Time flies

I am starting off showing my week as per Project Life but then I am going to do individual photos.

Where did the week go to? That seems to be a common refrain because the other teachers at school are all saying the same thing. I thought this week would be quieter after the "busy-ness" of last week - not a chance! This week consisted of three meetings with parents, our weekly grade meeting, a swimming gala, a higher order thinking workshop for the whole of Friday afternoon  followed by a family braai back at school. Chez fetched me from the Workshop, we drove home then I took the car and headed straight back to school. On top of that I went back to school on Saturday afternoon to mark books.

It was not all work though, because on Thursday I met up with my friend, Lynne. She started off as a  parent at our school. I taught her daughter, Amy (who is the same age as Caelen) when she was in Grade 1. Then we parted ways when the children moved on. Years later Lynne got the job as secretary at our school and the friendship grew from there. We have had many fun "gatherings" over the years - not as many as we would like but great when they do happen! Chez and I housesat for her and Charles several years ago when they went overseas. After Lynne left Chelsea we continue to meet  from time to time. Lynne is a lovely lady and we really enjoy our chats when we do get together. Thank you Lynne for treating me to my first experience of the Beverley Hills. It was fabulous - a memory to treasure. The setting was beautiful. You just feel important sitting there. For us it is a special treat, for others it is a way of life. We started off with scones and cappucino (delicioous) and ended up with a cocktail - Lynne had a Cosmopolitan and I had a Strawberry Diaquiri - I think I got the better deal!!!

The road leading to The Beverley Hills goes past our old flat.

The beautiful bar area downstairs where we had our cocktails

Lynne perusing the cocktail menu and getting some assistance from the friendly barman

Then today Di came and fetched me at 09:00 am to go to The Wonder Market. This is a market held once a month in an open park area near Gateway (our huge shopping centre). I had mentioned once before that I had never been to the market so she said next time it was on we would go together. We have been to the I Heart market at Moses Mabida (Emma, you remember that?) and I really liked the stuff they had on sale. This one was very similar to that. The goods are high quality and made by local crafts people. There is some lovely stuff on sale - you have to be quite careful or you could get carried away!

This is what you see as you walk  in - then you have to decide what route you are going to take. This was still early so it was fairly quiet - it was a lot more crowded later on....

I particularly liked this sign - I think we need one of these for school!!!!

 Look who we met there - it's Jude and Bevan. Jude teaches with us at Chelsea.

Always on the look out for a good bargain.

Such a pretty setting

Entertainment for the kiddies - he had these two little girls enthralled.

Pink Flamingo - drinks for the grown ups. We just loved the look of this stand.

The ingredients looking very tempting...

Mixing up a batch of Pimms - so pretty!

2 Pimms coming up .............

2 happy ladies having some R&R after shopping!

Half way

The school term is now officially half way - half over or half left? Both actually, which means I only have 5 weeks left of teaching in South Africa. I heard that my application for early retirement has been approved . I haven't seen it in writing but did speak to Mr Govindsamy in the Education Department and he confirmed that I can leave at the end of March as he had seen the letter with confirmation my application had been approved. How do I feel? Excited but also a bit sad. Excited because a new chapter is beginning and I will be close to my family which is something I have wanted for a long time. Sad because I will be leaving the school where I have taught for the past 20 + years plus friends who have known me for a long time.

All I know is that I must focus on the positives and look to the future, not the past. Yes, there are things I will miss but I can live without them. I am really excited about being with all the family. I have missed not being part of so many occasions and to be able to be closer to my parents, especially now with all that has happened to dad, is very important. Now to book tickets for Caelen and myself  will be the next step. Until I knew that I had approval,I couldn't book the tickets. The next two months are going to be busy.......slight understatement, I think!

Sam, the IT teacher,  helping Debbie get set up

Talking of busy, this week has been exactly that. In fact, every week is busy when you teach. I have had meetings with teachers or parents Monday through to Thursday. Then there are the demands of the classroom. I love teaching this age group but boy, are they demanding! At the end of the day you feel exhausted. Tuesday night was Book Club and I did Edu Admin training on Thursday and Friday. I must admit, I really enjoyed the training. We were learning how to set up computerized reports for the school. This is something that the Intermediate Phase were already doing but we, in the Foundation Phase had not yet put into place. I have been keen for a long time but there was some resistance, however, we need to keep up with change and at last they agreed to go ahead. What Debbie and I had to do was build packages and format the reports so that the codes and information was in place for the teachers to be able to work on their reports. It was very different to what I am used to doing but it was challenging and enjoyable. There were 4 of us with the facilitator, Jay, who came down from Johannesburg to do the training. Hats off to Jay, he was really patient and it was a pleasure working with him. We were only working on the first term report but Debbie and I managed to do the second term report for Grades 1 and 2 as well. Our next step will be showing the staff what to do - that could be fun!

