PC versus biro

This typing lark on a computer is a piece of piss. Spellchecker, thesaurus, easy to edit - much better than writing with a biro.

Why, you might ask, have I only just realised?

Because I've spent ninety minutes writing longhand for an assessment for a new job and it's the first time in years that I have hand written so MUCH! I didn't realise how much I use a thesaurus until I didn't have one to refer to. Not just the thesaurus on MS Word but my Penguin Dictionary of Synonyms & Antonyms.

And my handwriting. My God! It started out okay, quite neat in fact. But it didn't take long for it to deteriorate. Just as soon as my hand started to go numb after frantically scribbling for the first half hour. Just hope the content of my writing detracts from the awful scrawl. I was quite pleased with the content actually so am hoping to get through to the interviews.

Every morning when I get up the kittens have grown in their sleep, especially Chester. Although they still have kitten faces they are as big as an average cat now and their tails are becoming longer and furrier.

Aww! How cute!

Back to work ... or not....

I've registered with a teaching agency and half heartedly let them know when I'm available but not really followed it up with phone calls each morning.
Now, is this because I'm quite happy for the moment living off my savings (bad idea perhaps) or is it because I'm scared of going back into the classroom?

I'd be happy to be in a job. In fact I have an assessment day coming up to work in the civil service and I'm quite excited about that. In the meantime I need to be earning some money and supply teaching would fit the bill nicely.

The problem is that the last time I was in a classroom I was very distressed and I haven't been back since. I keep saying that I'm waiting for another authority to get my documents together because I'd rather work for them - but is that just an excuse? What will I do when they say they are ready to find me work?

I sometimes think I never want to be in a room with a lot of children again. What other job is there where most of the work you do has to be done in your own spare time? It's ridiculous. And once you have spent all that time at home preparing your work you then have to teach it to the letter (God forbid you should make a small mistake or miss out a question you planned to ask) to a class of children, most of whom couldn't give a shit. You can't go to the toilet; you can't have a drink until the children go out of school, providing you're not occupied by dealing with injured, sick or naughty children; you have to work through your lunch to get equipment prepared for the afternoon because you are no longer allowed to ask children to help as they would lose a few minutes learning; you can't let your attention wander for one second from what is happening around you whilst teaching children with ever widening abilities; you get a bad back from bending over; and if your walls aren't covered with fully interactive, colourful and imaginative displays then it's considered that you are depriving the children of the opportunities they are all entitled to. Sounds crap.

It didn't use to be, so what's happened? It used to be fun teaching children new things, being creative with them, watching them grow intelectually, helping them to achieve. Teachers always took into account children's differing abilities and learning styles. They always prepared resources to help some children learn in alternative ways to others because they are professional and caring people. For the last few years though teachers have been made to feel as if they have been slacking until the experts showed that more paperwork was the way to improve.

Perhaps I've answered my own questions now. I think I'm too angry to go into a school at the moment.

Hectic household

Ages since I updated this blog. I've been fully occupied with my new kittens. Yay!

A friend on Facebook posted some photos of his Maine Coon cats and I fell in love with them. I Googled them and had a look through lots of websites and the comment that made my mind up that I wanted one was 'It was the next best thing to having a pet tiger that I could get'. Of course it wouldn't be fair to have one kitten on its own, especially if I'm out at work, so I had to get two.


This is Coonaria Martha's Vineyard and Coonaria Rochester, better know as Mab and Chester.

They are both really cute and adorable. Chester is such a gentle and affectionate kitten and never gets his claws out when playing. Mab on the other hand loves attacking ankles and fingers but when she's tired she changes completely and curls up in a tight ball on your lap. She goes all floppy and fluffy and snuggly.

I really should be phoning the teaching agency and asking for work each morning but I keep thinking - just one more day to help the kittens settle in.

I'm also at the beginning of Advanced Creative Writing with the OU so am spending some time getting into the course. I'll have to work soon though before the money runs out!

Glad to be home, sad to be home

Bloody council offices. I ask for a simple form to be sent to me, it takes two weeks, three phone calls and it still isn't here. I wouldn't mind but it's something they should have sent me automatically when I left work!
And what is it with employers these days? I'm looking at job options and they want everyone to work to tight deadlines, under unbearable pressure, have masters degrees and at least a hundred and two years' experience, be working towards other qualifications, be willing to work unsociable hours, all for a salary of £18,000 and a week's leave! For God's sake.

