brief school update

I don't write about school much.... But recently reading the blog of another teacher has inspired me a bit. I am struggling at the moment with knowing how I fit in the maths department at my school and thinking about how I need improve and develop as a teacher. I wish I was a bit more innovative in lessons; I have become a "starter and a worksheet" type of teacher over the last two years. Here is one attempt to get a bit more participation into my lessons. After the students recorded this data for us, we used it to make tally charts and draw bar charts.

Later this week I am planning another data exercise where students will record in a tally chart the lengths of words in a newspaper and we will calculate some statistics. Data handling seems like an easier strand to teach interactively, now I just need to develop a few other ideas.

not much going on

I haven't been blogging much lately.... It just feels that my life is not too exciting at the moment. I have been working hard: I did an extra revision session on Saturday, for example. I stay until closing each work day evening (5:45 when the bells ring and the building is locked).

On Friday night we hosted our church house group. I have really enjoyed the fellowship. The questions on the studies are quite in depth, even the "welcome" questions are things like "What have you been praying about lately?" The questions are are designed to make us feel more comfortable over time talking about spiritual issues, and I think we're enjoying the challenge.

On Saturday Ant and I went to visit his uncle and family who were over in the UK for a holiday. It was brilliant to see Ant's three cousins again (we last saw them at Christmas in New Jersey). We also got to meet the friends they were staying with, one of whom is a maths teacher, which always makes conversation flow easily.

On Sunday we went out again! (This was a much more social weekend than most for us!) We went bowling with Ant's friend Natalie for her birthday. We played two games--Ant was the top scorer of the six of us both times, and I improved from 66 to 84, which was enough to make me content.

Well, Monday has returned and we are back to the grind. Ant is on a course this week which means he maddeningly gets up much later than me. Grrrr. I will be tiptoeing around in the mornings while he snoozes.

twenties party

Here are a couple of pictures from before Easter. Ant and I were invited with Matt and Bree to attend a twenties party as a going away get together for some friends. I have never been a big fan of fancy dress, but I got into the spirit with this one, with a little help from Helen and Bree. And then I kitted Ant out as well. :)

round up

And now, a few random items from my week off: the new exercise I've been trying, some food talk, but first, I have managed to finish the first part (just over 200 pages) of The Idiot by Dostoevsky, which I blogged about last week. I have to say that I am enjoying it so far. I was expecting it to be a gruelling, though edifying, read, but I seem to be getting through it alright. One fear has not materialised: from my limited experience of serious Russian novels, I was concerned that it would have a terrifyingly confusing cast of characters, with multiple names for each, in Russian fashion. But I have made it through the first part without getting too mystified.

On the back of the book is says that the main character, Prince Myshkin, "is perhaps the most appealing of all Dostoevsky's heroes. Gentle, saintly, foolish, and kind, Myshkin is... the pure idealised Christian." I have been very curious to find out what Dostoevsky thought was true goodness. So far I have seen that Prince Myshkin is honest in everything. He is thought of as a bit of an idiot (a bit soft in the head) because his truth-speaking seems reckless to others. He believes in others' goodness, respecting even a "colourful" woman that the others want to chastise; he ends up proposing to her! She thanks him, saying, "No one has ever spoken to me like this before. They've always been trying to buy me." But she refuses, saying she would ruin him. "I was imagining someone like you, kind and honest and good and silly as you," she declares, but then excuses herself to run off with a rogue, more fitting for her, she says.

In other news, Ant and I had our downstairs neighbours over for dinner last night. Not many people know their neighbours in London. We talk to ours because of things like sharing the front and back garden, and plumbing oddities (their water tank is in our loft, turning off their water turns ours off, etc). One night a couple of weeks ago we all ended up chatting outside as we arrived home from work and we invited them for a meal. It was interesting to talk with new people. We found a few common topics: both Ant and the gent work for banks and both the lady and I are public sector workers.

I splashed out on ingredients for the food: proper parmesan cheese that had to be grated, for example. Very middle class! We ate lamb burgers, which I have made twice now with Sonya's recipe. Lamb is not something I know how to cook because I have never really eaten it much. But the lamb burger recipe is so interesting: lamb mince, green onions, feta, an egg, mint, and cumin. They are served with a granary bun, feta, spinach and red onions which have been marinated in balsamic vinegar! Wow-ee. True fancy stuff. I served it with a homemade Caesar salad and cranberry banana bread for pudding.

