Planet Mad

This weekend was spent at a campsite in the Dark Peak, somewhere near Edale. The scenery was wonderful but somewhat obscured by the clouds and rain that lurked around the hilltops (and our campsite!) for most of Friday and Saturday. Luckily this gave us the perfect excuse to investigate kit shops, tea shops and pubs, rather than floundering in peat bogs: how distraught was I?!? Sunday's weather improved enough for the majority to head upwards for a yomp, whilst I looked at otters, owls and other assorted wildlife in the company of La Famile Payne. Today - on finally making it out of bed and off the campsite! - we went en masse to Hope Country Show to look at sheepies and piggies and cowies. Sadly there were no piggies, but hey - two out of three ain't bad, and I *did* get to laugh at the country stereotypes discussing sheep infections and how their precious little Georgina will fare in the newcomers' show-jumping class: the job's a guddun! Bacon sandwiches started each day, good company cheered things along and a delightful combination of good beer and port made the evenings seem less damp.

I now face another evening of unpacking/washing/re-packing before heading off to France tomorrow with Charl in an end-of-holiday type holiday. I note with concern the following part of my horoscope this week:

Mercury turns retrograde this week, and this generally coincides with a time when the wheels of commerce and administrative activity are subject to delay.

Already the fates conspire against me: a) there have been minor hitches organising a hire car, and b) public transport does not allow one to travel from Stansted to Birmingham late on a Saturday, so the madmobile will have to be abandoned in some car-park near the airport, causing financial ruin and psychological trauma for a few days. Bah!

School starts again next week (that's next week, not this week that's already started, although it feels like the week's not started yet because of bank holiday, but if you're reading this in/after work on Tuesday I guess you know what I mean. On re-reading that sentence, I'm not sure that *I* know. Hmmm.) and I've got lots to do - I'm being evicted from my classroom and will be moving to a new room next to the school's bar (they've got me sussed!) so I return to face the delights of shifting boxes, books, board pens and other teaching accoutrements (though not necessarily begining with a B, I hasten to add!). However, it means that I can actually get my act together and throw out all those things that have been gathering dust for two years. It even means that I can justify buying a whole new load of stationary - woo-hoo!! Again, from my horoscope:

The coming weeks are best for research and for throwing away the clutter accumulated from all your previous operations. Then you will have the space for all those new things to come your way.

I just hope the new things are of the food variety. B-doing!!