Jeepers Creepers...

Well, the flat is no longer 'owned' by Benn or myself. No, we have given ourselves over completely to our new tenant. This includes fretting for a week when she wouldn't eat anything we put in front of her (we solved this by buying one each of each pouch the supermarket sold in a desperate attempt to find out what she liked), chasing local hostile cats out of the garden at odd hours in our pyjamas, being stared at when partaking in private bathroom activities and keeping our fingers crossed that when Madame Bronte is finally allowed outside after her injections, she will refrain from killing members from either the wood pigeon or the robin families that frequent our garden for the bird feeder. I can handle dead mice, but not birds that I feel are as much a part of the garden as the grass.

Now she is sat on the back of the sofa, using me as a back rest whilst I type this... I am of course back into my usual Sunday routine of shirking from my scholastic obligations of the coming week. I am ignoring the fact that I don't have any resources ready for tomorrow, or that I have rough drafts of GCSE coursework to mark; instead, I am typing on my blog, drinking tea and listening to the Puppini Sisters (if you like 40's/50's girl groups like the Andrews Sisters, I can heartily recommend them to you.)

The first two weeks of school have been OK, I seem to have scored the worst behaved boys in years 9, 10 and 11 though. I'm not sure if it's a bit of a backhanded compliment, actually. I'm taking a 'soft' approach with this boys, as each one has anger management issues, although this doesn't mean that I'm not setting boundaries etc. It just means that my discipline strategy is to reward good behaviour and use positive reinforcement. Much like the way I treat the cat, in fact.. I have mixed feelings, as a student is about to take over my worst class, so we'll see how she copes. Obviously I'll be there all the way to help, but it makes me slightly nervous, especially as I've got them nearly to where I want them in terms of behaviour. Oh well.

I'm looking forward to this week, as an INSET means I'll only be teaching one full day, so hopefully I can get a lot done. I'm finding hard to adjust back to the weekend working thing, so I'm trying to do as much in my frees as possible.

I'm also in the process of making a crochet 50's beret, complete with bow. I think it surprises people that I'm in love with the 50's, I certainly don't look like I am. I always admire those girls who really embrace it as, not so much as a lifestyle, but definitely a look. I'm far too low maintainence to even consider lip balm, let alone bright red lipstick, heels and perfect bangs every day! I am loving Mad Men though, I would totally live in the 50's if it wasn't for the various '-isms' and problems that entail it. I think in times of insecurity and uncertainty, it's easy to look back and idealise a certain way of life. We're certainly living in scary, interesting and possibly turbulent times at the moment...