Portland Climbing

Beautiful day in the late summer sun.

Pleasantly tired

Just got back from a little run with Sophie.

It was lovely - we went through the park, up to the ridge of the hill (Sophie says she feels like a rabbit when we go along that bit, tired from all the hopping), back down through the woods, round the duckpond, past the allotments, through the fields, past the horses and along the footpath back home.

Reminds me of the Bears In the Night book I loved so much as a five year old.

It's not yet five, but the sun set twenty minutes ago, which makes me feel that it's time to start cooking, even though none of us is hungry yet. I think I am programmed to start thinking about dinner as the sun sets. This is why I want to start cooking before 3.30 in winter (when I'm still at work) and can't bear to begin till 9.30 or 10 at the height of summer.

Tomorrow my parents arrive; they'll be spending two nights with us. I spent today marking and doing lesson prep; still got quite a bit to do before they arrive... and I suppose I should probably do a spot of cleaning as well... I need more hours in each day. How I wish I could give up sleep... If I did, that would make two of us, as poor Bobby is not sleeping well at the moment. He's very stressed about this weekend's implementation, so he struggles to fall asleep, and is awake by 4 every morning. His curse (and blessing) is that he really cares about what he does, to the extent that it affects his health at times. I hate it when he's so stressed while I'm on holiday - knowing that he's miserable makes it impossible for me to feel completely happy.

Hand-in Day

Today was official hand-in day: all assignments and my portfolio are now in for marking. It felt odd walking out of the library (where we handed them in) and seeing our folders sitting in a heap on someone's desk, waiting for some poor individual to go through all those thousands and thousands of words. I'm glad that individual is not me!

I'm also glad that I didn't have any work to do this past weekend, because the weather was amazing.

 

I took this picture on Sunday morning's run. It was only about 6.30 and already the sun had been up for almost two hours. Gorgeous... We went for a cycle ride in the evening, to a lake we last visited in winter. On that ride, the whole world looked grey; it was an icy, foggy morning, and we couldn't even see across the lake. There was not a glimpse of colour anywhere - just grey and black and white. Yesterday, though, the sky and the water were deep blue, the grass was bright green, there were yellow buttercups and white daisies ... it's like living in a different country, now that it's summer.

Unexpected enjoyment

Our garden has been completely and utterly neglected for lo these many months, and it has been annoying all of us, in a low-key sort of way. We keep making vague noises about sorting it out, and never get around to it. Rather pathetic of us, seeing as our garden is a teeny tiny patch anyway! This afternoon, though - a beautiful sunny afternoon, by the way - the kids offered to tackle the weediest, biggest flowerbed if we could get buy some flowers to plant in it. So Bobby and I went down the road to the garden centre and bought some marigolds and some begonias and some lobelias, and a lavender bush, and when we got home the kids had indeed made substantial inroads on the weeds. Between the five of us, we finished weeding the disaster zone, did some pruning, planted out the baby plants, and put some veggie seeds into seed trays. And everyone enjoyed it, and the barbeque that followed. Even Roly; he loves it when everyone is out in the garden with him. Odd how the nicest family times happen by accident.

Different worlds

Slightly odd moment this morning... I was running through a damp green English field early this morning, watching the rabbits hop across the path, when a Juluka song came up on my iPod. It was quite jarring - I couldn't have been in a less African environment if I'd tried. It made me think about where - if anywhere - I belong these days...



Eventually I decided that I belong wherever Bobby and the children are. And for now, that's right here.

Weekend!

The other two people scheduled to go to India with Bobby left this morning. I'm can't quite express just how happy I am that he's not on that plane! Waking up with him this morning felt so sweet, knowing that we'd be able to go to sleep tonight together as well.

I got up early this morning and did my final Week Five run in the Couch to 5k program. Today was the two mile/twenty minute run, and I did it! So I'm pretty happy about that. A friend is trying to convince me to run a 5k race with her in a couple of months. I'm a bit daunted, as she is a "real" runner, but I think I might end up going for it! I was back home just after six, and Bobs and I left again at 7.15 for a bike ride. We went just over 25km - longer than I'd really bargained on - but it was fabulous being out and about so early. We went south from our house, towards Gatwick. I love the way that there is so much green space mixed in with densely populated, urban areas.




And the farms are working farms for the most part...




I still tend to think of farms in South African terms, where they are in the middle of nowhere, not 5 minutes from the shops and twenty miles from central London!

You may have noticed that I measured my run in miles and Bobby measured our bike ride in kilometres. This is because Bobby stubbornly refuses to succumb to the imperial system whereas I have given in to it - when in Rome, and all that... They really do have an odd relationship with the metric system here, though. We pay per litre for diesel for our car, for instance, but our fuel consumption is measured in miles per gallon!

