1 week till half-term...

This week has also vanished without a trace. During the week Will & I managed to book a very cute little cottage for 4 nights from December 15th. We are staying in the UK & having Christmas with his family this year, so we thought a few days away together before Christmas would be nice. The cottage we chose is an old converted dairy a few miles from Stratford-upon-Avon. It looks very quaint & cosy. There is a pub a few hundred yards away which was also a deciding factor in choosing this particular property! This weekend was very busy. On Friday night a large group from school had a good night at the pub. We stayed until closing, & then somehow the decision was made to carry on at our place.

After quite a few more drinks & a bit of poker we managed to get the place to ourselves at 3:30am! I did feel a bit guilty in the morning, & baked some blueberry muffins as a peace offering for our upstairs neighbours (certain drunk art & textiles teachers, & South Africans with big booming voices make quite a lot of noise!). Claire is very cool though, & said it was no problem. In fact her partner was out on a bender of his own & didn't get home until after we had finished.

Saturday was understandably quiet... I did a lot of mooching around the house & watched a bit of rugby on the box. It was another Heineken cup weekend, meaning 5 back to back rugby games! That evening we had a 40th birthday party for one of Will's friends. We didn't stay late, & I decided to drive, so wasn't drinking.

Today we had a lovely day at Will's parents place. We arrived for lunch -a very English meal of toad-in-the-hole with beans & potatoes from their garden. Will then went off to his korfball matches which he was refereeing in Oxford, & I stayed with his parents & we watched some more rugby, followed by Andy Murry's victory in the Madrid masters tennis. I also got some marking done, as well as making a start on the Sunday paper. Will arrived back a few hours later & we also stayed for dinner. It was a really nice relaxed day.

This week is busy. Tomorrow night I have an 'all you can eat' Chinese meal with the 6th form international students from school. It's at a Chinese restaurant just down the road which does amazing food. Tuesday night I'm on duty in the boarding house, then Wednesday night I'll go to rugby training for the first time since injuring my knee. I'm not expecting to be able to do much, maybe just a bit of light jogging & a few handling skills if I'm lucky. On Thursday night my friend Jon is visiting for two nights. His Scottish school has half-term one week earlier than mine, & he is visiting family in Wales. He decided he might as well pay us a visit as well as he doesn't get down this way very often. Then it's my turn for one week of holiday. Bring it on!!!