Education Blog Awards

I received a Tweet this morning from@chrisrat asking me whether I know this blog had been nominated for Blog of the Year in the Education Blog Awards.

I have to admit that it hadn't even occurred to me to even look on the site as I never thought I would be nominated.

I'm amazed and very flattered that anyone would nominate me, so thank you whoever you are :)

Thank you also to everyone who stops by and reads. I'm always surprised that people find my ramblings interesting...and sometimes wonder whether I should even write half the things I do!!

Finally, of course, I would like to ask that, if you find this blog interesting and enjoy reading please take a second and vote for it... :)

The end of an era

Yesterday was the end of an important chapter in my life.

Eight years ago, whilst looking for a teaching job with less hours, it was suggested to me that, maybe instead of reducing my hours I should apply to be Head of German/2nd in Area at Ian Ramsey C of E School in Stockton. "OK", I thought...after all it was much closer to home and the school I attended where I gained my passion for Languages. I applied and was successful so started in the following January.

I've certainly had my ups and downs and highs and lows over the last 71/2 years. I went from 2nd in Area to 2 days a week for 2 years after Dan was born and enjoyed that, although I found sharing all of my classes very difficult and when a full-time member of the department was promoted elsewhere I offered to return to work full-time. After some to-ing and fro-ing it was agreed that I would and was thrown in at the deep end  with a difficult timetable and finding out (by accidenet) the day before term started I was to inherit a Year 8 Tutor Group. However, having got over the initial hurdles I achieved and "outstanding" in our OfSted Inspection and began blogging and Tweeting.

Since then my career has gone from strength to strength with, with me having the opportunity to speak at various locations on a range of topics becoming a Links into Languages trainer this year. At work I compiled our (succesfull) International School Award portfolio last year and have set up many international projects and even had the opportunity to teach ICT this year (heehee). Over the last 3 years I also became very fond of my surprise Tutor Group!

Earlier this year I applied for and was appointed to a new post which begins in September, so yesterday ended 8 years of my life...in fact more like 14 years if we include the 5 years I spend there as a pupils and the 5 years that my sister spent there too (she's 2 years younger than me). I was very sad to leave yesterday as I have made some great friends who I will be friends with for many years to come, I was given loads of support and guidance by some very special people who I feel very priviledged to have worked with and I got to work with some fantastic pupils-mainly from my Tutor Group.

So, whilst I look forward with anticipation and excitement to the challenges of my new post as Head of Languages at St. Michael's RC School in Billingham I also want to say thank you to all those who made my time at Ian Ramsey such an unforgettable experience.

Holidays and High Hopes

The Zen Fountain in Les Rosiers-sur-Loire

Where did the holidays go? It seems like no time at all since the summer holidays were approaching too slowly and now they're over.

What wonderful times I had with my family. We went to France for two weeks and seemed to travel the full width of the country. Spending a week in the Loire Valley, 3 days in Disneyland Resort Paris (to give it it's full name) and then 4 days in a tiny little village on the French/German border called Liederschiedt visiting a friend. It certainly was action packed a lots of fun. Best of all I and my family got to speak lots of French and I discovered that my 7 year old really is a budding linguist, able to work out the meaning of signs and words with far more ease than many pupils I teach. It was so amazing watching her use all of the clues that I tell my pupils to use, without me even having to tell her. Also fascinating was the friendship that developed between my two children (7 and 4) and my friend's two (4 and 2 1/2). My children speak next to no German or French and Heike's children speak mainly German and often French. Despite the language barrier all four children played really well together and there were tears shed upon our departure.