I baked scones for breakfast, and after that we cleaned the house as a family. (Oh how the children thanked us for that!. At lunchtime I took Sophie and a friend over to a third friend's house (they're taking the bus to Epsom to see that silly-looking Shopaholic movie), and since then I've been sitting at the kitchen table motoring through a bunch of work stuff that I'd been putting off. I actually think that I may have got through it all by the end of tomorrow! If that happens, it'll be a first... If only my energy levels could always be this good...

A friend's coming to dinner tonight so I have a good excuse to abandon my preparation for now, though! And, Bobby's cooking, so it's all good!

A ghost? A monster?





No, it's Bobby, changing the duvet cover. It's his own method. Can't think why more people don't use it.

There's been much toing and froing this weekend - various kids have had parties to go to, sleep-overs to not sleep at, and friends to visit. So, busy, in a pleasant but not-very-interesting kind of way.

I didn't get nearly as much work done this half-term as I'd planned to. I feel a bit guilty about that, but on the other hand I really did need the break, and it's been wonderful to have this time to relax with the kids. I may pay for my relaxation this coming week, though... I made the mistake of checking my work email earlier this afternoon, and it made me really anxious. So many things to take care of - none of them unmanageable on their own, but taken together quite daunting. I'm not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow morning. Ugh.

Bobby and I went for a walk in the fields five minutes south of our house this afternoon, though, which helped with the anxiety.





These past two days it's felt like Spring is coming. There are so many more birds around, and it's been so much warmer. This afternoon we saw pheasants, and rabbits... And the snowdrops are out.





And this was the sunset when we walked home.





I really like living where we do.

Snow Day!!

It was bliss waking up this morning to a snowy world and the realisation that today was a holiday.

Sophie was meeting up with her friends to go tobogganing in the park, so Emily and I went for a long walk. It was gorgeous; sunny and snowy both.





Weirdly, the snow reminded me of the sand on the beach at Fort de Soto in Florida. They both look like icing sugar, and they both make the same squeak when you walk on them.





Having the unexpected holiday days made me feel like a child again; I think I was at least as excited as the kids were!





Back to normal tomorrow... Shame the fun can't go on forever, but it was great while it lasted!

Hard Frost

It's so beautiful outside; we went for a bike ride this morning and were amazed by how magical everything looked. Amazed, and also cold. Very, very cold.






The pond in the park is frozen right over. That's Bobby in the pictures, out in the middle of it. It got all the way down to minus 7 last night and didn't get any warmer than minus 2 all day today. It hasn't really got above freezing all week; there's still snow around from the little snowfall we had on Monday. Very unusual for our part of the world.





I have loved the cold dry weather we've had these past couple of weeks. Sadly, though, according to the weather forecast it'll be back to our normal, wetter, weather as of tomorrow.

More pictures here...

Home again

Cornwall was beautiful.

Stephen declined to come with us, ostensibly on the grounds that he needed to study. Here he is explaining that his lack of enthusiasm for the trip had nothing whatsoever to do with a distaste for getting cold and wet.




As it turned out, the camping actually worked out really well. It rained on and off, but never at awkward times, so we were spared things like pitching and striking camp in the rain. We camped at this beautiful site on an organic farm - fabulous location, and, because no-one else is crazy enough to camp at the end of October, we had it entirely to ourselves.





View of the sea from the campsite...





... and this is the view we woke up to.




We went for long walks along the beach





and along the coastal path,





... played in the rockpools...





visited Looe and Fowey and Polperro,





and, most importantly, spent some time with old friends. It was a great break.

More photos here.

Back home, I've had to do some lesson planning. I'm being observed again on Tuesday morning; a double one this time - one observer from college and one from Greenwich Uni. Hope it goes okay... It should do, I've put enough effort into it...

Tomorrow we're getting up very early to make the three hour drive to Beccles to see my folks. Looking forward to seeing them - they've been in Canada visiting my aunt and uncle for the past three weeks, so we haven't seen them in a while.

And then Monday it's back to work. Ho hum...

Fabulous weekend

I feel ready for the coming week after two great days.

Yesterday, I took the train to creepy-Crawley with Emily and Sophie, and we had a girly shopping day. We all found the things we'd set out to get (a new jumper for me, an entire new outfit for Emily for next weekend's party - which she paid for herself - and a new winter coat for Sophie), the sun shone, and we had fun together. Oh, and I scored a free Guardian on the train (I'm so glad I didn't have time to buy it before we left) so when we got home we could sit in the garden with the paper and cups of tea. Bliss. And, once I'd relaxed, I kicked into efficient mode. Cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed, mopped, and got my lessons for the first half of next week sorted. And, just for good measure, did the week's ironing after dinner. House was on TV while I was ironing, and we'd all just been speculating about how accurate the medical details are when, lo and behold, they started a plot line about growth hormone deficiency, which is one of the only medical conditions which we actually know anything about. Sadly, I can now report that if that particular episode was anything to go by, the medical accuracy of the show is practically nil. Pity, really - knowing that it's completely unrealistic makes it a lot less enjoyable to watch.