The new exercise I have been trying for the last four weeks is kickboxing and self defence*. Sarah really wanted to try it out so we went along to a women's beginners class. So far we have discovered that we are both as uncoordinated as we thought, but we are really enjoying it. This Tuesday Sarah was away on a trip and I had to go by myself--which was almost as nerve-wracking as the first time we went. But I managed to find partners at the appropriate times and also have a quick chat with one girl as the class finished.

Yesterday was the last real day of my holiday, since I went to work today to run revision classes and photocopy next week's worksheets. So yesterday I had my holiday treat, a Swedish massage and steam room session. So wonderful! An hour long massage (for the not too extortionate price of £30) was just what I needed.

* I just learned today that "defence" is the British spelling of the word "defense". I didn't realise this was a difference. Did you?

journey to citizenship

I am one step closer to my British citizenship. I took the Life in the UK test today. I had an hour's journey to get to the test centre (one in north Lodond that had openings on a day I could attend) and then the whole process took an hour and a half, of which I was answering test questions for six minutes. The test is a 45 minute, multiple choice test with 24 questions. I have been studying and doing practice tests for about two weeks, learning about the UK population (lots of statistics), immigration patterns, governance, laws, employment, and daily life. Here are some sample questions--try them and then check the answers in the comments. Let me know how you did!

1. What is the purpose of the Council of Europe?
(a) To create a single market for members of the Council
(b) To create new European regulations and directives
(c) To debate proposals, decisions and expenditure of the European Commission
(d) To develop conventions which focus on human rights, democracy, education, the environment, health and education

2. Why did large numbers of Jewish people come to Britain during 1880-1910?
(a) To escape famine
(b) To escape racist attacks
(c) To invade and sieve land
(d) To work in textile factories

3. Which is the largest ethnic minority in the UK?
(a) Black Caribbean
(b) Indian
(c) Black African
(d) Pakistani

4. What percentage of the workforce is women?
(a) 15%
(b) 35%
(c) 45%
(d) 51%

5. Where is the Cockney dialect spoken?
(a) Cornwall
(b) Liverpool
(c) London
(d) Tyneside

6. What is the name of the ministerial position that is responsible for legal affairs?
(a) Chancellor of the Exchequer
(b) Foreign Secretary
(c) Home Secretary
(d) Lord Chancellor

7. In which elections can European citizens vote? Choose two answers from below.
(a) European elections
(b) local elections
(c) national elections
(d) elections to the House of Lords

8. Which one of the following parliaments or assemblies does not use proportional representation?
(a) House of Commons
(b) Northern Ireland Assembly
(c) Welsh Assembly
(d) Scottish Assembly

pics from the couch

I have been snacking on fruit on the couch. This is a picture Ant took a few days ago.

Today when I came home Ant was awake enough to give me a little head rub. Mmmm. (I'm wearing a new necklace I bought today.)

time off

Ant has been so sick the last few days and so I have spent some of my time off looking after him. Poor man, he has been in such pain and is now off work for the third day.

I have also been studying for the Life in the UK test, which I will be taking on Monday. It is one of the requirements for my British citizenship, which I hope to acquire before the summer. I already have indefinite leave to remain, but gaining citizenship will allow me to leave the country for a longer period and return with all the same rights. Ant and I can already be approved for a mortgage but this will lower the risk to the bank still further. On Monday I was studying the ethnicities statistics. The test is multiple choice and quite detailed, it seems. I doubt that many Britons would be able to pass the test without studying as I am doing.

I have finally started reading The Idiot by Dostoevsky. I have been thinking about it since before Christmas. My interest started from reading the Philip Yancey book, Soul Survivor, which I bought and blogged about in December. Yancey write about how Tolstoy and Dostoevsky jointly helped him understand more about how the Christian life can work. Tolstoy devoted some of the best years of his life to an austere existence, freeing his serfs and living like a peasant in an effort to follow Jesus' teachings (Luke 18:22) to "give away everything and you will have treasure in heaven". Tolstoy was utterly disheartened by his inablilty to live up to Jesus' instructions, finding his shortcomings unbearable. Yancey found his ideals and his reverence for God inspiring.

