Rock n Roller!

Firstly, I must convey my apologies for the delay in writing the next post for the blog. I come armed with a number of excuses including a busy schedule at work, my attempt to squeeze as much running and cycling (both indoor and out) around this busy schedule, the odd day trip (see below), chicken coops, running around after the offspring and their increasingly busy schedules, and finally, the tiredness resulting from all of the above!

The above hurricane reached its height this week, with having to survive 2 dress-up days (Victorian and Pink!). Such is the lot of a primary school teacher I suppose. I sit here now in a state of tired, yet satisfied, reflection, having completed my first half-term at IJS. I feel it has been a good start to my career here. Not everything is where I would like it to be yet, and I have much to do, but I am happy with the outcome so far.

Remaining on the subject of work, the big news is that I have now got a TLR (a teaching and learning responsibility for the non-teaching variety of readers). My area of responsibility is to lead the literacy, PE, art/design and drama and music curriculum team. The most pressing task will be to lead school improvement in writing. Gulp! Admittedly, the task I am faced with will be a difficult one, but like a blood-starved vampire, my mouth is watering at the prospect of getting my teeth well and truly sunk into the jugular of the literary neck of IJS. I am in charge of an able and willing team and our first meeting was a success. I am hopeful my first flirtation with middle management will be a successful one and I can have a lasting and positive impact on these curriculum areas at IJS.

While I have been lost in the typhoon of work, the rest of the family have been a busy lot as well. Olivia has made a successful start to archery club on a Sunday. No one has been killed yet and she is actually hitting the target. In fact her progress over the first 2 lessons has been pretty amazing – although not enough to warrant the £400 carbon fiber, composite bow she has her eye on! She is loving drama club at school and appears to be about to take on the leading role of Lady Macbeth and this week will start Girl Guides. Evie started at Rainbows a few weeks ago and has already attended an overnight camp with them at Goose Green (ably accompanied by Caz, who offered to help out). On top of this she has now started ballet club – Swan Lake here we come! Caz has signed up to become a summer tour guide for the approaching tsunami of cruise ship tourists about to hit the islands and has hosted, for the first time this week, the sewing group she has started attending. The first stage of the chicken coop has been built (an enormous thank you to Neil for his help in this – I owe you a few ales). Stage 2 will need to be completed this week, as I was excitedly greeted by Caz after work yesterday with the news that she had ordered 4 chickens and 4 ducks from a local farm. The ducks will be joining us in about 2 weeks, while the chickens haven't hatched yet, so will probably be nearer Christmas. We have also now brought one of the newly hatched chicks from Olivia's classroom home.  It resides in a box in the boiler room overnight, but has also taken great pleasure in soiling the coffee table and won't stop chirping (surprisingly loudly) until you pick it up - the bloody thing is like a new born baby! As I said earlier, we have been busy…

The Falklands is a community with a number of its own traditions. One such tradition is that of 'Peat-cutting Monday'. Before the era of electricity and the importation of fuels such as kerosene, peat was the main source of fuel for the islands. Even now, many of the Camp settlements and houses still use peat as a source of fuel for cooking and even heating. 'Peat-cutting Monday' is an annual bank holiday, where many here will don their Wellingtons, sharpen their spades and bravely face the often inclement weather to carve out blocks of peat, to leave drying for the next 12 months. Tired teachers, take the easier option of going on day trips to the lighthouse at Cape Pembroke. This now redundant beacon of light has stood proudly at the cape for over 100 years and is a great place to visit, climb the steps of and picnic near, in a sheltered spot out of the wind looking out into the South Atlantic horizon. All this family value for the little cost of about 7 miles of driving… 7 miles that would take us a little longer than expected however, as much of it was off-road. This was my first experience of driving off-road, and with trepidation I steadfastly followed the lead car in our convoy across, over and through the mud and dunes, towards our goal.

Karen, in the lead car, was driving like a true off-road veteran.  Assuming she had ventured this path on many occasions, I blindly followed her choices, however improbable these looked. It was only later I found out, she was making it up as she went! As it turned out, the whole drive was a hugely enjoyable experience. I was amazed how well the old Land Rover coped with the rocks, rolls, trenches, dunes and lakes of mud – that was until we got stuck (the official term is 'bogged'). In fact we also got stuck in the same place on the way back. The scene – 1 Land Rover Discovery hanging with wheels spinning uselessly, 3 people pushing from the back and another 2 sitting on the bonnet in an attempt to get traction. Some would say that in terms of quiet day trips to lighthouses, this was the stuff of legends, others would say it was a typically naïve mistake of an off-road newbie! For the purposes of this blog I am going with the former. Needless to say, we and the car survived, and both 'boggings' added to a fantastic day out with some excellent company.