So that was Saturday. One of those days where you don't do anything special but somehow all the ordinary little events add up to something wonderful.

And today has been even better. Once again, perfect weather - but today we got to spend the whole day outside enjoying it.

We got up early, cycled to the station, and took the train to East Croydon. From there, we met up with a bunch of other riders and cycled to Clapham Common before riding into central London to enjoy the London Freewheel, an annual event where the roads that run past the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace are all closed to car traffic and open for bicycles.

This is me, trying to pretend that I'm not intimidated by having been given a marshall's vest at the start of the ride in Croydon.




Secretly -or not so secretly, the foldeded arms are quite telling - I am feeling distinctly inadequate compared to the lycra-butts (as I call the professional-looking cyclists). As it transpired, however, despite my lack of lycra I was at least as competent a cyclist as they were, (better than many, actually) which was reassuring. Not that I did any actual marshalling, mind you. Bobby on the other revelled in the Power of the Orange Vest; stopping traffic for the convoy seemed to give him immense pleasure. He took one of the weaker cyclists under his wing too; I love that side of his character.

The ride from Croydon to Clapham Common was far prettier than I'd expected - all through residential neighbourhoods where, as usual, I found myself picking houses where I'd like to live. There were so many things I'd have liked to have photographed - stained glass windows in some of the old houses, flowers blooming by the roadside, murals on walls - but riding with everyone else meant I couldn't stop to fiddle with the camera.

At Clapham Common, I took the opportunity of trading my orange marshall's vest in for a regular yellow one.



I was amazed by how many people there were when we finally got to the start of the freewheel route. This is Bobby, at the start of the route outside Buckingham Palace.



And again, when we took a break next to the river.



There were jugglers and stilt-walkers and unicyclists and rollerbladers and people dressed up as witches along the route - none of whom did I manage to take a picture of, sadly. I did manage to get a picture of a cute dog, though.



More pictures from the day here...

We arrived back home at 4-ish, having cycled either 50km (if you look at Bobby's cycle computer, since he refuses to make any concessions to Imperial measurements) or 30 miles (if you look at mine, since I think it's easiest to go with the convention of the country we happen to be living in) just as my parents and aunt arrived to have tea with us.

A very nice end to a great day. We should sleep well tonight.

Life in fast-forward

Last week flew by in a stressful blur. The actual teaching was fun, but the admin stuff was not. And now, before I know it, the weekend's almost gone too. I spent a good chunk of yesterday helping Stephen with his UCAS application. At this stage of the year, students in the upper sixth form are required to choose what they want to study at university, and short-list five universities. It's quite an anxiety-provoking process, as there are such big decisions to be made. Steve wants to study philosophy, and, on the one hand, while I think that he should follow his heart, I do wonder just how employable he'll be four years hence.

At least the weather let us get outdoors this weekend. I took this picture on a foggy early morning cycle ride yesterday.





And then, while we were cycling, the sun actually came out...




Emily had a party in the evening; one that required a formal dress and heels...





And today we went and had coffee in the park. Sitting in the sun felt like heaven.





As for this evening, I have lesson plans and marking to do. And ironing. And then it all starts again next week. I hope I can figure out a way to include more enjoyment in my work-week, because at the moment I feel like a bit like a stressed-out mouse on a treadmill.

Last day of freedom!

My legs are slightly stiff (we cycled 25 miles today) but I feel better for having been outdoors for most of today.

After breakfast this morning...





(mmmm, homemade jam....) we cycled to the station and took the train down to Brighton. From there, we cycled along the shoreline via Shoreham to Worthing before catching the train home.





The play areas along the beach always seem poignant to me, because they are so lovely, yet it seems like every time we are in Brighton the wind is howling and it's absolutely freezing, so every time we see them they're pretty much deserted.





We took a slightly wrong turn just after we passed this broken railing





but I didn't mind having to back-track because the wrong turn led us to this, which I thought was cool.





The landscape along here always strikes me as somewhat post-apocolyptic. It's so bleak and stony; seems like what might remain after people have vanished from the earth...





We stopped for a cup of coffee in Shoreham, then crossed the River Adur.





I can't help imagining living in each of the places we visit. We toyed briefly with the idea of life in one of these houseboats, but decided against it on the grounds that the mud looked too sludgey and the houseboats didn't look like they could actually sail anywhere.





