If you go to George Burgess Photography .com you can look me up in the new forest rattler gallery for some great pictures of me looking awful. My rider number was 125, so you can use that to look them up.

Now, a while back, in April, I went to a new hairdresser, Sam, in Sarisbury Green via Groupon. She was a bit negative, ie talked about her bad luck and didn't have a very adventurous outlook on life, and seemed to me a bit scared of others' thoughts - ie not wanting to ride a bike in case people laughed at her. Anyway, the haircut was nice, but the salon was not very welcoming and I decided to try elsewhere. So, randomly, I picked a salon in West End, and who should be cutting my hair, but Sam herself. Spooky! So, clearly fate has it that we are destined to be together, so I have rebooked with her, and lets see what God has planned. Haircut is great.

Today we made our repeat visit to Portsmouth Dockyard to see some of the attractions we missed the first time, which was back in the half term holiday on a nice sunny day. Today, it was less sunny, and we did the indoor Mary Rose museum - worthwhile, even without the actual boat available - apparently with the MOD cuts it has been brought back into active service. We learned about Tudor medicine and timekeeping and navigation. Then we went to Action Stations! which is a bit like Intech, the science centre near Winchester, in that there are lots of interactive exhibits, so you can shoot and land an aeroplane and do similar things which are not really my kind of thing, however I did do the climbing wall, and the girls did 2 climbing walls. I mentioned to R that I had no idea the navy involved so much climbing ( I guess the Marines have to) and R said if you are on a submarine you do a lot of climbing. Now, the good thing about this ticket is that it is valid for a year, and some of the things you can go to every day if you wish. So we still have not done the Dockyard Apprentice experience, and the Warrior you can go on as much as you like. which is interesting. And you can go to the Naval museum unlimited, although there comes a limit even on a rainy day, even for someone interested in history.

On Sunday I cycled 79 miles, it was the New Forest Rattler, a ridiculously long, but flattish course all around the aforementioned national park. Great scenery, nice people, I hitched a ride (not literally!) on the back of a few groups for a few miles to help me along, and found a couple of nice guys who took turns with me to pull me along a bit at other times. I was pleased with my 'silver' time achieved - 5 hours and 7 minutes. Saw a lady with the same bike as me. Saw a group of lady cyclists from Bromley. Still mostly men, but I am used to it now. I had a really good ride, making it to the second feed station at 55 miles without feeling it too badly. Had a hard 15 miles after that though, slogging it out mostly alone, then there is a killer hill, short but deadly, about 4 miles from the finish. I could not get off once I had started it, as I would have fallen off. I had to keep going, but was screaming that I couldn't do it, and was talked up by aforementioned nice chaps. I honestly had not felt so physically exhausted since giving birth. If anyone asks you to ride up Blissford Hill, laugh in their face and get off at the bottom, unless you are a Tour de France veteran. After all that cycling, I ended up cycling down to the leisure centre to go to Pilates that evening, a welcome stretch out after being hunched up on the bike all day. Now I am working hard on my running, did a short but faster run this morning, hoping to build up some running fitness again before a duathlon in October.

We have been away recently, to Stockport in Cheshire for our pilgrimage to Aunty June's, and then to North Wales for some sailing. It was the Sprint 15 nationals, and R borrowed a boat, so that I could sail them too, so I found a willing helm and off we went, me crewing, and messing that up sometimes. Luckily most of my mistakes were redeemed by Bethan, sailor extraordinaire, but even she couldn't do anything about me being sea sick on day 1 in big waves and so we retired from those 2 races. I took herbal remedies for the next 2 days, and the waves were not so big, and I did fine. Loads of other sailors got sea sick so I felt a bit better. We actually won the ladies cup, but as there were only 2 boats helmed by ladies it was not that much of a competition. The setting was spectacular, Snowdonia in the background, sandy beaches, and people speaking Welsh in the streets and shops, which I think is great. Once someone spoke to me in Welsh! Clearly I was starting to look like a native. We had not been to Snowdonia before and were really impressed with the mountains and the only trouble is how long it took to get home. Like the Lake District, it needs to be moved a few hours nearer. I am sure we could get rid of Birmingham and then sew the country up at the break and that would help.

I have been trying to do a bit of work these last few days, as I want to hit the ground running, as it were. There is a lot to get my head around, but I know I will have a lot of people asking me questions and I want to be mega organised and not lose bits of paper. To that end, I spent 4 days at the start of the holidays tidying my room and cupboard, so that everything is filed, and spent all of yesterday morning doing likewise for my computer documents. I deleted all 'my favourites' on the interweb, but I think that is good, because the important ones I will remember, and the others don't matter anyway. I feel a bit in a state of flux, rather like the dLorian car in Back to The Future. 'Marty! the flux capacitor!' Hattie helped me to see that I probably thrive on routine and work and am at the lowest point of the holiday, ie we have run out of money for fun things, the weather is awful, and I kinda want to get back to work and get going on new things. The girls are busy making cakes as part of their 'Baking Sisters' business, they have been commisioned to make birthday cakes for Charlie and Daisy. Therefore, the kitchen floor is sticky at all times. Apparently they are getting paid materials for this one, so we won't be making a loss. If only they could afford a cleaner to clean up after them.

