"99 Memorable Experiences"

This is a bit of a cheat post: it's one of those chain things. I don't normally go in for these, but I liked this one. As blog posts go, it's not hugely interesting - I'm not sharing this because I think you're interested in whether I've done jury service (I haven't) or gone skinny dipping (I have). The reason I gave in and copied this post though is the vast range of memories it evoked. Although the events are condensed into simple sentences, some of them have really interesting or exciting stories behind them which I'd forgotten until this reminded me.
I hope you get the same out of it!

The concept is simple: read through the list; highlight those that you have experienced. Easy peasy.


1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disney

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sung a solo 

11. Bungee jumped - I'd love to, but finding someone willing to come with me is proving difficult. And I wouldn't do it on my own!

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a thunder and lightning storm

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning 

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping 

27. Run a marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse




30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person



39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David in person

41. Sung karaoke 

42. Seen Old Faithful erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain (for some reason, the fact that I haven't done this really winds me up.)

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Been sky diving 

66. Visited a Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Gotten a tattoo (and someone is in the middle of designing my next one...)

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

"But Miiiiiiiiiss......Whyyyyyyy?"

So, following 'story time' at the end of today's lesson, I gathered together my wonderful year 7s and told them I would be leaving after half-term. Two of them cried. For a split second I felt like that incredibly irritating woman in 'The Sound of Music', and was tempted to sweep them all into a giant hug and tell them everything was fine - with some high-pitched singing thrown in for good measure. (Hey, last lesson I made them sit through Kate Bush's 'Wuthering Heights'. Which I sang along to. And then made them sing.* They're used to my caterwauling).

*They loved it, really.




Then I remembered what I was leaving them for and told them to man up and get out of my classroom.


A mere 6 teaching days until the end!

How many calories in a blog post?

There are definite parallels between blogging and going to the gym. If I could do both at the same time, I'd be happy! Maybe when A & I eventually move out of our flat and into our house I'll get a treadmill - then I'll be able to tone my thighs and fingers at the same time...




Blogging and exercising might not seem like natural partners, but believe me when I say they are.

1. When you get into the habit, it's easy to keep up. Even set aside especially for it. And the more you do it, the more you want to do it.

2. They're really social activities - I follow my friends' blogs and those of a few strangers. It's a great way of keeping in touch with friends I don't see often. With those I do see fairly frequently, we chat about anything interesting we've read recently. The very few friends who have my blog address (I think we're up to 3, now?) get an insight in my mind that they probably never wanted. You can consider yourselves the lucky ones or the unlucky ones, I don't mind.

3. When you get out of the habit, you find yourself making excuses. I'm getting unfit now, won't be able to just pick up where I left off... Easier to leave it for a bit and start afresh. I'll do it more when I've finished this phase of work and have more time/energy. I've fallen way too far behind now - too much to post about.

4. I feel incredibly lazy for doing neither at the moment.


Clearly, though, this post marks a change for number 4. I am going to blog more often (stop rolling your eyes, this time I mean it) and I am going to attend the gym more. Or at least, get running outside. The ten mile run is sneaking up on me rapidly!

Last week I trekked 18 miles up several hills with a couple of friends from my course. In fact, it was pretty much ALL uphill. You know the saying 'what goes up must come down'? It's a lie. It is entirely possible to walk 18 miles uphill and spend only about half an hour or so of your day walking downhill. This is one of the hills we walked up (note the rare downhill slope en route!):



Yep, we nailed the whole of that white path in about 10-15 minutes. Sooo good for the calves, but only doable if you break into your stash of Cherry Lucozade and Kit Kats.
In total, we were out for 12 hours (that includes the travelling, which was about 5 hours - NOT 12 hours of walking! Pfft.) but we had such a laugh together so it went really quickly. Plus the scenery (all countryside and coastline) was beautiful, and there was something quite cool about being part of thousands of people all walking in the same direction! The line of people snaked for miles - literally - so that we couldn't see the beginning or the end of the line.

Walking is apparently the best exercise you can get (source: old wives' tale/my school), and we did keep motivated by ticking off how many takeaways we thought we were working off. Please don't tell me it takes more than that to burn off an Indian takeaway; I might just cry. I also learned others things I hadn't expected to:

Fact 1: you will be in agony that night and will probably need to call your boyfriend for assistance getting out of the car when you arrive home. He will laugh at you and you will hurt too much to thump him.
Fact 2: you will feel exceptionally smug when you don't hurt the following day.

