Day Trip

Today my Brownies have taken a trip to the Royal Concert Hall. We went to see an introduction to an orchestra concert for kids. 

We caught the train at 10am then went to the concert.

That took us to lunchtime so a quick Happy Meal macky d's was had before we got the train home.

Arriving at the hall 30 mins early left time for toilet trips and then a game of Down On One Knee outside in the sunshine. 

Everything went well and the kids all enjoyed themselves.

Success!

Commuters

How irritating do you find it when the train arrives at your destination on time but is held outside the station for 5 mins or so?

Trains!

I am a train convert.  I love trains!

I have been getting trains to Edinburgh for school, rather than driving.  There were pros and cons for this:
Pros 
1/2 hr walk from the train station to school (good for diet).
No parking concerns.
I found a train for £9 return (so it's cheaper than the drive)
Sitting on train more relaxing than driving through heavy traffic.

Cons
1/2 hr walk from the train to school (long way in bad weather)
Longer commute (from home - 2.5hrs so 1 hr extra each way).
£9 return train requires a long wait after school as it's only on Crosscountry trains.
£9 train not ideal due to Brownies on a Tuesday - any delay on trains would make me late.

Since my cons had a few solutions:  I can get a cheap ticket on the way TO school SINGLE, and a less cheap off-peak single home - for less than the peak rate fare.  It would then cost £18.00 rather than £19.30.  Not a huge difference but I like it.

OR - I can get the cheap ticket TO school and a BUS home - £12.00.

Essentially - I am now public transporting on Tuesdays but still driving on Wednesdays.  Today I'm leaving it as late as possible because I really don't want to do the drive.

LOVE the trains!

Glasgow Rugby

Went to see the Glasgow Warriors tonight.  This is the first time I've been to see them since they moved to a proper stadium.  I liked the old rugby field.... and I have a bit of a turnstile phobia.

I decided enough was enough (possibly boosted by the 2 stone weight loss) so decided to brave the turnstiles again.

And I LOVED it.  I missed rugby.  Very much fun.

Brownies - New Game Under Development

I have had an idea for a game - we are doing a WW2 bit this term (for Remembrance Sunday mostly but trying to make it personal & fun). *note - just checked and Remembrance Sunday is meant to be about WW1 which is fine - means we do WW1 for a wk then WW2.

We are going to ask the vicar who knows a lot about how the hall we meet in survived bombing in the war. The church has a stained glass window commemorating this.

We are then going to make poppies and lay a wreath.

The following week we have a granny coming in to tell the girls about being their age during WW2.

She has ration books and a diary from the war.

I think that ration books would make a great game for the kids:

Currently in the planning stages but I think.... Set up tables of goods - they are your shops. Have a bakery, a butchers and a grocers.

Split the girls into groups. Should this be sixes, or into age groups so the older ones get to take it further than the younger ones?

Give the kids ration books & a shopping list - Perhaps they have senarios:

You are shopping for a family of 4. Buy ingredients to make one day's food for your family.

Family favourites:

Mum - Loves porridge

Sister - Loves cheese sandwiches

Brother - Loves fish

Granny - Loves cake

You are shopping for a family of 3. Buy ingredients to make one day's food for your family.

Mum - Loves potatoes

Dad - Loves beef

Big sister - Loves apples (rare)

Little sister - Loves milk

You are shopping for a family of 2. Buy ingredients to make one day's food for your family.

Mum - Loves cake

Sister - Loves carrots

Points to be awarded for teams buying ingredients for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Bonus points for buying the favourite foods.

There would be an opportunity for the girls to be inventive - family that loves cake and sandwiches could buy flour, butter, sugar, eggs, yeast... which would be cheaper than a loaf and a cake.

Bartering would be allowed - a family who had bought six cakes but only wanted 2 could sell them back perhaps if they then found they would need bread..........

I still have thinking to do on this but it looks as though it would work to me.

What do you think? Any helpful suggestions welcomed.

Tart!

