New faces

Can't stop listening to ~ Blonde on Blonde - Nada Surf
Can't stop thinking about ~ sitting on the beach, soaking up the sunshine


~First day at my new school today.. It takes time to get used to something new, I know, but I do miss my old class! I'm sure I'll look back on this and laugh after easter when I'm settled in. Plus, the class teacher is off sick, so it's hard to get an entirely accurate idea of what goes on. Everyone seemed welcoming though which is good and it's a very nice school. The supply is lovely & will be there next tuesday too, so a familiar face will be nice... I've been told about 50 names today and I can only remember about 5! but I'll learn them soon enough, I hope!

As for the children, the deprivation that I think some of them live in made me stop and think about how lucky I've been in my life. There's a set of tiny council houses opposite the school, which the head told me have lots of vulnerable families arriving and living in until they're re-housed somewhere more suitable. So the tenants change quite frequently...
In my year 2 class, one girl told me she has seven brothers and two sisters! (unimaginable!) she wasn't sure if they all have the same mum and dad, but she thinks not. - imagine having to be aware of that kind of thing at 7?!
Another told me that his dad's left and that he's glad he never sees him because he used to kick him... this is quite a lot of information to be getting in my first afternoon. But I'm just glad that these 28 children have somewhere safe to come for a whole day, where they can spend time with other children their age, and get an education.
I only hope to become another positive aspect of their day.

relief

I passed my maths and ICT tests today, I have to revise for my English one tomorrow, but that's ok :)
I feel really relieved.. another step closer towards the many things I have to do to become a teacher...!

Valentines :)

Cards and flowers :)

Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt the sun doth move,
Doubt truth to be a liar
but never doubt thy love.

-- William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Scene II

Yummy Valentines cheesecake!

Discoveries

We have decided that every time we go for coffee we are going to 'try' a new place. This is our attempt to discover the city. It's so true that when you live somewhere you don't appreciate it as much as if you were visiting. I want to dispell this and really explore. After all, who knows when I'll next be in Bath after I leave this summer? - and I really will just be a visitor then. I want to get to know it as someone who (well, psudo) lives here. (I say psudo-lives as I technically live in Keynsham, but it's still counted as BANES, so I can count myself in!)
This image shows the girls at 'Handel Und Gretel' a very cute little strudel house in the basement of a German-esque shop!

And our next jaunt.... Having visited a couple of museums around the city we stopped off here... the Adventure Cafe.
(I've actually been here before, but 2/4 of us hadn't, and it's YUM, so it counted!)


~~Here's to further exploration!~~

Poppysmic

- the sound produced by the smacking of the lips.

It comes from the Latin poppysma, via the defunct French popisme. Romans used the original for a kind of lip-smacking, clucking noise that signified satisfaction and approval, especially during lovemaking. In French, it referred to the tongue-clicking tsk-tsk sound that riders use to encourage their mounts. The only writer in English known to have used our word was James Joyce, in a stage direction in Ulysses: “FLORRY WHISPERS TO HER. WHISPERING LOVEWORDS MURMUR, LIPLAPPING LOUDLY, POPPYSMIC PLOPSLOP.”