Now, a nice thing that happened at the weekend was that Gillian and Keith from Alnwick came to stay, with their delightful daughter Rosie, who incidentally is our god child. It was her birthday while they were with us, so we arranged for the Houses and the Clarks to join us on an afternoon at Hilliers Garden, near Romsey, a splendid spot in the sunshine for an afternoon of sitting. That seems to be the main hobby of Duncan and Emma. We also took Keith and Rosie sailing, and the weather was perfect, sun and windy enough wind, onshore, so H and I practised capsize drills. We were having such fun it was 7pm and we had not thought about food for dinner. The trampoline broke on the boat though, which will mean an expensive repair, coming in at over £400, which is very expensive compared to the new ( to them) Topper which Paul and Rachel have bought for £50. We could buy a fleet of old Toppers instead of mending our boat, have one each and a spare. Hey ho.

Campo the Camper van is doing well, although mostly being used by Emma. We have it this week, I used it to get to Ringwood, but it is rainy and a bit grim and so we are not camping in it. Emma, meanwhile, is using it for evenings out by the sea in the rain. She has put up flowery bunting and furnished it with retro cushions. R hopes her enthusiasm wanes soon. We have a shared log book to write down where you went and what you did, and it is mostly Emma doing things in it, presumably sewing. We don't mind at all, and it makes us laugh, we are so not into flowers and furnishings, it is funny to have a shared residence with someone who is.

R is off this evening frantically practising for Greenbelt, at which he is playing which is this weekend. I am sure it will be fine, their band are playing in a junior youth club each evening, and doing some songs for the little kids in the mornings, just him and Hattie singing and playing guitar, without any loud drain noises in the background. Will report back.

Another fish is in residence to keep the other one company, so we now have 2 fish we never wanted. Newsflash that A found some money on the verge along a road, she gave a third of it to her chosen charity, Edukids, and is spending the rest on things she is not usually allowed to buy. H found some money in a field on a cliff near Swanage, clearly they take after their paternal grandfather who is well known for having an eye for gold in the gutters of Claygate.

My last day of freedom as a at home person was spent in Bitterne, aptly enough, as on the last day of term when everyone was at school except me, I enjoyed a very nice swim at BLC, in cool and almost empty pool. My general low energy levels are dragging on and on, I have got rid of the sore throat but am exhausted and can only manage a 15 minute jog, the idea of a 78 mile bike ride in a couple of weeks is not filling me with joy right now. I have even spoken to my Dr with a view to getting an appointment, as maybe I am anaemic or something. That was suggested today, as someone noticed all my bruises. My bruises are war wounds from sailing at the high performance end of dinghy and cat sailing. Seriously!!! I was asked to go out on a fabulous fast cat with a very good couple of sailors on Sunday morning, and learned to trapeeze, the hard way, on a fast boat, but it was awesome as we were soaring across the water, and I felt excited and not scared at all, in safe hands!

After lunch, as I happened to be wandering around wearing a wetsuit, a man I had never seen before asked me if I wanted to go sailing. Of course I said yes, and set off towards the water after him, and able to answer his question 'are you ok going out on the wire?' with the answer - 'well, I learned this morning!' It was a very different boat, being a dinghy, and it seemed to be the kind of tippy over boat that would have FREAKED ME OUT a couple of years back. I was once again in the hands of a very good sailor, literally at one point as I fell off/out/somewhere and I have the hand shaped bruise where he tried to haul me back in without us capsizing. Somehow, in wonderful slow motion, we managed to capsize, and then righted the boat with nowhere near as much trouble as it takes to do it with a cat. Still quite a lot of fiddling around in the water, but it was ok. The reason for my falling off/in is still unclear, but it was when I was just taking control of the spinnaker. This is a beautiful and awesome piece of fabric that means you can sail fast downwind, it is literally like a kite, and is beautiful, so powerful, so awesome, and the crew has the job of holding it in the right place. You can feel the power of the wind through its rope, it is so so awesome, however, clearly a novice I got something wrong and ended up over the edge. I had got it right (ish) the first time and messed up the second time.

So, still smiling, a bit achey the next day, and have instructed R that our upgrading of our fleet will not be to a Dart 18 but to a F18, and I also need to upgrade the Topper to a Asymmetric Dinghy. The boat pot is a little low at the moment, but R is now working as a bike mechanic and is a part time teacher, so I am sure he will soon start using his bike profits to buy boats. He won't need much encouragement!!