I am such an ignoramus! Or naive... Take your pick.

On the train I sat next to a man because he had a plug socket I could use for my phone charger.

As I had to ask to use the socket (as it was in front of him) conversation was sparked by me.

He was very interesting - from New Delhi working in Glasgow.....

We exchange phone numbers and facebooks, because he sees me using Facebook and I assume he wants more local friends having moved recently to Scotland.

2hrs later he asks "so are you married, have a boyfriend...?".

THEN the penny drops!

It's quite nice to think someone would be interested. Perhaps this dieting think has made some difference... Been a long time since I've been chatted up. So long I no longer recognise it.

Note to self: drop in boyfriend reference earlier in the somewhat unlikely case that the situation might occur in future.  Not sure I used "we" very often either in my stories now I think about it. That'd be a good idea too.

Start of Term and feeling GOOD!

Nearly 2 stone lighter, and fairly organised already, I am looking forward to the start of term!

Brownie planning is on the way, and I am enjoying my last weekday off until October... by sitting here on the computer watching telly.

This may sound sad, but I am very happy.  We were away twice this week for camping trips, and have done a load of walking in the highlands through some STUNNING scenery.

Tonight I am teaching a couple of pupils, before meeting some friends for a few drinks.

Don't think it gets much better.

I love free champagne

Even when it's found in a drawer belonging to an ex-colleague where we suspect it has resided since 2006 if not earlier.

Yum...... (actually is good.  I do like free stuff but it's made me happy this evening on a school/work night).

it all went a bit pete tong

Fake Cockney rhyming slang for Wrong.

I drank too much last night.  I embarrassed myself.  I told my friend's Mum on the phone that I was 'wankered' and then fell over whilst on the phone and said the F word.

Still - today has been fun.  Went swimming and then to a pal's house for tea.  Enjoyed it....

Lazy Day

I'm loving this sunshine.

Bbq today and we won't need a fire to stand by for warmth or an umbrella to cook under.

I also like the Blogger phone app.

So Shallow! The band: Crow Road

There is a band on at the gig I'm at who all have bad hair. I am automatically offside.

I am not so shallow that this would actually be sufficient to dislike them, but I am shallow enough that if they will have to be amazing musically to gain favour.

I am not proud of it.  I just discovered a character flaw I was unaware of.... I'm not exactly perfection in a woman!

Regardless, it seems I prefer pretty boys!

In my absence

blogger has changed!  Where's the navy blue border etc?

Oh well.  It's not as easy to see right now, as I'm sitting with the sun shining in behind me through the living room window.

That's right people!  SUNSHINE in Glasgow!  I am delighted but have tidying up to do today which is disappointing.

My reaction... blog.  (Bad plan, TC.  Get on with it!  Then get out and have some fun).

The plan:
Sort out the clothing mountain on the floor of our bedroom.
Do some gardening?  Or some shopping for food.
Walk to the city centre (5miles) for a gig tonight.
Tomorrow: Tidy more because people are coming round for bbq.

Recent activity:
Been to see looots of gigs.  We saw a Saturday gig, headliners: Bwani Junction at King Tuts - loved them.
We saw  Otherpeople and The Kings Hats, and Song of Return at King Tuts and liked the first 2 of the three (who were actually the 2nd and 3rd of four but the first band were not worthy of mention).
We then went to see Trombone Shorty in Edinburgh Queen's Hall and LOVED him.  I saw him in New Orleans last year so was very excited to hear he was coming here.  The crowd was disappointing.  I was surprised to find a hall half full and was a bit annoyed that only one of my brass playing friends happened along.  Ignoramuses. Watched the gig sipping iced water to get through.  Agony in the car on the way home but totally worth it.  (He's hot - check out the link).  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/8594717/Trombone-Shorty-Pied-piper-of-Treme.html
Had root canal treatment yesterday.

Holiday was good!

Had a blast. Love France.
Went to Francofolies festival... mademoiselle k (pictured) was outstanding.

i love it here!

