"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." Confucius
"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead." Louisa May Alcott
Sunnier St. Petersburg day 2. Catherine's Palace behind us and you can see the headsets we have for listening to our Guide, Yuri's, commentary and 'Yuri's group this way!'
Monday 26th July
At the dock in Tallinn. Our Jewel of the Seas on the left and Disney cruise ship on the right.
Tuesday 27th July
Post azipod listing in the card room.
Wednesday 28th July
Day spent reading and sleeping in various points around the ship. Had finished the Agatha by 4.30pm.
Thursday 29th July
Nicoleta and Joel, lovely waiters on our last night in Tides dining room.
Friday 30th July
Final buffet breakfast in the Windjammer.
Saturday 31st July
Finishing up the holiday diary back at home (having added to my house collection with one from Copenhagen).
As I kept a diary of my cruise, I realised I am not actually going to write all that much about the holiday on here. But you will get the snapshot from it in the photo of the year style - it was hard just choosing one photo on a couple of occasions. Also got to say a huge thank you to Lizzie who let me have full use of her camera while we were away. Very generous of her and she never begrudged me it. THANK YOU! I did kinda miscalculate the whole last-post-in-July thing!
Sunday 18th July
All aboard! Slightly windy (!) setting sail from Harwich aboard the Jewel of the Seas.
Monday 19h July
Caused Mum and Lizzie hysterics by trying napkin folding for beginners on my own. Fortunately they turned up near the end and Lizzie happily (!) helped me out.
Tuesday 20th July
Excited about to go on a ride at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen.
Wednesday 21st July
First Art Auction on a day at sea, taking place in the Centrum. Can you spot Ma and Lizzie?
Thursday 22nd July
Line up, Line up, Seagulls! Stockholm.
Friday 23rd July
Horray! The Moomin purchases we'd been hoping for in Finland.
Saturday 24th July
Happy Birthday Moomin!!! A rather surprise wet start to our time in St Petersburg. But don't we look good in ponchos!
Radical posting on a Saturday, only the six photos, but we are off on holiday tomorrow and I wanted to be up to date before going! So this is the last entry for July - still more posts than January though! I wonder when I will get bored blogging??
Monday 12th July
After starting the journey home feeling a little down (despite excellent performance of Joseph by Year 6s) the sun started shining beautifully in the sky and chromatography started working and the mileage was all multiples of 3 and happy music came on! It's the little things...
Tuesday 13th July
My bed was too covered in things to eat on and watch tv so I sat on the floor leaning against the book case and photographed with photobooth.
Wednesday 14th July
Totally radical - got the train to London on a school night!!! Had a lovely time chatting and catching up with a mega friend.
Thursday 15th July
Pick your own raspberries (or in this photo's case, try and reattach them to the bush!)
Friday 16th July
Stopping still on the way into house in the warmth of the sun, thinking (happy thoughts).
Saturday 17th July
Early morning holiday packing! One of my OCD moments.
I was in such a happy mood this morning. Despite being awake from 5.20am, I eventually managed to do my packing and get on the road back home ready for the holiday. I spent a lot of the journey listening to the Glee CD I was given on Thursday. Plenty of singing along and smiling. It was also a fairly sunny day and I was amazed seeing all the fields looking so yellow as I drove through the Cotswolds. Then I was happy as well as I finished the whole school year yesterday and I am off on holiday tomorrow. Plus then I got some smiley news yesterday.
My happiness reminded me of how I felt on my driving test - bizarre but true!
I was in such a good mood on the journey and there were lots of spots I fancied taking pictures at, including calves eating, campers camping, long long views. But here are the few I did actually get.
This post, which has been mentally been hanging round for a while, has latterly been really crying out to be written! So here I am putting fingers to keys.
Yesterday I was showing someone some of my diary collection. And it is true - I have over my time kept a lot of diaries, without really feeling it's something I do masses of. It started with my '1999: last year of the millennium diary' which I had found to try and track down the giant inflatable slide story in. Over the last week, I have read it all and do truely find it hilarious. But also at times touching. Most of it I remember writing, but others no recollection at all. World Events is definitely the favourite bit. If my scanner was working, it would be a good opportunity to show it. Though I guess maybe photos might work. I then kept the same sort of diary for the first year of the new millennium. In 2002, I kept a little diary everyday - that's interesting too. Somewhere around then is my year of the Formula 1 diary. The two trips to New Zealand I kept very detailed journals of what we did everyday, and when I was in Africa too (how Meryl Streep!). More latterly I havent kept such specific diaries. I was given a lovely notebook when I left the Sunshine House School in 2003 and that became my diary when I started uni, but that didn't last long. It became a txt msg record book. There are of course the great Rumbly diaries, but I am not at liberty to share about those. I did have notebooks which I kept sporadically during my uni years and especially on holidays. I kept a Musicals notebook for several years - probs about 1999 till ...2003? Am pleased this blog is resurrecting the idea. And in 2006 I started my official book diary - which I am mega proud of and deserves its own post. And last year I started my flower diary. I started a general diary at Christmas for Crieff, but that didn't get past a day and then this blog took over... Can you hear the dunn dunn duuuuunnnnn.
