Take yer coat off paul!

Happy Halloween all! :)

Halloween arrived for me on a train back from Leeds after going to a gig.

Went to see Paul Heaton with support from Cerys Matthews and Attic Lights. Was a really good night... Great songs, dancing, near miss fights, old people getting down and odd couples! We got there after a strange boy offered to walk us the RIGHT way to Leeds Met uni. He was eating something which i pointed out looked healthier than mine and Louisa's choice of cheeseburger and large fries, to which he made no comment and threw the remnants of it in the bin. I found this a little weird, but conversation continued and it turned out he worked at the hospital... I really had to bight my tongue at this point as i was convinced he was a cleaner and was unsure I could feign interest in that profession. Louisa thought he looked more like he worked in the morgue! i couldn't possibly comment! :)

Gig was filled with a very weird mix of people, fat goths in PVC coats, middle aged couples in annoracks and lots of mother/daughter combos. In fact we were the only (relatively) normal looking people there. This was confirmed after watching Attic Lights, when 3 short fat female chavs elbowed louisa in order to get her out the way, and an evening of sly comments and fighting talk followed. I was a little scared but this feeling was quickly swept aside as the lovely Cerys Matthews came onstage! Yey!

She was charming and lovely and played quite a few songs I did know, and the ones i didn't were really good. Loads of really good Tennessee inspired stuff, and a good slug of welsh influence as well. At one point a particularly drunk man a the front managed to heckle her with the ever classy shout of "Cerys is lovely" to which she commented that Men never change. Love her!

After Cerys, Paul Heaton arrived to chants of HEA-TON HEA-TON! He looked his normal chav looking self, and to our surprise opened a book on a stand in front of him. From our cleverly gained vantage point (front row stage left) we spotted that ... OH MY GOD!.... he had a book with all the words in! Not only that the words were in exceptionally large print! He was going to sing from a song book! He then sang mostly songs from the new album and we danced and sang til we were very hot. Paul however, who was wearing a coat indoors, refused to remove his jacket all evening, and by the end of the gig was a VERY sweaty mess! Louisa was joined at various points during the gig in shouts of Take yer coat off Paul! to which he finally answered that he didn't want to inflict his body on the audience... a little strange since he evidently had a T-shirt on underneath. Hmmm. Another amusing point was that in a few songs he plays harmonica, but sometimes even though we could hear his voice no harmonica sound came out... strange huh?! Ah no! it would appear the harmonica sections were pre-recorded and the sound engineer was having trouble pressing the play button! HAHAHA!Overall the gig was loads of fun, and was only marred by the fact there were two idiots sat behind us on the train back having a farting competition. Jesus. Was good to be at a gig... feels like ages since i've been to see live music. Am gonna look at a few other gigs coming up at leeds met... Dashboard confessional, Alphabeat(though not sure who will come to this with me) and Tegan and Sarah.

Also of mention is the fact i spoke to New Zealand last night! tee hee! Hello Abi in your shopping mall in kiwiland! was good fun, and without sounding to old aged... was amazed at the clarity of the line! NO delay no noise or anything! woo hoo!

So halloween arrives and i still have no cut throat razor. I shall head into town today and see if i can aquire one. hmmm. tonight is party and marks the end of half term break for me. Weekend is weekend and is part of termtime routine. grr

Finally.... in temperature news... overnight temperature was 2 degrees and current 10:30 am lounge temperature is 13.5 degrees. brrr.

More soon.

INTI xx

attend the tale...

I have solved the costume nightmare! woo hoo! Thanks to Louisa, who is costume queen, I spent a minimal amount of time last night putting together a truly terrifying costume that scared me when i looked in the mirror!

The costume so far consists of an oversize dress shirt, a brown waistcoat, a red scarf, a leather belt and bloody rag hung from the waist. I paint my face very pale, put red/black rings around my eyes and a white streak in my hair (although i am gonna go look for a black wig or black dye today to make it look better).

Figured it out yet?