Since we arrived weather has been changeable. I decided to begin with weather because it's what we Brits tend to discuss often.

We have been to Les Minimes and Ile de Re where we had enough sun to swim and dry off mostly!

We have climbed 2 of the 3 towers in the harbour. We have taken a boat to Fort Boyard. It is imposing and so remote it's difficult to imagine being imprisoned there. Amazing.

We have eaten a variety of delicious food, worthy of a separate post.

This is only day 4!

HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow we go to La Rochelle.  Excited....

Knackered!

This weekend I have been in Dundee with my mum.

She has just left on the train.

I want to sleep!  She's the oldie and I'm the one who's knackered..... dear me!

Last night with some of my older Brownies... boo hoo!

11 of my Brownies are old enough to go to Guides in September.

As I was writing their Adventure certificates this week I felt quite sad, as it feels like no time ago since I was writing their Promise certificates (they get these when they join)!  

Still I am pleased to be sending the Guides a great bunch of girls, and am sure they'll love taking over the Guide unit (as I think there might be more of them coming in than the Guides has already).

The Guide leader is very happy to be getting them back, as she took the Rainbows which many of them were part of when they were littler!

Which reminds me - I need to email her their details.

 

Pack Holiday is over - phew - I'm TIRED!!

We got back yesterday afternoon after a wet weekend at Loch Lomond.

This was our pack's first ever (since I've been involved at least) solo pack holiday. No test for the Guiders, and 16 Brownies from our unit.

Friday night went quite smoothly. They arrived, unpacked, we ran through some rules, then they made a huge poster with stars and colouring sheet aliens, planets etc.

The Guiders marked out constellations in chalk on a huge black piece of paper, then the girls stuck stars on the chalk dots to make the constellations. We then filled in the gaps before trying to work out where the constellations were.

Saturday began well with the usual breakfast, inspection, points etc then a walk to Loch Lomond. The afternoon, however, was a wash-out. On the campsite there were 14 tents full of Guides who were set for a very wet and windy weekend. I think one camp went home early.

As I said in my last post, I'd brought HUNDREDS of space-themed craft ideas. I hadn't thought we could possibly run out, but we were right down to the emergency plans by the end of Saturday!

This craft worked really well - Alien party hats.  One of the girls added her own twist, and put the eye on the back of her head.  It made me laugh!  (can't get the picture to rotate & save - sorry).

Bedtime was funny - they all asked to go to bed early!  That'll be because they didn't sleep much on Friday night and were up at 5.30am on Saturday (they weren't out of bed - but I had to go in to tell them to go back to sleep at 5.30).

Sunday was a bit better, because the rain was lighter and we could get the girls in their waterproofs, wellies for some outdoor play. We even had the odd 20 minute burst of sunshine!

Brownie Pack Holiday!

This weekend we are off on pack holiday (Thankfully I'm feeling so much better!!!).

Our theme is Space, and so far we have done some alien pictures (chalk on black card) which a very helpful Mum laminated this week. It took her an hour! We will use these as placemats on the holiday.

We are going to Loch Lomond. It's beautiful, but we've predicted bad weather. The kids'll be fine - they'll all have wellies and waterproofs and we will still go out and about. I have lots of indoor activities on standby too: fimo magnets, alien headdresses, masks, flying saucers, meteorites... loads of stuff.

I'll tell you about it when we get home.

Health

For several months I've been concerned, because (how to put this delicately so as not to embarrass anyone) I've been 'up on the blocks' (thanks to Mrs S's December son for that analogy) for 4 months without much of a break. A few days off at most.

After 3 months I went to the docs. Of course it should have been sooner. Really I should have gone years ago when I became aware that my cycle was a bit weird.

Anyway, with the Royal Wedding and the other bank holidays it was weeks til I got the results.

The result is that my hormones are wrong (probably due to polycystic ovaries) and I am now on a medically-required diet. They won't treat the symptom until I lose a lot of weight.

SO... life is now about counting points and checking calories/fat.