Naturally, we had our usual visit to Eastbourne to visit my sister and watch the airshow. We saw the Red Arrows an all of the days we attended the event and enjoyed many other thrilling displays.
After that work seemed inevitable and I began to contemplate the year ahead of me. Where am I going? What am I doing (and why)?
There are some exciting things happening this year - none less so than the fact that I am to teach ICT for 6hrs a fortnight to Y7, Y8 and Y9. In order to do this I am going to have to learn how do use some applications quite quickly. Can't wait! In particular it will be interesting to see my job from the perspective of another subject area. How do they teach in ICT? Is it really different from teaching MFL? In addition ICT is taught in Tutor Groups throughout KS3, whereas MFL is taught in sets from Christmas of Y7, what will that be like? I already like teaching ICT before I've even had one class, as I already have all of the lessons and resources!
Added to that I have acquired a "new" job title, that of "International School Co-ordinator". Basically it means I just continue doing what I'm doing already. Continuing with that theme, we will re-apply for a Comenius Grant, after failing to gain funding last year. I'm currently trying to organise a preparation visit for January which will be entertaining! Also we have an all new French exchange with a school in Caussade near Toulouse.
As far as my MFL teaching is concerned, I have to admit to feeling a little stale, so I want to focus on injecting some enthusiasm into things. Naturally I'll continue to use ICT to motivate pupils and also lead some staff CPD within the department to encourage colleagues to follow suit. I'm also going to do some work on Phonics with my classes. After seeing Rachel Hawkes speak at Grasping the Nettle and being in touch with Suzi Bewell, I've bought a Jolly Phonics French book and a lovely Frieze and am going to spend time focusing on pronunciation with many of my pupils.
So not much then, in the year ahead. It should keep me out of trouble anyway!

Race for Life - Ormesby Hall 2009

For the third time in a row, I headed to Ormesby Hall on Saturday morning to take part in Cancer Research UK's Race for Life. This year was a little bit different, as I had my favourite 7 year old taking part with me. Alice was desperate to take part this year, since one of her friend's had done it last year and she likes to do the same thing as her friends (of course).
We made no pretence of trying to run this year and duly lined up with the "Walkers" to cross the start line about 10 mins after the first runners. It was most disconcerting to, having only just completed the first kilometre, see the winner heading for the finish line. Alice couldn't believe it!!!
We finished the race in a record 56 mins and have been challenged to run it in 35 mins next year by Mr. Langwitch - he said he'd sponsor us £100 if we did.
I don't think you can tell by the picture, but on our backs we wrote "I race for life for Pauline's mum". Pauline is my closest friend and her mum is currently in the final stages of ovarian cancer, so we felt it was very important to race for her.
All in all it was a good morning, we didn't get too wet and my hand didn't quite fall off after being held onto very tightly for 5 km by a 7 yr old girl :o)

ps. You can still sponsor us online here

Just one of the reasonsI love being a mum

My little girl, who is 6, must have been writing poems for Mothers' Day at school this week because this morning she wrote me this gorgeous poem before going to school.  It just goes to show how children see things through rose-coloured spectacles but here it is, it's absolutley beautiful. (Oh by the way, I've left in her versions of spellings!):

"My mum is terrific and thoughtfull

My mum is fashenebell and fantastic

My mum is beautifull and best

And thas way I love my mum"

Absolutely wonderful!

Another GMTV Diet on the horizon

Last year I blogged about the GMTV Bikini Diet that I followed for 6 weeks with great results (I lost just over a stone). Well, during my daytime TV viewing due to my my coughing fits this week, I discovered another diet is underway.  The "Get Motivated" campaign is being fronted by Mr. Motivator  - yes, he's on Twitter -  (who'd have thought it, I believed he was doing something other than motivating!) and again has recipes to follow.  So, I've decided to have another go (as I've regained some of the weight lost last year) and see how I go.  I won't update that regularly about it for fear of boring you but I will keep you informed of any success I have.

Peanut butter toastied for me for breakfast in the morning!...

New Year's Resolutions

Does anybody else find that New Year's Resolutions can be quite depressing by the middle of February whey they find that they've not managed to keep up their demanding list of Resolutions made on the 1st January? I think I remember last year hearing that some date in February is the most depressing day of the year for several reasons, one of which is that fact that by that date most people have usually given up on the New Year's Resolutions.

This time last year, I remember writing a blog post about my resolutions for 2008 and feeling really positive about the fact that, having them written down here it would make it easier to keep...ha, ha, ha.

What were they? I can't remember, something about weight no doubt, and something else about confidence, oh and a new job I believe. Well, I suppose I lost a bit of weight and gained a little more confidence and as for the job, well...let's just I have a "new perspective" now.

What about this year? Well, I decided that, in order to avoid being too disappointed in myself by February, I'm not having any this year. I'm just going to take each new challenge as is comes, which is currently being able to to see properly with both eyes.

Have you made any New Year's Resolutions? Where will you be at the end of 2009? (Hopefully I'll be lying on a beach somewhere not having to think about work, as I will have won the lottery...)

Blocked, blacklisted, access denied!

