Christmas Eve

Wonderful.

Here it's been a day of errands and prep and tidying.

An evening of silliness and relaxing and cosiness.

And now it's time to tuck in for a long winter's nap.

Merry Christmas, everyone.  May it be exactly what you like - whether that be a good book and a cup of tea, a massive family gathering, snuggling up with your favourite person, or anything and everything in between.

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Super Secret Sunday: A London Adventure

Matthew is such a planner.

He thrives on timetables, spreadsheets and itineraries.

It's a running joke with my girlfriends that amongst the many reasons Matthew is a keeper, his mad skills at planning holidays and trips must rank in the top ten, for sure.

However, I also like a good spreadsheet, so every so often it's nice to take the reins!  On Sunday was one such occasion.  Matthew let me take the whole day to plan us an adventure in London.  What follows is how Super Secret Sunday unfolded.  After the wedding rush and a lovely minimoon up in Matlock, this was the perfect way to conclude our break before work and Junior League and life kicked in!

I will always work cute stationery into a plan, wherever possible.

I planned for something to happen every two hours.  An hour before, Matthew got to open an envelope, so he knew what was coming next!

Ready for the off.

We breakfasted at home (M is not a morning person, so I wanted my schedule to honour that!) and then jumped onto the tube across to Greenwich.  Because first item of business was....a boat trip along the Thames!

The Shard and Tower Bridge.

The Tower of London.

The Shard and HMS Belfast.

Loved this view of the City and St Paul's.

The Houses of Parliament.

Cheesey boat based selfie.

Canary Wharf

After catching some of our city's most marvellous sights from a different point of view, we bimbled up from Westminster towards Trafalgar Square.

Hi, Nelson!

Because I had booked us lunch at Portrait, the gorgeous restaurant atop the National Portrait Gallery.

Such a unique, beautiful view of London, with Nelson in the foreground!

After a long, leisurely lunch we heading across to Covent Garden, where we had a jolly couple of hours exploring the London Transport Museum.

In a tube carriage from Victorian times.

After that we went to Christopher's for cocktails - I'm happy to report their drinks are just as delicious as their brunches!

Cocktails were definitely a mini-moon theme!

And then, when you're close to Covent Garden, there's a clear family favourite for dinner:

I put three pounds on just looking at this menu.

Best steak in town!  All in all I thought the day went well and I had such fun planning a busy, silly, tasty day for Matthew.  We've decided to do something like this every other month, with us taking turns to plan.  Such a fun way to spend time together and explore our awesome city together!

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Bridal Shower

On Saturday I had my Bridal Shower, and it was really lovely.  The lovely Eileen and Emily put it together and it was such a treat to catch up with so many of my favourite ladies and get a little spoiled!  We drank fizzy good, ate treats (including Eileen's awesome madelines), played games and generally had a super time.  In this busy season of making and buying and organising, it was such a treat to have a chill day (the ladies even provided a couple cleaners to whip the house into shape ahead of the festivities!

Thank you to Emily and Eileen for putting everything together and to all the ladies who came, or who sent gifts and happy wishes our way!

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Blog Every Day in May: Dream Job

Today on BEDM, we're two-thirds of the way through and today we are writing about our dream job.

I'm very lucky, because I do my dream job.  Well, one of them.

In my youth, once my fantasies of becoming Oprah, Meryl, Mary Poppins or John Craven had subsided, I had boiled down my career choices to four clear favourites: teacher, writer, singer, mum.

I always tell my class that I'm very lucky.  I have not just one, but three or four vocations, and I get to enjoy them all.

I love to teach.  Spending my days surrounded by wee folk, helping them, encouraging them, guiding them....that's my idea of a good time.  I also love the sector I teach in - being in an independent school is a different ball game (while still startlingly similar - all teachers have plenty in common!), with some different skills required (while others which are needed in spades in state education are left unused).  I love that I get to specialise in certain areas - English, Maths, Humanities and pastoral care - while still working with the age group I adore the most (7-11).  I'm also most fortunate in finding my niche so early in my career - it turns out my boundless energy, sense of humour and Labrador-esque levels of enthusiasm works well for teaching classes of boys!  That said, I loved teaching co-ed too, and every so often the thought of trying girls only education flits across my noodle (when I'm not marking/planning/workshopping!).

