Working and on a Friday night!

Sometimes the internet can be the most frustrating time spender. I have just spent the last 45 minutes looking for a map of namibia showing the areas occupied by which tribes. I am CONVINCED that it exists and that someone has published it online. I am also convinced that I cannot teach the next chapter without it. This after an hour of reading the textbook, making a timeline and scrunching up my brain to come up with some interesting way of teaching this stuff. You see, I feel that one must have some concept of the geography of Namibia for it to make sense that Witbooi and Maharero couldn't get it together and sort out the Germans.

To temper my frustration and kick start my creativity, I have been working on a few different techniques for making me feel better. First a glass of crisp cold white wine, then balance on my excercise ball in front of the comp. Trying to sit cross legged on it has given me a good few minutes of entertainment while I wait for a site to load. Also Chris Evans is helping considerably by playing some absofab music! The I decided to become completely distracted and read my new fave blog: http://www.hoboteacher.com/blog/index.html It's great if you are a teacher - and perhaps if you aren't one too. But he makes me laugh and laugh because so much of what he says happens in my classroom daily!

Maybe I can come up with some version of Risk that shows the movement of tribes, troops and Germans around Namibia around 1890. Or some kind of role play? urgh.

Our fifth anniversary!

It was even harder to leave K wrapped up and snuggly in bed, and go to school to face rambunctious and enervated Gr. 8's yesterday. It was our fifth anniversary, even though it seems like we have only be married a couple of years, it's just been so easy. I guess in the grander schemjavascript:void(0)e of things, five years isn't that long actually. I'll get back to you at 25...

Found this in our local squash club's newsletter - couldn't believe our eyes!

Click on the photo to open it big enough to read the text.

Home improvement

I had such fun today - As you know, Henry has been making a pest of himself two doors over so we have had them inside for the majority of the the time. This has been fine because it has been winter and having windows and doors closed kept the cold out. Well Summer has arrived and the days are suddenly hot and the closed up house seems stuffy, confining and smelly.

After a week of thinking about it, K and I came up with a complicated plan of attaching some kind of netting to the burglar bars on the sliding french doors which open to the garden. I became determined that this experiment should happen this weekend. So this morning we went on a hardware shopping spree - netting and cable ties!

After a brief break for West Wing we locked the cats in the bedroom and went to work. Our four metres of netting spread out onto the lawn and we began cable tying it to the burglar bars. Disappointment quickly raised it's vicious head. The cable ties were too small, but we are smart and we connected two together and continued. Of course now our number of ties was halved and K had to jump in the car and fetch more. By the time we were finished we were hot, bothered and our fingertips raw from the plastic cable ties.

We let the cats out to see if our construction would stand up to them. It passed the sniff test and then the scratch test. Then Oleo climbed up the netting for the climb test and that passed too. Now we are waiting to see if it passes the neighbourhood Tom-cat at night spraying and howling test.

Ok, now I am actually busy

Term started. And it's haaaaard! Firstly we have changed times back so not only am I getting up early, it's in the dark! Yuck. Plus it is still chilly so it horrid getting out of the shower at that time of morning.

Enough whining, I am enjoying being back. It seems as though people have brought a new energy with them from the holidays and are excited about new projects and old that are happening this term. Of course I have had to say goodbye to afternoon naps as I am now planning and doing extra work in the afternoons. I made it through 7 books this holiday and I suspect that the current one will take me all term to read.

My most exciting thing about this term is that I have an office! No more working on the staffroom comfy chairs and coffee tables for me! I share it with an energetic and friendly teacher and it is situated in the quiet part of school, next to the chapel. It is under a massive pepper tree (schinus molle - not indigenous but wonderful shade and scent) and there are lots of other trees around so the birds are constantly chirriping. This morning when the students trooped into chapel I realised that I am directly underneath the church bell, which is one of my favourite sounds.

As a result I am looking favourably at the new term, and expecting to enjoy not carrying all my books back and forth between home and school.

Long time no see

I was just going through my favourite blogs and being mad at them for not having posted anything. (With the exception of one) When I realised that I have not posted in the longest time either!

This is because I am realllly busy.

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH. No actually it is because laziness begets laziness. We are on school holiday and here is our schedule:
get up late, feed the cats and go back to bed
get up again, decide we don't need to shower EVERY day and stay in our pyjamas while we check mail, eat breakfast and then read something on the bed.
get up again, eat lunch
watch an episode of Bones, and one of West Wing, this is exhausting so we must go back to bed with our books.
get up again, wonder what to make for supper, order pizza and eat it in front of CSI. (Which is unadvisable if you have a sensitive stomach - seriously)
Then pretty much we go back to bed.

It is heaven, but I am starting to feel restless and am quite glad that school starts again on Monday. I suspect that on Monday I will not be glad that school started because I will want to be in bed frequently.

Also - the weather here is really wierd. Spring in Namibia means that outside can't make up it's mind whether it is really hot, or really cold. There is a haze in the air from all the veld fires up North and it feels like you need to turn the light on all the time. I am really looking forward to the crisp mornings of summer, which incidentally is tomorrow. Clocks change at 12, which will then be 1.

OK, now I've posted - it's your turn!