I appreciate and understand the need for filters on school computers, I really, really do BUT it still proves to be one of the most frustrating things about my job and winds me up no end. It's not so much actual filters that bother me, it's the "wise person" who, somewhere (probably in an office), has taken it upon themselves to decide what is acceptable and what isn't acceptable for me to use with my pupils and also the, apparent randomness with which this is done.
I'm writing this after a number of weeks discovering how randomly our blacklisted and none blacklisted seem to have been set. After the Isle of Wight Conference, I decided to rediscover my love of Voicethread. As I blogged about in a previous post, I used it earlier this year with a groups of Gifted and Talented pupils as an experiment, and I thought that after Jo Rhys-Jones' session at the Show and Tell I'd have another go at it. WRONG! Suddenly, with no warning, this site has been blacklisted! Why? How? Why is it so evil that it's going to corrupt the minds of my pupils? (After is didn't, previously!) It also seems that it's been put on that list that the technicians seem unable to unblock (that's the one labelled "numpty nonentity wants unblocking so unimportant", in case anyone was unsure), as I've requested that it be unblocked several times to no avail :o(
It therefore seems unbelievable to me that Facebook is available (but then a member of SLT wanted that unblocking, so that went onto a different list entitled "important person wants unblocking so must do it immediately").
In addition to this, the blocking seems to be done in such a haphazard way! Thinking about venturing more into video, I signed up for a 12 second TV and wondered about investigating Seesmic. Of course, I naturally pressumed that they too would be blacklisted (as they are in other schools I know of) but decided to try it out, just the same. Imagine my surprise when they weren't!!! I just don't get it!
Next I discovered the BBC Learning Zone Broadband Class Clips...great resource, ideal for use in a computer suite. Put the kids on, get them to watch and listen and answer questions, using it for Listening but a bit more interesting. Great idea but...WRONG. Kids could get onto the page where the video was BUT couldn't view the evil, malicious video about a German day at school...heaven forbid that pupils learning MFL could do something that might stir up some enthusiasm for the subject.
How do "they" decided what is to be blacklisted and what isn't? Why aren't those awful translation websites blocked that they all go on and think will be their ticket to perfect French / German / Spanish etc...? Why can they still get onto music sites / game sites etc, etc...but I can't let them use websites that are of real educational value?
As I said at the beginning of this post, I understand the need for filters, I really do but what I don't understand is the haphazard way that websites are filtered. Is this a local phenomenan or is it more widespread? All I want to know is either that it's going to be blocked because it's a certain type of site or it's not going to be blocked. I don't want to feel that I'm playing some kind of guessing game trying to work out what to put my energy into investigating at home on an evening, before going into to work to try it and find I've wasted my time (with 44 teaching hrs out of 50 a fortnight, I don't really ave the time to "play" at work). It's the kind of thing which is beginning to sap my enthusiasm at the moment...but heyho, it's nearly Christmas and maybe Santa will bring me a whole load of unblocked websites for Christmas this year.

Blogaversary

Thinking back over the year today, I realised that this blog had just had it's first blogaversary. I felt it warrented a mention. I have really enjoyed my year of blogging on this blog (although I don't think my husband has). It's really nice to write and have people comment on what I've written. I learnt a lot on my journey over the last year and hope to learn even more in the years to come.
Thank you to those of you who read, you've helped to make this blog what it is today :o)

A very busy week

I think the the next few days will be full of blog posts from me, as I seem to have done so much in a very short space of time. I've done so much, met so many people and had such a great time that I really don't know where to begin. I think maybe, I'll just go for it and apologise in advance for poor spelling and typing (no surprises there, then) and some rather mixed up time-lines. In no particular order I'm intending to blog about:

• my all new Ning that I set up last Wednesday and changed the name of yesterday
• the Isle of Wight Conference (of course)...hopefully individual posts about various aspects and how much I learnt etc..
• a chance encounter with a trainee life coach (aahhh...bet no-one expected that one - least of all me!)
• going to train MFL PGCE students at Durham University last week and the hazards that brought with it.

So, I'm now going to go and get busy...I even have emails to answer, somewhere!

