I think perhaps it's time for me to do some pruning and arranging: have found many good things recently that I ought to get linked from here. This means that I'll have to play around with my blog template. That's quite a scary prospect!

Warning: Guiding-related post. It's not exciting, unless you're that way inclined.

Before I took over my Guide unit in June, the Guider in charge was a lady of more mature years called Sheila. Sheila was a hoarder. Anything she found that could be potentially used at Guides went straight into the cupboard. All of the games and resources she made were also filed there. On second thoughts, "filed" implies that there was a logical system to it: if there was such a system, I couldn't find it. As a result, when Jen and I took over last term, our first job was to sort through the equipment.

Our first night of Guides without Sheila was an eye-opener. Jen took the two Young Leaders off into the room with the cupboard and spent two hours throwing things out. She used the YL's reactions to decide if things should be thrown or kept: "What's that? I've never seen one of those" "I'd never play that game" "Why on earth have we got that?!?" By the end of the evening, the cupboard was far emptier.

Last night we had another go at it. Three more bin-bags of rubbish came out of the room with the cupboard. Treasures now lost forever include a 1972 map of the area (used for walking round the area during last year's night hike: eeek!), several school hymn books and twenty bazillion felt-tip pens. Copies of The Brownie magazine from the 1950s and 60s were unearthed, then promptly binned; likewise a set of Your Patrol magazines from the early 90s. We also found a box full of Guide badges and cards (surprisingly up-to-date) and some thank-you cards from a party held way back in June: we'd not given them out becasue we didn't know that they existed!

I offer a big apology to those who are wincing at the wanton destruction of valuable archive material, but - and trust me on this - I feel far better about it all. I've still got the camping store to finish off, with its collection of 1950s canvas and mismatching tent poles, but that can wait for a sunnier day.

I have much to write about my Guide cupboards, but I'm running out of Ribena and awakeness. Got to sleep instead.

I'm on duty tomorrow, so will be stuck in the House: I'll write it then. Brace yourselves...

There's a flying beastie out there that's determined to feast on my blood. I'm just going to have to slather myself in Mosi-Guard and Anthisan before sleeping. Bah!

Caz writes...

But Mad how can you have Big Hair when its so short? I on the other hand have perfected messy/wind blown hair on site (although this time tomorrow it'll be 6inches shorter :)). Caz

...proving quite how long it's been since I saw her last. My hair is far longer that it's been for a while (i.e. since it was first cut off when I was 20) and is more than capable of being big, as this picture shows:

As a bonus bit of extra coverage, as it were, here's a photo of my eyes that I took by accident, but liked too much to delete:

I've been having a bit of a duff time recently. Not duff as in 'really, really, EXTREMELY crappy' but duff as in over-committed and failing to do any job well because I don't have enough time. I've begun to feel guilty when I stop working to take some time out, because I know there's a huge pile of marking waiting to be done. I feel generally over-stretched and stressed, and it's making me short-tempered and snappy with the kids. This weekend coming is Duke of Edinburgh expedition - my first as the D of E co-ordinator - and there's been shitloads of tents, waterproofs and rucksacks to sort out. It's been rubbish.

Today, though, I got to escape from school to go to Brum for a D of E conference. I came back feeling far more positive about the whole thang, and then found this lovely message in my inbox:

Diss highlights: Workplace let down: 1; Lecturer insulted: 1 Words over: 1,500 New undergraduates scared in the library: 3 (scary big hair has a lot to answer for) Terrors over inaccurate representation of archive: 2.5 Friend's website current record for stress busting: 100%!! Have fun with your course! Charl

It's good to know we bring pleasure to some! In fact, Auntie Charl has obviously got quite a lot of work to avoid, because she's also written this:

Mark iii charl wisdom (also known as avoiding dissertation supremo) re viola playing: you need to purchase some 'self deluding earphones' available from selected stores: like their equivalent, the 'self deluding specs', apparently excellent results can be achieved with the minimum of work / self flagellation for crapness/ mediocrity [nb: not for communal use. May cause long term allergies - patch test before use]

Seems I'm not the only one having a work crisis!

World, be warned: I've managed to buy an 80s disco 4 CD compilation in an HMV sale. Bad singing and dancing, not to mention big hair, are looking pretty essential right now.

I was contemplating doing marking this evening, but was sidetracked by a friend's party. We drank lots of wine and then admired his music system. This man has the most phenomenal CD collection (a result, I suspect, of being a long-standing music reviewer in his spare time) and I found a recording of Max Reger's suites for solo viola. I've had a book of this music for a number of years and have dipped in and out of the pieces. Needless to say, they're all very difficult and depend upon absolutely accurate intonation (always a challenge for the viola player!). As I burble this bloggage, suite number one is playing in the background.

I'm sure it didn't sound like this when I played it.

My favourite tipple of a monday morning is at least 2 mugs of black coffee and a bottle of Pepsi Max (or similar caffiene containing drink as approved by the engineer) ... usually works! However I find the ultimate pick me up is going home early .. after feeling tired all day at work, I go home and wake up ?!??! Caz

Sadly, no such luxury as bunking off early here, although I feel quite invig'd after dyslexing. Besides, Caz has a good incentive to get home early nowadays!

