That was the week that was

The last week of a term is usually quite exciting whether it is the old half term break approaching or a full blown holiday. The last week of the term this time was very stressful with the funeral of one of our 18 year old students on the final day. Hollie died following a car accident and the school closed early on Friday as a mark of respect and to allow teachers and pupils to go to the funeral.

Funerals generally are not fun places to be , the last one I attended was over 20 years ago, for my mother. This particular funeral was harrowing for different reasons. Because of her youth and vitality, the snuffing out of such a vibrant person shook everyone to the core and bought home the necessity of living life to the full whilst you can. I was fine until Hollies dad was talking. He went through the alphabet ..'Hollie was Amazing, Artistic ' etc etc but, when he got to M and ended by saying 'she was mine' I crumbled. Here was a daddy talking about his precious little girl and it broke me in ways I didn't think I could still be broken...Hollie is gone but will never be forgotten by her family, her friends and anyone who knew her.

I dont think many people read this blog (I know, I know...rambling middle aged woman stuff LOL) but IF you do, then please think about donating to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital who assisted both Hollie and her family during the last hours .

The photo of the day was taken in Paris last year

Old Friends

An unexpected phone call on Thursday evening bought me back into contact with two old friends from the Tom Holt newsgroup. 10 years ago, myself and Paul Bines organised the inaugural Tom Holt meet with Tom himself and several people from the newsgroup including Roger and Chris. I had an instant rapport with Chris and although we could rarely meet, conversations online were long and plentiful. They both came up to Lincolnshire 8 years ago, not long after we moved back here and the phone call was to say that the FilkCon was being held at Grantham and lo, they were visiting :)

Their personal situation has changed somewhat since I last saw them and they are both looking and sounding much happier even though Chris is recovering from a hear attack! They came to the house yesterday and then whisked me away to the Ramada in Grantham to meet up with a few people from the froup of old. I had a good few hours there before Stephen came to pick me up. The good news (or even better news?) is that the FilkCon will be held here again next year so I can go again (and hopefully better organised this time!)

Also managed to watch England beat Wales in the rugby YAY!!! Mwahaha

Less than a week until the Winter Olympics start, really looking forward to it , sport by proxy, has to be good!

Todays piccy is one that I have a print of in my hall, I call it ZOOOM ball :)

Middle of the week *sigh*

Today bought ...well, not a lot really. The talk in the staff room was about John Terry and how awful the situation is and yes, he SHOULD stand down as England captain.

??

Who made The Sun the arbiters of morality in the UK I wonder. I mean ...I do not condone what he has done for one moment, don't get me wrong but shouldn't it be for him and his family to sort out? When is a personal matter no longer a personal matter I wonder? If the boss of Cadbury's was found to have an affair who HE have to resign? I think probably not. I just feel sorry for the whole lot of them, and it turns out that he isn't even married (not that this seems to matter much to people nowadays in our wonderfully politically correct and equal society).

Still, onwards ever onwards, try to stop being an old fart for two minutes why don't I?

My immediate boos is Sarah (actually her hubby has a fine blog here Bringing up Charlie ) and today she had to talk to the class who had their classmate die on Monday. She handled it with great sensitivity and the girls responded well. The suggestion is that we have a memory board in the foyer which could then be moved to the church. I hear that the funeral is a week on Friday and I really hope that I can go, Hollie was a lovely girl who will be missed

Thought I would put one of my Summery photos up to remind us all the Winter will be over soon :)

Life might be shit but the alternative is worse

Monday dawned the same as most other Winter Mondays ..so then grey and cold and a working week as a prospect.

Things changed quickly when, on reaching school, I learned that one of our year 13 students had been involved in a very bad car crash and was on life support following brain surgery. The student involved was a very beautiful tall, elegant, fun and sparky 18 year old. Students and teachers alike were stricken by the news that one of our own had been involved in such an horrific accident. Some of her closest friends had been able to visit her in the Sheffield hospital that she had been taken to when Lincoln decided they couldn't do any more.

I was asked to do the register and tutorial for her class for a few days as her old form tutor had left on maternity leave on Friday and we couldn't really expect the new teacher to cope.

As I sat there during registration and listened to the girls sobbing and talking, telling me and each other about their friend I became aware that this was the first time that most of them had felt the hand of death on their own age group and it left them visibly shaken.

Later on Monday, her life support machine was turned off and she died very quickly afterwards.

I will miss her greatly, she rang most day's to say she was going straight to the other school as she was running late :) Her friends will recover eventually, we at the school will recover eventually but there is tonight a family out there who will be forever changed and my heart bleeds for them more than any other.

End of work weekitis

So I have managed to scrape myself through to the end of another working week despite the God of Headaches doing His (her?) best to afflict me to the point of near death since Thursday.

At school we are all in a state of desperate tiredness. It isn't the work per se, more the weather ( grey, wet, cloudy and cold), the dark mornings and dark evenings and the post Christmas malais that descends in January.

I am determined to become more disciplined with this blog ..to whit ' If I do it I will write it, if I write it I will remember it'.

Now in my middle 50's I have to work harder at remembering anything ..well, except how to wake in the middle of the night for a pee!! This is a recently rediscovered thing.. 1am or 1.15 every night . What is that all about then? So my womb stops working and my kidneys decide to help out instead?? Dear lord ..still waiting to find out what is so wonderful about being post menopausal (apart from the bleedin' obvious of course) Skin is crappy, boobs go South, memory goes.....what was I saying?

Talking of middle 50's ..rather a special Birthday coming up ...I was born in '55 and this year I will be 55 ..I just love the synchronicity of this ...though when I mentioned it, my youngest son commented on how peed off he was that in order for him to achieve the same thing he would have to live until he is 93 :)

I hear that old GB is planning on paying the Taliban to be good chaps and go stop throwing bombs and things at us ....I cannot say on how many levels this is a Bad Thing. Still, if it means he loses the next election I will be okay with that.

Also, in the news today .. a man, stationary in a car in a traffic queue - with hand brake engaged has been served with a £60 fixed penalty notice for blowing his nose.

Words fail me!

Depressed much?

Well, the Labour versus Conservative bandwagon rolls ever steadily on ..it will get worse before it gets better with each side slating t'other. How bored I am with this! If the political parties just stuck with telling us about themselves it would be so much better but no, they feel the need to pick at each other *yawn*

Anyway, to other things ...the snow arrived ...and then left. Here in South Lincolnshire we didn't see much/enough as far as I was concerned and no, this is nothing to do with the fact that I work in a school and got 2 days off work, I just love snow. I like the look of it and the feel, watching it fall is still magical to me after nearly 45 years of life. I would really like more snow now please God!

Youngest daughter trekked home from her first term at Uni in time for Christmas. We hadn't seen her since September and boy I missed her so much! I find myself at home with the alpha male and the 16 year old son ...son is like me emotionally and temperament wise but has the scientific brain of his dad. He is taking Physics, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths at A level and so the conversations in the house were so far over my head that I felt as though I was drowning. When daughter arrive home it was lovely to have someone who understands that I live in a world where the TV and telephone work by magic and NOT complicated technology! Someone who appreciated the finer side of glitter and art! Daughter is very smart and passed her A level Chemistry last year but she is a girl like me in a lot of ways and boy do I appreciate that!

What else can I tell you? I am a facebook addict, especially the apps ...the house wasted playing ridiculous games, the effort that goes into planting 'crops' and finding hidden treasure ... I LOVE IT! Besides which, I am so bored with doing the washing, shopping, cooking and cleaning ...I have now been doing those things since I got married first time at 18 ...and they never EVER get finished so you never get a proper sense of achievement!

Okay ...thats about it for now