Sock puppets

There was a time when, if someone had said "sock puppets" to me, I would have recoiled in horror, thinking that "that kind of stuff" was for primary schools only. However, I 've come a long way since then and having seen a post by Lisa Stevens about Puppets a while ago it got me wondering about their potential for me.
I am currently blessed to have been given a well-balanced timetable and amongst my well-balanced classes, I am very lucky to have a gorgeous Yr8 class of 12 (with absences on a regular basis). We have French 4 times one week and twice the other, so I imagine that by period 4 on a Friday they're pretty tired of my voice droning on at them. Well, I hit upon an idea this week...sock puppets! We would spend some Friday afternoons creating our puppets and scenery and them write a script to perform to camera. This would be good for their French in the long run when they got to doing the speech and also it meant that I could put the film on my blog with no fear of worrying about getting permissions to use said children's faces etc...
So today we began. Last night on my daily visit to a local supermarket I bought socks (OK, 14 too many as I forgot in my fervour that socks were sold in PAIRS, so bought 14 PAIRS of socks) and googly eyes, felt, glue etc... and tok them all to work today. I explained what we were going to do...basically get very messy and expected a cry of how babyish but no...their faces were a glow with anticipation. It was fab!!! I flet like the perfect mother that I can never be. Of course it was all done in a very controlling fashion with me not letting the glue out of my hands and not allowing too much creativity with the darling socks. However, by the end of the lesson we had beautiful puppets, all now drying on one of my tables in my room (hope they didn't scare the cleaners too much.) What remains now? Well in 2 weeks, scenery and beginning scripts. Once filming is done I think they will also do a profile of their puppets...name, age, hobbies etc. So...not much French achieved today but I often feel with classes who find language learning a challenge, enjoyment in worth 10 times more than achievement. They will remember these puppets for a long time. The lovliest thing was, as small boy saying "Thank you Miss for making the puppets today" (I nearly wept) and another small boy who went straight to his tutor to tell her all about the lesson. Priceless!

We've only just begun...

Well the first week is over and done with and all of the plans for organisation have gone out of the window, as predicted. Well...actually, they're not doing too badly at the moment and I was actually able to leave my desk(s) tidy over the weekend for a change. I'm sure it can't last.
I have got the term off to a flying start and found that I like all of my classes so far...and what's more they seem to like me (although I do think they think I'm a little strange-can't imagine why!).
Everyone was more than pleased with our excellent exam results in the summer and can't wait to get back to the real task of educating our future generations. There are some exciting plans afoot, I believe, but will blog about them at a later date if anything happens. (That's actually just to get people to keep coming back on a regular basis to find out what they are!!!!)
I don't think that I've had any amazing ICT-ish stuff done this week...the pupils were only in for 3 days...but I am working on it and there is "great potential" for some fantastic work this year. Of course I got underway with, and completed, the first Whiteboard Challenge today but will blog about that in my next post.
I began work with my Yr9 class on my Langwitch blog, just asking them to introduce themselves in German in 40-50 words. I was amazed, I set the homework yesterday and by the time I'd got in from work, several of them had already completed it. They all seemed really keen to be doing stuff online plus, they liked the fact that they got immediate feedback from me at the bottom of their comment. They seemed really pleased when I saw them today in the corridor that I had already seen their work and commented on it...wow, what a motivator (for them and me).
So, there we are, a very upbeat Langwitch, with high hopes for the rest of the year :o)

