Time is something I seem to have very little of at present.
Last week at school I spent most of it preparing for our Caretaker’s retirement on Friday. He had been at the school for 20 years and will be missed.
Each year made him a card, which was to be worked on, in some way by each child. In Year 4 it was decided to do birds. Children were given a bird profile, which I drew for them and they then coloured it in. The teacher I work with had two large pieces of card and it then somehow fell to me to turn it into a large card.
I cut out trees for them to sit on and printed leaves and cut them out to make the whole thing more realistic. I’d love to be able to say I knocked the whole thing up in an hour or two. It actually took three evenings and various bits of free time at school. I forgot to mention, I had to cut all the birds out too, as they were too intricate for the children.
I saved a few birds to use as a border in the inside and expected the children to all just sign it…….but NO!!! Teacher has a brainwave!!!! I can draw some more bird profiles, photocopy them onto different coloured pastel papers, cut them out and then each child can write a personal message and then I can glue them in the card.
Can you see MUG printed across my forehead?
I got it finished at 1pm, which just gave me time to dash back across Worcester, to let the dog out and then rush, helter skelter, back in time for the leaving Assembly at 2.30.
BUT…. it was all worthwhile. Bob and his wife both said privately they liked the Year 4 card best of all.
The Head Teacher (Scary Monika) asked who had made the card, as she was so impressed with it. So I felt satisfied ,as my hard work had been appreciated and that’s all I ask.
I now feel I must clarify ‘Scary Monika’. She has the LOUDEST voice and then we get told off for raising our voices, when we didn’t think we had. She has the most unusual dress sense, sometimes elegant, sometimes bizarre. When I bumped into her in the Video Shop and asked about giving me a job . She was wearing a black beret with BLAH! BLAH BLAH! written all over it in white letters. Now that was out of school and I don’t mind quirky. I was somewhat fazed to find she also wore it at school, with her Doc Martens!
She told me a tale of going clothes shopping in a Charity Shop and took off her coat to try something on and then heard a mother and daughter talking. The mother said ‘Oh No! For God’s Sake! You’ve bought some rubbish in the past but that is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.’ Monika looked round to see that the daughter was trying on her coat!!
I’ll never forget the morning I was collared and sent to one of our ponds with a fish net, she wanted me to catch a frog and put it in a jar to demonstrate her talk in assembly. The week before there had been the biggest frog Gang Bang you could imagine in that pond. Unfortunately it is right by the window on the way into the hall. The children were mesmerised.
When I got sent to look for one, do you think I could find one? No of course I couldn’t. I think it was fair to say they were all shagged out and had gone to recuperate. But I was made to feel it was my fault there wasn’t one!
Back to Bob. He had a lovely time in the Assembly and he bought the school a Giant Redwood tree to be planted in our grounds.
There are different threads to the week and I find it impossible to write this on a day-to-day basis, I have to write on the different topics.
I am a Pagan at heart and this week we had our cleansing bonfire. I just don't feel right it we don't have a good fire to mark the end of the growing year.
Mike keeping an eye on things.
This week a very difficult decision had to be made.
My rescue Persian cat, Willow, produced five kittens, of which we kept two, Merlin and Morgan. They were the runts of the litter, mouse sized and bottle-fed, I never thought they would make adults. The three other kittens were much larger and healthier, the largest being the ginger and white one, who required a little assistance being born, due to his size.
My son Simon and his girlfriend at that time, Lucy, decided the ginger one was for them, well Simon did really, mainly due to them having the same hair colouring. Simon had just joined the Royal Navy as an apprentice Artifficer and so the kitten was named Tiff.
Tiff as a baby. This just doesn'tjustice to the beautiful cat he became.
Simon and Lucy have long since split up but Lucy is still a family member. She told me a couple of weeks ago that Tiff had been constipated. Thin for most of his adult life was now getting thinner and off his food. He went in for blood tests and the result were bad. It turned out he had very small kidneys and they were now packing up and he was only five years old!
The appointment was made for Thursday evening and I went to meet Lucy at the Surgery.
Tiff was the most beautiful cat. I don’t have any photos of him as an adult, which is such a shame. He had his mother’s round flat Persian face but with ginger tabby markings. Like Merlin and Morgan, he had huge round eyes but in him, they were the same colour as his coat. In those last few moments of cuddles I thought how like a lion he looked, with his flat nose and golden face.
He died so peacefully but it doesn’t make the loss any easier.
Moving all of Simon’s unwanted possessions into the loft and making the room into a guest room, suitable for Catherine and Isabella, have filled up other spaces in the week. That also meant me searching round for a decent travel cot, which I found and bought tonight.
The final thing of note this week was last night. I can’t adequately describe what a good night it was but I’ve been humming all day.
We went to see 80’s icons, Go West, here in Worcester.
We have this wonderful venue in Worcester and I would have shared a photo but I’m appalled that there doesn’t seem to be a single one on the Internet, I shall try to remedy that.
The Countess of Huntingdon Hall is a chapel built in 1773 and which became redundant in 1976. It was to be demolished but a group of people campaigned and money was raised to turn the building into an Arts venue.
There is a restaurant and the most unique, live music venue of anywhere.
The building has been preserved in its chapel form, with pulpit and organ still in situe. Guests are amazed by the intimacy. It can’t seat more than 400 and the furthest you can be from the stage is about 60 feet.
We’ve seen Steve Harley, Belinda Carlisle, Colin Bluntstone, Rod Argent, Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac) Mike D’Abo (Manfred Mann), Joan Armatrading and The Christians perform there. All of them have rewarded us with a superb night’s entertainment and all have commented on the ‘special ness’ of the venue.
Last night was no exception and I think it will be days before I wake up without ‘We Close Our Eyes’ running though my brain. Which is strange, as, until last night ‘Call Me’ was my favourite song by them. Peter Cox had the most amazing voice and I’m pleased to hear he hasn’t lost any of it.
As I sat there, I glanced at a memorial on the wall and wondered what Elizabeth Baldwin, who died in December 1893, aged 88, had to think about it. I hope she was enjoying it because I certainly was.
Finally, whilst clearing out Simon’s room I came across this photo and I have no other reason for including it other than, today is Mass Blog Day.
This is a picture of Simon at a Christmas Dinner when he was working with me. He and his two friends would dress up and entertain the rest of the staff. ( I don’t want to talk about the Full Monty year!!!) This year they were Britney Spears and you can see him with his boss and one of his work mates. I like the thought that I will submit this as part of the Mass Blog and he will be forever more recorded in the British Library as a cross dresser.
We have this game of trying to outdo each other in the embarassment stakes.
Beat that Simon!!!!