Ok so if I tell you I need to make/find something to be a cut-throat razor...... What still no?! Ok I'll tell you... Sweeney Todd! woo hoo! Yet again I get to indulge my Depp fetish by dressing up as him. hurrah! I am still as i mentioned, without a razor at the moment. All ideas welcome on how i can make one/aquire one without being arrested! :)

In other news (hmmm, i sound like BBC!) I awoke with a heavy heart this morning. David Tennent is leaving Doctor Who. I realise this statement makes me seem very geeky, but sad fact is I probably am! I love Doctor Who and I love nothing better than a guilty pleasure night in with good food and wine, and a blanket and a few episodes of Doctor Who! David Tennent has been fab as doctor who, and I never thought I'd get over Chistopher Eccleston leaving. (I really should stop before i really sound tragic!). Anyway, the odds are already being taken on who the new doctor will be... James Nesbit seems to be a front runner, as does Patterson Joseph , who i have seen play Othello twice now i think... Both would be good, but my outside choice is Sam Troughton. He played/plays Much in Robin Hood. I think he exudes enough geek-ness to be a good doctor, and he would suit a domineering sidekick like catherine, as she would tell him what to do all the time. (BBC executives... I am open to offers of jobs working for you... script writier, geek consultant, anything!)

In further news, I am now fully fed up with the insane circus that has become the Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross phone message scandal. Just to add my two penneth, I cannot believe no-one has pointed out that it is the producers and editors who are to blame. Ok fair enough the two should not have called Andrew Sachs (manuel from fawlty towers) and left messages on his answer phone saying that russell had slept with his grand daughter etc. But what everyone seems not to have realised is that the show was pre-recorded and then editied over two days and then broadcast on saturday night. If it was so offensive, WHY OH WHY did the editors allow the programme to be broadcast!? AND... ( i realise i am ranting... but last one i promise) The media have hyped this up beyond all resonable proportions.. only 3, yes THREE, people complained at the time, but after the media published the transcripts, talked about it and reported it in the news... 13, 000 people have now complained. God bless the british mentality. we are incapapble of independent thought and must be spoon fed our views by the media! for god sake.

Ok rant over. for now. it just insensed me this morning. I shall stop now, as i am excited about working out how to make a switch blade!

Oh and temperature update. It again went below -2 last night and the current lounge temperature is 12.5 degrees! Although it should be a warm house today as i need to dry some washing, so SHOCK HORROR , I am going to put the heating on for a bit! Woo hoo!!

Bye for now... less ranting next time i promise! :)

Inti xx

PS. While looking for a photo of the costume... i found this painting and loved it.

Honey Honey ah hah honey honey

Yesterday I spent the best afternoon of madness in years!

I decided to go to the cinema to watch the Tuesday afternoon showing of Mama Mia. Yes yes, I know, everyone must have seen this by now, and yes I know it is rather tragic to see this by myself. However, I decided that it would be fun. I fully expected the cinema to be empty and on my journey there, upon discovering i was running late, I thought the showing may even get cancelled. This was not the case.

I bought myself the afternoon bargain ticket, topped it off with a diet coke and popcorn combo, and headed into the screen. Upon turning the corner into the screen I nearly dropped the popcorn. The cinema was packed!

Now here I know you are gasping at this amazing fact.... but wait... there is more!

The cinema was nearly full, and full of OAPs! it was insane! I tried very hard not to laugh and made my way to my favourite free seat (the one in second row, in the middle, with the bars infront of the seat) and sat down chuckling to myself. The trailers had already started but I was to busy laughing to enjoy them.

The laughing continued from almost the first moment of the film. I loved this film. I know i shouldn't, but i loved it! I'm trying to think of the last time i had the same feeling at the cinema... its that feeling where you aren;t sure whether it is actually the fact it really is good and funny that is making you laugh... or whether it is SO awful, that it is good and funny!

Watching Meryl Streep dance, and hearing Peirce Brosnan sing are two things that will stay with me for a long time. On top of this, the first song Honey Honey made me smile so much i couldn't eat my popcorn. How on earth they were allowed to write a lyric that goes "honey honey, let me feel it, uh huh, honey honey" I will never know!

After this afternoon of hilarity I left the cinema for Ikea... And I am now the proud owner of the third rug from Ikea bought specifically for my lounge. It is a shaggy black rug, which my cats now LOVE! they roll around on it and seem to pretend it is some kind of hunting ground, where they have schizophrenic episodes of jumping and pouncing!

