What's In My Bag? (Winter Edition)

I've always loved these kinds of posts, but have never got around to doing my own. My innate nosiness means I'm always intrigued to see which items people tote around for their average day in the city, or out and about, and I hope if like me you enjoy learning about this sort of thing that this satisfies the very human instinct to see what others are up to!

I'm often out in the city for hours on end, and when I am I like to make sure I'm prepared (those years of being a Brownie and a Girl Guide, and the offspring of military folk, come in very handy). There's nothing worse than being caught short and discovering that you're miles from home without water/a tissue/lip balm!

Please enjoy the early morning realness of these snaps. January is not the one for photo gorgeousness at 6am/9pm...

This is my current winter bag. It's a grey slouchy pleather (for want of a better description!) bag from Accessorise, which I picked up in the early autumn before our US and Canada trip. I wanted a roomy, useful bag, with zippered sections to keep things secure as we dashed between flights, buses, taxis and boats, but with roomy sections which were easy to get into when you just wanted to grab a bottle of water, a pair of sunglasses or a scarf. This bag turned out to be perfect for purpose and was really a trooper throughout our travels, and it's now my go-to bag for the winter in London. It's big enough to carry all the bits and bobs I need out in town (teachers always carry a *tonne* of stuff, I find) but small enough to carry without injuring oneself or taking people out on the tube.

In my bag I always tend to have:

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Life Lately (According to Instagram), part 1

Cats and Christmas trees and cards and visits and plans and fun and food.  The December whirl is well and truly underway!

My little helper!

A card starring Coop Dog!

Dave the tree!

My first flight with the new name!

Bonny Scottish hills!

Fridge raider lunch.

Beautiful pictures done by the boys.

Trees, trees everywhere!

Shiny antlers.

Hackney karaoke adventures.

Christmas jumpers.

And Iron Man.

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And breathe.....

Happy long weekend, you beautiful people.  And to my Christian brethren, may the glory of Good Friday and the wonder of Easter be alive in your hearts today and always.

Here, I am decompressing as the moments go by.  The past few months for both Matthew and I have been a bit of a rollercoaster (not within our cosy little duo, but without), but today, as the sun shines through the lounge window here at Gatwick, I feel like spring is finally here - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Why are we in Gatwick?  Because we're flying down to Cornwall to share the long weekend with my side of the family.  Mum, Dad, Sian, Peter, Chris, Matthew, me....all in the same space, together.  It's been too long.

After this break the Easter vacation stretches out for days and days and days.  And there's so much fun planned - brunches and reading and visits and holiday, cats and gardening and dinners and adventures.  Just what the doctor ordered.  And plenty of time for blogging too!

But now it's time to finish this cup of tea, log off the laptop, and head west for a weekend of walking, wine, family and board games.

Happy Easter, lovelies.

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Project Life Tuesday: Last week in November

The last week in November passed in a whirl of friends and fun and busy-ness.  Only some of which I remembered to photograph!  Monday was Bodeans with Matthew and Henry - good food and chat.  Tuesday was a blogger meet-up - always lovely to meet some new folk and catch up with some familiar faces.  On Wednesday it was back to the warehouse for a final push on Holiday Hampers.  Thursday I actually made it home by eight and had a cosy evening with my honey and the katzen.  We even managed to finish the trees!

On Friday we joined Eileen, Rory and lots of other friends for a late Thanksgiving, on Saturday in was K.  Sunday was lazy and restful, will a good old catch up with Hannah and a card writing session.  Love this busy and blessed season!

 Dave the tree, in all his splendour!

 First Christmas card of the season!

 Little Miss Paws.

 Mmmmmm, barbeque....

 I love our Christmas card this year!

 The bag of fun I made for the raffle at K!  Hope you enjoy it, Eileen!

And now we're in December!  Woo!

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Project Life Tuesday: Third Week in November

How on earth are we here already?  It feels like last week I was driving friends loopy with my Christmas countdowns (100 days!  99 days!) and now here we are, late November, dark evenings, and the very best time of year just around the corner....

I have *not* been the best photographer this past week, but it's been a busy and exciting time.  Large on the horizon was definitely Holiday Hampers, but I also found time for friends and fun too.  And snuggles with kittens and my favourite boy also.  I'm a lucky, lucky girl!

 Got to go and see my very clever boy pick up his CFA.  It's a long process of exams and admin - he was just starting Level 1 when we very first met.  So proud of my boy!

 Now that's a lot of tea!

 The boys at school donated so many gifts to Holiday Hampers.  Such kind and generous wee folk!

 Blue skies over the Thames.

Davina Tree!  The decorations have started appearing...

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New Year's Ambitions

Ooooops.

Maybe it's being busy.

Maybe it's running out of steam.

Maybe it's trying to do too many things at once - if I ever set myself FOURTEEN targets at once again, please feel free to give me a cyber smack upside the head....