Dostoevsky and Tolstoy lived at the same time and read each other's work. Dostoevsky was arrested for being part of a liberal group judged to be treasonous. He spent eight months in jail and then was dragged out to be executed in a public square. At the last minute the death orders were changed into time in a Siberian labour camp. Dostoevsky was hugely changed by the gift of continued life. He endured his years of hard labour and diligently read a New Testament he had been given. His later work is a surge of joy at life. I wanted to read some Dostoevsky because I heard that he explored goodness the way other novelists explore evil. Yancey says that he learned from Dostoevsky that the gospel of grace filters into the world through love. "To follow Jesus, I learned, does not mean to solve every human problem--Christ himself did not attempt that--but rather to respond as he did, against all reason to dispense grace and love to those who deserve it least." Tolstoy wrote about absolute ideals and Dostoevsky wrote about absolute grace. I'll let you know how I get on with The Idiot. I have read 60 pages of the 660 that comprise the book.

In other news, I have slowly been becoming a bit more green. I have been gradually replacing all the cleaning products in the flat with ecological ones; now our waste water is safer and cleaner. And I have made myself a pledge never to take another plastic bag at a shop again. I have bought a few canvas shopping bags and I have put one in each handbag. I made a resolution a few weeks ago that if I found myself at a shop without a way to carry my shopping home that I would buy a reusable bag. The last one I had to buy at Sainsburys cost me £5; this is a costly enough mistake that it motivates me not to make that error again. Today I had the first real troublesome incident and I realised it was time to make my pledge a reality. I was at the shop near the station picking up some supplies for Ant and I for tonight; I had no shopping bag in which to get it home. I declined a bag and the owner looked at me a bit funny. I ended up cramming two cartons of soup and a two litre jug of milk into my already bulging handbag and ended up carrying the two litre bottle of lemonade and the loaf of bread in my hands. This was not a huge issue in the end since I only had a few minutes to walk but I felt good that I had saved a plastic bag. Plastic bags are a becoming a more talked about issue in the UK lately, and around the world.

spring?

Last night I started typing this post and I wrote:

I think that with the change to British Summer Time that spring has really come. On my cycle home on Friday I snapped this picture of a tree flowering. I wish I knew what kind of tree it is since I think it is gorgeous and I would love to have one. If I ever owned a piece of ground to plant it in, that is. Does anyone know what the name of this tree is?

Today I woke up for church and it was snowing (the second time this year, the first being on Easter Sunday). It snowed steadily for several hours, although it hasn't stayed. The snow collected on car rooftops, but just melted on the ground.

Over my week off I hope it warms up again because I want to go on some London city walks and do some cycling.

early night?

I am heading to get ready for bed now in a desperate attempt to get a bit more sleep. We have both been a bit overtired recently and I am feeling the stress at work. It's a really busy time, revising for exams that are in May. There's a lot of pressure for the students to perform well and a lot of pressure on me to make it happen.

Ant and I ran into our neighbours as we were coming home today and we have arranged to have them over for dinner next week. That will be quite unusual; London is not exactly a friendly neighbourhood place.

And it is also getting much nicer outside. British Summer Time started yesterday, so technically it is summer now. Sarah and I cycled home from work together (half way home until our paths divide) and we talked about maybe doing some longer weekend rides over the next few months. We want to go to Europe again this summer.

awareness

Ant Stumbled Upon a really interesting advert today that is an awareness test. Go watch the advert now, and then come back to read this post.

No, really. Go take the test--it will take only 30 seconds and then come back and finish reading.

