One day Wonders

Just a little sharing of the videos I made in the pub when the One Day Wonders came to the island.

Project 52 Week 21

Last week we saw a bit of a heatwave. It didn't prepare us for the foul weather of this week.

Sunday

I started to paint the deck while the cats were asleep indoors. Unfortunately, I ran out of paint before I could give it a second coat, and the weather has been against me all week, so we are not quite finished :-( All the rain has been good for the island as it is looking green and lush. The weeds are also growing apace, so I will try to get out if the rain stops.

Monday

As a vegetarian, I always have lots of interesting fruit and vegetables on the go. I was shopping with Cairis and she found something she recognised from her time in China, but which I had never tried- Dragonfruit. We bought a couple on her recommendation, and also a baby coconut from Thailand. I didn't actually get to try the dragonfruit, as madam took them with her to work.

Tuesday

I have had two lovely classes for the last couple of weeks. 

My laminator has been working overtime while I prepared game cards and dominoes etc for their use.

One day we were looking at determiners and distributives and I asked them to complete the story on the board.

Wednesday

Today was wet. It started wet, and was still raining when I left work. The road works at the bottom of the hill are still causing traffic chaos, although they say that it will be beautiful when all the prettification has been carried out. I got home to find that both little treasures were inside and got a couple of lovely poses from each of them.

Thursday

Today the wind blew M's bicycle tent away and ripped it to shreds.

He decided that the safest place for the bike was inside, so I am now the proud owner of a new ornament in my hallway.

 I hope that he sorts it out soon as I am not terribly impressed with it there.

Friday

This week has felt more like April than May. We have had thundery downpours every day, interspersed with a little sunshine. Today was the same, but at least it was dry when I got home. I popped out to buy the rest of the deck paint, but decided to wait until the weekend, when the weather  is supposed to be warm and sunny again.

I decided to tidy out my laundry room, and that escalated into me doing a huge spring clean. It was quite cathartic.After a shower, I was ready to go out to meet the others in the pub for a session.

Saturday

One word: gardening! I got out and weeded and decided what I wanted to fill the inevitable gaps. We sorted out the garden waste to take to the dump, and then popped in to the garden centre for plants. They had some flowering catmint, which I bought for the girls to roll around in. In the evening we went to Pizza Express for a quick bite to eat, and I went off to bed with a good book on my kindle, while the others watched something on TV about British comedy.

Next week there will be an update on Friday, as we are off on holiday on Saturday morning. The ferry leaves at 7.30 and we need to be there an hour before. We were planning to go to Switzerland, but couldn't get the flights we needed, and it was becoming very expensive for such a short break. We also need to pay to get our garden wall re-pointed before it falls down. We are going to South Brittany, which means we can drive there easily and stay much longer, for less than the price of the flights to Zurich!! Still, I'll try and get there later in the year.

Project 52 Week 20

This has been a week where the weather started out dull and finished with a fantastic display of sunshine. The temperature has been reminiscent of summer, especially in my high-walled, protected back garden.

Sunday

I spent most of today doing housework. In the afternoon I popped out to buy some fruit and found some King Strawberries. They were enormous, and I decided to dip them in chocolate for dessert. They went down a treat. Cairis picked one up for the photo to give a better idea of how large they actually were.

Monday

Yay. My favourite flowers were in the supermarket. I think it is early to find Jersey-grown peonies, but I love them and couldn't  resist treating myself. from now on, until the end of the season, I will have these in my house. The ones growing in the garden are always a bit hit-or-miss:-(

I have two classes of really lovely students in our 50+ group. It will be great to make material specially for them.

Tuesday

My friend gave me some numbers, which were going spare. 

They were a 5 and a 7, which is my house number. I put them on everything, just for fun. There will be no chance of anyone not finding the right house now :-)  

Wednesday

I arrived home to find that the new dishwasher had been delivered- and left in the middle of the kitchen! The fitters couldn't come on the same day as the delivery men, so it will be fitted in a day or two. For now, we will continue to wash everything by hand. Tonight is not a problem as M is sailing in a race, and Cairis is driving the guard boat. This means that they will both be fed  in the Yacht Club after the race, leaving me free to participate in the evening's #ELTchat.