On one hand I know I should have done this anyway (and had started half-heartedly dieting weeks ago), but on the other hand I am angry that I don't have a choice and angry that the treatment is witheld.

Thus far it has been quite fun, but when it comes to the next 69hr working week it might be less enjoyable to plan and prepare healthy meals.

I will just have to work it out when it comes.

Next week will be a bit of a trial run at that, as it's Brownie pack holiday next weekend and I can't get any time off work to prepare for it... late night shopping trips and a mid-week dash to Loch Lomond will test my willpower.

Royal Wedding Party

My friend Suzy asked if she could have a Royal Wedding party in our back garden.

We are therefore v excited - as plenty of folk are coming and we have loads of food!

However in Glasgow it is really NOT cool to be pro-royals so we'll just keep it a secret and call it a 'day off' party instead.

Easter eggs all gone!

This is where they went!

My friend Suzy is having a bbq for the Royal Wedding and there are to be cakes. A lovely lady is bringing a 3 tier cake stand so we must fill it. Suzy is making fairy cakes (cupcakes). I am making scones (when I have butter).

Mum bought me a Green & Blacks dark choc egg. I love dark chocolate, but that was too much for me to face. So I melted it down and made triple-chocolate-easter-egg brownies.

They are GOOD. Saving the rest til Friday will be a real effort.

p.s. Can you see my New Orleans Hornets basketball cup? We keep our tea bags in it - can't bear to throw it away.

still alive but not blogging

I'm not really into the blog thing at the moment. I don't have time to read blogs or to write mine.

I'm not 'closing down' because I like having my blog. I like updating when I feel like it and I enjoy checking out my friends' blogs when I do have time.

I will be back when I have something I want to say, but until then - best wishes from Glasgow.

blogger crashing

I seem to have fixed the browser problem by going into New Post through Edit rather than selecting it on the dashboard... but I have been having blogger issues.

Selecting 'new post' has caused my browser to crash repeatedly.

Exciting News! (to me)

Our Brownie pack won the local annual competition to win a trophy!

Last year I think there was an art competition of some sort.  A few years prior to that we had a trip with the division to the bowling alley and the pack with the highest lane score won the trophy.

This year we organised a Basketball Tournament, with pom-pom making craft and cheerleading (taught by a dance instructor) plus some music and hot dogs.

It sounded fun, but I had to work!  My gig was good fun and in a place I love with people I like, but I'd been excited about the game - we'd discussed it at a meeting and it sounded like fun to me - and I felt guilty that I wasn't there as I'd been one of the people most keen on the idea.

My assistant guider took them with our YL and unit helper so we were well covered for numbers and I knew the girls were safe.

I helped a bit by doing a timetable (actually by tweaking a timetable our commissioner (boss Brownie leader) had done so it worked with the number of teams who had signed up).  It went like this...

BROWNIE BASKETBALL FUN DAY - GOOD LUCK!

BASKETBALL - LARGE HALL, DANCING - STAGE, CRAFT - SESSION ROOM UPSTAIRS, SNACK - FROM KITCHEN.
DURING EACH MATCH THE OTHER TEAMS PLAYING THE ROUND SHOULD GO ON STAGE TO LEARN CHEERLEADING
IF YOU ARE NOT PLAYING IN A ROUND, YOU WILL BE DOING CRAFT & MAY GET SNACK
13:00	MEET & GET ORGANISED - LARGE HALL
13:15	SHOP OPEN IN SMALL HALL
13:30	IMPORTANT!  ALL TEAMS TO LARGE HALL (TO HEAR RULES OF BASKETBALL COMPETITION)
13:40	ROUND 1 - LARGE HALL
			V			CRAFT - SESSION ROOM
			V			SNACK - KITCHEN
14:00	ROUND 2
			V			CRAFT - SESSION ROOM
			V			SNACK - KITCHEN
14:20	BREAK - LARGE HALL
14:30	ROUND 3
			V			CRAFT - SESSION ROOM
			V			SNACK - KITCHEN
14:50	ROUND 4
			V			SNACK - KITCHEN
			V			CRAFT - SESSION ROOM
15:10	ROUND 5
			V			SNACK - KITCHEN
			V			CRAFT - SESSION ROOM
15:30	TEAMS MAY VISIT SHOP OR TAKE A BREAK
15:45	ALL TEAMS PRIZEGIVING CEREMONY IN LARGE HALL
IN THE EVENT THAT THERE IS A TIE BETWEEN TEAMS (ONCE POINTS FOR ALL ACTIVITIES ARE ADDED UP) A TIE-BREAK SHOOT OUT WILL BE PLAYED I'm looking forward to hearing about it tomorrow night at our meeting.  We will get our trophy once our unit name has been engraved on it.