The theme of the advert really resonates with me--I wish everyone was more aware on the roads. But it also reminded me of a discussion we were having at our house group meeting a couple of Fridays ago. We were praying together that we would be more aware of what God is doing around us. I want to be able to notice what God is doing in the people around me and join in on his plan. How do I learn to pay more attention? Or maybe just wanting to notice is an effective step, like wanting to notice the ball passes in the awareness test.

happy Easter

It's snowing for the first time this year--on Easter Sunday. Amazing! Yesterday I went out prayer walking and handing out Easter leaflets in the shopping area near our church. I had some interesting (although short) conversations with some of the people I met. It was hailing and sleeting which made the hour a little less welcoming. On Friday we went to the service at the church, an interesting time in which we moved from scene to scene around the sanctuary, listening to dramatic readings, songs, and singing a few things. Then we all went out to the town hall to meet people from the other churches for the walk of witness. It was exceptionally windy and the man carrying the very large cross in front of the group had a difficult time keeping it upright. It's been a really nice, relaxing weekend so far and we still have one day to go. :)

report writing

I have a set of reports due this week--for a year group in which I teach two groups. I teach a top set and a bottom set. The top set are an enviable group--they are quite hard workers and I never have any difficulty motivating them in lessons. Also since they are progressing well their reports will be easier to write. I'll use a standard paragraph and add details of progress and grades for each child. The reports I write for the bottom set will be more challenging. It's a very diverse class with several students still learning their times tables. I'll probably spend twice the time writing that set of reports, commenting on progress, effort in class, consistency of homework, neatness, contributions in lessons, and general attitude.

Ryan has made very good progress in maths. He works consistently well in lessons and always put maximum effort into his classwork. His work is well presented and he takes notes that will be valuable for use before tests and exams. He asks and answers questions in class; this is certainly something I would encourage him to maintain. His homework is regularly completed to a high standard and handed in on time. This has allowed him to consolidate our classwork topics. He is always pleasant and polite. He works well with his peers and I’ve enjoyed teaching him this year.

lisbon

I have returned from a flying two night visit to Lisbon with Matt, our flat-mate. The city is built on two big hills and a valley between--my legs are in pain from the constant hill climbing over the last three days. The buildings are from another age--there are very few modern ones. People seem to live mostly in blocks and there are no gardens (yards) in the city. The buildings are rendered and painted a pastel colour or they are tiled--how amazing that a whole building could be covered in tile the same way some Canadian houses have siding.



The city is ornate in many ways. The pavements around our hotel and downtown were made of mosaic stones. The patterns changed every block.



We used various methods of public transportation to help with the big hills. (I would not want to try to cycle in that city!) We took a funicular railway to get up to the eating and drinking areas on Tuesday night and on Wednesday we took an iron lift, built in 1901! From the top of the hill the views over the city were brilliant.


On top of the hill we went to visit an old Carmelite convent, now in ruins. It houses Portugal's oldest museum.




We walked back down to the main part of town and saw this arch leading from one of the old streets.


A little further on we saw this old church. Our guide book said to look for the "exuberant carving", which was exactly what we saw!


On the other end of the carving spectrum is this building a few doors up the street. It's covered in very strange pyramids; we were unable to ascertain why.


Next we started climbing up hills on the other side of the city. We visited the cathedral.


And, finally, on the tallest hill in the whole city, we arrived at the castle. Some of it dates from the eleventh century. It's been well looked after lately. I realy enjoyed climbing on the walls and looking off to the city's roofs below.


Matt was a bit braver than me and climbed to the topmost edge of some towers.


Both of us were exhausted after our extensive walking tour. We collapsed into a very quirky bar restaurant nearby for sangria and tapas.


Our hotel was on a main boulevard where there was a fantastic art installation--big sculptures of the numbers zero to nine, spread out along the length of the street. We obviously had to take photos of ourselves with all the numbers and use these pictures in future educational endeavours.




---
Update (added Saturday, 23 February)
Sonya commented that I should print all the numbers photos and ask you, dear readers, what to do with them. Brilliant idea! So, please tell me your creative thoughts about what to do with my numbers photos.

holiday

I am so excited--my holiday has finally come together. I am going with Matt for two nights in Portugal. Woohoo! We fly to Lisbon this afternoon and arrive back on Thursday evening. I'm heading out this morning to see if I can get a book about Lisbon. My aim in going there was to pick somewhere I could afford and that would be a bit warmer than here. (Although, after checking the weather, it looks warmer but also rainy. Humph.)

recipes to try

While surfing today I saw a few nice sounding recipes that I think I will try. It's soup season--nice warming soups brighten up winter nights. How about this zucchini garlic soup? I am always on the lookout for ways to cook courgettes/zucchini since it is my new favourite vegetable ever. And look at this roasted garlic soup with parmesan cheese. Who could believe a recipe that starts out with, "take 26 garlic cloves" and the second step is "add 18 more garlic cloves"?! Here's a recipe for a goat's cheese tart, which is the kind of thing I love to order at restaurants. Learning to make it would be brilliant. I would serve it with a crispy rocket salad. Another delicious sounding main dish is the lemon fish with basil cream sauce. And finally, Ant is in love with rice and requests it at every meal, and so I am thinking of trying rice pudding for dessert at some point. Here's a really tasty sounding lemon rice pudding.

