We've just been to see March of the Pengu (well, that's what the tickets said) as a impulsive "get out of the village" attempt. 'Twas good, and the pengu were fat and fluffy. In other news, I've been playing, watching and umpiring netball for much of the afternoon - my repuation as a non-sports person is in jeopardy.

Although I'm refusing to have a hen night with L-plates, fake veils, and other such general tat, I do fancy doing something different. Maybe here for the beer festival on May 6th? Had better try and consult my diary...

Tonight's dinner was one of the those "see what's in the fridge and cook it all" meals. We had mashed butternut squash, tomato/mozorella salad, and stuffed peppers. I used cous cous to do the actual stuffing, along with some finely chopped chillies that I had in the freezer. To say that it had a strong kick is a little bit of an understatement. Even guzzling milk and walking round with my mouth wide open was not enough to cool my tongue, and my lips are still tingling now. Damn, 'twas good.

Yesterday was a day of strange coincidences. After teaching in the morning, Rob and I headed into Derby to pick up a few things from the shops (suits, rings, and the like). As we walked from the carpark into town, I spotted someone who was at university at the same time as me, who I've not spoken to since about 1999. She hasn't changed at all. Later on, we were having a cheeky pint (or four) in the pub with a couple of people, and I discovered that one of them used to work with the father of someone I knew from county youth orchestra. It's a small world.

Much to today has been spent sleeping and digging, in that order, and the plan for the rest of the day hinges on geeking, marking and cooking, probably also in that order. Life doesn't get more exciting. Mebbe.

My Cat's having a manic moment, and is batting her jingly plastic ball around the sitting room like an advert for feline speed. However, just now she ran across the room, jumped on the ball and it got lost under the fat of her stomach. To say that she looked bemused by the ball's disappearence is an understatement. What have you lost under your fat bits today?

Bad news: have lost my diary, even though it's a very bright colour so I don't lose it. This means I have no clue what's happening this evening, let alone next month.

Good news: I found this on the b3ta.com newsletter and it made me chortle like a lunatic on laughing gas. Tee hee.

Rob came home from Fight Club last night with three brace of pheasant. (I think there should be at least one s in that sentence to indicate plurals but I'm not entirely sure where it should go, so in the style of my kids when they're clueless, I'm just going to leave it out). The birds are lovely, but still well-endowed in the feather department. There's a lot of plucking to be done, and I suspect that the bathroom will look like we've been murdering feather pillows by the time we're finished, but until that time, we all know an appropriate song, don't we children?! Sing along now, or join in when you know the words...

Lots going on, in school, at Guides, in the garden, and on the wedding front. We had a meeting with the vicar, where he invited us over for a chat and some gin; and his actual words were "gin - it's the devil's drink" so now I have offical vicar confirmation of what I have suspected for a long time. Given that I'd already dragged him to pub after the staff party and then told him dirty jokes all evening (not that I can remember any of this!) I feel this relationship is working out ok, and he'll be a good man to marry us.

Foodwise, we're trying to eat healthily, although I suspect that the demon drink is undoing all of our good work. Partly this healthy eating is because my December Eating is best described as "starving man offered his first meal in two years" and partly because my mother commented on my waistline when I went to try on my wedding dress. Pish. Does she not realise that's why I've ordered a lace-up dress, so that my ever-changing waistline can be easily accommodated?! Anyhoo, talk of healthy food is prompting me to think of the lasagne that's cooking gently in the oven, wafting garlicky smells through the flat, so I'd best go before I dribble into my laptop.

The holidays have slipped past with scary speed, although there are still a few precious days of freedom remaining. Mind you, they will be spent doing all of the planning and prep that need doing before the start of term, so hardly freedom, but not quite suits'n'boots yet!

The holiday activities consisted of:
cooking
food
drink
family
friends
sleeping
shopping
gardening
films
chickens
cats
Snowdonia;
plus a few more things that have slipped my mind. All in all, 'twas good. We even bought our own Christmas tree, which is definitely a rite of passage into grown-up-hood-ness.

Now that Christmas is out of the way, the wedding plans can move on again: we sat last night to look at the guest list, realised that we had 170 names on it, and had to do some drastic pruning. It's a real blow, as choosing the sacrificial lambs was damn hard, but a budget is a budget and getting into debt for a single day seems a bit dense. We weren't intending to do 'day' and 'evening' invites, but we've had to fall down that path. Hey ho. It's all an issue of unlimited wants and scarce resources.... damned economics!