Most unexpected fact was that I wanted to do it again. Seems like I have finally found the motivation I need to get running more often. With only six lessons left between now and qualifying (round of applause, please!) I suddenly have so much time! Sion doesn't know what's hit him the past fortnight, poor thing. And, even though the 10 mile charity run is at the forefront of my wanting to get fit, I'd be lying if I said that my gorgeous new bikini for A and I's holiday to Greece didn't provide a fairly healthy dose of motivation...

Horses for Courses

Sorry - been neglecting the blog again! Made the most of my extended weekend though - lots of sleeping (far too many all-nighters last week), socializing and horse riding.

My year 8's have been causing me a few problems recently. There are 32 of them, and they are seriously boisterous. In fact, I think I've blogged about them before - this is the class that have spent my lesson doing somersaults before (I've definitely blogged about that somewhere). Usually we get on fine, but I've felt the respect slipping away as they take longer and longer to get quiet each time. With my recent sleeping habits, my voice is almost completely gone so I can't raise it. Last time I attempted to shout, one pupil asked if my voice was breaking. Non-verbal signals they pretend not to see.




Honestly, the above picture is comparatively calm. So today, first lesson back after almost a week, I thought I'd nail them to the floor and then we could relax again. I had a friend email me last week asking for behaviour tips - I emailed her a thesis on the subject and thought it was about time to practice what I preached.

So I walked in, recapped the rules and consequences. They ignored the rules; I turned into the cow from hell. I had one hour of silence. Almost every child actually completed the work set. And I didn't have to attempt to shout once. No one was sent out (possible for the first time ever). No one left their seat (definitely the first time ever).

Was it one hour of blissful silence? Nope. Was there a productive, purposeful atmosphere? Nope.
It was one hour of sheer awkwardness during which I attempted to evade the rays of hatred emanating towards me. The auras of livid 32 kids require some serious mental shields, I tell you...

To be honest, I absolutely hated doing it. But I was out of ideas - the class are notoriously awkward across the school so other teachers were not a great source of advice. I'd tried rapport and getting to know them as individuals. I'd tried killing them with praise and doing pacey, personalised lessons. Ultimately they just took the mick.
No idea whether I did the right thing. Have I screwed up or can I relax next lesson and hope the fact that they've seen my nasty side will be enough to keep them on track for the next four weeks? I have no idea. We'll have to see what happens on Friday. If no post arrives between now and... let's say about six weeks from now, as I'm not too hot on posting regularly... you know they've eaten me alive.


Question is, can I have a middle ground between discipline and dislike or riots and friends? Cake and eat - ooh yes please.




AMAZING cake hey? Shame it's only just been my birthday and I will probably have forgotten about this by the time my next birthday comes around.

Moving on to real horses, real courses: Sion and I are so busy at the moment. Some of you may remember my blogging that we'd qualified for a competition in Wales - well, that was a couple of weeks ago. I had the absolute time of my life. He did some beautiful jumping and some superb (unplanned) rodeo displays, so we managed to keep the crowd entertained regardless of whether we were actually getting over the fences. I think they knew from the moment that we entered the ring backwards (because the poster opposite the gate was far too scary to walk towards) it was going to be an interesting round.
So, we had no rosettes but it was our first weekend show away from home and I think he did exceptionally well considering that over the four days he went from muscular to skeletal with all the stress.
Last weekend we attended a home show, and he was much more his usual self - he was just on fire (I never thought I'd need to clarify that this was metaphorical, but I mentioned this today in my year 7 class and then had to spend five minutes reassuring/disappointing them with the news that my horse had not spontaneously combusted because of his speed). We entered two classes and got four clears. We won one class by almost 10 seconds, and came second in the other - by 0.4 seconds!
We have another show this weekend, plus a gymkhana. We've qualified to go back to Wales this summer, plus I've applied to attend the Training Academy beforehand - just waiting to hear whether we've been accepted. I hope we are!
Whether we are or not, with all the other shows and cross-country competitions we've entered we have a busy, busy summer ahead.

I'm also off to look at another horse this weekend. She's stunning - hoping to BSJA affiliate with her as Sion is limited to about 1m now because of his hocks; plus he's obviously not getting any younger. We don't compete at 1m anymore - far better to keep it low and enjoyable for him. 2'9 is as high as he'll go over a course, although having said that we'll be doing 3ft this weekend! I haven't told Sion I'm going to look at this mare though - in a daft, unjustified, sentimental way, I feel like I'm cheating on him...