1. Write a 10,000 word children's story. So far: 3,911/10,000.

Poor abandoned story.

2. Write 200 letters/ cards / notes / postcards. So far: 187/200.

Almost there, with two months to go and Christmas ahead :)

3. Swim twice a week. So far: 2/104.

Oh dear.

4. Go for three months without buying anything from Starbucks (June, July and August). This should help with #10 and #13 too! So far: 92/92.

In the bag!

5. Write a blog post a day for the whole of 2012. 297/366.

I have blogged a lot this year!  Not quite managing every day, but should make target with a few more double-days :)

6. Go for three months with no alcoholic beverages (January, March, and May). This should help with #10 and #13 too! So far: 70/93.

7. Complete all 52 weeks of a Project Life book and send it off to be published. So far: 42/52.

I probably won't make 52....but should have the majority of the year done!

8. Give blood. So far: 0/1

This is irking me now.  However, I know my docs have a Christmas blood drive, so I'll be able to get this done last minute if ness.

9. Read 52 books in the 52 weeks of 2012. So far: 41/52.




October was not a good reading month.  Hopefully the bad weather of November will help me to get back on the horse!

10. Become 'overweight' rather than 'obese'. So far: 18/66.



The 66 became impossible when I messed up earlier this year, but I'd love to lose maybe half a stone more by end of year, to make it a nice 25 pound loss.

11. Volunteer for 3 hours per months (or equivalent of). So far: 40/36.

Yay! And with Holiday Hampers being such a focus this month, should spike up hugely.

12. Walk 500 Miles.** So far: 420/500.

Getting there - I'd love to reach my target :)

13. Have the equivalent of 2 months salary saved up for a rainy day. So far: 0%/100%

RESET: As the money I was saving has been invested into our first home together, I've set a new target, to have £1,000 saved by the end of the year.  So far: 95%/100% 

:)

14. Go out and have fun, do things (parties, movies, gigs, theatre etc.) at least 4 times a month. So far: 80/48.

Such fun!


Edited 1/10/12

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Back

Back to school.

Back to work.

Back to counting points.

Back to not blogging in my PJs at 10.30 am.

Back to busy.

Back to the 5 am alarm.

But it's 57 days till Christmas....and 33 workdays until Christmas break.

And there's tonnes of fun, learning, events, cups of tea, volunteering and loveliness betwixt now and then.

Bring.

It.

On.

But first, an assembly in front of the whole school and all my colleagues.

Good grief - talk about straight in at the deep end!

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While the humans were away...

...we had quite the time, let me tell you.

Granted, they left Henry behind to keep us fed and watered (a shrewd move, to be sure!), but other than that, we more or less had the run of the place.  Leela and Mater seemed to enjoy it, as did I.  Time to read and nap and listen to Wagner without having to make sure Claire and Matthew were behaving was just the tonic.  Looking after humans can be quite wearing.

Now, however, they have returned, and just like that, my schedule has become busy once again.  If I'm not miaowing at Claire or helping Matthew with his fussing technique, I'm playing with the catflap or jumping into the laundry basket for a flying lesson.  More on which, anon.

I wonder when I'll next get a chance to read some sonnets with a brandy?  The perils of having humans to take care of, alas!

Yours ever,
Fry Zanzibar R. Esq.

Perusing one's territory

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Project Life Tuesday: September 16th-22nd

Linking up with Jessica as ever for Project Life Tuesday!  So glad I've been able to keep this going so long!   Last week was a busy one, full of friends and food and fun....and tonnes of work, too!  Here are the pics from the week that was.

Pretty Eileen at our games night on Saturday.

 

Matthew chose to be the 'Flying Ratmen' in Small World.  It was pretty clever!

 

I sent a package off to Cali for my fall blog swap partner, Katie.  I'm looking forward to seeing if she likes it!  It also inspired me to do another package based giveaway soon - I love making 'Claire packages!'.

 

The Tower on Friday night.  I love how many cool sights there are here in town!

 

Matthew and I went to Bodean's for our anniversary dinner (because we're classy like that ;)).  Absolutely delicious - their pulled pork sandwich is divine!

 

What's a celebration without a cake?

 

Thursday I met Matthew and his colleagues for drinks an a tonne of amazing Chinese food (Drunken Monkey in Shoreditch is brilliant - try the set menu!  Ooooh, and the English garden cocktail too!).

 

I made a cat out of a CAT script.  My class were suitably amused, and now he is our class messenger.

 

Cocktails and yumminess with Miss Laura last Sunday.  I really am so blessed to have such awesome friends.

 

We we we so excited.

 

My classroom in 'tidy' shocker.

 

Another fun, busy week - looking forward to seeing everyone else's posts!

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Blue skies & the crunch of leaves

Y'all.