So that's really a history of my diaries, but I am yet to do the 'compare and contrast' element of this essay! This entry finally took shape because it came time for me to pack for our HOLIDAY!!!! Me and packing is probably a whole other story. I like to know what I'm packing and not just throw everything in. I hunted out the 2003 diary which I remembered had the packing lists in it from the last two cruises. I should have started my packing ages ago, but I haven't because I think I was feeling I needed to make that new list before I started. And because I don't have a diary at the moment I didn't know where to write it. I tried back home last weekend starting on a piece of paper, but it just wasn't quite clicking (and I left it in Malvern!). And making a packing list on the computer didn't seem right either - I wanted that pencil in my hand!
18/7/10 Fortunately come early Saturday morning, I picked up the diary I'd started at Christmas and never got past Christmas eve and started a new page with my packing lists on. And the packing flowed beautifully!!
31/7/10 Back from holiday yesterday and I KEPT UP THE DIARY! I am proud of myself for doing. Although initially it wasn't a very interesting diary (not that much of a departure then some might say!) but it did come into it's diary ownness on a couple of occasions. It did though take up quite a lot of my time to write, but nevertheless I am pleased to have it.
It's totally hard to believe, that this is the last day of the school year!!!! I really did do it! I taught for a whole year. Had been saying for a while that we were nearly there, and even at 1 o'clock, with half an hour to go, I was still saying 'well, nearly'. But now it's totally true and dusted.
I am very proud of myself. I don't think I did the best job ever, and still often feel like a fraud, but people have been saying kind things to me and I am surely no where near as much of a fraud as I was at the beginning of the year. Why wasn't I so much more nervous then, I was clueless!!!! I got some lovely presents from the kids and really kind words from the parents which mean the moon to me!
I felt a little emotional, but only slightly. We were trying to read the last two chapters of the Enchanted Wood in the last half hour, and initially I couldn't find the book which was fairly comical! But in that they were saying good bye to each other and I did feel a little pull at the heartstrings thinking that would be me and them soon!
But oddly, the most emotional I felt, was as I was taking my stuff to the car, having tidied my classroom and I was hanging up my badge and switching off the lights.
Last Sunday, 11th July, was the British Grand Prix. I didn't write at the time, Martin obviously wasn't on full form!! I was however excited about it and took quite a lot of screenshots. There had been good build up to it on the radio and on Friday I heard Alan Cowey says many times on radion oxford about A43 being closed except to ticket holders! Watched the race back at Mum's with a super duper roast - that's what sundays are all about!
Mega excitedly, the BBC had introduced for the Driver Tracker for this race. I can't decide which was a more momentous day: this, or the day I was introduced to livetimings. I had heard about maps the teams had of the circuits showing where cars were on them and used them to know when to bring someone in for a pit stop. And this was the day we got to see it too!! Thank you BBC! It was as fascinating as I had hoped, even watching the cars vanish off the screen when they went into the pits and then reappear at the moment further round the track. It was interesting to see how long it took for the pack to spread out and how long it took to all bunch up again when the safety car came out. Here are some screen shots (naturally, a static image isn't the best way to show how exciting this feature is!):
This week wasn't one of the best for feeling well. Ever since the party on Friday night I started to not feel well - mainly in my stomach. I didn't really eat properly/much over the weekend and I'm not sure if that was cause or sympton. And I didn't fancy eating a meal until the following Friday evening BBQ. I felt mainly hungry or ill (always ill when it was meal time) until Wednesday, and then just ill at mealtimes till Friday. Very strange, not really happened to me before. It was kinda the motion sickness feeling I get. Also it was really hot still all week and I wasn't sleeping great - same as rest of country. Anyway - here's the week's recordings.
Monday 5th July
Shockingly empty state of the cupboard made finding food for a meal tricky, even had I been feeling like eating!
Tuesday 6th July
Quick snap of the wild flowers at the Botley Interchange lights on the way to school - I wasn't driving!
Wednesday 7th July
It was another reports induced trip to the pub after school. We cycled along the river to the Trout and were joined for the meal by Mr Peacock.
Thursday 8th July
Next after school trip - to the garden centre - with mini tractors!! What more entertainment does one want...
Friday 9th July
Class swaps day at school - first proper time of getting to meet Class 2CG. We had a lovely time :-) they drew me pictures about themselves.
hehe - have just noticed, having written quite a bit of this post, that the title I wrote was:Musical - Whistle Down the Window I totally did it by accident and never noticed till just now - how funny!