Pancake Day

Tonight my Brownies made pancakes on tin cans with candles underneath.

They were tiny little pancakes, and it was great fun making them.

Don't think it's an activity I'll be repeating though.... too much mess!

Nice People

I have that Friday feeling!  I know I'm working tomorrow as well, but I'll have a morning off and I am quite excited about that.

The week has perked up.  Yesterday I met my pit-partner (trumpeter) and his Mum during my lunch break, which was lovely.  We then met his mum after the show with my boyfriend (they had watched it together as you got 2 for 1 tickets), went to the pub... and met his Dad too.  We had some drinks (diet coke!) and chatted for a few hours after the show, and the wind down was lovely!  We laughed, joked, regaled each other with stories.

A lovely end to another busy day.

This week is Half A Sixpence

Working nights again this week.

I enjoy the playing part of work very much, but am very tired this morning.  My normal working week is the same on a gigging week, only you add gigs to it.

This means that last night I finished work at 10pm, then had to go and find a colleague to pay him for doing the Brownie night of the show last week (so I could go to the Science Centre with my pack).

Bed time was midnight, and I leave for work at 6.30am today.

I woke up this morning and felt like I'd been out on the piss last night.  I didn't have a drop.  Actually I had about 2 mouthfuls of wine when I got into the house before deciding I didn't really like the taste (Chardonnay Pinot Grigio) and discarding the rest of the glass.

This morning I feel horrible.

Hopefully I will be home by 4.30pm which will give me 1hr in the house before I teach then go back out to do a show.  I will use the hour to SLEEP!

I hope that my friends are well.  I will see them soon!

WORKING

This week is Singing in the Rain, which is fun... but means I'm busy.  Nothing new there then!

Remainder of holiday

On Wednesday we tried to visit the distillery in Tobermory, but it was shut.  We had a drink in the Mishnish pub to cheer ourselves up and ended up staying there for most of the afternoon.  In the evening we had dinner out - which was really highly rated  (using my sister's Quantify game - marking everything out of 10).

Thursday:  We went on a wildlife tour - and it was fab.  The tour guides were knowledgeable and friendly and they took us to areas we would never have visited alone.  Mull Magic they are called and they have a blog!

And the wildlife - stunning!  We saw white tailed eagles, golden eagles, seals, an otter, herons, buzzards, red deer, another deer that I have forgotten the name of temporarily... should I go on?

They have been kind enough to provide us with some photos - so I will pass one onto you.

Our otter:

This was our last day on Mull as we had to be back as early as possible on Friday for my sister to get to a hen weekend.

Mull Continued

I got as far as Tuesday in the Mull story.

Our next outing was a trip to Iona.  Iona is a small island off the South-West of Mull.  It is small enough that you can walk around it on a day trip, and is made up of grey stone with sandy beaches and green grassy rolling slopes.

Iona has religious links, with a monastery still existing on the island.  It was the home of St Columba and the monks here may well have made the beautiful pages of the Book of Kells.  I've Wikipedia linked to save me providing a less accurate account of the history... (or getting myself in trouble for copying my beautiful Iona book onto the Internet!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Kells

I first visited Iona for a gig about 10 yrs ago.  It was the 50th anniversary of the old minister's ordination, and they held a celebration with his family (his daughter was one of my lecturers at college).  The minister returned to his church and held a service at which I played, then later in the day a party was held and as he had been in the navy I was asked to play some fanfares at midnight.  It was a really good shindig with some very friendly people.  I wished I could join with the wine and celebrations myself and have wanted to return ever since!