I have a major case of the September tireds.  But I am fighting them with naps, coffees, and occasional early nights (in bed at nine on Friday - so rock and roll!).

In these first few weeks of term, the pace is frenetic, and I haven't yet got the rhythm of my days - the morning I can afford an extra ten minutes in bed.  The lunchtime where lingering for a chat is an option (as much as you can when the break for lunch is only 35 minutes, or if you're on duty, 12!).  The free period that's ripe for marking, when a comfy corner close to the coffee machine is open.  This time in a fortnight I'll have it down, but now is a different case :).  It's good though, this starting over, this getting used to.  It's worth it.

My new form are lovely, but as is the wont of young boys, require lots and lots of bounce and energy.  I'm enjoying getting to know their little ways and quirks, learning how to make them giggle, where to pitch the work.  My Year 5 English students and Year 6 Historians are fab too - it's always so lovely to see some familiar faces returning!

Life continues apace also - time with friends and excitements and letters to write and fun to plan.  Blog posts to schedule.  Meals to make.  And long lazy evenings, all too rare, tucked up with the kitties.  Life is good, but life is busy!  I am determined *not* to hibernate and hide, but instead to enjoy my friends and my love and my home and my hobbies and my city as well as work.  After all, all work and no play...

Junior League has me busy too.  I'll be blogging soon about our great Holiday Hampers project, which brings festive joy to over a thousand families in the capital.  I'm one tiny cog in a very very big machine, but I love being part of something so cool. And Christmassy.

Can you believe it's 99 days till Christmas?  I promised this year I wouldn't plan properly until September 25th.....but now the season for planning and dreaming and wishing is nearly here.  There's always time for Christmas fun!

The cats are getting sweeter and sweeter by the week.  They are so well settled now, and such good fun to be around.  I am loving to get to know their little natures.  Poppet the boss, our talkative girl, Matthew's biggest fan.  Fry our sweet boy, who loves to give kisses and have tummy rubs.  Leela, who's such a quirky little thing, but who loves nothing better than a good old purr and a snuggle with me.  Oh, and cheese.

How's your September going?

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Five Minute Friday: Focus

It's five minute Friday time, and once again I'm linking up with the lovely Lisa-Jo.  Love this series!  This week's prompt is: Focus.

GO.

As a teacher I talk a lot about focus.

"Our focus for the term is...."

"My focus boys are...."

"He is trying but needs more focus."

"Our lesson focus is...."

This word is precious to the educator.

So much so that there's a good natured ongoing debate on whether the past tense is spelled 'focused' or 'focussed'.

This week, however, I get the uneasy feeling that Lisa-Jo has once again read my mind, because I've been trying to zoom in on a focus for my own life.  September is such a crushingly busy month - the start of term, the return to a busy, filled social calendar (after the lazy lunches and laissez faire summer approach), the start of the Junior League year.

Life is packed.

And in this whirl of busy-ness, it;s so easy to lose sight of what's important.

To lose focus.

My focus is on what I can do for people - it has to be, and it should.  I want to be a kind and understanding teacher.  A loving and supportive sister, colleague, girlfriend, daughter and friend.  A person whose energy lifts others up.

I'm glad to remember that this morning.

STOP.

Have a great Friday, all!

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Project Life Tuesday: Sunday August 26th - Saturday September 1st

Linking up with Jess for another funfilled Project Life Tuesday.  I am so thrilled I've been able to stick with the digital book and hope I can last out the year.  Now I just have to decide whether to go digital or old school next year :)

It's been a busy old week, a week of getting back into things - planning and tidying, renewing qualifications and sorting through piles of paperwork, hanging out with friends and cats, feeling a little below par (all sorted now though and jacked up on some pretty strong antibiotics!), and loving the dip in the temperatures (the teens and twenties are my friends!).  And now, to the snaps....

 Fry found the jug we use when we test the fishes water PH.  Hilarity ensued as he then 'drove' the jug around the sitting room.  Such a silly boy cat!

 Friday was first aid training (such a blessing to have provided!).  As well as learning lots, we also got to show off our bandaging 'skills'.  My colleague Sarah has a little practising to do...

 Grabbed a couple of spare hours to write a passel of post.  Love sending things off to friends near and far!

 Doodling.

 Eraly morning coffee, and Leela trying to look innocent after trying to dive into the coffee!

 Planning and kitties.  Quite the mix (they are 'helping' me to blog right now!).

 Sleepy, sleepy Fry.

 Belgian beer and a great catch up with the beautiful ladies Siobhán and Eileen.

 Flowers from a student - such a lovely treat!

 Eileen and her teeny tiny beer!

 Leela, the post it thief!

 We went to a super Swiss restaurant to celebrate Eileen's 30th birthday - which is today!  Happy birthday, sweetie!

Love riding on the bus when you get the front seat up top.

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