Halloween Part 2

And then it was on to part 2 of the Halloween adventure, made all the more special and memorable by the remarkable Ena, owner of the hotel we were staying at.  Ena, and her husband Steve, made our stay at Lynbank one that we will all remember. Firstly Steve is an ex chef and the two dinners we had at the hotel were exceptional.  Ena is Dutch and was welcoming and friendly from the moment we arrived.  She has a special way with children and had them enthralled with her stories from the word go.

Ena is also creative and she had a plan for Halloween.  It went a bit like this....

After dinner, there we were relaxing in the lounge room. the kids happily inspecting, sorting, counting and re-counting their sweetie haul from the just completed round of trick or treating.  All was good, all was peaceful.

Then there was the sound of a bell ringing and into the hotel waltzes this crazy woman, announcing in a loud voice that she is Russian and needs a room for the night.  Let's call her Svetlana. By this time the kids had stopped sorting and were having a bit of a squizzie at who was causing the commotion.

Then into the lounge she barges buck-toothed, black haired, chubby, big black boots and a wildly waving walking stick.  And she was talking non-stop, on and on and on she went.  Difficult to understand, but we got the idea she was staying and she was cold and weary from her travels.

By this time the kids, all of their own accord, had very quietly and very discretely packed up their goodies and were sitting silently on the couch.

Svetlana then proceeded to order her dinner - soup - which she enriched with a few of her own ingredients - spiders, bugs and beetles.  All the while she nattered loudly and to nobody in particular, something about a broomstick and frogs, it was hard to catch all of it.  To the discerning eye there may have been a bit of slippage of the buck-teeth and to the keen ear there may have been a bit of a return of a Dutch accent....

But the kids still sat quiet as mice on the couch...

...until they jumped a mile...Svetlana was asking a favour.  Her boots were too tight...could they go up to her room and get her slippers.  Nobody moved.  Emily visibly shrank and the boys were silent.  Accompanied by Steve, up they went to room number 5 to retrieve the slippers.  I later found out the room had an open spider-filled spell book and strange potion bottles by the bed.  Apparently the boys were very reluctant to enter the room and in a great rush to leave.

With the arrival of her slippers, Sveltana not only took off her boots, but commenced a strange witchy sort of striptease.  Off came the coat....

The kids were back on the couch....staring....silent....

Then, good grief, out fell the teeth (not actually part of the plan but very funny) and the accidental knicker reveal after the inadvertent removal of too many layers of clothes (again not actually part of the plan but very VERY funny) until it became obvious that the crazy Svetlana was ......

.....none other than the lovely Ena!

A prank!  

The kids loved it.  

They laughed  and laughed.

Steve and I laughed and laughed

Crazy Svetlana/Ena laughed and laughed.

And I'm still laughing as I write this two nights later J

Top L to R. Silent children on the couch, the unveil begins, smiles at the end. off with the wig.

The lovely Ena as she usually looks.

Halloween Part 1

Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity, life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. It is thought to have originated with ancient Celtic festivals, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints and martyrs; the holiday, All Saints’ Day, incorporated some of the Celtic traditions. The evening before was known as All Hallows’ Eve, later shortened to Halloween.

And so were the origins of the highly commercialised event we celebrate today.  It was the kids first real Halloween celebration and they were not disappointed. 

It started with getting dressed up.  Funnily enough the weather was terrible.  Cold and rainy, and while that would quite easily have stopped Steve and I, it did nothing to dampen the excitement and enthusiasm of witch Emily and horrendously ugly faced skeletons Daniel and Jeremy.

Armed with buckets they set off.  Only problem was our hotel was right on the A7 and there were very few houses around.  Not to worry though, the 7 or 8 that we visited were stocked up and ready.  Out came the sweeties, and the pound coins and the pre-prepared Halloween wrapped lolly bags.  The kids cleaned up.  

Steve and I waited in the background in the cold and rain, but were cheered by the warm and generous reception our wee ghouls got as they knocked upon each door.

Then it was back to the hotel to examine the takings....