Debbie and myself 

Sam and Sandy hard at work

The ever patient Jay guiding us through the various stages

After I had finished on Friday I popped down to watch some of our Grade 3 cricketers playing a match. As part of my HOD duties I go to support various sports teams when they are playing matches. 

Some of the team watching the game waiting for their turn to go in to bat

Vanessa, the teacher in charge who also does the scoring

Cricket match in progress

After watching the cricket for a bit I moved on to my next stop - Nails on St Andrews. I haven't done this in years but was given a voucher so decided it would be a nice treat. The young lady who did my nails was very nice and did a really good job. They look very natural - and the gel layer is not too thick. I was very happy with the results.

Before                                                  After

On Saturday Chez and I took a drive to Umdloti. We went to see a flat that Chez had seen advertised. With Caelen and I going to the UK Chez and Ciaran need to find somewhere else to live. Much as we love it here the rental is too much for them on their own so they are looking for a cheaper place that has 2 bedrooms. Unfortunately it was not suitable. It was very small and only had a hand held shower. Our family are shower people and a decent shower is a definite requirement. 

The block of flats

Getting directions

The view

Last night we decided to go out for dinner. It was just Chez, Ciaran and myself  because Caelen is away playing in a golf tournament in Harrismith. He goes every year with some friends, leaving early on Friday morning and coming back on Sunday afternoon. Ciaran booked for us and we took a walk to Angelos in the nearby Granada Centre. I had a very nice ribeye steak and vegetables, Ciaran had chicken Panacotta and Chez had Peri-Peri chicken. It was lovely sitting chatting together over a glass of red wine for us and beer for Ciaran. Before we left we took a few photos. One thing about doing Project Life is that you do take photos at every opportunity. Now I need to get some of us with Caelen in them - not so easy because he does not like being in photos!

Chez and myself

Ciaran and myself


That's it for this week. I need to finish Week 7 of Project Life now. All the photos are in place. I just need to do my journal cards. Shouldn't take too long. Have a good week.

Never enough hours in the day!

Gosh! Can't believe it's been so long since I last posted.I have been trying to keep up with schoolwork, housework and Project Life. In addition it has been really hot so in the evenings I find I am too tired so I go to bed early then I wake up in the early hours of the morning and can't go back to sleep. I really need to get my body back in sync! I thought I'd just post my Project Life posts. I have skipped week 3 and intend getting back to it later. I thought I'd try to keep up with the rest rather than fall further behind. I have been keeping a weekly journal - it started out being a daily journal but since I went back to school I have been doing a weekly review. I am also trying to find a system that works for me as far as organizing my photos etc goes. Getting there..........

 Week 4 of my Digital Project Life

Week 5 of my Digital Project Life

Week 6 of my Digital project Life

I am still finding my "style" for Project Life so am keeping it fairly simple . I would like to add a few digital downloads to my stash as it is very sparse just now but that will come in time. I do know I don't want it to be over fussy. For now I just want to document what is happening in my life in 2013. There are going to be lots of changes so I think it will be interesting to look back and see how things work out.

This is all I'm doing for now but I will add more detail later. I have another busy week coming up so won't be short of material for a while. All that remains is for me to document it! So far, although not great, I have been better than in the past, so that's the good news. let's hope it stays like that!

Last two weeks in a nutshell

Things have been pretty busy for the past two weeks as I was preparing to go back to school. After New Year I start getting the urge to start doing prep for the new term. A lot is done at the end of the last term but there is always something else waiting. Each year I cover my books and files with a different set of paper.  Red and white are the colours I went with this time with black thrown in to break it up a bit. I like doing this at home during the holidays when I have time to fiddle around. It's quite relaxing sitting on the veranda doing this.

