Last school day of 2011

And so we get to the very last day of the school year.  In one way I'm happy because I find this time of the year things just become so busy and with the last day of school it means things will start slowing down (I hope) and I can catch my breath and reflect a bit on what's happened this year. But wait, I am not ready to do a whole reflection post (come back another time for that one).

But while I'm happy the last day of school arrived for the above reason, am also rather sad to be honest.  Bianca had a fantastic school year this year in Year 3.  And I know it is all thanks to the amazing teacher she had. I wasn't quite ready for her to be done with this school year!

Bianca absolutely loved Paul Forster's teaching style.  He had a way to bring out the best in Bianca.  And to be honest, I've never seen a teacher showing as much passion as he did for his teaching and for the kids that he was responsible for.  One of Bianca's favourite things of all time was glossary.  Suddenly this year she started thinking of different words to use and she would even insist we use them too.  And she's especially proud that she's learned to spell words like "inexplicabilities" and "circumstantialities" (and yes, Bianca is 8!!!). 

Something that I will never forget was when Paul told me at the start of the year he is committed to ensure each child will have fun in his class and be sufficiently challenged.  And I thought to myself that I've never actually met another teacher who said this.  I was really really impressed!  Here was a teacher who wanted to make sure every single child in his class had opportunities to grow and to learn.

And every afternoon as I sat there waiting for Bianca I could just see how much the kids loved Paul.  How excited they would get when he would bring out his guitar and they would sing together.

We were incredibly blessed that Bianca had a chance to be in Paul's class!  I have my fingers very tightly crossed that in 2014 Caitlyn too will have the chance to be in Paul's class!!!

Paul, thank you so very much for everything you did for Bianca.  You were (and are) an amazing teacher!  Bianca always tells me that you are the very best.  She wanted to give you something really special.  Something well deserved!  I hope you liked it :-)

And finally am able to share this poem from me to you:

For a year you were the world
To the children in your care
With the excitement that you showed
And the passion that you shared

You taught them the wonders of glossary
And showed them math was fun
You encouraged them to sing and dance
When the day was done

You found a special way to teach
You always did believe
That each child had just what it takes
That they all should achieve

They might not be good at everything
But all children deserved the chance
To keep moving forward
Without a single backward glance

You gave the children your everything
You should feel incredibly proud
I often heard how much it meant
As they shared it out aloud

Never again will they have
The year they had with you
From the very bottom of my heart
Thank you for everything you do!

Failed attempts

I recently saw this on Facebook:

Jip, I can relate to this...

And last night I was thinking of exactly this when I was trying to make a batch of fudge and it flopped.  Not once, but 3 times!  Yes, I tried 3 batches.  Well 2 batches yesterday and the first batch a few days ago.  I thought this would be cool for Caitlyn to take to her teachers today as a little thank you present seeing as she won't be going to daycare for the next 2 weeks.

Now I know that this was not me.  This is a recipe that I have made probably a hundred times to date.  So I could probably make it with my eyes closes, except perhaps not the best idea to stand in front of a stove stirring a hot batch of fudge while your eyes are closed.  It was my grandmother's recipe.  Now my mum will remember when we both worked for the same company years ago, the owners asked us if we could make fudge, they'll supply the ingredients and then sell it (yes, we were suckers for punishment) and so we'd make a batch, bring it in in the morning and then by the end of the day would be completely sold out.  So night after night we made fudge. 

Recently I emailed the landlord because I'm sure there is something not quite right with the thermostat or something in our stove.  2 of the plates seem to get hot pretty quickly.  But what do I know.  So she sent some guy to come and have a look and (typical Murphy's law) it did everything as it should and I felt a bit stupid by the end because maybe I was wrong...

But then the other day I put on a batch of fudge and because it takes a bit of a long time to make I get Terence to come and help me stir it from time to time and then suddenly Terence said that it was busy burning.  Sigh!  You leave a man in charge of your fudge for a few minutes and he burns it!