Term finished last night with the Christmas House Supper: an evening of food, booze and schmoozing. Rob got to sit with me and my tutor group, who didn't succeed in embarassing him, and only managed to drop me in it once - it was a good evening, I think, and Rob's still talking to me now, so hopefully that augurs well.

Much of this morning was spent sleeping, in typical "first day of the holidays" style, and since falling out of bed around midday I've cleaned the bathroom and mooched around tidying the flat - I'm just soooo rock and roll! Tomorrow I'm off for a haircut and some shopping. I hope that the holiday gets more exciting as it goes on, or it's going to be a boring few weeks. Harrumph.

Now off to lurk through the Confetti message boards laughing at the bridezillas whinging about their weddings. It keeps me amused, anyway!

Picture the scene: Rob and I sitting on the sofa, Your Cat sitting on Rob's lap.

Me: Ooh, My Cat licked Your Cat's bottom today!
Rob: Well, that's what you get... [pause to stroke Your Cat affectionately] ...when your bottom tastes of STRAWBERRIES.
Me: [gobsmacked] Strawberries?!
Rob: Oh yes, I lick it all the time.
Me: I can't believe that you've just said. I am SOOO going to blog it.

It's been a stupidly busy week at work, what with end-of-term report deadlines springing up every day. School have, this term, converted to an electronic reporting system, which is causing no end of teething problems, not least because there are only 8 general-use computers in school that have the software, and the system crashes the moment anyone tries to do something complicated. Still, new technology is by definition new and therefore better, or so they say...

Thursday saw Julia and I heading off to the local riding school to claim some horse muck, and digging is progressing at a good rate. Photos via the dirty hoes and on flickr. Needless to say, I feel a little achey from the digging but happy from being out-of-doors and not writing reports.

Friday was my birthday, so to celebrate we took the Guides to Birmingham to visit the Christmas market. We travelled by train, which is always amusing, and took so many parents with us that the ratio of adults:children was 1:1 - the girls headed off with their families and us leaders got to wander around with no responsibilities... that's the sort of Guide trip I like! We then headed to the pub (hurrah for its late licence) and ended up looking like this:



Now, though, there are just three days of term left, all as busy as the week just gone: I'm just looking forward to sleeping on Thursday!

I went to string orchestra this evening, for the first time since February. In fact, it's the first time I've played my viola at all since February. And we were playing Bartok, which had lots of notes, and now my fingers ache.

In other news, I have new wellies for digging, although it was too wet for digging today.

'Tis the season - one of my favourite things about Christmas. Read and enjoy. Just don't have a mouth full of drink.

Gardening needs appropriate footwear, and ebay's come up trumps. I don't think they'll arrive in time to do exciting digging this weekend, but soon I'll be happily wallowing in mud in new blue wellies. Whoooo!!

The garden man (a.k.a. the parish vicar) was more than happy to hand his vegetable patch over to us ruffians. This time next year it'll be sprouts on sticks all round. You have been warned!

Off to see a man about a veg patch.

Well, it snowed today, but sadly not heavily enough to stick. It didn't stop a man reversing his car into my (parked) car. Luckily he was driving o-h-s-o-s-l-o-w-l-y, there's no noticeable damage, and I was standing on the pavement next to the car chatting to my head of department when it happened. I tapped on his window and said, "Excuse me sir, I think you've just reversed into my car." He replied, "Surely not - I just went back until I hit the curb." Given that his car was a) a good foot away from the curb; and b) resting with its back bumber against my front bumper, he could do little other than apologise. Doddery old drivers!

In other news, we think that we've got a vegetable garden to look after. We've been on the hunt for an allotment for a while, but there's a waiting list as long as My Cat's girth, and we stand no chance moving up the queue - I've only lived in the village for five years, so I'm still a wet behind the ears interloper. The vicar, however, prostitutes out his veg patch to anyone willing to dig it and pay him a tithe in vegetables. Rob is already planning vegetable rotation systems; I'm thinking that it may be time to add gardening tools to our Christmas and wedding list. At the moment, the most spade-like implement we own is a tablespoon... there's a bit of catching up to do in the digging department, methinks!

Bad, naughty Emuss. Have been playing along with a nice-sounding man who phoned to ask if I wanted health insurance. I even asked about underwriters, and made encouraging sounds while he desparately persuaded me to hand over my bank details. It's a shame he put so much effort into such a lost cause. Mua-ha-ha!!!

In other news, I have been offered a place on a GOLD trip to South Africa next summer. I'm VERY excited. Now all I have to do is raise the dosh...