Trick or Treating

Vindolanda

Today we went to Hadrian's wall and the edge of the Roman empire as it existed 2000 years ago.

Love this photo of the kids loving Vindolanda

By the time he became Emperor in 117AD Hadrian chose not to continue expanding the Roman Empire he inherited, but instead focussed on consolidating its boundaries. He visited Britain in 122AD, and ordered a wall to be built over the 74 miles stretching between the Solway Firth in the West and the River Tyne in the east.  He did this to separate his Roman people from the Scottish Barbarians in the North that had proven so difficult to conquer.

Roman occupation of Britain began long before Hadrian's time, with Julius Caesar's initial invasion of Southern England in 55BC.  At this time the British Isles, like much of mainland Europe, was inhabited by Celtic tribes, loosely united by a similar language and culture but nevertheless each distinct.  Despite being victorious in battle, Caesar withdrew back to Rome, but not before establishing treaties and alliances with the Celtic people. Thus was the beginning of some 400 years of Roman occupation of Britain.

The Vindolanda fort we visited today was one of the Roman's most northern military strongholds and was built some 60 years before Hadrian's Wall.  The ruins which you see below are of the final of a string of forts built on the site between the first and third centuries AD. Beneath it lie up to 12 earlier forts, including ones made from both stone and timber, with the earliest dating back to 80AD.

As it stands today and an artist's impression of Vindolanda 2000 years ago

So, why so many forts? Vindolanda was inhabited on and off for over 300 years, during this time forts were knocked down for renovation and expansion.  When garrisons moved, the forts they left behind were largely destroyed so they couldn't be used by hostile forces. The new garrison would lay turf and clay on the old ruins, and then build up again from there.

Over 300 years of occupation, parts of the fort site were built up as high as 20 feet over the original AD80 levels.  In the waterlogged anaerobic environment the buried ruins didn’t decay and a huge number of artefacts that would normally have long disintegrated have been found at Vindolanda, including leather shoes, wooden tools and the famous Vindolanda writing tablets that provide such an incredible insight into Roman life almost 2000 years ago.

Frontier town

The top photo is a reconstruction, partly built to show how much the buildings subside on the
wet soggy ground over time.

An added bonus, Vindolanda is in the midst of stunning countryside....

And the museum housing artefacts excavated from the site is the gorgeous building over the bridge.  

Museum next to the ruins of the fort 

If you are planning a trip over here and have an interest in Roman history, then this most definitely is the place for you.

Scarborough to Carlisle ...

..... via the Yorkshire Moors.

Once again Brian has provided us with some top travel tips that we followed until the light faded, at which point the moors started to seem a bit desolate and foreboding and we hightailed it on to the motorway for Carlisle pronto!

Leaving Scarborough, our first port of call was Ebberston.  Just a quick stop, mainly to take a few pictures because it was pretty and the sky was blue!

Ebberston main street

And then it was on to the delightful Thornton le Dale, with it's lovely Autumn colours and beautiful houses, hotels......

and this gorgeous old thatched cottage.....

After Thornton le Dale it was on to Pickering, where we discovered some fabulous bakeries and indulged in a Yorkshire curd tart, a caramel custard donut and not one, but two brilliant vanilla slices!  Mmm Mmm.  Plus we found Em a new scarf.

Note the dogs welcome bit on the sign, wish we had Lucy Loo :)

Helmsley was the next stop with a visit to the ruins of Helmsley Castle, where the kids ran and ran and ran.  Jeremy, who had to be coaxed out of the car, was the keenest of all........

Although it was cold, the kids soon warmed up with all the running, climbing and jumping that went on.

But who exactly lived in a castle like this?

And one final picture of the castle

The surrounding Autumn trees were stunning.  Autumn is my favourite season and this is exactly why.

Autumn colours

And our last stop for the day was the moated Middleham Castle, dating back to the 12th Century and once home to Richard III.  