Aside from all of this I have now realised it is mid week and I have not done as much work as i would like, so am going to make a concerted effort today. This will, however, be hampered by the fact i need to go out to buy more cat food and facepaint for my friday night halloween party. I'm currently thinking about being a Bad Fairy in my New Rock boots and stripy tights, but am also swayed by recreating the Elliot in ET halloween costume-think he was supposed to be a zombie- as this involves black clothes a grey hoodie and face paint! easy! I also have an idea forming in my mind whereby I wear leggings and balck longsleeve top and put ripped white trousers and top over the top of them to kinf of look like a mummy/zombie! I really have no idea.. ideas welcome please!

Ok for now it is time to have breakfast and think more.

INTI x

p.s. It is still freezing today, but i did sleep in my bedroom last night... assisited by copius layers, 2 duvets and a hot waterbottle! it is 10am. amd current inside temperature13.5 degrees! Tea and porridge await.

Credit crunch vs ice cubes

Its bloody freezing here this morning!

Temp went down to -2 last night and my house without heating has not yet gone above 13 degrees! I have taken to sleeping in the lounge as it is generally warmer than anywhere else is the house.

I realise all of this makes me seem rather pikey but i genuinely cannot afford my 200 quid a month gas bill, so no longer put the heating on. Given that my kitchen is attached to the lounge whenever i make a cup of tea or cook some food, it heats the lounge and so the lounge is just about bearable. Everywhere else in the house i can see my breath most times during the day!

The effect of this caged existence is that I have developed cabin fever. I am doing school work and watching TV, eating my meals, baking and washing up- all in the same room! argh! Today I am going to venture outside.

I have just decided to put the heating on for an hour to heat the bathroom so i can have a bath, and i have decided to escape the misery of real life by going and watching Mama Mia at the cinema before it gets taken off. I definitely believe that the best way to deal with the misery of negative equity and rising fuel prices is to lose myself in a camp musical adventure! I had considered going to see High School Musical 3, but given that its half term, going alone to a kids film is probably considered a bit weird. Also I fully intend to find someone to join me in seeing that next week sometime, so for now Mama Mia it is!

There is also another motive for this trip out. I have finally been considered worthy to be brought into the 21st century and been granted a GREEN BIN! yup... i shall now be able to participate in that new fangled practice of re-cy-cling. wow! how new aged! as from next week my rubbish collections change to alternate general and recycle waste. In order to do this well, i need a new bin to collect recycling wast inside the house. SO I'm going to take a trip to IKEA! (yes OK... it is an excuse... i like going there too!) I also intend to buy more tea lights as this is also a cheap way of heating my lounge!

Right, the film is at 2:45, and it is now nearly 12, so i had better get ready. I shall finish my cup of coffee and shove some lunch down my face (Heinz tomato soup... woo hoo!) and head off. Enjoy your warm lives out there...

Bye
INTIx

Monday morning musings

Monday mornings. Hmmm.

The weather outside is very cold but at least its sunny today. Better for a more proactive mind and for getting things done. I have cleaned and tidied up and am attempting to get school work done early in the week so I can enjoy the weekend.

I had forgotten how god awful daytime TV is. Jeez! I unfortuately slipped into the Jeremy Kyle> ThisMorning>Loose Women brainwash train, and here I am at 1pm having analysed all my classes half termly levels with disfunctional teens and over caffeine-ed middle aged women all putting the world to rights in the background. Hmmm better check my levels and action plans, they might suggest a course of talking therapy for half of them!

The cats have made a few visits in today and been surprised to find me in. Jack rewarded this by bringing in a vole and announcing his greatness with meows for nearly 10 minutes... he then proceeded to rip the poor things head off, at which point i took the carcass off him.

I have also realised its not far off being time to start thinking about christmas. wow. that soon came around. Think i need to shop smart this year, what with credit crunch and huge gas bills (i am currently sat in the lounge with 3 tops on, 2 pairs of socks and slippers and am still shivering- i refuse to turn on the heating!). I shall start thinking about clever presents this week.