Had a nice text a week ago from AS asking if I wanted to attend Whistle Down the Wind at the local theatre with her and Grandma. And I replied 'yes please'! So after a staff leaving do last night, I was on the train back home this morning to be there for the matinee. Sadly getting to bed gone 1am and waking up at 6.30 (naturally - grrr) meant I was a little tired at the show and my eyes were closing for several parts of the first half; don't think I quite went unconscious (is that what you call sleep?) at any points though! It was a shame, over the last year I have become quite the fan of the title track and I wasn't fully with it during the song so I still don't quite understand what it's going on about! But beautifully sung, though maybe for my mood it was slightly too like a lullaby! Thought all the singing was nice, it sounded different - no idea how to describe it. The rest of the music was not immediately identifiable or memorable - except for No Matter What that Boyzone released. There were a few fairly funky 'rock'n'roll' numbers which I felt were my kind of thing and I should have enjoyed more and woken me up. The lighting was interesting, but a lot of the story happened at night so it was fairly dark - again not good for keeping me awake! There were 2 child actors who I thought were great and had very large parts (3rd and 4th biggest in the show I'd say) and put on pretty good american accents. I was interested to learn that the musical is based on a book written in the 50s by Hayley Mills' (original parent trap and pollyanna to me) mother which was then turned into a film by Richard Attenburgh and starred Hayley. I do remember when it was Andrew Lloyd Weber's new musical and turns out it was in 1996. So though I wouldn't add it to my top 10 musicals, I am still pleased to have seen it and ticked another Andrew Lloyd Weber musical.
Great excitement came after the show as we were leaving the theatre. The main man in the show (Jonathan Ansell) had a big bio in the programme and AS said he was from a singing group she knew of and turned out they had done well in the first X-factor. As we were walking down the steps to head out the back door I noticed a crowd gathering in the foyer and realised people were queueing for autographs. So after announcing the fact to AS and Gma we ummed and ahhed and I eventually decided to go take a photo - I had photo of the day on my mind! Mega panic and rising excitement as I tried to hunt through my bag to find my phone. Having snapped a shot, I ended up deciding to join the queue to get an autograph as well, having given AS a quick lesson on how to photo with my phone! He seemed a really nice and genuine guy and apparently stayed after every performance until everyone waiting had got their autograph. And fairly attractive too!
Having a look at his website tonight, I was entertained to see a photo of me on his forum page (in amongst lots of others!) - definitely looking surprised!
Outside the theatre after the show. Lovely setting.
Have been reminded today (Sunday 4th July) of two times I have been very happy in my life. Maybe one time of contentment and one of happiness (I refer you to Frenchman's Creek for my definitions of these ;-) ) and I thought it might be nice to record here.
The first that was jogged in my memory was a weekend in May (probably a bank holiday one) spent in Alderley with all my cousins. That's why it was so special as the two sides of the family didn't often cross. And I got to spend some fairly individual time with all seven of them. I have got a feeling I might have written about it somewhere. Thinking now, it could have been in 2000 in which case it would have been in my first year of the millennium diary.
I was reminded of it when we entered the Cowley Road Festival in the park and saw a giant bouncy slide. It looked good fun. I have been lucky enough to go on one once before in my life on this special weekend. We went to Tatarn (? oops, just managed to find out its Tatton of course) Park for some sort of pet show/fair. I remember seeing some dogs doing those obstacle course things. Maybe it was actually just a dog show. There were also stalls and marquees types things, rather like at the 3 Counties. Then in one corner there was some childrens entertainment including the big bouncy castle slide. I remember feeling dead important climbing up with my littlest cousin and going down with her on my lap. I always loved occasions when I got to be in charge of the little ones - that's rather why I'm a teacher! Also over the course of the weekend, some of us went to the park in Alderley Edge and played a bit of cricket - I was with one of my boy cousins on either side of the family, so there was some quality time in there. I also remember it was the Eurovision Song Contest weekend, and I got to watch some, enough to be fairly satisfied, by myself in Grandpas study I think. There might also have been a trip to West Park, but that might have been the one other time in life that all the cousins got together. I will have to see if i can sometime find the original recording of the weekend.
The second memory was jogged by hearing Orinoco Flow during Shrek 4 at the cinema.
I was immediately back in ryhtmic gym lessons in lower 5 - that's year 9 at secondary school. It was a song that my Dad had played at home before and I had liked and think he had recorded onto a tape for me. It was the only time we got to do Rhythmic Gym at school, it was on a thursday after break. We had a few lessons learning how to use the ribbons (and maybe balls and hoops as well). And then we started practising the whole class routine to Orinoco Flow. I was excited that I knew the song from before. And it was just so much fun and I looked forward to it every week. I remember that it started with the class in 6 lines and I was at the front of one and my friend was at the front of the line next to me and we were kneeling down and did mexican wave things along the lines whipping our ribbons over our heads. The music and the whole class team excitement was just great.