We noted this warning; presumably a cyclist who didn't follow those Sustrans signs quite carefully enough...





We sat on the rocks and watched the kite surfers for a while. Bobby is keen to try it; I think it looks beyond my capabilities.





They are beautiful though.





I didn't have the gall to take a picture but I was intrigued by the beach huts, and couldn't stop myself peering in as we passed them. They are the line of little white huts that run between the cycle path and the beach. Inside, it seems like everyone is set up in more-or-less the same way: a two burner gas cooker thingy, with a kettle on it (for tea I assume), a couple of deck chairs, a table, and a radio. All very cosy and domestic, but rather unbeachlike, somehow! But then, a beach made of pebbles is also not truly beach-like to me. Apparently there's a huge waiting list for the beach huts; I'm told that one rents them from the council for £300-odd quid a year.





Once we got to Worthing we explored a bit,. as there was a model-aeroplane shop Bobby wanted to visit. But sadly (for him) it was shut.





I find that living here where it's often grey, things like this street fair we came across in Worthing seem beautiful to me, whereas before I wouldn't have really appreciated them.

And then we took the train back home.

I'm glad my last pre-work day was a good one. I'm quite apprehensive about the new term; to the extent that I've been having anxiety dreams about it for the last couple of nights. Hopefully the anticipation will be worse than the reality.

Art in the Park

We came across these eerie grass sculptures on our bike ride this morning.









Two of the figures are being watered and trimmed; the other (dismembered) figure is being allowed to grow wild.





I find them quite disturbing.

Cool to stumble across them, though. And the bike ride was great. (10 miles, through Gatton Park up to the top of the Reigate Hill, then home along the North Downs Way.)

It's been a long day, though. I'm really tired this evening, and having the same weird neurological symptoms that I've had on and off for the past year. I'd go back to the doctor but it seems a bit pointless, given that I've had all sorts of scans and things and they haven't figured out what the problem is. And it's not as though it's getting worse - just flare-ups of the same-old same-old. If I get an early night hopefully I'll feel better in the morning. And I got the latest Alexander McCall Smith book out of the library this morning, so I have something light and enjoyable to read...

Home from the Highlands

I loved our recent camping trip. The Highlands are beautiful. Mountainous and remote; it's not often that one gets a feeling of space and emptiness in the United Kingdom, so we relished it. I wish we could have stayed longer. Scenery aside, the kids always get on so well when we're outdoors, and life is so uncomplicated. Meals, for instance, are so quick and easy, and we're always so hungry that they taste fabulous. Am toying with the idea of getting rid of all our current kitchen equipment and sticking to using the gas primus and the five enamel plates and cups that we use on camping trips.




We didn't book any campsites before we left, but the ones we stumbled across were lovely.





Aside from the midges. At first we didn't think they were too bad, but after a while ... aaargh! Horrible burny itchy bites that stick around for days. Midges in your hair are horrible; we now understand why people buy these funny looking helmet thingies. And the thought of using Midge as a pet name (as in The Various, a book which Sophie read recently), seems completely inappropriate.

My natural tendency is to want to sort everything out before we go on a trip, and book ahead; I'm coming around to doing things more spontaneously though, as the campsites we've booked online have often been disappointing compared to the ones we've found serendipitously.

The first campsite was at Glencoe; this picture was taken during a walk up the mountain. They filmed some of the Harry Potter movies here; I can see why.





This is Castle Stalker - for Monty Python fans, it's Castle Aaargggghhh, from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.





And this is Stephen, on the rather scary wire bridge at the base of Ben Nevis. We didn't climb Ben Nevis, much to Bobby's disappointment - since the kids just had trainers on, and we didn't have any cold weather gear, I vetoed it. Next time we'll come better prepared.





Two more castles - Castle Urquhart, on the shores of Loch Ness





and Castle Cawdor. Many bad Macbeth-inspired jokes were made.





More pictures of the second campsite we stayed at, as well as Oban and various family members, are here.

The road trip itself went well, largely because I made a giant sacrifice, and let Stephen and his long legs travel in the front with Bobby while I went in the back with girls. Hence, the car was a squabble and shove-free zone. We also all really got into the book-on-tape which we'd taken with us - Noughts and Crosses, by Malorie Blackman. It's aimed at young adults I think; a very good way of getting people to realise what apartheid was like. Some parts of it were almost too adult for Sophie but I think she was okay with it. Malorie Blackman does not seem to be the most subtle writer in the world, but the book certainly held everyone's attention, and sparked a lot of discussion. And it made Bobby and me remember how things used to be in South Africa... So odd to think that when I was pregnant with Stephen we were doing things like go to Free The Beaches protests. Seems like another world.