Halloween this week/weekend. I wonder how south america celebrates this? so they celebrate it? I'm going to find this out too, and find out how mexico and new zealand celebrates it too. I'm going to a fancy dress party on friday. No idea what i'm going to wear tho! does being a pirate count? or is that just me copping out a bit! MAybe if i go as davvy jones! ahahaha! ah yes i like this idea!

I'm off to research world celebrations of halloween and davvy jones costumes now.

Til next time,

INTI x


UPDATE:
I had completely forgotten that halloween is quite big in mexico... its the first day of the 3 day festival that ends with dia de los muertos (day of the dead). I am now very jealous! that sounds amazing.
In New zealand halloween is not that big, as spring is in full swing, but aparently they do still dress up and trick or treat and stuff

Other places in the world it would appear it depends on how american influenced they are! jeez... does that mean the Uk is an american sheep?! hope not.

Bye again! x

Failed vegetables and choclate brownies

Its finally half term!

I have spent the last few days productively by lying under a duvet watching TV and drinking too much tea! Ah the bliss. :)

Final week at school finally passed with little incident. Wednesday was whole school Eid celebrations... yeah yeah i know... EID was weeks ago.... but we decided to mark EID with an assembly and afternoon of celebrations. I dressed up for the day in traditional costume, complete with scarf, and we learned all about Why Eid is celebrated and all the customs and foods that are eaten. In the afternoon we went to the school hall as a year group and tasted Asian sweets traditional food, and had the opportunity to have Henna done by professional painters. I had my had and wrist painted and I love it. It looks amazing! would love to have had more done, but it had taken 20 mins already!



As for life in huddersfield, Well, I've been going over the scrapings of whats left of my veg patch. I planted root veg so they didn't need looking after while i was away over the summer. Unfortuately the british summer decided to ruin this plan and the wetness meant slug populations reached epidemic propertions, fuelled by most of the veg in my garden!

Last weekend I decided to try and salvage as much as i could of the vegetables. I had planted 2 rows of swedes 2 rows of beetroot, 2 rows of parsnips, a row of spinach and a row of salsify. I have left one row of parsnips, the spinach and salsify in (as they are largely untouched) but here is what i salvaged:
Sad huh?! One and a half swedes and a beetroot. RUBBISH! As i only had one beetroot i decided to experiment slightly and cooked some beetroot and chocolate brownies as inspired by river cottage. Have a look here at the recipe. They were SOOOOOOO good, but i shan't be making them a lot as they have 250g of Butter in! NOw those of you who are unsure quite how much that is, that is a WHOLE PACK OF LURPACK! jeez!

Cooking those also inpired me to cook a bit more... last weekend i also cooked my favourite steak dinner and chocolate fondants for the first time.

This is them before they went in the oven (yes i know there are two... i was fairly sure I'd muck them up, so thought two would be a good idea):

This is the second one out (first looked like a pile of wet brown stuff), with some vanilla icecream on the top. TASTY!!:


SO i feel i have now talked to much about very unhealthy food, and feel the need to get outside. I am thinking about going for a big old bikeride today out to a resevoir I went to a few weeks back for a walk with friends from school and their kids (all very wholesome, children, walking in the woods and feeding ducks!)

Oh and before i go, I know Halloween is a week away but i have bought a pumpkin and cut out a face from it. woo hoo!! here it is:


Would love to hear any name ideas for him... all i've come up with so far is toothy!

BYE!!

INTI x

The long and winding term....

So been a while eh?

Sorry for that, trying not to inflict my stress on the general public, and recently thats about all i've managed to be part of! So, the aim of this blog will be twofold:
1. to skim over recent events
2. to be positive and say all the nice things of recent days/weeks

CYCLING
Cycling is carrying on well, especially as I now have padded shorts, a luminous cycling jacket, and some snazzy little trainers!! I look....guh----hoood! tee hee! The kids at school have really got into it, and our class assembly last week was on 'Be Safe be Seen' and how to be safe on your bike! I'm so proud. They also ask me everyday what my time was (how long it took to cycle to school) and they take turns writing it on the board in class under the current record (44.13mins). Bless them!
I'm very proud of my time... in 10 days of cycling i've managed to get my time from 57mins to 44.13mins. I feel this is a big deal! the average time is currently about 48 mins, but i fully aim to beat the 44 next week!

