DoE

Back from DoE - a little wet but very early! Awesome. The kids were fab and walked so quickly that we were back to school by 2 - normally they don't get there til at least 5! To be honest we didn't really do much, sit around in the vans waiting for them to walk through the checkpoints. My group were very slow - arriving two hours after everyone else at the camp site but to their credit they refused all lifts as they didn't think they would be worthy of the award if they accepted it - awww bless them.

There was a little complaint though from another camper on the same site as we were, he moaned that they were making too much noise...between 4 and 8 in the afternoon! All they were doing were playing football and doing magic tricks, you can't moan at them for that! Turns out he was on his honey moon - hmmm you could say get a life!

The tent talk in the evening was hilarious, listening to what they were saying - far to inappropriate to post here! But gave us and the sixth formers a giggle!

Though it was good it was quite tiring purely for the early starts and then you are back to a working day again. I think i might pass up taking a group next year as i don't know how much work the assistant head of year post will involve and maybe do it again the year after, we'll see.

Rain, rain go away...

It's raining...still. It needs to stop by the weekend as I'm out in the field in the White Peak all weekend on DoE so really don't want it to be raining heavily! A little drizzle will be fine, it should make them walk quicker!!

The Welbeck

We took a trip to the Welbeck estate today, just for something to do really. This is where i went on the cooking course. It's really nice over there, a garden centre with the works, yeoman's and a couple of other shops in it. We thought they'd have their Christmas stuff up but not yet...seems to be the only place not to have any chritsmassy bits in it yet. The farm shop is fab, though as Daniel is working away there wasn't really anything we needed to get, we'll go back when he is back from London. We did stop at the cafe for a cuppa and a slice of cake, Guinness and chocolate, yummy. Daniel's pate also looked good.

Not to blow my own trumpet but when we got back i cooked an amazing roast dinner, chicken, potatoes, stuffing and a variety of vegetable. It was awesome. As winter draws in i think we'll have to start having more roasts!

The F Word...F=Food!

Tonight i cooked one of Gordon's recipe's from the F Word, spiced pork chops with crushed sweet potatoes and rocket salad. It was delicious. It was a little annoying that for some reason no where around here had any star anise (maybe they cater for the clientele and clearly those who live here don't use such an ingredient! I can't wait to move!) so the marinade was minus that, but it still tasted yummy. I am a big fan of sweet potatoes, much more so than regular potatoes.

Sarah visited Jamie's Italian restaurant this week and reported back that it was great there. I didn't even know it existed! As an owner of practically all of his books she's contacted me to try and find the recipe for what she ate! I think I've found a similar one so I'll have to post it to her and request that she makes it for my next visit!!

The plan tomorrow is to do some baking, in the spirit of the great british bake off! Maybe not macaroons but some biscuits or a cake i think!

Two weeks in...

So being back at school isn't too bad. I'm soooo tired day to day but i'm sure i'll get back into the swing of it soon. Classes aren't too bad and being the assistant head of year is so far going ok. I'm getting used to having a desk in an office - i know it sounds wierd but in a school only a few select people have that! What is not great is that we had the draw for the Iceland trip in the October half term, i didn't get picked out, boooooo, and the person who did also got asked to go on a two week trek to Morocco with the sixth form. Some say it's not fair but what can you do :( At least i get a full half term i guess.

On a positive i've almost moved all of my stuff into Daniel's house. All we need now is someone to buy it so we can move!!!

Here we go again...

Back to school tomorrow, booooooo. Though i hear so many people cry "you've had long enough off"! It will be good to go back and not be the newbie anymore though it will be interesting to see what it will be like being assistant head of year. The night before going back is always a bit bleugh, i don't really know why as you don't mind going back, 6 weeks is plenty really!

The last supper is going to be jambalaya which we love and is really easy to do. Then back to packed lunch making! Last night we had pasta with seared scallops and a Swahili sauce - it worked really well. Back to a little less interesting dinners for a bit while i get back into the routine - 6am get ups are not great :(