I like wendy's suggestion best, but ta for the recipe! Will report on success... - Mal.

Let's hope they go down well. I didn't get many complaints on Sunday (we took them to the races) and I've had no reports of poisoning since, so I reckon that's a fairly healty endorsement! Talking of endorsement, here's Auntie Charl recommending her favourite way to acquire biscuit-snacky-goodness:

re ginger biscuits: or go to shop, find biscuit counter, get mcvities Charl

She is so wise.

Pick-me-up suggestions flooding in:

Best pick me up is a TVR - Tequila, Vodka and Red Bull... Pinky

speed? wendy

I hear ginger biscuits are a good pick-me-up. Speaking of which, want to share the recipe? I need a good biscuit recipe to impress my colleagues. - Mal. :)

Me ma's basic cutter-biscuit recipe:
8 oz self-raising flour
5 oz butter or marg
4 oz sugar
1 egg
1 dessert spoon of golden syrup

(For ginger biscuits, replace 1 oz of flour with 1 oz of ground ginger; replace 1 oz flour with 1 oz cocoa for choccie biccies; and so on)

Cream the butter and sugar, add the egg and the golden syrup, mix in the flour, roll out the dough then cut it into shapes. Place the biscuits on a baking tray in the oven at 200 deg C for about 10/15 minutes, loosen while soft, then cool on a wire rack. Eat.

Just checking your country code thingy still works... Back in the UK Friday. F.

That'll be Fraser, then, wending his way home from foreign climes. Welcome back!

Today is the first session of my dyslexia teacher course. Am very excited, but also very nervous: I hate the first day of college feeling.

The weekend just gone involved (in chronological order) Guides, train station, curry, sleep, school, schmoozing with potential school parents, passing out on the sofa, making ginger biscuits, driving to Het and Andy's, pizza, a filum, driving home, sleep, Sainsbury's, racing, cooking, lounging, sleep.

The racing in particular was good fun - I've not been to watch the gee-gees before, but I have read the entire collected works of Dick Francis, so spent the whole day looking out for doping scandals, thrown races, murderous vets and unethical owners. Sadly there wasn't much evidence of these, but it might be worth going back for a closer investigation!

Despite a relatively relaxed weekend, I'm exhausted. I have no energy to do anything and I'm struggling to be my normal, enthusiastic self. Any suggestions for a pick-me-up?!

In a dream last night, I picked up a pair of hair straighteners and ran them through my hair.

This morning half of my hair is noticeably lacking in the curl department.

Spoooooooky!

Am having a bit of a crisis: have lost my keys. This means that I can't open my classroom tomorrow morning, nor can I open up my colleague's classroom to clear up the mess I left there today. I am in poo. Waaah!

Today's discovery of the day is spaghetti squash - it's yummy!

I thought I was confused about time: looking at the time stamp on my last past, obviously the pooter is too. Waah!

At a party on a school night, when the wine has been popping out of the fridge with alarming rapidity, it is always a bad mistake to look at your watch. If you do, your exclamation will go as follows:

"Fuck, it's quarter to one, look - 12.47"

Your friends will then look at their time-pieces and shake their heads slightly. You then look more closely at your watch and discover that it's been switched to display the time in a city abbreviated as BER: Berlin, maybe. Or Beruit. Or Bermingham. Or somewhere, but not the time in sunny Derbyshire, and it will take several attempts at button-pressing to switch it back to home time. Even then, at 11.47pm, it's time to head off to bed, so that's where I'm going. Tarra.

Marking work from kids who have just started their A-level course is always difficult - they have no idea of style or technique. I think my brain's about to blow up. Will have to go and appease it by eating lots of food at Ian's party instead. Hurrah for drinking on a school night!

It rained in torrents at break time and the water flowing down the street was probably two foot wide and 5 inches deep. It hit the wall at the bottom of the hill and actually formed into a whirlpool as it rushed down the drain. In the middle of walking to my classroom, my right shoe filled with water. I think I'm developing Trench Foot.

My brain is shrivelling up and dying. *And* my fingers hurt. The marking's building up already. Pah, pah and thrice pah.

My weekend (chronologically):
School, Faff, lunch in House, faff, Sainsbury's, drive, Phil and Linda's wedding, drive, sleep, drive, Cheltenham, eat, lounge, cinema, drive, sleep.

Phil and Linda's wedding reception was great, not least because one group of five guests knew me from 4 different directions: one had been staff on GaSCiT last year; I'd been to a SSAGO rally with another; I'd stuck photos into a wedding album with a third; and the other two knew me by repuation alone - "Oh, so you're THAT Mad!" Scouting and Guiding have a lot to answer for!

My entire journey back from seeing the Boy yesterday was spent on the phone to Charlotte - hurrah for hands-free kits! It took well over an hour, but we finally managed to piece together all the things that have happened since we last saw each other. I feel shockingly aware that there are friends I've hardly spoken to recently: this term's resolution is to be better at keeping in touch.

I have my interview this afternoon for the dyslexia course - better go and organise the cover for my lessons!