And that was part of the reason Thursdays became so great. They were my favourite days of the week then and would just make me smile. Can't remember what was first on a Thursday or straight after break, but then it was the gym lesson, then single maths in the funny classroom on the physics corridor with our funny american teacher. Not anything special but not terrible either. Then it was single french (which was one of my least favourite subject lessons, but being only a single and being on the wondrous Thursday became bearable). Then the afternoon was single Latin which for some reason was always fun. My thoughts of it were being sunny. We sat on tables of four, my friendship four. On the table near the door. I think we always had a vocab test. I remember Miss Williams leaning against the lockers near our table. At the end of the test, she always said 'Shuffle your books around' to mark each others, but led by one of my friends in particular, we would just turn our books round in the air and Miss Williams would find it funny every week and laugh! Which of course we then found funny. After Latin, it was off to the music school for our weekly double music lesson, which were always chilled and generally fun.
It was lovely to be taken straight back to those Thursdays and feel the happiness I had then over such simple things. I am pretty sure I knew at the time that it was a special enjoyment that I would treasure. I am having such a good time at the end of term now, that maybe in years to come I will be writing about these days on a flashback friday.
Other blogs I have read have had a Flashback Friday feature from time to time. I started writing this on Sunday but hadn't finished it by Friday - oops!
hmm, why does the video fit on this screen but the danny baker ones are too big...
Fitting perfectly into the random tag category, I wanted to post a link to this that popped up again on the BBC news most read list this morning. Haven't seen it there for probably over a year, not sure when I first came to it, but it's so incredible that I felt it was worth me including the link for posterity. (the word posterity always makes me think of Pliny the Younger writing about Pliny the Elder in my Latin GCSE texts: you ask that I write to you about the death of my Uncle that you may hand down a more accurate account to posterity. He was at Misenum and in charge of the fleet himself... )
Big Day. I finally saw my first 3D film. Not counting of course Honey, I shrunk the audience! Very mixed emotions going into it. Influenced almost entirely by Dr K. He is not a fan. I had heard from some trusted sources (Lizzie) that it was not like the rides we had been on in the past, which I admit was my main expectation and not really what I wanted from a film. After the whole wondering about Avatar thing, it was quite nice to finally just go and see one in 3D. I almost went on Thursday evening by myself. I was fancying the cinema, but Shrek was the only thing I was tempted to see, and as it was only just opening I didn't feel I could bring myself to go, just me. But miraculously, someone I know from dancing emailed a few of us on Friday night asking if we wanted to go over the weekend. So I readily agreed - good to increase my social circle!
Well, to finally get to the point... I was amazed the first time I put the glasses on!! Just for the trailers I thought it looked great and probably had my mouth agape! It seemed so clear and it really felt that one person was in front of another! I wasn't particularly interested in things rushing towards me, or generally the flying through space/over Grand Canyon feeling, I just liked the mega clarity. So I'm sorry to say Dr K, I liked it! I'm still not sure if I was normally offered the choice of 2 or 3D then I would opt for 2D just becuase it's cheaper. But I wouldn't be adverse to going.
And Shrek 4 itself. It was good. Not quite up there with the others (I can't particularly differentiate them), but still fine. First half I was a little squirmy, then donkey came in and stole the show (you know what would raise morale around here, flip flop fridays). And I left feeling very happy and smiley and cloud floaty! But also oddly disoriented. I panicked during the film that I didn't have my lights for cycling back, but as it was a 6.15 film it was still light at 8.15 when we came out! But other than a few handfuls of minstrels during the film, I didn't eat anything that evening.
Another reason it's the best job in the world... water fight with the after school club on the field at the end of a hot day!!! Loving it!!!
Tuesday 29th June
The majority of the evening seemed to be spent trying to work out the phone bill. I was only 7 months overdue!!
Wednesday 30th June
Dancing at OUP - Wednesday class in the vacation.
Thursday 1st July (wow July!)
I find this such a bizarre sight. My car parked in the Year 2 playground!!!! I got a funny turn whenever I looked out the window! Literacy was spent examining it. I enjoyed having 25 children clambering round it.
Friday 2nd July
On the way to leaving do, there was a red carpet along my road??? I've always wanted to walk down a red carpet so I managed to ask for my photo to be taken while I happily posed!
Saturday 3rd July
Bizarreness (totally overuse that word!) of doing a Scottish Dancing jigsaw in the outdoor classroom after the Summer Fete.
Sunday 4th July
Spent afternoon at Cowley Road festival. Hadn't been to it before but it was a fun experience. It was a little overcast, though I don't remember it seeming to as much as in this photo.
