Before the World Ends...

Thought I'd write a quick blog before the world ends later. I think they have been studying this at school, as every class this week has finished with the child saying that they would see me soon - if the world didn't end! It confused me first, as not being a follower of the Mayan calendar and not really listening to the news, I had missed this fairly significant event for today.

I'm not doing festive crafts this year. There are too many students to do it successfully and as I have classes on Saturday now, it would be difficult to do two crafty sessions on Monday. Particularly as we're without a car, therefore I can't get any supplies. It will be the first year for a while that we haven't had a glitter, glue and chocolate encrusted house for Christmas. How nice. Last year the bathroom looked like an explosion in a chocolate factory after they'd finished 'cleaning up'.  I have classes tomorrow, and then just a couple between Christmas and New Year.

The students have been getting their term results and I perfected a neutral face until I get a clue from them as to whether their result was good or bad. I still get it wrong. I commiserated with Alejandro because he got 5 in his exam, which is scraping a pass. However he was delighted with that result! I congratulated Nacho on his 7.75, but he was disappointed as he was hoping for 10! 

We've both been on bike rides this week. Although separately. We had to get the insurance people to take the car into the garage, so Ian went with the car and then cycled back. He got a message later to say that they had fixed the car, so he cycled back in. Only to be told they hadn't, and he had to cycle back again! We got another message today to say that they have - so fingers crossed that they really have this time. And fingers crossed that the bill's not going to be a nasty shock.

I went for a cycle ride too, but mine was purely recreational. This was the first time I had been for a few weeks, as having classes every day means that I am limited to when I can go. And I wanted to get all my About.com articles finished early in the month so I could concentrate on our mega-rewriting project on Freeneedle. So it is quite liberating to have all that done and dusted. It was nice to go out and see how much the countryside had changed this last month. Everything is green now, and they are olive picking so the fields were busy with people picking olives and tending the olive groves. I think that they are picking the black olives now, and the green ones were picked earlier.

The weather has been very mild this week, and the combination of curtains over the doors, the fire going every night and the mild temperature means that the whole house is a pleasant temperature this year.

Sprouts!

Ian's picture of the week last week included two things that were growing in our kitchen. One, was the pretty pink and fluffy picture of a mouldy beetroot, which needless to say we weren't purposely growing. The other was of, unusually for us, we were purposely growing, and this was a bowl of bean sprouts. Also, unusually for us, they turned out well with most beans sprouting. Given that we are without a doubt the least green fingered people I know, I was expecting instead of beansprouts to have turned into sproutless beans, so we were pleasantly surprised.

Last week we wrote the equivalent of a short novel. We were rewriting the introductions on Freeneedle, and we've introduced a load of new categories and sub categories, so it was quite a task.

I've been doing Christmas activities with my classes, however I have to remember that the little ones get confused when I say that Father Christmas brings presents - because of course he doesn't. I've got two new little ones starting in the new year, which brings it to 22 hours of classes!

Yesterday saw us stood forlornly by the side of the road, staring miserably at the over heated car engine. Not sure at the moment what the problem is, but it won't be good news. Most annoying...

Hot and Cold

The weather turned bitterly cold last week, with a very cold wind. We are pretty well insulated this year, with curtains hanging over the doors, however it was definitely time to get the stove working. Ian swept the chimney and the fire started with the minimum of smoke - which was good - and resulted in us spending the rest of the day in t-shirt! We went to Pepe's on Saturday after classes and he had hot ashes under the tables with the blankets on top for people to snuggle up under. This is a habit that gets into people from an early age. In classes, even the young ones come in and pull the table cloth over them. No doubt disappointed to find no heat!

I had 24 hours of classes last week over 7 days, however there are the equivalent of mock exams coming up which I think means I will see less of the eso 4 group (15/16 year olds). Trying not to let my rubber stamping site slip too much and Ian has helped me out with some Christmas things so I will start this month ahead.

Here is this week's joke. Admittedly it isn't that funny, however it was quite easy to do!