Exchanging Heels for Trainers...

Time is running out - I'm down to my last seven weeks of student-hood before I have to join the real world! This is exciting, and quite sad - being a student is amazing. The four years I've spent at the two universities really have been the best years of my life - clichéd I know, but it's the honest truth. I wouldn't change a thing. Well, except maybe one...

This past week seems to have been a real success-period for people getting jobs/MA courses/deciding what exactly they're doing with their lives.
This time last year I lived in a terraced house with five floors and five other people. Our lives were fairly clichéd, exactly what you would expect of students. The house was clean and tidy but not immaculate. The wall paper had certainly seen better days. We built snowmen in winter and held barbecues in summer. Every so often a traffic cone or road sign would appear in our garage and then disappear a few days later, sometimes replaced with various other 'trophy' items - usually plastic swords or fancy dress masks, although we did once end up with a piano. The image of three boys pushing a piano through the streets of Durham appeared on nearly everyone's Facebook: I was amused until I discovered the three boys in question were in fact sitting in the kitchen below my room, toasting their acquisition with Redbull and cider.


We were close.
We used to mark off our deadlines (different for each person) on a big calendar and for that day, all six students would hold their breath nervously and cross their fingers. When important post arrived - PGCE and law course acceptance letters, interview invitations, exam results, etc - the same anticipation and nerves rattled throughout every floor in the house, no matter whose name was on the envelope. When one person did well, five other people celebrated the success as if it was their own.

One year later, we're often too busy to speak frequently. But when we do catch up, the conversation continues from last time as though the intermittent time never existed. Things are very different, of course: one is married whilst another has just broken up with his girlfriend of six years; one is already a successful lawyer whilst one is on the dole. But the intensity of friendships formed over cheap wine and ludicrous fancy dress costumes is still there.

One of our housemates died last November, of leukemia. It was ridiculously sudden (five days from symptoms to death, only two days from diagnosis to death. Those two days were spent unconscious on a life-support machine). I've blogged about Tom before, but I haven't blogged about our bid to raise money for Leukemia Research.

In January, when my car was on holiday in the garage I was given lifts into school by a PE teacher. She told me about a 10 mile run around a local city in order to raise money for charity - so I signed up that night, dug out my trainers* and - of course - set up the obligatory Facebook group to ask for sponsorship/support.



* I'd love to be able to run in my heels, but sadly given my appalling lack of coordination that would only lead to disaster.

Messages of support came flooding in, even from complete strangers. They were really inspiring. My housemates, though, went further. First one, then a second, then a third - "change the Facebook group name. I'm running with you." Even one from a girl who now lives in Germany - "I'll be there. Sign me up!" So, after three changes to the Facebook group, we are training like mad across the country. And it's so nice. We are divided by hundreds of miles at the moment - south coast(ish), north east coast, Germany, London - yet we stay in touch (through Facebook, of course!) reporting our progress, photos, routes, times and distances and generally keep each other going.

I love my friends.
I really think I hit the jackpot when I went to uni - I've never known such an incredible group of people! Their always-positive attitudes, willingness to help anyone and experience anything once, combined with wicked senses of humour make them fantastic to be around. University is what you make it, I think. I got very, very lucky on Day One with the people on my corridor and subsequently had the best three years possible.

Volcanic Ash v. My Guilt Complex

So Easter hols = lots of fun = lots of posts. Unfortunately the only one that's finished is the most boring post ever, but hey. It's also the most recent, which means a lot of backtracking when the others are up.. Never mind. Here we go.

I went home* last week to visit my family. It was great to see them, but I did have a more serious reason for going - my nephew was having an operation, and I didn't want to leave Mum (who worries like a champion) on her own that day. It wasn't a major operation, but it did require a general anaesthetic. Last time my nephew had one of those he was horrifically ill, so I can understand her concern. My family are all on a bit of a descent into total deafness - and my poor baby nephew is accelerating past us all at a scary rate. This is his second operation to try to restore his hearing. So far, fingers crossed it worked.


*I suppose I should say "parent's home", given that I don't live there anymore. But it's still my home! I'll just be like the Queen.

But, the weekend was fast approaching and with it the end of the Easter hols (boo!). I was seriously running out of time to fulfil my good intentions of being fully planned for the first two weeks back after the hols. Time for me to look at returning down south in time to get organised (ha) for my final six weeks of training (21 lessons left with year 8!).


