Models with attitude

Daniel and Jeremy have suddenly become fashion conscious.  I blame Reggie.  He is a hip, happening little dude who raps and wears his cap backwards.  I think he's also responsible for Daniel and Jeremy's new found interest in skinny jeans.

There we were, out shopping for tracksuit pants (can't have the poppets running around in the snow in shorts - although, if I must be honest, that's what they've been doing for the last several weeks) and Daniel shoots straight past said tracksuit pants to admire a bright red pair of skinny jeans.  After an extensive try-on session Jeremy ended up with the skinny reds (that are loose by the way - man that kid is skinny - he'd need extra extra skinny before they came anywhere near his actual leg) and Daniel got some orange-ish not quite as skinny skinnies with rolled up bottoms (apparently the very latest).

Anyway - here they are......two skinny minnies

Oozing attitude

with poses down pat

in their loose skinny jeans

Slow train wreck

That was my day yesterday. How can something so meticulously planned go so horribly wrong? I've been asking myself that question over and over. Maybe, just maybe, it's because I didn't plan on

• Tion dropping a test tube of jelly that he was asked to hold for all of 6 seconds whilst I lit a bunsen burner

• Billy and Taylor fighting over a container of moisturiser (being passed around with other items to show the recycling code on the bottom) with the end result being a fragrance-free gooey white mess all over them and the floor. Two after school detentions coming up!

• Being bombarded by an avalanche of Yr 8 excuses for why one tiny piece of homework couldn't be handed in.

• Marking what little homework was handed in only to find half did it wrong. Mental note - give gentle message to students next lesson - READ THE FRIGGEN INSTRUCTIONS!

• dealing with one bunch of kids calling another bunch of kids fatties

• having to rearrange a seating plan because Ciann and Bradley were "a bit angry" with each other

Oh - believe me - it went from bad to worse.

I had worksheets copied, put them down and couldn't find them. I had kids that couldn't find their books. I did the squeaky pop test for hydrogen when it was meant to be the glowing splint test for oxygen, luckily that little oversight was easily fixed with the "Did anyone spot my deliberate mistake?" question.

Then later when I actually had to do the squeaky pop test for hydrogen, nothing, no pop, no squeak, not even a peep. That test needs renaming to the virtually silent fizzle test for hydrogen.  That or I need a hearing aid.

Oh - and the piece de resistance. Finally leaving at 4:50pm after marking the pitiful homework - jammed my damn finger in the damn door. It was just hard enough to go slightly blue and still be a bit stingy 24 hours later (sniff sniff).

Don't get me wrong, there were some good bits, like when I found Abbie's missing diary under a tray, and when Billy and Taylor apologised for their bad behaviour unprompted and when Maddie gave me 2 bits of her birthday chocolate. (You are not supposed to eat in the labs, but I'm sure there is an exception for teachers having really bad days.)

I told Bob (our lovely technician) about my shocker and he tried to make me feel better by saying that one time he went into the prep room and couldn't remember why he'd gone there. Yeah, well I'll take that kind of shocker any day!

Fingers crossed Monday pans out a bit better.

Abbey Road

Whee heee -  another trip to London for me.  This time it was for lunch with Margot and Kelly.  But first a detour past Abbey Road and the crossing featured on the cover of the Beatles album Help.

Taking photos on the Abbey Road crossing is tricky - cars everywhere and annoying tourists wanting to take pictures of themselves J

Margot and I crossing Abbey Rd take I - damn cars

Margot and I crossing Abbey Rd take II - damn tourists (actually a bit jealous of the picture she would have got)

Margot and I crossing Abbey Rd take III - Yeehar - that's the one, maybe it's all about the direction.


Ok.  Moving on from Abbey Rd.  Here's a couple of pictures of Regent's Park, only an old man in the way this time.  Actually he wasn't in the way at all, he was the subject of this attempt at very atmospheric and moody depiction of the elderly in London (cough cough).

Yeah baby!

It's here....

6cm of lovely, fresh, powdery white snow.  We've been tobogganing, we've made a snowman and we've been out walking, everything has been transformed and it is beautiful!  I'm looking out the window as I type this and it's still falling heavily.  I have a sneaky feeling school will be cancelled tomorrow!  

Here's what this part of the world now looks like.

Billericay High Street.

Chilly Willy sitting in our front garden.

Lake Meadow Park

And a few snaps from a wee walk Emmy and I went on whilst the boys were off frisking in Norsey Woods with Reggie.

Waiting, waiting, waiting!

Alrighty then, where is the snow?! Seems just about everyone's getting it except us. The forecasts are promising, but mother nature ain't delivering. We have had the tiniest smattering but it's been a bit of a fizzier.

Call us greedy, but this isn't enough.

Not even this will do.

Fingers crossed tomorrow's the day.

Here's what the Essex Weather Centre says....

Or there's the MET office that say this....

Or there's the Prices that say....