So that's my food for thought for the evening (ha ha!). What new things would you like to try out? These are just dreams, mind. I am not always as ambitious away from the internet and in my kitchen! I'll let you know if I get around to making any of them. (Would anyone care to come over on the night I make the garlic soup? If not, we will be very stinky on our own!)

happy Valentine's day

Ant and I are celebrating this weekend. I received this lovely bouquet, along with a gorgeous pair of red shoes and some delectable body butters. I got him a new T-shirt and long sleeved shirt, a new book and chocolates. We are planning to do out to eat tonight; I'm really looking forward to it.

veg and the environment

Today in my surfing I was reading this very interesting page about what sort of "green" pledge you might consider making. Some of the ideas are not new, but there are some really interesting tips. And I linked to a project about growing your own vegetables. I wrote them a message asking about joining the scheme (pictured below), in which they provide a growing box and seeds to grow salad greens in your front garden. And I would love to join Able and Cole's organic veg box scheme. At the moment it's the cost that makes me hold off, but maybe it's not really that much more expensive. One day I will research it properly. (I have now switched to organic milk, apples, potatoes, and peanut butter when shopping at Sainsburys.)

hair attempt

I have recently acquired some hot rollers and I attempted to use them today. Surely they are foolproof? I wanted to get some loose, bouncy, wavy curls. What do you think? I think this looks a lot like my normal hair!

marking sucks

I fed my marking to the sharks yesterday. Who needs it?

i'm not hiding...

...just tired. It's cold season and fighting illness off takes more energy than I thought. Half term is coming up soon and I despair of geting sick before then or during the break (it's my holiday!*). I am taking ColdFx (thanks, Mum) and cutting out excess activities. Off to bed I go, hoping for a nice Saturday lie-in. Take care of yourselves, everyone.

*I hope that I can go away over the break and I've been saving for a few months to do so. Maybe Portugal for a couple of nights? So excited that I might be able to pull it off!

new kitchen item

In a very exciting event, Matt and Ant and I have inherited a small George Foreman grill. Woo hoo! I used it for the first time today, grilling some marinated chicken breasts to serve to some friends from church. I marinated them with half soy sauce and half maple syrup with added garlic and ginger. Wonderful! I am looking forward to learning about how to use it properly.

daily devotions

I really love Bible reading. (I'm so pleased about reading through the Bible last year. It was hard but worth it.) My perennial struggle, on the other hand, is maintaining a routine of prayer. I have been stuck in the mire of prayerlessness for such a long time. I finally had an idea that seems so obvious I wish I had thought of it long ago. I have a routine Bible reading time every morning and I decided to make that my prayer time instead. I feel as though I will be motivated to make time later in the day for my reading because I enjoy it, and I'll have the benefit of a ready-made routine that I can use for my prayer. I am using the book Face to Face (Kenneth Boa) at the moment, to help keep me on piste.


I received my new Bible from Canada and so I am using my Dad's new New Testament reading plan, which has the books grouped by writers and backgrounds. It starts with Mark, 1 & 2 Peter, and Jude. (I can provide copies by email to anyone who is interested in seeing it all.)

love food!, part two

No sooner had I switched off my computer and crawled into bed than I wanted to turn it back on. I was reading tonight from The Prayer that Changes Everything by Stormie Ormartian, a gift from my mother ages ago that I have rediscovered. I was praying about God's gifts in creation and thanking him for all that he has made: the beautiful earth and the people around who bear his image. I went to read Psalm 104 as directed and one thing jumped right out at me that I am thankful for in creation: food!

