Week of Awesome - Day Five

For our last day of adventuring, Mini-C and I went to the London Aquarium. There we saw:



Sharks!













Piranha!














Jellyfish!
















More sharks!













A crab riding on a ray! (top left)











The pictures aren't too great as flash photography wasn't allowed so I had to use my phone.

Since the last time we went, they had updated some bits of the Aquarium. They had a Shark Tunnel which was pretty cool, but the bit I really liked was the Shark Walk:



I wanted to get a picture of my feet with a shark going underneath, because that would have been awesome, but Mini-C was not as impressed by this bit as I was - she clung to edges on the way around, refusing to step on the clear bits. While I was standing waiting for a shark to go under me, she was desperately wanting to get back onto slightly more stable ground, so I couldn't hang around.

But all in all we had a good day. And this was a fantastic week, with loads of fun stuff and awesomeness.

Week of Awesome - Day Four

(Yeah so it's a day late. Yeah, so when we got back on Thursday I fell asleep on the sofa instead of blogging. What of it?)



RAWR!



RAWR!



RAWR!



RAWR!



RAWR!

RAWR is 'I love you' in DINOSAUR!

By the way, did you know Velociraptors had feathers, like this:



Neither did I.

On the way home, we took a boat on the River Thames to get back to the tube stop, then decided to take a walk along Embankment and look at all the touristy bits of London. We were by the Houses of Parliament, just about to cross the road when some police officers on motorbikes came by blowing whistles and stopping the traffic. Obviously someone important was about the go by, we thought it might be the PM, so we craned our necks along with all the tourists and managed to just about catch a glimpse of the QUEEN as she streaked by.

I bet the Queen thinks that dinosaurs are awesome.

Week of Awesome - Day Three

Today was a day of awesome mooching. I think that we've earned it over the last two days. In the morning, I did a lot of this:



(aren't my slippers awesome!). This photo is supposed to be a nice relaxed shot of my feet up, knitting at the ready. I hope it comes across well. What you don't know is that I took this photo just after I'd found out that I'd managed to go wrong somewhere in my pattern and had to tink back about 10 pairs of nupps (ten pairs, thats about 20 nupps tinked) which didn't line up correctly with the line below. I'd done my tinking and was about to re-do my mornings hard work, but I felt the need for a coffee break to try and calm the stress before I started. I snapped this photo on my break. I'm still not sure about whether or not I like nupps. I think they look pretty good in the patterns I've done with them in, I'm just not sure if they're worth the hassle.

Anyway, I spent my morning knitting, and stressing because I was tired and kept making mistakes, and occasionally reading a story out of The Secret Life of a Knitter by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee which made me feel better as I'm not the only knitter that makes mistakes and someone as awesome as the Yarn Harlot can, it's ok that I do.

I don't know what Mini-C did, she hid in her bedroom which I'm not allowed in.

We went out for lunch as this was a lazy day and it was less effort than making lunch. Then we went to see Gnomeo and Juliet which was very enjoyable and silly (perfect for lazy days).

Of course, the problem with moochy days is that once started, it's difficult to break that moochy feeling, so I'm going to stop writing now and go and sit on the sofa some more.

Normal service will be resumed tomorrow, after a good night's rest.

Week of Awesome - Day Two

Today didn't exactly go as planned. Mini-C and I were supposed to go into London to do some shopping. Unfortunately, we somehow ended up on:



the TARDIS!

Honestly, I don't know these things happen to us.

The next thing I knew, we were running away from the Daleks:



and the Cybermen:



We even had to walk through the forest with the Weeping Angels in, but we didn't take a photo because we all know what happens to the image of an Angel (plus, we were a bit too scared!).

But we did bump into some nicer people along the way, like the Face of Boe:



and a slightly dodgy looking Doctor:



By the time we managed to escape, we were too tired to go shopping, but I suppose, on reflection, it was a pretty awesome day.

http://www.doctorwhoexperience.com

Week of Awesome - Day One

This is my half term week - a whole week away from school. This is also my niece's half term week. However, it is not my sister's half term - she was on holiday last week. As a result, my niece (who shall henceforth be known as Mini-C) and I are having a Week of Awesome! And we shall be blogging about it all and taking loads of photos on the way.

Today was Awesome Baking Day!