New term, new challenges

As the summer holidays draw to an end and the weather begins to improve it's time to think once again about what lies ahead. The beginning of a new academic year is like January when I makes new resolutions, but this time about my teaching. As usual I'm going to work hard to be the best teacher ever (although I have heard that it's OK not to be perfect and just be "good enough"), be the most organised ever etc, etc, etc... On a serious note, however I will strive to make improvements on last year even if that means saying "no" once in a while so as to do my best in other areas.
Plans I already have in place to work on right at the start of term are varied. Naturally I have my Langwitch Blog to work on with my pupils and my Langwitch Wiki which I hope to use more often. In addition as mentioned in an earlier post, I have signed up to the all new IWB Challenge and hope to teach myself some new tricks with the ActivStudio.
In a new venture, I was asked to develop ICT-based projects for the Yr7 SOW - one per chapter of Metro / Logo, which I have done. In order to "show off" the work created by our Yr7 pupils and also to encourage some AfL I was also asked to created a French Blog and a German Blog so that staff can add work to them. (No links yet as there's nothing to see). This venture should be extremely interesting as it will involve me a) training staff in the MFL Area how to do the projects (no.1 make a Voki) and b) ensuring that I am not the one doing all of the work. Part B I think maybe the hardest, as I introduced the Heads of French and German to the new (Edu)blogs in July and told them that they needed to register so that I could make them administrators and so far neither of them has.
Keeping on the theme of training I am to go to a local university in October and do some work with their PGCE students, quite a daunting prospect for someone who sometimes struggles to talk to 16 yr olds but one that I am relishing none the less. On a similar topic I will continue to add to the Teacher's Corner of my Wiki so that my colleagues and anyone else who chooses can use it as a reference for doing some of the activities I have suggested to them. I will of course continue to direct them to Joe Dale's wonderful blog for a more detailed view of how to use ICT effectively in their teaching.
There are at least 2 eTwinning projects that I'm to work on, both with Yr 9 pupils (but not the same ones). A German project entitled "Reisen in Europa", a virtual travel guide to our regions, with a school in German, one in Poland and one in Hungary and and English project with my tutor group entitled "How Green in your World" with a school in Poland and a school in France. For this we will be working together on a Wiki where our pupils will add their work as they complete the half-termly tasks.
Finally I'm supposed to be involved in developing our all new Moodle VLE. Quite what this will involve I don't know.
In addition to all this, I'm supposed to go back to choir (Monday), go to the gym 3 times a week (Tuesday, Friday and Sunday) plus swimming with the kids (Sunday) and play badminton with my husband (Thursday).
If I manage to do it all I will be amazed!

Kahlilla Blyss Donahoo

People will probably think I'm odd for writing a second post on this theme, but here it is and I'm drawing a line under this kind of thing from now on!
Some people may have read my previous post about a beautiful little girl called Samatha Hughes who died in April, aged 5, from a rare childhood cancer called Neuroblastoma. Less than 100 children are diagnosed with it in the UK in a year and the survival rate past 5 years is about 20% ,I think - awful!
Anyway you couldn't follow Samantha's story without also following the story of Kahlilla Blyss Donahoo, her "twin", a girl from Phillip Island, Victoria who shared the same birthday as Samantha and was diagnosed with the same horrible illness around the same time as her. I read with great sadness on Monday that she too had joined Samantha and become and Angel. It's heartbreaking to think about this but it does make me value my own 2 children all the more...especially when they're making a mess and fighting over the Magnetix toys!

Tents, tyres, toothache and Twenty20 cricket

The title of this blog post just about sums up my summer really. A couple of people have asked me recenly how the holidays have been and I have replied "interesting" as I think that this is the word that best fits how they have been.
It's funny how we break up for the summer holidays in July, seeing a wonderful 6 (or 5 1/2 this year) weeks' holiday ahead of us and high hope for the perfect holiday and, for me they never quite live up to their expectations, somehow! This year was definately no exception, it seemed to be "one of those years" where we were destined to have our plans changed and where I was to have my French tested.
Our plans for the acutal "holiday" were as follows-spend 3 nights in our tent in Honfleur then drive down to St. Hilaire de Riez in the Vendee to spend a week in a mobile home, before returning home after nearly two weeks in the sun and on the beach. Things got off to a good start, Honfleur was beautiful as ever, and the campsite we stayed on was great (I can thoroughly recommend it - Domaine de la Catinière it's callsed). Alice and Dan both loved the pool (Mum and Dad thought it was a bit cold, though) and the food was OK - don't believe in cooking too much on a camping stove!. We did have a bit of rain but the worst of it happened when we packed the tent up...why is always mad hot when we put the tent up and raining when we put it down?
Then the trouble started...we headed of to the Vendee on the 2nd of August...I know, I know, silly me I should have know better...it took us 8 hours to do a 3-4 hour journey! We finally arrived in St. Hilaire and I know immediately by the look on Graeme's face that he hated it. Tents and caravans squashed into tiny pitches, too many people and a funny smell (although to be fair I think that was just damp sand as it had rained all day!). We got to our mobile home more or less right on the dunes and Graeme remarked that it reminded him of Seaton Carew. To top it off, the flush on the toilet broke late that evening...we discussed leaving but decided to give the place a chance. The next morning we awoke to find we had a flat tyre (and it was Sunday), anyway we got the toilet fixed and Graeme managed to put the spare wheel onto the care and we got the tent dried out. The pool was over-crowded and the beach was dirty we made plans... On Monday we got the tyre fixed(15 Euros, well impressed) and I used some great GCSE-level French to achieve that and ...the toilet broke again, I got on the phone to my mum and told her to book us a pitch on the campsite they had just arrived on in the Loire Valley (we went there last year in mobile home so know it was a nice site). Next day we packed up and left Seaton Carew in France behind, losing quite a bit of money in the process but by that stage we didn't care!
Once again, we errected the tent in the blistering midday heat but the pitch was wonderful, really private and just enough shade for us to cook and eat in. Even better my parents looked after the children whilst we were busy. The pool was fantastic and even the campsite owner remembered us from last year. Things were great, we even managed to head to Saumur in the opposite direction to the thousands of cyclists who had descended upon the town for the annual meet and have our Croque Monsieurs in our favourite bar (a tradition when we are in the Loire Valley). The Graeme's toothache struck...he had to get up a 4 in the morning and wander round until the morning due to his pain! Once he got some painkillers things were a bit better and we got to go to Angers and look round the castle and Tapestry of the Apocalypse, much to the displeasure of my parents (Mum because she's desperate to go and Dad because he isn't...they only ever visit the outside of castles!!). That was the end of the holiday. A very rough sea crossing with a seasick Graeme and a stay in the Travel Inn at Dover and we were home!
Once home, Graeme had to seek out a dentist who would see an emergency patient (we don't have a dentist at the moment as we don't agree with paying for something that we already pay for on the NHS). He found one and got his tooth sorted (root filing, eek)
Since then things haven't really improved...bad weather, warring children and the Twenty20 International between England and South Africa, that I'd bought Graeme tickets for at Christmas, was cancelled because of the weather.
Surely the last week of the holidays well be successful!

