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A Greek Odyssey

Pic of the week 28/1/24

This week has been tough – I’ve not felt one hundred percent (a cough/cold has been bugging me since last weekend), work is in the difficult days when students and staff are tiring and starting to get things wrong, and I don’t seem to have had time to do much.

One thing we have been doing, though, is booking our accommodation for our Greek Odyssey in July. We’re now all booked up – we land in Santorini, then go to Milos, on to Sifnos, from there we go  Antiparos before our final island stop on Syros. Then its back to the mainland, landing at the Athenian port of Piraeus for a couple of nights then flying back to Bristol. (There is an error in the above pics – we were going to stay in Pollonia on Milos, but have changed our minds, and will now stay in the port town of Adamas. It seems (and it is) a long time away, but something to look forward to in these grey January days.

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The big chill


Pic of the week 21/1/24

The cold weather has persisted this week – in fact it got a whole lot colder towards the end of the week. For me, Thursday seemed particularly cold – walking home from school at circa 6.45pm (after detention) I was so cold I almost broke into a run just to get me home. I think the temperature did fall to about -4 degrees overnight.  I have decided that I definitely don’t like the cold . Did I say that last week? I think I did. It must be true!

But its all change today – its be grey and (relatively) warm (its still January, so not shorts and t-shirt weather, but could do a few outside jobs in fleece and body warmer) and a bit blowy.  As the afternoon has worn on, the wind has whipped up and it is now blowing fiercely and the rain has returned. Although I’ll probably be complaining about the wind and rain before long, I think I do prefer it, and I do quite like the energy and excitement of the wind when it blows.

Today, I replaced the sensor light on the back of the house. Not a difficult job – took the old one down last week as it kept tripping the circuit breaker, ordered a new one and wired it in today.  Also ran my second 10K of the year, am pleased I am now once again regularly running this distance.

Have been helping Sam, remotely, with re-arranging equations as he revises for an Economics exam tomorrow, It is pleasing to see that he does now take his studies seriously, and works independently; thought we’d never see the day!

This week I have a watched a Spanish language film, entirely in Spanish – albeit with Spanish subtitles. La Sociedad de la Nieve , a film about the Uruguayan plane crash in the Andes in 1972. It helped that I new the story – hace muchos anos, I had watched (with Becky) the film Alive, which was an English language version of the story, and I then read the book; plus it was a “slow paced” film so the dialogue was not too rapid (unlike in, say, and action movie) and I watched it over three nights, but I enjoyed the film, and whilst I didn’t understand every word spoken, I was able to follow along.  I am pleased with how my Spanish is progressing.

 

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Cold!

 

Pic of the week 14/1/24

This week it has been cold! Not the cleansing, invigorating blue sky, fresh cold, no, the grey overcast cold, with biting wind thrown in.

On Monday I refereed a school cup game. Two minutes to go we were 2-1 down (to the better side) Oh well, thinks I, a shame we shall go out, but I will soon be able to go in and start to defrost. But no, an innocuous free kick just beyond the  half way line, and somehow an equaliser is scored. Cue twenty minutes of extra time. A quick lead is claimed, and again, two minutes from extra time full time it looks like we’ll have a winner. But no, another last minute equaliser. Cue penalties. At least before I was running around, now I was stood managing the penalty shoot out, and feeling the last therm of warmth drain from my body. A the penalties just kept flying in. Sudden death – and I’m thinking if we don’t get a result soon, the sudden death will be me, from hypothermia.  At last, some poor soul has their penalty saved, and we can all go home. Rinse and repeat on Wednesday, but this time the sun was shining, and the game mercifully one-sided, no fear of penalties here. But after the brief appearance of the sun on Wednesday, the greyness has returned, along with falling temperatures.  I don’t like the cold, it has little, if anything, to commend it. Roll on warmer days!

On Thursday we (Year 10) went to Bristol en-masse and me and 100 students visited the SS Great Britain.  Of course, I took the opportunity to dress up and have my photo taken. A striking resemblance to Isambard Kingdom Brunel I think?!

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Happy New Year!

Pic of the week 7/1/24

So a new year – we already seem a long way into 2024, perhaps it was having to go into school for INSET on Tuesday 2 Jan and then starting on 3rd, and we are already a week into the new year, the holidays seem a long time ago!

Its been a wet week, by Thursday evening it felt it had been raining for months, and flooding was beginning to occur once again, but by Friday morning it had stopped, we saw some blue sky – the first since Malaga – and Becky snapped the above. But the temperature has now dropped, its got cold and although today did have some sunshine, there was a stiff wind and it has felt very cold, and promises to be this way for the next week.  I don’t like the cold. Even with crisp blue skies and sunshine (a rarity) the cold has little to commend it. Some people take great joy from hunkering down, donning another jumper and beating the chills – not me. I shall be happy when the warmth returns. My mood is lifted, though, by the sight of bulbs poking their heads bravely above ground level and there are many that are doing so, in my pots, the trough, and my lawn.

So with a new year I should have new aspirations, plans and resolutions.  To be honest, I don’t.  I will run – 500K in the year is a good target (I fell well short of that last year, largely because of my foot, but towards the end of the year I re-found my bounce and began running my 10Ks again) I want to continue with my Spanish, I feel in the latter half of last year I made real strides and I want to continue that, and I want to write more – on my maths blog, but also get myself a cheap laptop and blog whilst away.  On a practical note, I do need to re-roof my shed, and it would probably be sensible to have a sort through it. If there is anything I really ought to do this year (and I have made a start, albeit only baby steps thus far) is horde less and get rid of more stuff. Now there’s a challenge for 2024 …