We started with our list (beautifully hand written by Mini-C (there wasn't much to get as the house is already full of baking stuffs). The we went shopping.



All told it was a slow morning aside from the shopping. Neither of us are morning people and the purchasing of ingredients had taken it out of us, so we had a rest when we got home. After lunch the epic baking began.



There was pouring and mixing and stirring and chopping and all sorts.







And at the end of it, we had a slightly vertically challenged banana loaf, some wonderfully delicious brownies and a billion and twelve chocolate chip cookies. Well thirty-nine in total, but thats an epic amount.

And then we even did the clearing up:





The last photo is evidence that Mini-C does do drying up!

Today was awesome, tomorrow promises to be even more so.

Wooties

Today has been awesome. Really really long, but awesome. For two reasons.

The first was having this conversation with a student of mine that I have a soft spot for. He was a lot of trouble when he first started in school, but has pulled himself together as he grew up. Until recently.

Me: You've been working really hard over the past year to sort yourself, and you've done well and I know you've been proud of yourself for it. But don't think I haven't noticed that slip, and don't think I don't know why.

J: What do you mean Miss?

Me: When you are missing for period five yesterday and so was your new little girlfriend, don't think I can't add two and two together.

J: How do you know we're together?

Me: She was sitting on your lap at breaktime the other day. Bit obvious, mate.

J: Oh, shit. Yeah.

This was followed later by this conversation:

J: Remember that conversation we had earlier Miss?

Me: Yes.

J: Well, I wanted to let you know that I've done three and a half pages of work today. In size twelve font.

*pause*

J: I'm really tired now.

So often I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall, so it's so refreshing to know a kid has listened to what you have to say and tried to change because of it.

The second reason today has been awesome is because I found out that my school are going to be running a course in Psychology next year. Since my degree is in Psychology (and Criminology), I've asked everyone I can think of if I can be involved with the teaching side of things in the hopes that it will help towards getting me a teaching qualification. My boss and line manager have both said that it sounds like a really good professional development opportunity and have no objection to me branching out on my current role (or even taking a few hours out of my current role per week), the head of curriculum said he thought it was a good idea for me to assist (but lets face it, an unpaid TA is always a good idea...) and the two teachers who are running it said they were thrilled and excited that someone wanted to join and help them out.

Yeays!

So yes, today was awesome. And I haven't actually knit a stitch.

Stuff What Is In My Brain

Please note that coming up with titles is the worst part of blog writing for me. This post was almost titled 'the circle of life', but that felt cheesy as hell.

On Thursday this week I heard the news that a guy who used to run in my social circle had died. I didn't know him well at all, but he was such a recognisable character out and about, I'll miss seeing him. And I know a lot of my friends are grieving. It's hard to know that a good life has gone and to know of the future that should have been lived, especially in someone still young.

Then, yesterday I got a text from Ian to say that Emily has had their baby - a girl they've named Aoibheann Rose (that's pronounced AY-veen - I had to look it up...) - on the Friday night.

It seemed so moving that these two events happened one day after the next. One of those things that really makes you sit down and think.

'Perfect' February

It's probably irony deciding that me doing something as daft as signing up to a Facebook campaign called 'Perfect February' is just asking for trouble, but the last week and a half has had me reaching for the ice cream. I'm not sure if this is better or worse than reaching for the red wine, which is what I normally do, but for some reason I get a real kick out of eating ice cream in the winter. Also, it tends to be on special offer this time of year.

Work has been stressy. Mostly due to politics and drama within the office, but I did almost have a table thrown at me yesterday which would have traveled through a window before hitting me had the student not changed his mind last minute. The main problem with the drama is that it makes me angry (and justifiably so) and I don't like the person I become when I'm angry. Aside from all else, I've had some really angsty music playing in my car to match my mood - makes me feel like I'm 16 again.

Thankfully, the one thing that has been going really well is kung fu (ha - you thought I was going to say knitting there didn't you?). Things on my belt are starting to click and stay in my head and today I was learning defenses against a knife - i.e. if someone were to attack me with a knife, I could (theoretically) gain control of the knife and use it to stab them without leaving my prints on the knife. Which is pretty awesome. Well, it is to me.

Also, I have been dying.

No, wait. Dyeing.

Yes, dyeing.