My other loves work into my life in other ways.  I write a lot, both here on my blog and elsewhere - poems, stories, limericks for my class.  While my singing has taken a back seat since I moved to London, I can still carry a tune, and have enough remembrances from my youth to recall my singing adventures.  The mum thing may or may not happen, but I'm lucky enough to have a bundle of friends whose children I will spoil rotten if it doesn't!

I am an infinitely lucky girl.  I get to live my dream.

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SUYL: Favorite Vacation spots

This week for Show Us Your Life, Kelly is having us write about our favourite vacation spots.  I love going on holiday, whether with Matthew, friends or family, so I've been looking forward to writing this post!

There are three places I really love to visit on holiday - Bruges, Belgium; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Puerto de Mogán, Spain (Canary Islands). Bruges is a new addition to our travel loves. Matthew and I went there for a long weekend last autumn - we wanted to get out of town for a little break and the Eurostar makes Bruges very simple to visit! We fell in love with the place - it's so beautiful, full of gorgeous buildings, and the pace is relaxed and welcoming. We had a wonderful time visiting museums, sampling beers and enjoying the autumnal sun.

 
All the beers!

Our first view of Bruges. Just beautiful!

The Markt is stunning!

Views for miles.

Edinburgh has long had a special place in my heart, and I tend to go there once a year for the Fringe Festival. The biggest alternative festival in the world, it's a real hub for art, theatre, music, and comedy. It's a real treat to be able to go and see such a range of things! In addition to this, you have the loveliness of the city itself to enjoy. Matthew and I actually met at the festival five years ago, and will be up there again this year!

Just some of the tickets from last year's shows!

I love the drama of Edinburgh's architecture.

Scottish breakfast = guilty pleasure par excellence!

This shot captures just how busy Edinburgh gets!

Lou and I had great fun last year spotting Golden Postboxes (they were painted in every town, village or city that a 2012 Olympic gold medallist hailed from. This is Chris Hoy's).
Last but not least has to be Puerto de Mogán, the little town in the Canary Islands that Matthew and I visit for a week each year. It's idyllic - warm temperatures, sunshine, a little manana culture....the perfect break from the rush of London town (as much as we adore that!). We're heading out there again in the not too distant.....delicious!

Frosty cold beers in the sunshine.

The view from a boat of Puerto de Mogán.

Perfect blue skies :)

Truly Matthew's happy place - relaxing in the sun!

Can't wait for our holiday to roll around!

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Kid President For President

I hope this makes you smile as much as it made me smile...


Be awesome, you lovely folk!

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Show Us Your Life: Christmas Cards

This week Kelly's link up is all about Christmas Cards!  Christmas cards really are one of my favourite parts of the festive season.  I love hearing the letterbox and rushing down to see what goodies have arrived.  As someone who loves post anyway, it's a delight to get so many jolly letters and cards arriving all at once!

We display almost all of ours in our sitting room, either tacked up on the door or on the shelves.

Below is our Christmas card for this year.  I decided to change it up a little and go for a Christmas postcard rather than a card and I was so pleased with the final result.  I used Erin Condren (such a fan of their designs), and the service was top notch ~ quick, friendly, thorough and beautiful!

Merry Christmas, all!

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Fall Swap link up!

A few weeks back I signed up for a fall blog swap on my friend Tracy's blog, and yesterday my super fun package arrived! I was linked up with Katie, who is just as sweet as her blog suggests :)

She sent me all these goodies:

Pie cutters in beautiful leaf shapes (Matthew will be very happy, he loves a good pie and mash meal!), a lovely fall candle (which my entire class took turns to smell!), a gorgeous autumnal nail varnish (I feel a mani-pedi coming on at the weekend) and a Starbucks card too.  Such a lovely treat to receive!  Thank you Katie, and thank you to all who co-ordinated the swap - I can't wait for the next one!