He makes the grass grow...
and plants for people to cultivate--
bringing forth food from the earth:
wine that gladdens human hearts,
oil to make their faces shine,
and bread that sustains their hearts. (Psalm 104:14-15)

I just want to say how thankful I am to God for fruits and vegetables! I really love eating them and I love that he made so many varieties. I am grateful that something so healthy is also tasty and can be made into so many things. I think it's brilliant that God was creative with vegetables and I think this shows his love for us.

Ant has just told me I am insane for sitting in bed blogging about my love of veg. But why should I hide my excitement and love of leafy greens? Sigh. Goodnight, Heavenly Gardener.

love food!

Ant and I had a little picnic this afternoon: wine and cheese and crackers, and peanut butter.


I love eating and cooking and photographing and writing about food. Ant made the salads above for us a few weeks ago. Aren't they beautiful? And the curry below was for dinner a few weeks before that.


That's all for now. Bedtime is my other love! And so off to bed I go.

teachers' strike?

The National Union of Teachers has confirmed that they are going to ballot their members for a one-day strike on 24 April. The below inflation pay rises announced a week and a half ago are not enough.

pay

I really want to write about teachers' pay, but I am overtired from teachers' workload! So here are some links instead.

The BBC reports on a 2.45% increase for 2008, announced today.
The National Union of Teachers reply by saying they will give a "robust response".

One issue about how the announcement is being taken is that the government is using CPI (Consumer Price Index) as their measure of inflation (see Ed Balls comment in the BBC article), whereas the NUT is using RPI (Retail Price Index) as its measure. CPI doesn't include housing costs, so surely RPI is a better indicator? This government page says that RPI is the measure that should be used for wage bargaining, but this is not what they are doing. CPI is currently at 2.1%, whereas RPI is at 4%. So this announcement means another below inflation pay rise for teachers.

The NUT will probably still ballot its members for industrial action, and if successful, hold a one-day strike.

exhibition

On Ant's prompting, I decided to visit BETT today, a technology in education exhibition being held at Kensington Olympia this week. I convinced Sarah to register as well and we cycled there in the morning. Olympia is a huge venue, truly vast, and it was filled with stands handing out flyers, giving demonstrations, and talking with visitors. We both really enjoyed seeing some new things, but we disliked being sold to so much. We attended a seminar about maths and graphing software, which I enjoyed and Sarah found a bit confusing; we found and displayed a correlation between handspan and shoe size. I got loads of free goodies (Sarah admits that freebies were one motivation for going): two Guardian sections, 29 brochures, one stress ball, two pens, one foam cube to put together, a cloth bag, two CDs with demo software and resources, three journals, and a book about the career paths of secondary maths teachers.

We stopped for lunch at one of the in-house cafes (overpriced, though nice, sandwiches). A few stands were handing out food as well, for example, chocolates, a fortune cookie (with the company's website URL inside!), and a frog-shaped biscuit. But the best freebie of all was at the BBC stand. One of the things they were demonstrating is a part of their website called 21cc, and they were showing a piece of software in which students build an athlete and feed them, then study their agility and calorie expenditure. So they were handing out healthy treats: BBC branded oranges! Hahaha! How fantastic is that.* I was so taken with them, I ended up taking two.


We stayed until closing time are learned some neat things. Our school has a set of handheld voting pads that don't get used much and so we visited the company's stand to see how they can be used and I plan to try them out in the next month. I got some resources for the maths graphing software we have at the school already and I really hope to use it more as well in lessons. I have already been using it a bit for coordinate plotting and line drawing.

There was a stand there from the teachers' union we are part of and we chatted with the staffers a bit. It seems more and more likely that the union is going to ballot its members for a strike soon after the government makes its announcement about our next three years of pay. It's suspected that they are going to fix our pay rises at 2%, which is below inflation. Gordon Brown has been saying that all public service workers will have to sacrifice to help curb inflation. We have had no news of our pay negotiations this week, though. We are waiting with baited breath to see what will happen next.