BRING IT ON!

Cardiff Part 2

Just in case you didn't know, Dr Who is filmed and produced in Cardiff by BBC Wales.  Capitalising on the Dr's huge success, the Dr Who tour has been created.  It is a combination of film-set style tour and exhibition.

This was Steve's adventure and he was beside himself with excitement and the tour didn't disappoint.  Matt Smith features as the Dr, stranded and in dire need of some help.  Much to his disappintment, all he can find to lend a hand is a bunch of bedraggled "shoppers" (us).  The tour takes you on an adventure inside the Tardis, fighting with Daleks and whizzing through space.  It is a combination of CGI, massive props and cool special effects.

After that excitement it is on to an exhibition celebrating the last 50 years of Dr Who, including the 11 actors that have played the Dr, the enemies he has battled and of course his various companions. I guess everyone has their favourite Drs.  I'm torn - I loved Jon Pertwee (showing my age here), didn't like Tom Baker, was indifferent about Peter Davidson and love the latest three - Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith.

Nasty peg dolls and the scary weeping angels

After Dr Who we wandered a mile or so up to the centre of Cardiff where we browsed in a few shops and then headed over to Cardiff Castle.  Emily got to dress up as a convincing Welsh poppet before we toured around the castle, its spectacular keep and the residential rooms (incidentally, the next British televised episode of Dr Who was filmed in the library room at Cardiff Castle, will definitely have to watch that now we've been).

Dinner was at an all you can eat Indian/Japanese/Chines restaurant and guess who at too much?  Yep - all of us.  Daniel and Jeremy were  reasonable restrained until they discovered the self-serve soft-serve!  I attempted to justify my own little munch-out as just a little try of everything, but given there were about 100 different dishes, that was never going to work. And while we all ate a lot, the food was nowhere near the hight standard of Las Iguanos the night before.

Cardiff Part 1

Leaving Aberystwyth we headed East to Devil's Bridge, which was a little wet, not really fresh, just damp this time, really damp.  Devil's Bridge is actually 3 bridges built one over the other, but the rain, the puddles and the small waterfall flowing down the stairs stopped us from checking them all out.  Here is the view from the top bridge, note the raindrops all over the camera lens.



And if you're lucky after the rain comes the rainbow.  I was itching to take a picture of this and it took a while to find somewhere to stop, by which point it was starting to look a bit faded, still you get the general idea.  Plus that blue sky was worth a picture alone.


We didn't arrive in Cardiff until quite late and after no lunch we all had the munchies.  We stayed at a hotel near the Cardiff Bay precinct, which has been extensively redeveloped over the years and is now home to an imax cinema, the Millennium Centre theatre, the Dr Who tour and oodles and oodles of restaurants.

After consulting trip advisor we decided on Mexican and excuse the rave that is about to follow because, without a doubt, that night in Cardiff I had one of the best meals I have ever had!  Now that's a big call!

It started with something that I love about eating out over here - kiddy menus and activities.  The picture below is of the food part of the "menu", the other 3 pages were full of puzzles, colouring-in activities and quizzes.  A little box of pencils was also provided.  The kids get a buzz out of ordering their own food and then we get a good 20 minutes or so of peace while they do the puzzles etc.  A win win if ever there was.

And now on to our menu.  Mmm Mmm.  Makes me hungry just looking at it.  We had not one, but two lots of the "Share 5 Tapas and Starters" dishes, that's a whopping 10 dishes all together.  I could see the kitchen from where I sat and the smells and flambé-ing all spoke of good things to come.  And then they arrived - a wave of gastronomic delights.  Each dish distinct, full of flavour and as good as the next - we were in food heaven.

I haven't included the dessert menu as despite our best efforts after the above we were done - chockers! Perhaps next visit we'll have 9 starters and then dessert J

Portmerion

Portmerion is an Italian renaissance style village located about 57 miles north of Aberystwyth. To get to Portmerion you have to drive through Snowdonia national park, which has stunning scenery, but unfortunately not that many places to stop. Plus, of course, the weather was crap, so not the best for photos anyway.

Portmerion Village was designed and constructed between 1925 and 1975 by architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis on his own private peninsula. All of the building styles and colours are based on those found in a typical Italian village.   

The village is also the namesake of Portmerion pottery, which was founded in 1960 by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis's daughter Susan and her husband Ethan.

Although Portmeirion Pottery is made in Stoke-on-Trent in England, there are strong connections to the village with all of the original pottery designed exclusively for sale in the Portmeirion gift shop.

Susan Williams-Ellis died in 2007 at the age of 89.  Despite her death the company continues and still comes out with new designs and products in keeping with the spirit of its founder.

Our visit fell just after Christmas and there was still evidence of the festivities.

And then, after looking at the village, we took a stroll around the peninsula.

Feel the serenity.

A

And the kids thought it was all pretty cool.

Love the crazy cross-eyed lion.