Middleham Castle with statue of Richard 111

It was such a pity the weather was poor, with the grey skies and the end of daylight savings we started to lose light around 3:30pm, just as we drove through some of the most stunning scenery imaginable.  All this means is we will have to come back in summer!

ps - thanks for the itinerary Brian, it worked a treat J

Scarborough

We’re staying at the Green Gables Hotel here in Scarborough. From the outside it doesn’t look much, but it’s a bit tardis-like, once you get through the front door it seems to go on in all directions. It’s full of nooks, crannies and corridors, with all sorts of interesting rooms scattered here and there. There’s the conservatory, the indoor swimming pool room, the billiards room, the games room, the library, the TV room and the three different lounge rooms.

The Green Gables Hotel

After breaky we headed into Scarborough, another hilly, harbour-side town, but this time with a castle perched on the hill instead of an Abbey.  We had a good look around the town and the castle, then had lunch (more fish and chips) and then spent a bit of time in one of the arcades playing the penny pushing machines.  

I saw a show on them and apparently each machine brings in about £300 a week in 2p coins.  I can't ever imagine walking away from one with a profit, they are just fun and I think people play them knowing full well they don't pay.  You still chase a win, but they are very different from pokies in that it takes quite a long time to play a pound's worth of coins and with the outlay so small and the rewards so slight I can't imagine that there are too many problem players.   

Just googled it and can't find any articles on addiction to penny pushing machines, so either it's not a problem, it is a problem, but not a documented one or the machines aren't called penny pushers!  Hmmm.  Perhaps I'll never know.

Sights in Scarborough

After Scarborough we drove up north to Robin Hood's Bay, the old town of which gives a whole new meaning to steep, hilly, coastal villages. The roads are so narrow, windy and steep that most cars are prohibited.  Locals and tourists staying in one of the old town B&B's are excepted.  I'm glad we couldn't drive there, super steep, wet, windy roads give me the hee bee gee bees.  

We experienced one in Scarborough earlier in the morning and just to make it even more interesting it was cobbled.  It would be good if you could instruct the SatNav NOT to take super steep, windy, cobbled roads, especially in the rain, but haven't worked out how to do that yet.  The kids thought it was pretty good, Steve didn't seem to mind, the Peugeot handled it nicely, I was the only one having the conniptions!  Perhaps I need a chill pill.

Robin Hood's Bay on a grey and wet day. 

Whitby

Leaving York for Scarborough once again the weather was not being kind and we were umming and ahhing about what was worse - seeing the North Yorkshire Moors in the rain and mist or visiting the coastal town of Whitby in the rain and mist.

In the end we did both.

But first we paid a fleeting visit to the grounds of Castle Howard, where Brideshead Revisited was filmed.  Daylight savings ended here last night, so we were a little on the early side, so rather than wait an hour for the castle to open we played around in the car park, as you do!

The entrance to the castle is grand and you drive through 2 large arches and past this enormous obelisk.

The grounds of Castle Howard

Then it was off to Whitby, via the moors.  Steve programmed the SatNav and it took us off the main road and along tiny steep winding roads within the National Park.  We were actually supposed to be heading straight to Whitby, but ended up in a tiny village called Egton.  I'm glad we took the detour or else we would have missed out on this beautiful scenery.

Beautiful North Yorkshire countryside

And then we arrived in Whitby just in time for lunch.  Laura, who I work with at St Joseph's School, suggested we go to the Magpie Cafe, so all being super hungry that's straight where we headed.  And we were not disappointed. Mmmm Mmmmm.  Fish Pie number 2 for me!

Cod and Haddock fish and chips, Fish Pie and the kiddies jelly baby and ice-cream dessert!

Then it was a quick stroll around Whitby with its masses of red-roofed houses and steep windy streets lining the port.

Whitby

And finally it was off to the formidable and very spooky Whitby Abbey.  Perched on a windswept hill overlooking the town, the ruins of the Abbey are eerie.  Everything around there was a bit old and decrepit, including the Youth Hostel and Abbey Tea Rooms next door.  Plus having a cemetery adjacent to the ruins just added to the atmosphere.  I don't think I'd want to visit at night!