-----------------
*To make my parents' evenings go smoothly I usually have a bowl of small chocolates or sweets on my table for the parents and children who come. It's a popular stategy, but sometimes I cringe about the unhealthy aspect. One evening I brought little boxes of dried fruit pieces (similar in size to the raisins we used to get in our lunch boxes as kids). Now I have a new idea: maths branded oranges! Perfect!

small personal triumph

I have now managed to cycle to work three days with my clip shoes and pedals! On Sunday Ant put the pedals on for me and I tried them out a bit on our road, going back and forth, clipping and unclipping my shoes to get a feel for it. Then Ant and I cycled to the park nearby and met Sarah so I could ride around a little there. It was terrifying and I found that unclipping was very stressful. I began to panic as I slowed down, worried that I might not be able to unclip and then fall over with my feet still attached. I had one close call, which was really fine in retrospect, but I was so nervous that I freaked out a bit before successfully unclipping. These last three days I have been cycling to work a bit more cautiously and I can now unclip more quickly as I approach a set of lights or a junction. I am hoping that I make it to the end of the week without incident; that shall be a major triumph.

cycle update

-new top speed: 44.8 km/h, downhill on the way home tonight
-only recent close call: a tree branch in the face
-tire pressure last night: 40 psi
-tire pressure after top-up last night: 70 psi
-newest accessory: overshoes (or shoe covers or booties in Canada), ugly but highly useful
-weekday ride distance: 20.2 km
-weekday ride time: 60 minutes
-current count on trip counter: 4415 km

lefties

Why is it that the right hand rubber glove always breaks first? I usually keep the lefts since they are still good, but it seems a bit pointless now that I have this huge collection built up. I have all these lefts with no partners.

happy new year!

Ant and I made it back to London this morning at stupid o'clock. I managed to get a bit of sleep on the plane with the help of my eye mask--well, I managed to close my eyes and doze off a bit. Ant had a worse time and didn't get much sleep. (Thankfully we didn't get woken up for the turn of the new year.) We had the normally long wait in the baggage hall, eventually exiting with our two (hugely heavy) bags and Ant's new snowboard. Since arriving at home we collapsed for a four hour nap and then an Eastenders marathon, with Ant catching up on all the happenings in the Square. We managed to make a nice meal using the few items left in the pantry (sweet potato risotto) and Ant ironed his shirt for work tomorrow. Now we're off to bed--exhausted. We're hoping that we wake up at the right time. Ant's not too thrilled at having to go to work and I'll have to restock the fridge and prep for lessons on Thursday.

Did everyone else have a good new year's celebration? Any stories to tell? Many blessings for the year ahead.

race of champions

Just before we left London Ant and I went to the Wembley Stadium for the Race of Champions. Wembley had been transformed with the pitch covered over in tarmac and a one kilometer race track constructed.


Motorsport drivers from all different disciplines were there racing against each other. I bought the tickets in the summer for Ant's birthday when I heard that the Formula One ace Michael Schumacher would be racing. He was brilliant, setting track record after track record, but he narrowly missed gaining the Champion of Champions crown.

We also watched stunt drivers and motorbikes. This stunt driver put his car into a doughnut spin, then climbed out the window while it was still spinning and stood on the bonnet while the car whipped round, to much applause. Then he ran over to his other car and put it into a spin around the still rotating original car. He finished by climbing out of the second car and returning to the first to drive it away in a puff of smoke.


When we came out it was night time. We queued with thousands of people to get back onto the tube. It was very well managed by horseback policemen and we made it home incident free.

thought of the day

"Science has radically changed the conditions of human life on Earth. It has expanded our knowledge and our power but not our capacity to use them with wisdom."

- J. William Fulbright

God, may we grow in wisdom this year as we seek to use our knowledge and power more responsibly. Teach us to love each other and our world.

travelling

The term is over. It's been the busiest term of my career and I am proud that it is also the first half term that I have gone without a sick day. This may be due in part to getting a flu jab in October, which I now intend to do yearly. I had so many reports and parents' evenings in the last month and a half that it hardly seems possible that there could be any left (although there are both on the first week back in January...).

We spent most of yesterday travelling. We ordered a cab to take us to Heathrow for our morning flight. When were just outside the airport, I checked the tickets to see which terminal we were heading for and discovered we were actually flying from Gatwick airport! The cabbie laughed and sped around the M25 for us. After a massive cab fare we managed to make our plane and even saw Matt and Bree at the gate before they headed home to Texas for Christmas.