CAT PROBLEMS
MArley has not been well recently and after a trip to Reading for the weekend i got back to discover he was wee-ing blood. Now I realise the less said about this the better, but just to inform you, that in male cats, passing blod can be a sgn of endstage renal failure, and this can happen to any cat at anytime with no symptoms at all at times. After the third little puddle in 30 mins after returning home, i got vey scared and decided the best option was to call the emergency vet. I calld them and they agreed that i should bring him in there and then. Now, after a hideous train journey back from Reading ( i won't go in to all the details, but it involved irate old ladies, smelly buses, and long long queues in manchester) I arrived back at about 9pmish, so taking Marly o te emergency vet, meant, no dinner and a drive to the other side of Halifax, and down a road where there were clearly major drug deals going on. All of this cost me 120 quid before I even knew what was wrong with him.

It turns out, i have a stupid cat, who it would appear, had gone on anti-toilet protest at me going away for the weekend, not used the litter tray once, held it all in, and so had given himself chronic cystitis with a bladder infection. So for the last week, i have had to throw antibiotics down his throat every morning and night, and give him pouch food, mixed with lots of water. All of this shenanagins have cost me nearly £200! Stupid cat.

Gald to say all is well now with Marley and his bladder. Again... i feel it is important to say Stupid cat. Love him tho!


OTHER STUFF
As the title suggests... I am more than ready for half term. I'm bored of it all at the moment, planning sucks, teaching is hard work, I have a cold, and someon has injected all of year 6 with hormones and so i daily have to put up with arguments, fall outs and tears all based around who has called who a fat s**g or who has dumped who... ugh. I thought i'd escaped all of this in primary school!!

Other than that, I would only start ranting and raving about the stress at school, and don;t really wanna do that i i started off so positively!

So until next blog... Take care

INTI xx

Fat man Fat dog soggy trousers

Evening all.

Since my last blog I have attacked new found love of cycling and put it to use to cycle to and from school every day. This is roughly a 20 mile round trip, and am proud to say I have achieved this everyday this week so far- making 80 miles so far this week if i include the trial run.

(SMALL PAUSE FOR APPLAUSE)

What no applause?! Well i'm chuffed at anyrate... especially as it has PISSED it down yesterday and today, and i still cycled in and back from school. Today i particularly enjoyed the ride home, as i took it easy and just cruised all the way. Because of this i looked around a lot more than usual and saw things that worried me but also... the world's fattest man walking the worlds fattest dog!... was a wonderful sight, as they both wobbled along wheezing, drenched to the skin! hahaha!

Worrying sights were a small child wondering around by himself in the dusk and rain, and very anti-white graffiti written on a fence i passed. made me a little scared and i rode a bit faster for while.

This friday is INSET day which ends off a fairly rubbish week at school, for various reasons.. been a bit all over the place, EID was yesterady/today depending on which mosque we a asked, so kids have been off school - reducing class sizes to 12 or 13, -should be good, but the kids who are in school just resent having to work. RUBBISH! Today us lot in my year group tried to aleviate this by sacking off numeracy and having singing practice for harvest festival in a few weeks.

After a very long evening spent trawling through old hymn book to find a traditional harvest song (don;t suggest autumn days... i really wanted that one, but another yeargroup bagsed it!) me and the other two teachers gave up and decided that 'cauliflowers fuffy' was as traditional as we could go and so set about getting yrics and backing tracks. WE then presented this to year 6 today and after an intitial cry of "ugh.... we sang that in nursery" They attacked it with true gusto and were actually Very good! we have also decided that we will perform a small sketch to go with it- along the lines of the california raisins/ munch bunch. We are going to make a band of vegetables (read here kids in costumes) and they will perform a song. After much discusion with the kids, we came up with 'Scouting for Veg' and they are going to sing "Veg is Lovely, Veg is Lovely...etc"WE thought this was very funny and got slightly over excited and delerious at one point!

Anyhoo, its time to sign off as tmrw is school photo day and i have to get my beauty sleep. (no sniggering please!)

NITE!

INTI xx