My first flight home was cancelled; I rescheduled. Not a problem – plenty of time, safety first, etc etc.
My second flight home was cancelled. I rescheduled. Inconvenient, but can't be helped.
My third flight home was cancelled. Seeing a pattern emerging, I declined their offer of yet another rescheduled flight.

That third flight was supposed to be this afternoon. The last opportunity to get back before Monday morning. The last direct train to my local station left an hour before the flight (no, I didn't check this earlier, when I could actually have done something about it). The only alternative was a seven and a half hour journey involving five trains in total and a £197 ticket. Pfft. No thanks.

So instead, I'm sailing down the M6 at 110mph (obviously not behind the wheel). Struck by a major guilt complex, I couldn't bring myself to take tomorrow off school and get the direct train home – even though I have no lessons and will spend the entire day watching my school laptop load, freeze, restart, and freeze again. Madness, I know, but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't phone and say 'I can't get in' until I'd tried EVERYTHING. So I did what every normal girl would do – I called on Daddy. Actually... that's not really true – I'm not very good at asking for favours either. Dad offered. I declined (the whole guilt thing again). He asked what else I would do. I accepted. Now he's driving me from one end of the country to the other, and returning home again ready for his work (in Scotland!) tomorrow, in the space of one afternoon. Dad's Audi was stolen from the driveway a few weeks ago, so we're currently in his new Passat. I really like the new car, although Dad as a die-hard Audi fan isn't too happy. The Audi didn't half make you travel sick, though – this is MUCH better. I would never have been able to type blog entries/read Anthony and Cleopatra in the A6.

I am going to owe Dad a LOT of chocolate and beer after this. I'm going to be sending them over by the bucketload for the next six months.

Backflips and Breakthroughs

Easter holidays are here!!

Drove home in the sunshine, pile of books/tests/mocks on the passenger seat beside me, singing along to the radio and feeling *good*. But Skinny Love comes on the radio and the next thing I'm wondering why I can taste salt. I hadn't realised I'd begun to cry.

I've heard that song a few times since Tom's funeral and whilst it takes me back it doesn't always make me cry. It's never caught me so unexpectedly though. Maybe it's because I'm tired. Scrap that - I'm exhausted. Never in my life before yesterday have I gone to bed at 6pm (admittedly I got up again at 7.30 to eat/do work, but I just couldn't carry on without sleep first!). I am so ready for this holiday.

The kids were WILD today! And I do mean, wild.* For a moment I knew how nursery teachers feel. And monkey-trainers, although my apes didn't appear to be even remotely trained. Where is the 'dislike' button?



(Weird, huh? I hate monkeys.)

*Having said that they were wild, today we had no backflips, which meant that my heart rate remained largely normal for the entire hour with that class. (Seriously, Monday's lesson - I discovered I have most of the school gymnastic team in my class. And they decided to showcase their routine for me. Their ordinary teacher LOVED it. I was panicking like a... crazy, panicky thing... "No no no don't do it! [Oh, can't watch!]" The lighting in that room is LOW. Their backflips were HIGH. (They tried to do them off the desks, initially, but I managed to override the class teacher on that one). So they settled for doing them on the floor - safer, right? Well, maybe, but everytime their hair brushed the carpet I felt a little more sick. It was the kind of routine you would pay to see. But I would willingly have paid them to NOT do it during my lesson...).



But, today everyone remained in their seats - bonus! AND I made a major breakthrough with one child who is surrounded by C.P. issues: he spoke to me. He arrived early to my lesson - presumably trying to avoid being in the crowded corridors. I smiled, said 'morning' - cue awkward silence whilst he stared blankly at me and I carried on setting up my laptop, trying to look busy and hoping other kids would arrive soon. After a while, I heard "It's nearly the holidays, miss." Didn't recognise the voice. Turned round - still only him in the room. He doesn't sound at all how I imagined he would. Still - A.Mazing. On the way out, a quiet "have a good birthday miss". My word C, I could have hugged you.


But anyway, who decided it would actually be a good idea to put the end of term assessments (in exam conditions) on the last day of term??
When I am fully qualified, the last day of term shall be reserved solely for DVDs. I shall choose a few of my then-favourite films, whack them onto the projector at 8.30am and allow kids to file in and out every hour until it reaches 3pm. I may even share my popcorn with the lucky ones.