Feeling enthusiastic and motivated!

Well it's not often I can say that!
I was very pleased today to find out that service can be great if you order from the right places. My USB microphone and web-cam arrived this afternoon and I was very impressed, as they had only been ordered on Friday! I collected them and eagerly took them upstairs to show them off to my waiting Year 9 class. I decided that, rather than wait for our over-worked technician to intall them, I'd plug them in and see what happened. Imagine my (and my class's) delight when they worked. We had great fun with me recording them making too much noise and filming them doing no work! I then started to tell them the sad tale of my wireless keyboard and mouse, puchased at Christmas and still sitting sad and unloved in a dusty office. They suggested that I might be able to just plug them in too. So I dispatched one of them to get said keyboard and mouse and what do you know it worked! How chuffed am I? (I know it's really sad but I actually feel a bit like a naughty school-girl not waiting to have them intalled - but that would take until sometime next year). The web-cam does have some features that do need installing via the CD but they can wait...the important thing is that I can now video-conference from the comfort of my own desk and also get classes involved too (you can just about make out the class it you put the camera at the front of the room)!!
In addition to this, I'm beginning to think about new eTwinning projects for the coming year. We're apparently going to launch head-long into planning a Comenius Project and I have been charged with finding a Polish school to work with...all very well and good but how do I turn down the other 3 Polish schools, 2 Romanian schools, Spanish school and Swedish school who also want to work with us? (I'm not good at saying "no") ...although Sweden sounds interesting. In addition, a very interesting German project was being advertised and I couldn't help myself...oh and of course there's the French school that would like to blog with us too... The more the merrier I say! I wouldn't be put off at the thought of having a different project for every class I teach it's so important for kids to see that what they're learning can have a real and immediate impact on their lives.
No wonder my Head of Area made the comment that I'm "up for anything" (in the nicest possible way, of course).

Back on the up again and weight loss too!

After faltering last week, I feel like I'm back on an upward journey.

I almost wrote another "meltdown" post but refrained and glad I did! I think I was suffering from "post-trip adrenalin come-down" and ended the week feeling undervalued, wondering where my career was going and also like a terrible mother and wife to boot! I did, however realise that this was due to lack of adrenalin, lack of weight-loss and general malaise of other colleagues being picked-up by my over-active empathy streak! After a nice relax and fun hour or so on Facebook (and alcohol) on Friday evening I felt much better and the Race for Life got my adrenalin levels back up to somewhere near normal!
Feeling much more positive today and ready for most things.
The best moment of the day was standing on the scales this morning to find that I had lost a further 6lbs to make a grand total of 11lbs in 3 weeks!!! Not bad, considering that my overall target for the full 6 week diet was to lose 12 lbs! If I keep this up I might have completely disappeared by October!