Whitby Abbey

York

Our day in York got off to a cold, cold start.  The snow turned to sleet and a freezing wind blew and we all quickly realised the inadequacies of our socks!  Emily had on the most layers plus gloves and a beanie and was the warmest.  The rest of us all took turns feeling chilly, that we fixed at regular intervals with visits to shops, coffee and finally, the extended warmth from our visit to the railway museum.

We caught the bus into the city and got off right next to the Shambles......

The Shambles

where we discovered our first of many chocolate shops....

Chocolate Heaven on the left

We spent a bit of time in here, chatting, having a coffee and warming up.  The kids got a special treat - a visit to the kitchens and a handful of chocolate bunnies that weren't quite up to sale quality.

Lovely Ray from Chocolate Heaven spoiling the kiddies

The shops and the alley ways were lovely, but the weather was still crazy, the icy winds and sleet continued.  So we popped into this Christmas Shop.

Emily and Jeremy peeping out of a window

And then as we left the Shambles and headed past the court rooms and a post box to towards the York Minster the sun came out!  Halleluja!

Blue Sky!

After the splendour of the Minster we walked some more and saw the York Eye and some beautiful Autumn colours....

Soaking up the medieval splendour of York

And then had a stroll along the wall

On the wall

where we got a beautiful view back towards the Minster

View of the Minster from the wall

And then it was off to the National Railway Museum, where Emily got to dress up as Paddington Bear...

Em's best impression of Paddington Bear

We all loved York and hopefully will be back again soon.

Dinner, dessert and SNOW!

Yum yum, thank you Ruth and Brian for having us round.  Dinner was absolutely delicious and there was much talk about the mashed potato and blueberry pancakes on the way home.  We did go to Toby's Carvery last night and according to Jeremy the mash was not up to the high standards set by Ruth and Brian!  It was lovely to catch up with you again after 14 years!

With Ruth and Brian after a lovely dinner

And I told you it was freezing, check this piccie taken out of Jeremy's bedroom window about half an hour after we got back to our cottage.

SNOW!

Yorkshire and the Lake District

Here's an overview of our next trip, 715 miles and 4 destinations - York, Scarborough, Carlisle and Kendal.  The weather has turned cold, really cold, but hopefully all this cold air will push away the clouds and mist and we'll have bright, crisp, perfect Autumn days.  Perhaps this is a bit optimistic?  Anyway - you'll be able to tell by the photos that get put up over the next week.

Half-term trip

By the way I'm writing this in York, we've just arrived and are staying in one of 6 cottages in a row.  We've got a stable style door that opens in two halves and it is freezing.  Although perhaps my definition of freezing will change as Autumn moves into Winter, this is probably quite balmy compared to what's to come.  We're about to head out the door to friends Ruth and Brian's for dinner, they're just 3 miles down the road, so not too much more driving for the day.  Tomorrow we're off to explore York!

I said yes!

Now all I have to do is push St Joseph's out of my mind for the next week whilst we whiz off on our  half term holiday.

I've cracked it!

Alright, I hope you've already read the post below.  If not, read that first to get some background and context to this next development.

St Joseph's have asked me back after half term for 7 weeks!  That will take me right up until Christmas.  It will be hard work and I'll be teaching students from year 7 to year 12.  Hopefully I'll have most (or at least some) of the lesson plans provided, but there is no doubt it will be hard work.  

But I think I'm up to it!  I think I'm going to say yes.

I have to let them know tomorrow.  

Hmm - perhaps a bit more thinking is required.

Still processing....

Bloody friggen' hell!  Excuse the French but I can't help it -that is my reaction to the crazy chaotic world that is St Joseph's School.

I have been there now for three days and as I leave each day I think the same thing!  Today is a blur, I know I've just taught 5 lessons and taken a morning roll group, but where did that 7 hours just go?  Perhaps it is a safety mechanism, perhaps if I could remember in greater detail I might not go back.

From a supply teacher's perspective, as I said before St Joseph's is sheer chaos.  I get emailed most of my lesson plans at about 8:10am, giving me all of about 15 minutes to digest what's coming over the next 5 hours.  And a single lesson usually goes a bit like this, noting the excruciatingly painful logging on and off requirements -

• Look at map for location of room, turn map upside down and look again.  Give up and ask for directions, race over courtyard through mist and fog, struggle against sea of students, bound up stairs and burst into room.