Some freaky fish thing is going on. Step 1, H and her friend C attend the fair at Claygate Flower Show and win two goldfish. They live overnight in a big tupperware and make it through the night - one of them dies, which we appreciate. The other one makes it back to Southampton in the tupperware and lives on, tired but ok, until R gets home on Monday with a glass tank from the dump, £2, which he has carried on his bike in a carrier bag, risking untimely death or aterial damage at least if he had made one wrong move on his bike. Tank is dutifully filled with gravel and water and fish is re homed, at which point it gets a new lease of life and dashes about exploring. Friday, the fish gets its new friend, a posh fish from a proper shop, and new proper gravel and a skull and some stones and looks happy. New posh fish looks tired. Saturday night - fair fish two now dead. Posh fish happy. So, in a week, we have acquired and buried two dead goldfish and have ended up with one from a shop that we would never have bought. Damn the things! They have found a loophole in my anti pets policy. I got a book out of the school library about looking after a fish, and it says you need pumps and all sorts. We had a goldfish for years on the sideboard and it never had a pump and lasted for way too long. If you have a spare pump, we will give it a go, but this fish is going to live 1980s style.

Apart from dealing in dead fish, we continue to celebrate H's birthday, which goes on and on. We had the weekend without A in Swanage, then her actual birthday which coincided with the Claygate Flower Show so was spent there, an early start as we were taking up exhibits for the girls, H got a second for her decorated cake, A won a cup as she got a first and a second prize in her age group. For a collage scene in a shoe box with a working light, and for a drum kit made out of yogurt pots. I was ill, still am not great with a cough, but last weekend I was grim, with no voice at all on Friday ( stupidly went to school though) and a temperature. I seem to have a weird virus in my throat that has been there for months, have not swum or run for weeks and my cycling limited to a short commute, I am hoping that the end of term will come and I will magically have energy to go out cycling again.

A weekend before Swanage, dad retired from active scouting and we went to the AGM to see him get his thankyou and well done, and it was a lovely occasion, when you grow up with a scout group like 1st Claygate you get to thinking that everyone lives in a great community with amazing scouts and guides that do exciting things. The Scout and Guide band are playing at Disneyland Paris this year, good luck to them, I shall not be returning to watch. The Claygate flower show obviously is a flagship for Claygate ness every year, and this was no different, apart from the usual impeccable weather, it was raining in the morning to the extent that the thornhill festival was cancelled, but Claygate is in a different league, and floods and tempests would not stop the flower show. I managed to swerve into the WI tent where my mum was selling bric a brac and limply sit for a while on a camp chair, but my illness made the experience far less fun than usual. Well, sitting on a WI chair is probably about the same in fun factor, but I would not normally be doing such, but would be watching dogs or classic cars. On Sunday morning, R was swimming from Hampton Court to Kingston, and so we went to watch. It poured with rain and we were wetter than he was. Plus we couldn't tell who he was as there were over 1200 swimmers and we didn't even know what colour hat he was wearing (yellow). He then spent the rest of the day falling asleep - in the bath, on the sofa, driving, on a different sofa and on the rug. Then in bed. The organisers told the swimmers that after the event they should drink a can of coke to kill any bugs they had swallowed. Yuk. What kind of bugs would be killed by coke? Or what kind of drink would kill bugs? I am going to start using it as a cleaning product to clean surfaces in the kitchen.

Sign in toilets at Paultons Park:

It is likely that these facilities will be cleaned by male and female attendants.

I would have said it was more than likely, but absolutely certain, unless they have asexual aliens doing the cleaning. I know what they meant. But they did not say what they meant.

Everyone is very tetchy and fractious at school, that's just the staff! No, we are holding up well in the face of adversity, in the form of tired children and a full up curriculum, but the children are tired and flagging, tomorrow is meet the new teacher day, always nice as the new class are trying so hard to behave for you! I have a whole bunch just finishing Year R, so will be well trained and hopefully not too wriggly - or squiffly. A uses the word squiffle as a verb, as in 'I squiffled up the tree'. It is a super word and describes her motion upward perfectly. She is a bit of a good squiffler up trees, getting to heights I expect most koalas think twice about.

Apart from holding it together in the classroom, I have been on strike, which was interesting, I don't know if it will change anything but united we stand, and a two year pay freeze amounts to a 10% drop in pay in real terms, apparently, plus the higher pension contributions demanded, and the bit that gets me, they want me to carry on teaching til I am 67. 67! My parents are 68 and I don't think either of them would relish the idea of having just given up a full time teaching job - it kind of shows that people who decide these things don't know how demanding it is, exhausting, being on stage all the time, that is why we need the holidays, to sleep, become human again and catch up on all the planning and paperwork that is thrown at us with constant changes and tweaks and improvements. When I am 67 I might want to work, but I don't think all 67 year old teachers will want to, or be in good health to. I will need a nap after lunch, not a rounders lesson!

Spent some time the other day at Bursledon windmill, which is worth a visit if you are ever near at the weekend. They have been milling flour but the cuts have left them without a miller, and needing volunteers. So, if you fancy learning to mill, now is the time, hear the call! In the meantime, get in quick to buy any of their milled flour. Am off to Bursledon Brickworks next week so will tell you all about that - never been there either, but both these places are very local history for the children at Hamble to study. And interesting for me to go on pre visits to.