I've just spent a week and a half living in a field in Derbyshire. It was great.
Setting up for the Gathering, the UK's largest live roleplaying event of the year, was really good fun. The crew we worked with this year were fantastic and we had such a laugh.
It took over a week to set up the site and four full days to create the set piece - a magical library, courtyard, attached guild rooms and sound/lighting control room. The players arrived on Friday, left on Monday and suddenly the field was empty and it was all over. It always seems like such an anti climax when everyone has gone home and the field is empty again.

I love being in the field. Waking up and hearing only the birds (and a distant hum from the generator!), seeing the view of the parkland and fields and the manor house through the trees.
We take a caravan with us and put lots of cotton rugs down in the awning so it's comfortable and dry in damp weather.

I often feel I could live like that but then I come home and realise what comforts I've missed. Like a shower that hundreds of other people haven't used that doesn't have a curtain that sticks to your legs. A flushing toilet that empties itself. That reminds me of something my dad once said after spending four weeks in Corfu - 'It's a lovely place to be but the bloody sanitation gets me down.'

The thing I miss the most are the people. I get used to being with a group of friends, working together all day and having a few beers in the evening and then when I'm back home it seems too quiet. Mind you I'd probably long for a bit of solitude after a while if I couldn't get away from people.

Think I'll go and sit in the garden and watch the horses, even though it's drizzling.
I'll look for a job tomorrow.

My house

Even when it's untidy, like today, I love my house.

When we moved here about four years ago, we'd come from a small terraced house amongst a regiment of other rows of terraced houses and the first thing I noticed was how much sky I could see. I could see all of it. The second thing I noticed was the peace. We'd been used to being woken by rowdy groups making their drunken way home at 2 am. Now we're in a cul-de-sac with open fields behind and often can't even hear any traffic.

I never tire of the view from the back garden and the first thing I want to do each morning is open the curtains and look out of the window. The view is ever changing. Whether it's the horses in the fields or the weather or the beautiful sunsets, no view is the same twice.

Standing outside and smelling the air is wonderful, especially late at night when the scent of the trees and grass is particularly strong. I also like standing in the twilight whilst the bats whizz around my head catching the gnats that are rising from the damp grass and shrubs.

I've tried writing when I'm sat outside on a warm day but I get distracted too easily by the wildlife - birds, butterflies, frogs and toads. We don't have a pond but seem to get lots of frogs and toads each year, flopping about under the plants. I never dreamt that I could just sit and stare at plants and the sky for so long.

Bent old crone

I sat down at the dining table, laptop and mobile phone ready to transfer photographs and my back went. Just like that. Don't know where it went to, but I've now got the back of some bent old crone.
I can't straighten up and I have to take little shuffling steps. It's even painful to sit up straight.I tried lying flat on the floor and gently stretching out. That took some doing - just getting down to floor level. I had to lie with my knees bent as it hurt to strighten my legs.I've now taken some strong pain killers and I'm beginning to feel a bit stoned so I'll probably have to succumb to being a couch potato for the rest of the day until I get my own back back (can I say that - is it good grammar - who cares?)
I won't be able to clean the kitchen (shame). Today is the first decently dry day we've had for a week but I won't be able to mow the lawn. I'll have to get Inspector Gadget (that's Adrian, who I live with) to do it when he gets home from work. People who know me will know why he's called Inspector Gadget. And people who don't know me can probably guess.
Well, I need to creakily unwind myself as far as possible from this computer chair and try to relax my spine in front of the telly.
More later if I can make it back up the stairs.

First words

After numerous attempts I have finally managed to create my blog.
Of course I'll probably screw it up completely when I start trying to customise it.
Back later when I've got time to say a bit more ....

Back again.
Well I've managed to change the colours without losing everything. Although I'm not sure why it says I'm posting this at 3.35 am. I admit I was awake then, suffering yet another sleepless night, but I was downstairs reading. I must have started creating this telepathically, unless I was sleep blogging.
Found some fantastic words yesterday on A Word A Day at http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscribe.html
One of my favourites is gundygut - a voracious eater, a greedy person.

Huh, typical. I get my blog up and running and now can't think of a single thing I want to write.