Race for Life - still alive!

I made it round the course today and even managed to run round some of it - curiously it was the bit where Graeme, Alice and Dan were stood (and over the finish line). It was amazing to see so many people all together trying to run...it was quite difficult to do so at some points!
I met some colleagues just after the start so it was nice to have a bit of a chat for a while. I then had to schnell it up a bit thought because I needed to go to Alice and Dan's school fair!
It's quite scary to stop and think about the number of people I know affected by cancer and it's probably the same for other people too. I can think of at least 2 colleagues, plus one of my best friend's mums and me, although I must admit that I never really think of my mole (malignant melonoma) that was removed 9 years ago as anything that major - unfortunately life insurance companies think otherwise!
I have vowed to run next year and Alice wants to do it too. As Graeme so aptly pointed out to me, what was the point in walking :o( He also wondered if the couple of people who sponsored me £10 knew I was only walking!!! I told him it didn't matter how it did it just that I actually did it and raised money.
Barnaby Bear also accompanied us, so that will go in his diary. Off to the Lakes with him tomorrow. We had hoped to go in the tent but it's a bit wet...

Maintained :o(

Well, after my joy last week at losing 5lbs in one week, I stood on the scales today to find I'd lost nothing at all.
I'm trying to remain up beat, after all I did lose a lot for me last week and I did go to Germany, the land of cakes and beer! Maybe I shouldn't have had that cheese cake.
Oh well, I'm still on target for the 12 lbs in 6 weeks that I'd hoped for, so can't really grumble.

Cologne!

Here I am, back in old "Blighty" again, after a couple of days of gobe-trotting on the dreaded Cologne trip. As predicted, I did have a very enjoyable time. We had great fun, mainly at the expense of my Head of Area, but it was worth it :o)

The coach journey was, of course, torture. Very loud and excited Yr7s not much space and COLD. Fortunately Leicester Forest East had these wonderful travel pillows and blankets that we spashed out on. I'm so glad I did, as it eased the discomfort, somewhat.
Once in Cologne, we arrived at the Deutz Youth Hostel, a very well equiped and modern place to stay - hoghly recommended, and then we walked the kids into Cologne for a boat trip. We had a pleasant 2 hrs on a KD Cruise, however I think one hour would have been long enough, in reality. After tea, we were able to gather in a room for the "good cop, bad cop" routine, as I praised the kids for their behaviour on the boat and at tea and Peter (my Head of Area and Deputy Group Leader) told them off for their lack of consideration and the state the coach was in. The kids were in bed by 9.45 pm!!! Admittedly we then sat in the corridor until after midnight but that was more of a "life-style choice" - and it was such fun to hear the kids opening their doors, for them to catch a glimpse of us and retreat very quickly, looking sheepish.
Saturday saw us packing and walking back into Cologne. We went to the Cathedral, of course and Peter and Claire walked (sorry, dragged) the kids up the tower. Fortunately my balance problems due to my deafness in one ear and Barbara's bad arm meant we had to be left behind at the bottom. After the tower came "shopping for tatt" - and that was just the staff. We bought enough flags to deck out the whole of Ian Ramsey School with flags from the EU, got some great toungue in cheek pressies for the rest of the MFL Area but won't mention them here, as I would hate to spoil the surprise tomorrow if anyone reads this!
After coffee and cheese cake and a pizza, we headed off to the chocolate museum, by which time I had lost the will to live so rushed round the very warm museum and spent the rest of the afternoon in the museum cafe...Pinot Grigio by the river - very civilised indeed! After that I got my second wind. We returned to the main town for tea and then headed back to the coach at 6.00pm. We were home by 7.30am this morning so made great time.
We had great drivers who didn't take themselves, or us too seriously which is important. They could also do a mean U-turn in the centre of Cologne. The kids were fine - just normal kids on a trip, really, loud, messy and smelly. It must be said though that the four I had my doubts about taking were OK. The staff who went were great, all shared responisibilty (essential on a trip) but also ready to let their hair down at the appropriate times such as during karacoachy sessions!
Best moment of the trip? Getting off the coach at school and seeing my two beauties running up to greet me. Wonderful!!