Now we are in New Jersey visiting Ant's uncle and family for two nights. Ant has three adorable cousins, Sam, Jessica, and Emily. They are at school for half a day today and while they are out Ant is practicing on their Wii. I have tried the bowling and I made my Mii character. It is really quite fun. I approve of a video game that makes you move; kudos to Nintendo for a good idea. Ant has again displayed that he is an extremely fast learner; he has mastered bowling and tennis and is now learning to golf.

We fly to Halifax on Saturday and we're both so excited to see family and to be home relaxing.

new year's resolution, early

Last weekend I picked up a couple of second hand books at the library book sale (so now you know how I spend my exciting weekends!). Last weekend also involved some searching questions about my career goals with Ant and Matt and Bree. One of Bree's career values tests revealed that I prize the ability to learn and gain knowledge above other job qualities.

As a result I've started having that resolutions feeling a month early. First on the list is turning away from the TV more and turning to books more. I have so many books that I really want to read at the moment and I know they will improve my mind and my life if I do. One of the books from the library book sale is Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey, subtitled How my Faith Survived the Church. I've read the first two chapters about two people who exemplified faith to Yancey when he was questioning: Martin Luther King Jr. and GK Chesterton. It's been fascinating so far and very inspiring. Also on the list of things to read is Conflict of Visions, a book I was lent recently about the two main ideological views behind politics. At school I've also started spending mroe time reading: at lunch, while I'm chomping on my sandwich. I'm working on a behaviour management book which has been very interesting so far. At bedtime I've turned back to Kenneth Boa's Face to Face prayer book. It's been good to examine my days each evening and talk to God about his grace and plans. As stated by another author who shaped my ideas, Bill Hybels, "an unexamined life is not worth living."

Maybe some of these new ideas will help me figure out what I am doing in my career. I feel more at ease with my mind more engaged and examining in my everyday life.

oil

Our pastor said something today I had not heard before about oil in the Bible. We were reading the parable of the virgins waiting for the bridegroom in Matthew 25:1-13. They are bridesmaids waiting to escort the groom to collect his bride. Their job is to light the way with their lamps and to dance with the couple as he takes his bride back to his house for a seven day celebration. Five of them don't bring along enough extra oil and so their lamps go out before he arrives. These foolish women miss the celebration because they're not well enough prepared. The other five bridesmaids bring extra oil and so they're ready when the groom arrives. They accompany the couple, dancing, into the wedding banquet. Jesus tells his disciples to be careful and watch because in the same way his second coming will be a surprise and we want to be well prepared.


Since it's the start of Advent, Pastor Hany was saying that we need to be expectant, prepared, and ready for a celebration when Christ comes again. And he said that oil in the Bible often symbolises the Holy Spirit. This is an idea I had not come across before. But he mentioned that when priests or kings were anointed with oil it was a symbol of the Holy Spirit coming on them. (For example, in 1 Samuel 16:13, "So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power.") So the five bridesmaids who weren't prepared for the groom and his banquet can tell us that we must have enough of the Holy Spirit to live expectantly.

So, Lord, pour out your Spirit as you say (in Joel 2:28-29, "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.... on my servants, both men and women"). May I be expectant and prepared for you.

a few random photos

Here are a few photos from the last few weeks that I have been too preoccupied to post.

My kitchen table during a busy marking day one Saturday.


Bree and I went to Buckingham Palace a few Sundays ago on one of my city walks.


The Palace is closed most of the year (because the Queen lives there, duh). I wish we would have gone to see it this summer like we kept saying we should. Hopefully Bree will still be here next summer to go with me.


These are the gates to Green Park (one of the royal parks).


As we were walking through Green Park and Hyde Park, dusk was falling. We timed our walk to finish when it was dark and take the train home. This is the pond in Hyde Park. Alongside the pond there were large groups of roller bladers who meet on Sundays for a big group skate.


This is a photo of what I consider dessert when Ant is not around. We don't make dessert very much, but when we do Ant always prefers chocolate. Me, I prefer fruit. This is only a dessert by name--it only contains granola, plain yoghurt, and stewed cranberries--hardly any sugar.

long silence

I've been hiding out over the last week because Ant's mum has been very ill and died yesterday. He and his sisters were able to be with her until the end and she died peacefully, although suddenly. Please pray as Ant has to make all the arrangements now. I will be away this weekend with his family.

I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."

--Psalm 91:2

housework

--from Indexed