Thursday

I was disappointed when I opened the new cushions etc, to find that the parasol was a different colour and didn't quite match the cushions. I suppose that they will fade in the sun at some point, so I'm not too worried. My herbs are growing like weeds, so I am going to cut them back and take the cuttings in for my colleagues who don't have gardens. They are always appreciated.

Friday

Hot and sunny today. I like the fact that I finish early on a Friday. I cleared out my garden shed, and put it at the bottom of the steps to make it more accessible. I then decided to do a bit of weeding, and to clear the deck to restain it on Sunday when the others are sailing again. I will just need to convince the cats to stay in until it is dry. That is easier said than done as Ebony is my shadow when I am at home.

Saturday

Today dawned hot and sunny again. We went off to buy the decking stain and I then had coffee with some friends. We sorted out everything to take to the dump and then had dinner in the garden for the first time this year. Later we wandered down to the pub to listen to the One-Day-Wonders. This is a side of excellent Morris Dancers and musicians, who only come together once a year from their respective sides. You can only be invited to join if someone else drops out and you are a superb dancer. They are 9 in number. Each man takes a turn at organising their event, and this year it was our friend Miles who organised it, so they all came to Jersey. In the evening we were invited to listen to their music session- but not to join in:-) There were quite a few who could play an instrument, or sing, and the evening was lively.

Sunday is expected to be even warmer. I have been out to buy some lobsters for a salad, and I'm now going to attack the deck. Hope next week stays warm.

Project 52 Week 19

Another week has passed.
This one had TWO Bank holidays in it- and as usual I worked a five-day week :-)

Sunday

Today was bright and sunny so I decided to paint my old garden chairs. I chose a lovely bright red- no surprise there! Unfortunately Cairis and Malcolm had been out to B+Q and bought some new garden bench cushions and a parasol in a bright purple- clash!!!  I wasn't aware that the store was open on a Sunday, but it was only because of the holidays that they had been given dispensation to open. I will have to keep the red ones on the patio outside the kitchen- and put the others at the bottom of the garden. Or I could repaint:-(

Monday

As this was a bank holiday it was the perfect time for the dedication of the cabin in memory of my colleague who lost his fight with cancer. We each made a cake, and after we had finished teaching, we met at the cabin, where members of the family were waiting, together with past colleagues, some of whom we hadn't seen for years. We put a donation for Hospice in a collecting tin. There were some pieces of cake left at the end, which we offered to the students at 50p a slice. In the end we collected just short of £250.00

 Tuesday

Today was windy but dry. The forecast for this week is really changeable. My Students are very nice, and we discussed the trip to Samares Manor which they had done on Monday. My private student is incredibly knowledgeable about gardening. I think that spurred me on to do some work when I got home. Everything is starting to flower now. The campanula on the wall- and on walls all over the island looks wonderful. It is such a vibrant blue.

 Wednesday 

 Wet today. Slight disaster when the dishwasher decided to give up the ghost. M had a look in the local appliance store near his office, and I did the same. We compared notes in the evening and chose one, which, of course, we couldn't order until Saturday, due to the bank holiday:-) I got home to find the cats curled up watching the world go by and thought about doing the same. Unfortunately I had offered to try to recapture the tweets from the lunchtime #ELTchat, and the website wouldn't play ball! I spent ages trying to get it to work. I then received a call from Carl who had lost his scanner software. I popped down after dinner to sort it out for him- leaving Cairis and M to do the washing up...by hand!

Thursday

Today the weather changed every five minutes. It started dry, then rained heavily, then dry again. I got a nice picture of the college garden bank when I parked underneath.

The different shades of green are lush. I booked a holiday today which gives me something to look forward to. We are going to Switzerland at the beginning of June :-)

Friday

Liberation Day! Today is the 69th Anniversary of the end of WW2. M and the Morris men were invited to the Guernsey celebrations and Cairis decided to go along as their photographer.  I'm glad that I wasn't going as the sea was seriously rough. I dropped them at the harbour for the ferry on my way to work. Both the Island flag and the Union flag were flying today, to commemorate the arrival of the British troops. No-one was around in the parking garage when I got home, and it was unusual to see the two electric vehicles charging in the corner. In the evening we met the other musicians for a very pleasant end to the week.

