Comments a-plenty... sort of.

Nice blog you have here

Muchas gracias. Estoy muy grateful. That's the limit to my knowledge of Spanish, apart from the classic phrase llovia a canteros y estabamos mojados hasta los huesos. Also another contribution to the netball report:

The girls also learnt that players wearing the same colour tunic as themselves were on their side.

Fantastic! Keep 'em coming...

Marking, I decided at 10pm, required tea. A whole pot of it. At 11.10pm, when I finished my marking, I felt remarkably awake (for the first time today) so set off in the Madmobile to indulge in a spot of late-night shopping. Hurrah for Tescos! I got one or two strange looks as I stood in the aisle counting the number of Custard Creams in the packet, and even stranger looks as I proceeded to buy not one, not two, but three different brands of ready-salted crisps. It's all for a couple of lessons tomorrow, but - rest assured, dear reader - I shall not be eating them all myself. It would be a different story if the biscuits on offer were Bourbons, chocolate ginger nuts or cow biscuits, but I don't think that this would be a good way to go, sadly.

The Amazon delivery, by the way, was great: I read the book during lunchtime and listened to the 3 CDs during the rest of today. Another satisfied customer

This netball report's going well:

The girls' team spirit also progressed this term; the brunettes helped the blondes by writing 'AIM FOR THIS ONE' above the opposition's net. Analysis shows a 53% decrease in own goals.

Cheers, Tom!

Another sentence arrives for the netball report:

The girls also found that high quality knickers had to be worn under their skirts otherwise a whole new spectator sport was invented

If only all aspects of the teaching job were so easy. Mind you, reports are due soon, so I may be seeking inspiration from you again...

Today continues apace, with only the arrival of a parcel from Amazon to break the monotony. Actually, I tell a lie. I *did* make it out into the big bad town of Burton to buy some presents, but as they were presents for Fatso and myself I suspect that they don't count as official excitement. Fatso now has a new hamster ball so he can roll round the flat without being held in with sellotape (the new ball is designed - so the box tells me - for space hamsters and gerbils. I thought he'd like to be a space hamster) and I have some more smelly stuff and two cheese n onion pasties. No, I lie. Again. I had two pasties, but now I have none, but very nice they were too. Now I have marking to do, and then some more marking, and maybe a little mre marking to round off the night, when all I want to do is sleep. Maybe Ribena and a couple of Neurofen will help...

Mua ha ha!! Cheers, Ash!

Suggestions arrive for my netball report:

the girls progressed in their throwing and catching abilities and did so without damaging any finger nails

We like, we like! Any more contributions...?

The marking's mounting up, I have a sports report to write for last term's netball and I've lost some of my blogger archives. It's not going well today.

From today's post bag...

Crackers?

If this a food related comment, then actually I prefer my brie smeared on digestive biscuits. If it's to do with my sanity, well - your point has been duly noted!

Also present was this thought, in reference to today's little jaunt:

I went there on the ULALA rally. It was Autumn. It was raining. But not inside :) Tom

It was also raining today, but again they'd got some sort of arrangement where it still wasn't raining inside... often called a roof, I believe!! :-)

Off to serve tea now, then play in strings...

I'm going here today!

Good weddings tend to revolve around some basic building blocks: a happy couple; food; drink; bad jokes in the speeches; silly dancing... This weekend was no exception. If it weren't for the fact that my parents were in charge of ordering the taxi and we therefore left at 11.30pm, I'd be very ill today. As it happens, I'm a little sleepy round the edges but otherwise feeling fine'n'dandy. I continued my red-bottomed streak (a term coined in Knocked Out By My Nunga-nungas and other classic teenage fiction, which I have to read as part of my job. Honest.) by collecting the phone number of the tallest man at the event... ironically appropriate for a short-arse who looked in grave danger of falling out of her pink dress. On the other hand, maybe the likelihood of me falling out of my dress worked in my favour...?! ;-) The bad joke, by the way, was found at the very start of the best man's speech:

Today has been quite an emotional day for everyone involved - even the cake's in tiers

Laugh? You bet! :-)

In other news, a comment floated in to me via that box there on the right; it reads

hi mrs emus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear child (it's got to be from a pupil, doesn't it?!) welcome, but please note that I am not a Mrs. At least, I've not noticed a husband knocking around anywhere. Perhaps I'm just looking in the wrong places...

Today I commissioned my first painting. How grown-up and posh is that?!

Off to my cousin's wedding this weekend, wearing - of course - the new dress and shoes, and a matching jacket. It'll be nice to see the family again: it's been a while since we last got together - have a good weekend all!

Whoops!

I've got a "morning - ick" feeling. It's going to be a looooong day :-(

I was on duty until 9pm. I made a girl cry. She sat there with tears rolling down her cheeks, noisily sobbing for air. Her friends looked on in amazement. It all started when I did my hamster impression - one minute she was laughing with the rest of 'em, next thing I knew she was turning a nasty shade of purple and was unable to talk. But the hamster impression's not that funny. Or at least, I didn't think it was. Maybe I was wrong...

A few equations to summarise the day:

Rain + grass = Mad falls over = cancellation of the rounders practice = happy Mad

A-level music exam recital + audience required + bloomin' good viola player = happy Mad

(GCSE coursework x 34) + (teacher x 3) + laughter = painless and quick moderation = happy Mad

It's all going OK so far...

WOO HOO!! Guess what I just got...

An E-Egg for your dietary pleasure from Tom!

After all, we get e-mail and e-commerce... why not e-eggs?! Yippee!! :-)

I don't think that I have enough control over my words to do justice to the good things that have happened this holiday, so I'll give you the usual Mad summary:
Easter eggs received: 0 (sob)
Friends met with: 9
Calories consumed: oodles and oodles of the little blighters
Pupils spotted at Alton Towers: 3 (mua ha ha!)

Am now happy, refreshed and glowing gently from the sun - just right for a return to work tomorrow!! :-)

So many junk mails have been caught in my spam-net that I will be able to eat spam fritters for the next two weeks: 91 so far today through my main mail account and 16 through hotmail. Anyone would think that these spammers have lots of time on their hands, that it's a public holiday or something. Ah. So it is. Explains a lot, I s'pose.

In other news, I've seen lots of people over the last couple of days, have eaten lots and imbibed lots. What's more, I fully intend to continue this tradition tomorrow. Am off for a sleep now though.

Another morning, another bout of tiredness and woolly thinking. Having just re-read last night's ramblings, I would like to inform you that it *was* actually quite difficult to type, the one-eye bit is absolutely true, and it took a long time to get the letters to appear on the screen in the order that I wanted. As a result, my brain hurts. Mind you, the brain might be hurting because of the beer. Or the sesame prawn toast. But I'll blame it on the blogging, coz it sounds better. And because sesame prawn toast is above blame - I think there's a word for it, but I can't remember it, which is a tad worrying.

The James Bond of the Animal World has been in the Legion for the past 2 nights...he's a mean snooker player. Obviously not "mean" as in "pinches the opposition to make them cry" but "mean" as in "far better than me". Maybe this makes up for his dearth of spy gadgets, and after all, the lack of any sort of casino in Repton would leave any James Bond searching for some other way of spending his time and money, although I suspect that the 20p pieces absorbed by the snooker table are somewhat less valuable than casino chips.

Oh dear, this is turning into a steam of consciousness type post, which suggests that it's time for me to go, although it's suggesting this in the same way as a club's bouncer might suggest that it was time to leave. I'm off...