend that 4 years can pass since we've seen each other, yet it felt like it could have been yesterday. He is off for 3 weeks trekking in Nepal, via Hong Kong, before heading back to the real world at St Pete's.

Wednesday night was rugby training which was a good hard session. Our first match is next Sunday. I'm always pretty shattered by the time I get to my rugby on a Wednesday, because I have already done close to two hours helping to coach the boys at school in the afternoon.

Thursday night is my duty night in the boarding house. The girls are great & it is very rare to have any problems or hassle whilst on duty, but I do still find it takes it out of me, just because it is a late night since you don't get home till after 11.

Friday night was really my first opportunity to miss Will, since I had been busy every other night since he left on Tuesday. My after-school activity is going to the local gym & making sure a handful of kids make it there (which they always do, because they are paying for it!). I did a good session, then came home for a nice long bath, watched a bit of rugby on the box, then got an early night.

My Saturday morning activity this year is touch rugby with some of the juniors, so it is good fun. Because it is the second session & doesn't start until 11:40 it means I can get a nice long lie-in. When I got home I watched the All-Blacks win the Tri-Nations series decider against Oz. I really do love Sky+ & being able to watch things whenever you want. It was then actually sunny enough for me to venture outside! I decided to make the most of the weather & spent 3 hours weeding my flower bed, which had been rather neglected... Will arrived home from his conference in Barcelona around 9pm so it is lovely to have him back. His paper that he presented was on "Multi-criteria minimum spanning trees" whatever they may happen to be! Apparently it went down well.

Today was another nice day. I had a two-hour rugby training in the afternoon, before heading home & marking some books in the garden. I've still got one class still to mark, so I suppose I'd better stop procrastinating & get on with them...

Lastly, I was reading a friends blog entry about Reading festival & she had posted links to a couple of Killers videos from the festival. They were the Saturday night headliners & totally rocked!

Mr Brightside
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acV4djX07PQ


All these things that I have done -the finale, & brilliant, especially when loads of confetti came streaming out of the sound-box near the end. It was very very spectacular.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiS_N0ozrUE

A quiet weekend

I survived my first week back at school. So far it has been a smooth start, & my classes look pretty good, but very early days yet...

I'm pretty knackered though, it always takes me a couple of weeks to get back into the swing of things after my 9-week break... Friday night there were drinks in the common room, but I gave it a miss. Instead I had a nice evening on the sofa snuggled up to my lovely husband.

Saturday was also very quiet. This year I am on second activity for school which doesn't start until 11:40am. It meant I could have a lovely long sleep-in before heading to school to run my touch rugby session. The rest of the day was just spent pottering really, I'm struggling to recall what I actually did! Will & I had another very chilled night in with a nice dinner, a bottle of wine & a movie. I had a good chat to mum & dad in the evening, as well as catching up with Wayne in Australia.

This morning was another long lie-in, before a HUGE shop at the supermarket. Because we were away most of last weekend we hadn't done a major grocery shop for a couple of weeks, & the cupboards were pretty bare... I also managed to get hold of my bro in Hong Kong & had a nice skype chat with him. He has also just started his school year there.

This afternoon I had rugby training. We were meant to have a 'friendly' match against Oakmedians, a Bournemouth team who play a league above us, but we decided to cancel. We were quite short on numbers, plus we have a couple of new girls who haven't done much contact yet, so we though it would be more beneficial to do a hard physical full-contact training session amongst ourselves. I'm a bit battered & bruised after it, but it feels good. Our first league match is two weeks today.

Tomorrow I am on school duty so it will be a busy day starting with breakfast at 8am & finishing with dinner at 6pm, followed by locking up the school at 6:45. We only have to do it a couple of times per half-term so I can't really complain! On Tuesday my mate Simon Cushen from St Peter's is staying the night, before flying back to NZ on the Wednesday. He was looking forward to meeting Will, but unfortunately Will flies to Barcelona on Tuesday. He is presenting a paper at a robotics conference there & is away until Saturday.

So there you go, a rather mundane post I know, but I guess writing something is better than nothing, because I know how upset some of you get when I don't keep this up-to-date!!!

Start of another school year...

Another summer holiday rolls to a close... Tomorrow is a teacher-only day, new scholars are in for a few hours on Tuesday, then Wednesday it is all systems go. I say 'summer holiday' but the UK hasn't really had a summer this year. We were lucky that it stopped raining long enough for reading festival, then the only other really good day I've had since returning from Borneo was yesterday. It was an absolute cracker! Sunshine, blue skies, & the temperature hovering around 26 degrees. Unfortunately it is now supposed to rain for the next 11 days or something silly like that! I think everyone must have noticed the big yellow sunshine amongst all the rainclouds on the weather forecasts, because we had 5 different invitations for Saturday night! In the end we plumped for a house-warming party up in Leamington Spa for Nic, a mate of Will's who lodged with him for a couple of years. It was a really good night, although we both drank a fair quantity of pimms, & didn't get to bed till after 3am, so are feeling the effects a bit today.

Driving back from Leamington Spa today we called in at Will's parents for morning tea as it is pretty much on the way home. It was lovely to see them & catch up, as I hadn't seen them since before I left for Borneo. Later that afternoon we had a visit from Goody & his wife Emma, who had just arrived back from a trip to NZ. It was great hearing about their trip, & I was very impressed by the fact that Goody turned up wearing a Waikato rugby jersey! They came bearing gifts; thanks Rich & Rach for your various bits & pieces, it was much appreciated!

Our garden is still growing like mad. As you can see from the pic below, it has been taken over a bit by various courgettes, pumpkins & squashes. We think the big one below is a jack-o-lantern pumpkin in the making. Does anyone know if they start green like that before turning yellow/orange? At the last count we had about 15 butter-nut squashes in various stages of development. That is encouraging because we go through loads of them. Our onions are ready to harvest & dry & in the shed, the carrots are absolutely divine, & we still can't keep up with our beans. I took a huge supermarket bag of them to rugby training on Wednesday which were very much appreciated by the girls.
No other news to tell. Soon we are off to the annual hog-roast at school. It's a party for all staff & their families which is always held the Sunday night before school returns, & is a nice way to start the year. I usually enjoy a glass of wine or two with my meal, but think I'll be giving it a miss tonight. I'm still recovering from last nights excesses!