• Log on to classroom computer and then log on to the SIMS register system 

• Get class in and take the register

• Open outlook and use email to open class notes and powerpoint presentation, desperately try to think of interesting facts/stories pertaining to content of powerpoint presentation.

• Starter - ask the class 10 general questions on heart disease, go through the answers (!) Outline lesson objectives.

• Main Activities

• talk through the powerpoint presentation on heart disease, heart structure, circulation and heart valves, including explaining the animations (what animations? - I have subsequently found out when loading the powerpoint presentation you need to enable the animations in order for them to be displayed!  Go me!)
• Log off and re log on using a different ID to access the "Ox Box" folder within the general science/biology folder.  Log on to Ox Box using a third log on ID and password to load and play 2 short videos on heart disease and risk factors.  Watch very carefully so can work out answers to questions that will follow.

• Log off different ID and log back on under original ID to re-access class notes and resume powerpoint presentation.  Go through questions and just-acquired answers on videos and hand out worksheet on examining veins in the forearm.

• Plenary - Collect worksheets, summarise lesson and give out any homework.  Dismiss class.

• Log off SIMS register and main computer program and get ready to do it all again 5 minutes later.

Bloody hell, it's making my hair stand on end just recounting it! (sorry - there is something about this school that is bringing out the expletives out in me).  To be fair - the school does have 3 science teachers out and is trying to create me a generic log-on so I can access everything I need under the one ID (every little bit helps).

Now don't get me wrong, it's not that I dislike going there.

In fact I have been quietly amazed at my capacity to speak (reasonably) authoritatively on a wide range of subjects - take today for example - I raved on about biodiversity, veins, arteries, capillaries, hydrostatic pressure, osmosis, tissue fluid, heart disease, deforestation, pollution, circuits, batteries, energy, electrons and charges!  Yee har!  And in amongst all that I had an art lesson and looking around the room was relieved to find that I actually recognised a bunch of Escher prints.  Ha - see I do know something about art!

Anyhoo - I am still shaking my head in bewilderment as I recap on today.  I had kids that were so disinterested that despite my best efforts and (very entertaining) anecdotes they either gazed out the window, talked, looked at their phone or worse still - got up and moved around the class.

I'm trying hard to generate interest in the subject matter in the hope that this interest keeps the masses quiet-ish, rather than continually having to ask for shoosh.  I'm having mixed results, but I have one thing that is proving a bit of a bonus and that is an Australian accent.  The kids are interested in Australia and want to ask all sorts of kangaroo/surfing/beach/snake and spider type questions. I have started using this as a bit of a bargaining tool - sit down and do some work and I'll give you 2 minutes at the end to ask me anything about Aus.  So far it's been sort of working.

Anyhoo again - believe it or not I think I sort of enjoy the crazy chaos, well perhaps enjoy is not the right word.  I am surviving and I'm proud of that.   I'm also learning my subject matter at a phenomenal rate, which is no mean feat for the Year 13 lessons on cellular respiration and the light dependent and independent reactions of photosynthesis, including the processes of photolysis and cyclical and non-cyclical photophosphorylation (which, in case you were wondering, is the creation of the high energy molecule ATP from ADP and inorganic phosphate in the presence of light)!

St Joseph's provides the kind of environment that challenges me to the upmost and hey -it hasn't killed me yet.

The Paper Dolls

Just for you Deb - here are the paper dolls we created in Brentwood last week.  J

Daniel's three legged aliens, Emily's little boys and girls and my sophisticated and suave Brentwood adolescents. Jeremy didn't really get into this activity and his little paper people weren't quite up to the high standard required for display.

And in case you were thinking my artistic abilities have increased, well no they haven't - I sort of told a little lie.  Those bottom ones are not my dolls.  Nope - those fine specimens are Sarah's, we admired them so much she let us take them home J.