So yesterday morning I thought I'd try and make another batch.  You know, double check that the heat is really low and that I continuously stir it.  And all was going well.  That was until about 15 minutes into the process and it started burning.  And it was on the very lowest setting too.  Took it off the plate and it was so hot that when I held my hand about 20cm above the plate it felt like my hand was burning.  So definitely something up.  Which means I will now have to get hold of the landlord again.  Although maybe this time I might try and do a video clip just to prove I'm not completely nuts.

Now I'm not one for giving up. Those who know me will know I'm pretty determined and persistent ;-).  So last night I decided I will try one more time.  I would use one of the back plates that doesn't seem to give the same problems.  And so that's what I did.  Except initially I had it on low heat and it would just not heat up fast enough to the point that the sugar never completely melted.  I did turn up the heat in the end, but it took significantly longer to finally have it all finished.  For most of it it came out fine.  It set perfectly, tastes okay, but there is a definite "crunch" because the sugar didn't melt properly.  Sigh!  It is not supposed to flop!  And so I didn't send any of it to Caitlyn's teachers and got something else instead.

So yes, finally I had had enough of making fudge for now.  I'll have to make it again when finally the stove is properly fixed. 

Just a fancy term

Last night's run / walk session was really good.  I found a pace that was comfortable, it wasn't raining, wasn't too hot and I thought I did well.  I am mindful of going slow and gradually building up.  And have to say that I was really impressed that my leg has been feeling fine.  It hasn't been sore at all, not during and not after.  And so I felt sure that that must mean my regular date with my physio will soon be coming to an end. 

This morning was my physio session.  And I proudly shared with him that I have been out running and that my leg has been feeling fine. No sign of pain anywhere.  Ha!  That was until he started using this little hand massager thingy and almost instantly... blinding, burning pain.  And he was all like "so obviously there must still be some inflammation".  And so I spent the entire 20 minute session flinching, crying out in pain, letting him know when a spot was particularly painful.  And after a while of listening to me saying ouch (I lost count how many times), he looked up, smiled ever so sweetly and said "you will tell me if it hurts right?". 

So now I've come to the conclusion that 'physio' is simply a fancy term for somebody torturing another / inflicting pain and charging people money:-)  Yurri is good though - even if today's session was particularly painful.

Things I know today

• This post was written for me (well not really for me personally as such, but many lessons I can take from it).
• I hate last minute Christmas shopping and crowded shops.  And yet, I never learn.  Each year is exactly the same (sigh!).
• This coming Saturday Bianca has been invited to the Pride Awards (along with Terence and me) and I have no idea what I am supposed to be wearing then.  I have absolutely no fashion sense and I absolutely hate clothes shopping. 
• When you swim, don't forget to put your goggles back on.  Especially if you are wearing contact lenses as I found out at my last swimming lesson on Friday.  Usually I have to remind myself to open my eyes so I can see where I go and of course at one point after the instructor explained something, I lifted up my goggles because they fogged up a bit and then she told us to do 2 lengths of free style I think it was.  And as usual, as soon as I started I automatically closed my eyes, reminded myself to open them and [panic] realised that I was not wearing my goggles.  
• Running in the rain is absolutely no fun.  I know on Wednesday the physio will be asking me what I have done and he won't be impressed if I said I didn't do anything.  So last night I sucked it up and braved the rain.  Wasn't too bad at the start, but by the end can honestly say that it is absolutely no fun getting wet when you run.  And in hindsight should have put contact lenses in because with the rain I could hardly see out of my glasses...

How is your week going?

How do you fit a lifetime into a few weeks?

I read the most heartbreaking story recently on NZ Herald's website.  Click here to read.

Effectively the article is about a mum who was diagnosed with breast cancer 5 months after the birth of her son.  Now 2 years later she was recently told that she only had a few more weeks to live.  And my heart simply broke for her.  She won't ever get to see her son grow up.  She won't share the excitement of his 3rd birthday or the day he starts big school when he turns 5.  So many milestones she won't get to enjoy.  And her little boy will grow up not really having any memories of his mum.

How do you fit in a lifetime in just a few short weeks?  When all of us run around like crazy trying to do last minute Christmas shopping, possibly complaining how busy we are, this mum is desperately trying to create memories for her little boy.  She is trying to give him her lifetime he will miss out on. 

How incredibly heartbreakingly sad :'-(.