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Things I Like

Working hard.

The sweet and silly nature of eight year olds.

The mellow chill of autumn breezes.

Reading a book that makes you laugh and cry on the tube. Thanks, Caitlin Moran.

Saturday morning downtime.

Reading poetry to my class.

 Dreaming big.

Crunchy leaves.

Getting a seat on the tube.

 Vanilla lattes on a cold Wednesday afternoon.

 Breaking out the slow cooker.

The tang of autumn mornings.

Glancing at the 'Christmas' folder on my computer and thinking 'not yet'. But soon.

 Jacket potatoes with butter.

 A chorus of miaows and purrs when I arrive home from school.

 Curling up on the sofa and doing not much of anything.

You?

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Five Minute Friday: Story

Linking up, as ever, with the divine Mrs Lisa-Jo for Five Minute Friday.  This week's prompt is: Story.

GO.

"Miss Thornley, Miss Thornley!  Can we have a story?"

Second only to their appetites for Lego, Friday snacks and 'dad level jokes', my boys have an insatiable hunger for story.  For tales.  For adventures.  Don't we all?

Sometimes I look at my own story, and my teacher instinct, the need to change, edit, embellish, omit, tingles like an itch.  There are parts I love about my own story - the deep friendships, the moments of success, the first kisses, the late night chats, the curled up cosinesses, the travels, the fun.  Likewise there are parts I'd love to take a red pen to - letting people down, being let down, being hurt, rejected, abused, bullied, invisible, worthless.

But I can't.  None of us can.  All the love in the world can't change what's gone on in someone's story.  The past is always there.  We can ignore it, hide from it, wallow in it, avoid it, reframe it....but it's still there.  As sure as shadows on a noonday pavement.

What love can do, however, is change the story from this point on.  What we do, what we give, how we love affects the story of each and every person we encounter.  Each sharp word, each swear at the steering wheel, each harsh reaction shapes the stories of those around us, and our own story too. 

Much more excitingly, the positives we send out have just as much power.  The seat given up on the tube, the cake given to colleagues, the warm greeting, the appreciative comment, the thank you note....these impact too.  In a busy crazy world like ours, we all have the chance to change the narrative.

So let us be joyful, kind, and loyal.  Let us be fair and understanding and warm.  Let us revel in stories worth telling, worth sharing; in the joy of the power our actions and reactions have.

It's a beautiful story.  It's a beautiful life.

STOP.

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Love and laughter and joy ever after....

...to paraphrase Cliff Richard.

Never say I don't give you guys curveballs!

Anyways, this past Saturday was certainly full of love, laughter and joy.  Two of the sweetest people I know, Siobhán and Matthew, tied the knot in fine style.  Having cheerleaded their relationship from the very start and having had the privelege of watching them grow into a truly lovely couple together, it was delicious to share the happiness of their wedding day.  Add a good healthy sprinkling of Joinees in attendance (like Matthew and I, Siobhán and Matthew have the joys of Join Me to thank for bringing them together!), and you have quite the recipe for a memorable and fun day!

Massive congratulations, Mr & Mrs M!

The lovely bride and groom!

 Beautiful ladies, Dan and Lou!

 Eileen and Rory.  Next year it will be their turn!

 Lou and Sheli at the cocktail hour.

 Pretty Kaz & Lou!

 Brigitte and Dan - another couple getting married next June!  Hurrah for weddings!

 Matthew and I being silly.  Well, what did you expect? :)

 Ems and Matthew snapping away!

 Pretty river!

 Matthew's speech was very sweet.

 Emily and Adam sizing up some shots!

 Lou does surprised!

 Siobhán and one of her bridesmaids, Jo.  Loved Siobhán's styling - blingtastic, classic gown and gorgeous 20s influenced hair.  Divine!  Such a beautiful bride.

 First dance.

The start of a magical marriage, I'm sure.

Congrats once more, lovelies!  May you have every joy!

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