I mentioned that my birthday would go on and on. I think it has ceased. Before I go there, I must mention a comment made on my last post. It said that my Christian values were strongly apparent in my blog ( REALLY? I always feel they are too well tucked away) and did I feel that they were compromised in my job. In a Catholic school? Who's asking? It would be a very worrying indictment of my school/faith/church if I said yes! The short answer is no.
Now, the last two weeks have been Easter holidays. I know that teachers get too much time off blah blah blah so won't tell you how hard I have been working - I enjoy it and do it every weekend as well and like working hard at what I do so don't mind if you think I am a workaholic - one great thing about the holidays is being able to read about education etc a bit more thoroughly. I bought and read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, an astonishing and interesting book that I could not put down. I was bough a novel for my birthday, which is novel, and have started it and found that interesting so far although out of my normal reading comfort zone.
Our Easter holidays started worryingly with mum having a stroke and being admitted to St Peters Hospital, Chertsey. This is conveniently situated just off the M25 between J8 (M3) and J10 (A3) so well done mum for choosing the easy to get to hospital. Not knowing much about strokes we all feared the worst but mum has been working hard on recovering and was home within a week and came to some of my birthday weekend! Ta da! She is magic! The bit she came to was very popular, the cream tea. It was at the sailing club on Sunday. It was really windy and so not sitting outdoors weather, instead the bar was crammed full and cakes were provided by two Anges and a Mary ( bit religious sounding when you put them toegether!). The cakes/scones were extrememly popular and I did my best social butterflying. That was part 4 of the birthday weekend.
Part 1 on Saturday morning was not so popular. A bike ride at 8am. I think 8 of us started and 7 finished ( H gave up at Upham pond and daddy rescued her). The weather was gloriously cycle perfect sunshine and I felt very blessed to be out there on my bike on some of my favourite roads, albeit not at the level of cycle fitness I have enjoyed in previous years. Loved being there anyway, my usual group position of fast downhills and then overtaken by everyone up hills. Very nice bunch of cyclists who were quite well matched (or the good ones were polite). Back at Bowen HQ R was on fierce pancake duty and doled out pancakes to several families who turned up on the premise that their dad had been on the bike ride.
After lunch and scone making (ACTUALLY it was mainly granny Mary who did that) and a nap in the sun it was time for the party evening. R was now furiously on singing duty, it was amazing for me to watch the band set up from nothing to ready in 40 mins. They did a great job and lots and lots of people said 'Iddidn't know Rob sang/played guitar -a man of many talents! After that initial 'Oh no no one is going to turn up' moment of course heaps of people did turn up and I was a social butterfly and still didn't get to talk to everyone. But loved it. I should have parties more often, I love everyone I love being in one place at once. Hopefully that is what heaven is like. Or should I say that for me, a party where everyone I know and love is there (or invited, anyway, even if they couldn't be there) is heavenly. That is what we always say is wrong with Netley Heaven - not everyone we love is a member! Lots of people had gamely worn sports wear as requested, and Bradley Wiggins made an appearance, along with a Grand National jockey and horse, and all sorts of other sportss people. I felt very loved and valued, I have heaps of bottles of champagne to drink so might have to invite some more friends round to help.
After finally getting to sleep (was having a finance panic, R laughed in the morning and told me not to worry about money - I will go with that) it was time to get up to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for sailing at 10. Weather was perfect, sun and wind, and R and I were in the zone. We were second Dart in both races, and in the second race third overall. This result is nothing short of a miracle. I have found the secret to success was to talk R up all the time and tell him how he has made good calls, is thinking ahead strategically etc etc. Which was all mostly true. We need to work on our stamina to race back to back in longer races for nationals. Oh and not to mess up my little contribution at tacking time. After saying last week that we did not like sailing the cat and were going to sell, we are thinking again.
So, birthday is now finally officially over apart from the champagne to consume. It is a bit weird to have a big 41st birthday so very glad I made the most of this one. I have so many people in my life who I like so much but don't get to see too much, that it was really really great to have some of them all hanging out together. With me. Even if we didn't get to talk much.
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