He's been at it again

There's no stopping Jeremy.  This time he did everything himself, from cleaning out the gizzards to pinning on and transferring the template to the delicate carving.

I introduce evil Ichabod, companion to Jack Skellington.

ps - a bit of a sad ending to this tale.  Jack Skellington is now in the bin.  A few days after carving he showed signs of dehydration, then the poor poppets face started caving in, then he was struck down by a mould infestation and finally his lower jaw and bottom got soft and smelly and turned to mush.  He was in a bad way and the kindest thing was to put him out of his misery.  So now poor companion-less but still evil Ichabod sits alone on the shelf.

A day in Brentwood

Last Sunday the kiddies and I went to Brentwood.  We'd been there the week before with Margot and she'd spotted a flyer inviting children to come and listen to "The Paper Dolls" by Julia Donaldson (author of The Gruffalo) and then try their hand at making their own paper dolls.  Not bad - a chance to listen to Julia Donaldson reading her new book - pencil that one in!

So, there we were in Brentwood nice and early and we had three things on the agenda.

One - a bit of shopping at Sainsbury's to get, among other things, a new pumpkin for Jeremy. After lifting up and inspecting nearly every one of the 60 or so for sale Jem finally settled on the first one we'd seen. I think he gets his decision-a-phobia from me.

Two - lunch. We decided that since we were in Sainsbury's for shopping we might as well stay there for lunch. The cafe had super value kids fish finger meals and for me a modest baked potato and cheese. It was all very nice, certainly nothing out of the ordinary, but for some reason Daniel, Jeremy and Emily took a real shine to the place. They loved that they could get their own drink, they greatly admired the view out the window to the car park and they raved about their one fish finger (perhaps that's why the meals were so cheap?). And when I gave Daniel a try of my baked potato he was completely overcome, I kid you not his very words were "Wow Mum, that potato just blows my mind"! Yeah - can't say it was having the same effect on me.

Three - the real purpose of the trip - off to the bookstore to hear Julia Donaldson reading her new release. Better get there early to get a good pozzie. There wasn't much fanfare in the store when we arrived so I assumed the big event was in another room, perhaps upstairs or out the back. But no, we were in the right place. Turns out it wasn't Julia Donaldson reading the book, it was Sarah the shop assistant who we'd met the week before. She did explain that if it had been Julia there would have been media and security and perhaps a few more people than my three children. Of course there would I said. Not at all phased by the famous author's absence - Daniel, Jeremy and Emily launched into their paper doll making and then listened very nicely as Sarah read the book, almost as well I'm sure as Julia would have done.

Reggie's play date

What time is it?  Now what time is it?  How much longer?  When's he coming again?  How many minutes is that?

And so went the countdown to Reggie's play date.  Reggie is one of Daniel and Jeremy's new friends and he was instrumental in organising their first get together.  He wrote a note to Steve and I to introduce himself and raise the possibility of a play date.  He left his phone number and instructions to "Please call", he even threw in the tantalising tempter "ps - I have dogs and kittens!"

So play date number 1 was about 2 weeks ago, Reggie's dad came round, picked the boys up and took all three to the movies.  And apart from the sweetie overload and massive sugar high that had Daniel bouncing off the walls, all was good.

Play date number 2 was last Saturday at our house.  Reggie rang several times in the lead-up just to make sure all was on track.  I mentioned we might make brownies and asked him if he would like that.  He said yes and we moved on.  About 10 minutes later he rang back.  Some clarification was needed.  Not only did he like making brownies, but he also liked eating them.  I said cool - that was the plan Stan (even though I knew full well his name was Reggie)

So, 1:00 pm rolled around and the fun began!  There was skate boarding, ice-cream eating, pumpkin carving (only Jeremy had the patience to stick this one out),  brownie making and of course brownie eating.

Not a bad effort for our first play date!

Halloween is coming...

Pumpkin - Check

Template - Check

Carving Tools - Check

Enthusiastic Jeremy - Check

Beautifully carved Jack Skellington pumpkin - Check

Excellent work Jem J

Jeremy's latest craze - pumpkin carving