My paper

One of the files

We give our children pre-printed book covers. I am fussy about everything being done properly so I took mine home during the holidays so that I could stick the covers on myself and trim off any excess paper. A cup of coffee mid morning also is part and parcel of the process.

. 

Table on the veranda with everything I need at hand

We are very happy not to be going away. Where we live is a popular holiday resort and over Christmas and New Year it gets really busy. Fortunately for us we live within walking distance of  "The Village".  I think Chez counted it as 254 steps from our place to the shops. As you can see in the pictures below we had some lovely sunny weather. 

The main road leading into the village from our side

 We cross this street on our way to the shops - at the bottom you can see the sea

I thought I would add a few photos taken downstairs in our very tiny garden. It is perfect for us because we don't need a big garden. It's nice to sit there and read and we can braai (barbecue) there as well . 

 Downstairs in our very tiny garden

 My spot for relaxing was on a lounger looking at this view. The pool is in front of us down a few steps so cooling off when you get too hot is not a problem.

 The book I was reading and my journal. I love the fact that there is no rushing around and I have time to read lots of books.

 Plants in containers to my right

During the last week of the holidays we also had a repairman in to fix up things in the house that were reported to the agent last year in March and nothing had been done. One of the repair jobs was for him to replace the cistern in Caelen's bathroom. We were sitting downstairs one day when we heard a loud noise but didn't know what it was or where it came from. It sounded like something had exploded. I couldn't see anything so left it, thinking it must have been next door. A short while later I thought I could hear running water so I went to investigate. I found a pool of water on the bathroom floor and more running down the back of the cistern. After switching off the water I lifted the cover of the cistern and saw a large crack running all the way down the side of the cistern. Mystery of the noise solved - toilet out of action! By the way, this all happened before Christmas and was only fixed after New Year. 

The toilet - she is broken!

Now it's almost as if we hadn't been on holiday. Daily routine has gone back to normal. The weather has been extremely hot and humid. We have had our aircon on most nights otherwise we wouldn't be able to sleep comfortably. February is usually our worst month but this year has definitely been hotter than normal in January. As I type this I am sitting in my costume and we have the aircon on which we don't normally do

during the day.

This and that......

Problems, problems, problems. I have been trying for weeks to upload photos to my blog but I couldn't  select the photos I to upload. Today Rhona suggested I try using Google Chrome and see if that changed things. Hey presto, I am back in working order again!

Me in Ciaran's room trying to get a half decent self portrait.

Once the tree is gone then I know Christmas is really over and it will soon be time to go back to school.

Before with feet

After with feet still in same position!

We were lucky with the weather this year. We often have rain on Christmas Day, however it was a fine day. New Years Eve was a different story - after the extreme heat and humidity we had thunder, lightening and rain but it didn't last too long. I stood on the veranda and watched the fireworks going off to see in the New Year. Chez was in bed already - he never has been much of a happy happy New Year person.New Years Day itself saw big black clouds gathering and we could see rain out at sea. The wind picked up, the temperature dropped (so happy to have cooler weather!) and it rained and rained and rained......... I wasn't complaining, the garden needed a good soaking.

New Years Day in sunny South Africa

With just Chez and myself at home New Years Day was very peaceful and relaxing. Ciaran was still in the Seychelles and Caelen went to Albert Falls Dam with friends for the big New Years' Eve party that they have there every year. I spent quite a bit of time playing around on the computer making journalling cards that I thought I might be able to use for Project Life this year. Yes, one of my goals is to complete a whole year of Project Life. This is something I have wanted to do for some time. I did start a few years ago on my own - no kit etc but I didn't keep it up. Rhona, on the other hand has been very good and she did keep it up.  Claire, Emily and I  are all going to do Project Life this year. I am really looking forward to it. I was going to start when I got to England but have decided not to wait till then but get started here without having the kit then continue when I get to England using the kit that Rhona has waiting for me when I arrive. Then I had the luck to be drawn as one of three winners who would each receive a place in the Digital Project Life class with Jessica Sprague as well as a free digital kit from the Project Life collection. How is that for a great start to 2013?

  There's my name - first on the list.

The course started on Monday 7th January. This was our last week of school which meant I would be able to spend some time getting to grips with the materials etc. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt a lot. It was just what I needed to help me with Photoshop Elements. I bought Elements 10 last year but needed help in using it properly. I managed to complete Week 1 and was very pleased with my effort. Hopefully now I will be able to continue for the rest of the year and produce fairly decent pages. Of course, true to form I am behind by 2 weeks but I want to see what I can accomplish tomorrow. Even if I get Week 2 done that will be better than nothing.
 

