Raising the roof in a calamity way

What a lazy blogger I've been recently!
Lots to talk about.
Listening to a random selection of 'Placebo' songs, this is the type of mood that I'm in!

... Tim's been at his volunteering job all day, so it's been a quiet day - bit odd hanging around the apartment, not used to this nothingness already, forget how much I love to just potter sometimes!
My day: It was a sunny morning so i went for a cycle to town, collected a stray birthday present (fun!) browsed the shops (lots of good books available in Waterstone's and plenty to wear in Topshop, but managed to come home empty handed, phew!)
I came home and began writing my birthday thank you notes and watched some 'Downton Abbey' with a lovely mug of tea. Now the evening is drawing in and I can hear the radiators coming on, they're the most beautiful old radiators and they fit in perfectly with the age of the building and its history. The sound they make is warmth personified!

Anyway.
1st thing to share are two pictures of some of the little cuties I often visit - there's a caged area in the middle of Victoria Park, and seeing as I can't have my own pets, I have to make do with going and chatting to these little lovlies - if only I could pick them up for a cuddle!





2nd thing is a picture of (part of) the family - motley crew that we are (forgive the lack of editing here-not on my laptop!!)
I had a lovely birthday with them all :)



we went to look at the dockyard and then went for a poke round the shops and for supper, followed by cup cakes - a splendid effort by mum! My birthdays often end up with a pink theme!



Here I am (looking rather happy...and also a little hump-backed (!!) due to the other chair........still, thought Alice would like to see!!)



Finally,
My friends from my teacher training course came to visit on Monday, and what a lot of fun we had!
...Including playing in the park - even at 24 we're not too old (&it was late enough that kids and disapproving mothers were safe at home!)



I bought myself a lovely new dress in French Connection for £20!! Hoping it may make an appearance on the magical mystery tour Tim's taking me on for my birthday...wherever that may be?!

When we got home we spent the evening drinking wine, playing games making-and-eating fajitas and eating cupcakes - it was lovely!

On Tuesday we went to Southsea for lunch and had a charity-shop-browse, I bought myself the most beautiful cut-glass vintage champagne glass



I'm desperate to find a set, but there was only 1, so, as you can see I'm using it as a candle holder which works really nicely - I love the reflections it casts on the walls. beautiful. I will continue my search!

I also bought a new book: 'Revolutionary Road' by Richard Yates, I enjoyed the film, and it's been long enough since I watched it that I will enjoy the novel - they're usually better anyway!

I think that's enough chatter for now! I can hear Tim's keys in the front door!

Much love xox

i scream, u scream, we all scream for ice cream

another post about the lovely weather we're having on the south coast.

Had a rather 'shock' phone call this morning, having spent Monday in Brighton with friends and wine = late night. I rather blearily answered a call for a job, good news as it means earning, but - one of the worst things about it was I thought that it seemed such a shame to have to go and spend the day indoors when the weather was so lovely! (if it had been my very own class, i would have suggested a classroom hiatus and ventured outside to investigate 'shape' in numeracy rather than looking at pictures on the interactive white board.)

However, being merely a supply does not give me this type of liberty..and i wished that i could have kept the day off, as planned, and gone and enjoyed another mr whippy!

Luckily, my day turned out well, with some lovely kids. In the afternoon we had a music lesson - my first ever attempt at playing a TUBA! what good fun!! the teacher even gave me a sticker for my good effort! haha! Don't worry, thought, I am certainly not going to continue that skill...!

So, all in all, despite not getting a mr whippy, i survived!

..and i came home to some interesting mail - hurrah!

An esplanade allows people to promenade along the sea front

Portsmouth as a city is really beginning to make me love it.. It's got lots of little quirks, such as the amusement arcades on Clarence Peir and random little ornate bandstands in the middle of a patch of grass right by the sea front [see images]. Yesterday we went for quite a long walk (partly to browse charity shops -raided their books: 3 for £5, bargain! &donated one back! unfortunately no cute tea cups/pictures/clothes to be found...next time?!) On the way back we walked along the prom and enjoyed the afternoon sunshine...

...Today Tim & I went and sat on the beach~there's this little enclosed area with two large sea walls that totally shelter you from the breeze, and here the 20degree heat (totally unexpected in October!) felt more like 25, it was absolutely the best place to spend a Sunday afternoon relaxing with a book. And..of course I was tempted by an ice cream, hurrah for the conveniently placed van on the esplanade just 20paces behind the wall! If only the sunshine would stay warm throughout winter I really would think this was the best place I could be in the world for this year! (image of T & I: We may have been Lizards in a past life)

Anyone got any thoughts on the best place in the world?

Wednesday

am now blogging from our brand new iMac computer! (I sat 'our' loosely, as it really is Tim's, but --apparently-- i can share it, whenever he's not on it... ;) )
So, thought I'd take the opportunity to blog whilst he's in the shower.

Well, it's the end of another Wednesday! What a week so far - three different schools in three days. Luckily only 1 class has made me feel like a failure teacher. Picked myself up, patted myself down, after a disastrous maths lesson with terrible children. Told myself I would not obsess. But the inevitable occurs! Anyway, that was Monday, and since then, I have been in two lovely schools with two lovely classes. Today I received 3 'thank you, we love you teacher' notes! So cute. I was reading the kids 'The Magic Finger' by Roald Dahl, and allowed them to colour quietly. I poked my head up once and wondered what they were all doing, carried on, not wanting to be a kill joy (&they were being quiet!) so, it turned out that they were passing these notes round someone had designed so that lots of them could sign them. Little Cuties! & really, thank goodness that I didn't have a go at them!!

Little things like that, and their smiling faces, or silly comments are what keep me going and keep my fingers crossed for getting my own class one day!