Iona is a truly stunning place with an amazing atmosphere and the journey to Fionnphort to catch the ferry takes you through some uniquely dramatic landscape.  Well worth the trip.

The Isle of Mull

Today I returned from a week away on the Hebridean island, Mull with my boyfriend and my sister.


We left on Saturday catching midday ferry from Oban to Craignure, then on to Tobermory with me driving so my boyf could have a ferry-pint (something he considers a real treat). We spent the afternoon exploring Tobermory, watching Wales beat Scotland in the rugby and relaxing in our holiday home.  This is the view we had from our front windows (with finger for added effect...).

On Sunday my boyfriend got his first taste of driving on the Island with a trip to Calgary Bay. This beach is a large white sandy bay but it looked as though there have been some recent storms, as there was a lot of seaweed quite high along the shoreline.

We drove around the North-West of Mull looking at Ulva, Gometra, and the Treshnish Isles.  It was a lovely clear day though chilly (with an icy sea - temperature verified by a toe test).


Monday morning we had a lie in then headed out on the extremely bumpy single-track roads to Salen, wandering along the road by the old pier and exploring Aros Castle.  We saw a herd of red deer in the fields around the castle, and some birds along the coast.

We visited the bookshop and bought ourselves Highlands and Islands Monopoly to while away an evening in then settled down with some chicken chasseur in the cozy warmth of the cottage.


To be continued.....

A week in the life of... TC

Sunday - Tax return deadline loomed.
We made pizzas with a friend whilst watching Dancing on Ice as she marked her school books and I completed my tax return! (yeah! 1 whole day early!)

Monday - Dentist.  Had a horrible filling that really hurts still - they did something to the nerve to protect it from decay and as it didn't really hurt before, it now is worse for the treatment.  In the long run I realise I'll be glad they did it.  I worked during the evening.

Tuesday - School & Brownies
Leave the house at 07.30 to start work at 09.30.  After school I do a wind sectional for orchestra til 16.15 (no lunch break this week due to extra lesson a pupil needed).Drive home hitting rush hr traffic for the entire journey arriving home at 18.30 if I'm lucky.  Brownies starts at 19.00 and as we have 2 trips coming up there was a load of admin to do when I got home. (working out how much cash we'd actually received and how much is due, plus doing emergency contact lists and a bus list - I won't be there for the 1st trip as I'm working, so it all needs to be done early).

Wednesday - early start
I leave at 6.30.  I run a group at 8.30, another at 10.50 and a final one at 1pm.  I do a couple more individual lessons then it's HOME TIME - early.  I'm back in Glasgow before 5pm.And relax!

I had booked a restaurant for the evening, to encourage us to go out.  We went to Cail Bruich - which is a Scottish food restaurant - and it was delicious.  During dinner a friend texted to invite us for a drink at a pub which would be on our way home anyway so we met him.  It was fun.  His girlfriend gave us a lift home too- bonus!

Thursday - Office job day.
I felt a bit rubbish this week which I can probably put down to the drinks I had on Wednesday night.  Nothing fun to report.

Friday - Office day then office party!

It had been 3.5 yrs since we had a departmental night out.  When we have brought it up with our manager she has said that the Boss was not interested, or that they could never pick a date.  One of my colleagues decided that we should just pick a date, see how many people could make it, then go for it.  So she picked yesterday.  And all but 3 people said they would come!  Theoretically.

Of course there were a few last minute cancellations, but we ended up with 15 attendees.

It also ended up that our Boss picked up the bill!  Awesome.  Although I mucked up the credit card thing and he actually had to pay for it rather than putting it on the company card as they don't accept American Express.

It was fun.