Week 1 Page 1 - My very first page of Project Life using the Cherry Edition

Week 1 Page 2

I really started off well, writing every day in the new journal that I bought. Then last week we went back to school full time.  I never even gave writing in the journal a thought - too much else to think about and get done just to survive the week. I will definitely make more of an effort from now on. If I canmanage to do 1 post every week then I'll be happy.
 

Frustration, confusion, helplessness...what to do?

There should be a post prior to this one BUT....Right now I am one very frustrated lady! I am having problems updating my previous post which is still saved in draft form. I have been trying for the last 3 days to upload photos to my blog post and it won't let me choose Browse to select the photos I want from my laptop. What is different? Why can't I upload my photos? I haven't had this problem before so I am stuck. If anyone reads this and can shed light or offer suggestions I would be most grateful.

On top of that my camera has "gone funny" again. It does this every now and then for no reason. I go to take a photo and it freezes. I can't  focus and the lens is stuck in place. I am useless on Manual - my focussing is rubbish. It looks in focus to me when I take the photo but when I look at it on the computer it is nine times out of ten blurred. Do I hear cries of.... "You need another class?". Yes, I do, I know that ...one day.....

This is so frustrating - I have the digital Project Life class that I won a place on starting tomorrow. Yes, I entered my name on Becky's blog to win a place on the digital PL class starting on Monday 7th January - never expecting to be selected, but you have to be in it to win it.....so I entered. Blow me down my DS phoned from England on Friday night and said "Did you enter a competition on Becky Higgins's blog because if you did I think you're a winner!" I couldn't believe it - quick swop to Skype to find out more from Rhona and at the same time go on to Becky's blog on my laptop and there it was at the top of the prize winners' names - Norma Nell, Umhlanga, KwaZuluNatal, South Africa THAT"S ME!!!!!! I was so excited, ME a winner? Yay! I never win anything............well,  not any more! We laughed and chatted some more - big smiles and squeals of delight - Too much of excitement!!!! (South Africans will understand this!)

Rhona urged me to reply straight away - there was a message for the 3 winners to contact Kari from Becky Higgins.com. I didn't need to be told twice so the e-mail was duly sent. Now to await a reply. First check on Saturday and there was nothing new but then, there is a considerable time difference between South Africa and America. Second check a little on later on and there it was in my Inbox - a very nice e-mail congratulating me and requesting that I advise them of which edition I want to use - in addition to winning a place in the class,we also get a full digital PL kit from AC Digitals - WooHoo!!! Roll on Monday, I can't wait to get started.
There is 1 week of holidays left before school reopens for the start of the new school year. Teachers go back on Monday 14th Jan and the children start on Wednesday 16th. The first day back is always taken up with meetings. Normally we have our management meeting the Friday before school opens but this year we are having it first thing on Monday morning. This will be followed by a Combined Staff Meeting. Our school is split into 2 campuses. The Foundation Phase, where I am, goes from  Grade R ( Reception Class) up to Grade 3 (Year 3) and the next Phase from Grade 4 to Grade 7 is on a separate campus just down the road from us. At the start of every new school year we have a comnined staff meeting with the teachers from both campuses getting together on the Senior Primary Campus. When that's over it's back to our school campus for our own meeting, then it is Grade meetings. We have 3 Reception classes and 5 classes in each grade. Each class has 28/29 children in it. We are the biggest school in our area. So, as you can see, most of the first day is taken up with meetings. The next day is to get the classroom ready for the new arrivals and do whatever still needs to be done in preparation for the First Day.

I love that anticipation of meeting my new class and the fresh start that the new year brings. I love the eager anticipation on the faces of the little ones. No matter how long you have been teaching, if teaching is your passion, you will experience that thrill every year.

OK - back to where I started with the one week left bit.... that means that I will have time to get stuck in to the class and hopefully get to grips and learn lots. I have got Photshop Elements 10 but I really need help on using it effectively. I can do some of the basic things but need lots of advice and tips on how to make the most of PSE. Completing Project Life will be a challenge  but I am up for it. Watch this space.......................    :)

Now let me keep trying to see if I can reslove my problems. Have a restful Sunday.