I’m a total part-timer at the moment. Last week I used up two of my days of annual leave that need to be gone by April, this week I’m using the remaining two-and-a-half. Wednesday lunchtime is the new Friday afternoon.
Last week’s break was welcome and really nice. The sun’s been shining like crazy for the last week (although I hear rain is due this week) so on Thursday I went to the beach at lunchtime. I didn’t go on my own though, because it was a certain spaniel’s birthday. That’s right, Murphy is two! We had a good run around the beach and a bit of a dip in the rock pools, and then I took my soggy doggy home for the afternoon.
We both had the Friday off and Adam had a plan. I saw a present I wanted to get for my mum for Mothers’ Day during the week but didn’t leave enough time for postage. Luckily the company is based in Paignton which is about ninety miles up the road, and Paignton is home to a great big zoo, so it became a zoo day. It was nice as the kids are all still at school so we had free run of the place with no-one around, and nearly all of the animals were out and about. I say ‘nearly’ because the one animal I really wanted to see, my absolute favourite animal, the red panda, decided he wasn’t coming out to play. Little git! Never mind, I had a great time in the new crocodile swamp and seeing the giraffes. It’s when I get to the giraffes that it feels most like being in Jurassic Park, I think it’s something to do with their disproportionate bodies but they’re just so weird close-up.
Definitely not a dinosaur
When we got home there was a bit of a shock as our front porch on the house was gone… The builders needed more rubble to build up the base of the floor around the back so decided to knock it down. It wasn’t entirely unexpected, it was always on the plans to have a new one built, but now that it’s gone I don’t think another one is going up. It’s so much brighter in the living room without it, and the courtyard in the front looks massive. I think I’m going to ask for a little pitched roof thing over the door and get the yard done out with some nice paving.
No more porch. Ginger is a photo tart.
On a completely different tangent, training has been very quiet for the last couple of sessions as we’ve sent a small team out to the World Championships over in Rotterdam. From what I understand they’ve done pretty well and should be coming back with a few medals, but it’s meant the club here has been very small. In a way it’s been nice though, as it’s given me a chance to do a little more work in teaching the kids which I really enjoy. It’s enormously rewarding when you get that little spark of understanding and something you’ve been explaining suddenly clicks with them. I’m sure when I was their age I had much worse coordination, it must be really tricky. It’ll be nice to have everyone back on Wednesday and knuckle back down to work on the syllabus, Naihanchi Cho Dan is next on my list of forms to indelibly stamp on my brain.
I’m off to post a letter now which should hopefully sort out once and for all a massively annoying problem I’ve been having this year. I won’t go into details until it’s all cleared up, but let’s just say for now that some companies’ idea of helping when it comes to fraud prevention leave a lot to be desired. Accompanying me on my walk down to the post office are the mighty Five Star, who have seen a resurgence in playlist time for me lately. The Slightest Touch is three-and-a-half minutes of nostalgic 80’s brilliance. If I could get youtube here you’d all have the pleasure of an embedded video, you’ll just have to find and enjoy it for yourselves.
(it took me ages to think of a way of wording that so that it didn’t sound like I was suggesting you go and indulge in a little onanism….)
NEVER trust a giraffe!