Saturday

Today started well. Cairis and her father went out to organise the dishwasher, and have breakfast at the yacht club. I took the opportunity to do some housework. I was surprise when Carl arrived with some tulips to say thank you for sorting out his computer. They looked nice on my fresh tablecloth. In the evening I had a fun time on FB with a back channel party for the Eurovision Song Contest. It was set up by Fiona, an ELT teacher based in Spain and had participants from all over the world. I have never watched the whole thing before, and had a real blast sharing points of view with teachers from Greece, Spain, UK, Israel, Portugal etc.
Next week should be back to normal. I'm not looking forward to the washing up after Sunday evening's 3-4 course dinner, but the dishwasher should arrive at some point, as the shop has them in stock.
At least everyone will have to work a full week like me :-)

project 52 Week 18

My blog has had an amazing number of readers this week. When I opened it up to write this post it had had exactly 600 visitors since the post I added on Monday.

This is week 18, and the year is just galloping along.

Sunday

It was Miles' birthday this weekend, so I had to pop down to the fishmonger to buy his favourite Bass for dinner. In the late afternoon I had a chance to add my point of view to a webinar for the VRT, presented by Shelly Terrell. My poor husband thought that I was just a participant, as I had been for part of the weekend, and he could be seen on my webcam as he moved furniture around in the office :-)

Monday 

Every couple of weeks during the Spring/Summer we have a CPD session. Sometimes they are done in-house and sometimes we bring in outsiders with specialist knowledge. Today was one of those times and we had two men from Autism Jersey in to talk to us, and offer ideas to help us deal with possible problems in future. The post before this one gives a good account of the session.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, M asked me to sew Velcro onto his new bell pads, which he needed for May Day. I was too busy watching TV as I did it, which goes to show that multitasking is not very efficient. I managed to sew both pieces onto the same side- and then had to unpick it and start again! I then had to prepare a bed for my brother-in-law who was arriving to do yet more work on his boat :-)

Wednesday

Malcolm came home early to put the bells on his pads. It was the first sailing race of the year, but there wasn't enough wind, so after drifting about for a while, the race was called off.  We went to bed early so that we could get up bright and early the next morning. I suspect that our visitor would have preferred to be here next week, and had forgotten that we get up at 4 in the morning.

Thursday

 May Day. We were up very early this morning to welcome in the summer. We tried not to disturb Iain, but it is hard to get ready without making any noise. Cairis came too, and we set off for Mont Orgueil Castle to start the day off, after her father had put on his blacking. The tradition of Border Morris belongs to the villages on the Welsh borders. They used coal dust to black their faces in order to hide their identities at a time when dancing was punishable by Cromwell's men. The Helier men are dancing Border all of this year, instead of the Cotswold's dancing they have done previously.

Friday 

After work I went for a walk along the beach. I was starting to feel the lack of sleep from the day before, and didn't want to mess up my routine by having an afternoon nap:-) I chose to walk on the south east of the island, at La Rocque. The new timetable for walking dogs comes into force on 1st May,  and the schools were still at work, so the beach was deserted. I love the clean sand and watching the little boats bob up and down.

Saturday

Today Cairis and M decided to go to the annual International Boat Show. As I have mentioned before- I don't do boats!! I wished them a good day and left them to get on with it.

I had great fun in the garden instead. I was pleased to see the tiny Christmas tree which I had had in my hall in December. It had roots, so I put it outside until I knew where I wanted to plant it. It is now almost double its size:-). The pale coloured leaves are the new growth.  Obviously my garden agrees with it. 

The lavender  and herbs are also looking good for the time of year and the silver birch is finally in leaf. Having found my really thick gardening gloves, I was able to tie the rose bushes in to the trellises.  My gloves were on a shelf in the laundry, where I had placed them at the end of last year, after I washed them. Roses are so beautiful in flower, but I hate the thorns and these ones have millions of tiny sharp thorns which catch on everything.

Next week there are two Bank Holidays, neither of which I get off. I don't really mind as I have never known any different, but it means that we have to negotiate over who keeps the car. Cairis and M are planning to go sailing and I'll be at work, so I don't suppose it will be me :-)