#16.20 - The laziest week

Full moon

//''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''I have been remarkably exhausted over the last week. I did manage to do some knitting yesterday but everything else - nope. A biiig positive is that I have cut down an alcohol. But the running has not started up in any meaningful way. And I have not written anything by way of creative output or even a blog since Tuesday - apart from the last one.

School is going great though - everything else, not so much.

By not so much I mean not so much is happening. But I am usually happy because I am doing astronomy. This time round I am ready - I know what I want to teach. How much I can teach and what is possible for kids their age. I stretch them a bit, give them a bit of magic. Build on what we already have. Bring them to some sense of wonder of the stars above them.

But the thing for me is, the kicker is that, because I have been doing so much of the constellations, preparing ahead, without even really knowing it, that I am now in wonder of them. It is sort of incredible for me now, focusing mostly on the constellations, to not get bogged down with the detail, and do the stars and the names of the stars. How to tell the different between a fixed star and a planet. And then to do as many constellations as we can over the course of the next few weeks. So we have done Orion's shape and soon I will be doing the stars in Orion and their magnitude, light distance, etc...

Then it will be Taurus and then Canis Major. Then Ursa Major and Minor and finally, the Pole star. That is where we are heading. I feel like we also need to do Geminii for completion. Alongside this, we are doing the moon and the sun. And if that is all we do, I will be very happy.

But to have this deep sense that out there, when I look at the sky, it is a home now. It is a familiar place. I understand it now. Or am beginning to understand it.

I think that of all the subjects I have done so far, I have never ever felt as privileged teaching this subject. As if there is something huge and incorruptible and true about the stars. I think that it is the closest anyone gets to teaching theology.

Right. I think I haven't been able to settle because I haven't written and blogged properly. Or planned. So, here it goes. Proper blogging.

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From this week

From six years ago (2014)

Full moon over Strangford

What a week back it has been. The Astronomy lesson is going amazingly well. As usual when I worried I did not have the resources to teach it, apparently, all the resources to teach it already exist in the school. A Star Chart I dug up from years ago and kept somewhere is now pinned to the notice board and we are filling it with beautiful poetry and pictures of the constellations. The kids have been observing the moon, full as it is and now on its waning journey, and the weather - unpredictable. The moon has brought lots of wind and storms and today it is clear - the eye of the storm as it builds up tomorrow.

It is calm and beautiful today. So looking back on this week. There was Ghin's birthday party.

The tooty pet - Ghinny baba

We had our dinner in Cosmo - a place which I will never ever go to again. It was simply rows and rows of all kinds of take away food from various types of take aways. Behind us, was a row of different types of Chinese food from takeaways - in fact I'd say there were three rows of this. Then there was a row of Indian food. Then there was a naan making station, a so called tepenyaki place which was just frying stuff on a hot plate NOT teppenyaki, sushi, ramen - just really super basic things. A kebab station. A pizza station. A carvery which lamb and pork. And small servings of desserts like Eton Mess, panacotta and creme burlee - all mass made. So for mass made food it was ok. But for £15 it was insane. If you would like to get a food coma - which is indeed what happened to Oisin, then it is the place for you to go. In the process you might have had your fill of various types of takeaways for the duration of the year.

The entire place smelt of a Chinese takeaway. That deep fried smell with chilli oil and MSG. Chicken powder. I barely ate anything. I had the Mongolian lamb which was lamb ribs fried with lots of MSG and dried chilli, and some panacotta. All in all I must have eaten about £5 worth of food. Ghin ate around £10, and Oisin did get his £15 worth but also a food coma. They must be minting it. The place was bunged with people who think that international cuisine is take away food. You could see it. There were many birthday being celebrated. It was not an eddfying spectacle. I have to say that even the worst buffet in Singapore did not compare to this. The best I can say for it is that the takeaway standard of food was good, as opposed to awful takeaway and the people who looked after the buffet and cleaned the tables were extremely conscientious. 

I think the last time i ordered anything at a takeaway was five years ago. I will almost certainly not be doing it again. Everytime I try precooked food I discover that as a tech it has not come a very long way. Why people buy precooked food - food that has to be reheated I don't know. I recently bought pulled pork and potatoes from Tescos wondering what it would be like. It was really awful. Potatoes and pulled pork in creamy sauce - it was really. REALLY awful. It was not better than a glorified TV dinner. Sure it is marketed and packaged differently but it is ALL THE SAME inside.

I tried so hard to wake up at 4 am but by Wednesday I was totaled. I was a wreck. I was done for, as they say. I wonder if this is part of the menopause. Yes, I have googled this and it IS part of the menopause. I just feel like sleeping and I can't focus or concentrate on anything properly after a certain amount of concentration and focusing. It is really weird. In a way it like being pregnant again - I once again have no control over my body and what it wants to do and it takes a ginormous amount of will to do anything different.

And this has happened since going back to school. 

This once again justified my sense of having taken a step back from full-time work. That was a good idea.

This is taking a really long time - interruptions and conversations. Oisin is playing the piano, Ghin is having a lazy day... right. I need to organise my week now...

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So, the days when I have appointments:

Tuesday - is my super busy day - newsletter in school, writing class, collect Oisin, Irish Lang class
Thurs - knitting
Then Wednesday this week I have an elements meeting.

I WAS going to have a light and electricity thing on Monday but that's no good the timing which is 1.30 am.

What else? So that's it.

Apart from that, everything is as usual.

Gary is now lying on my lap. I am going to have to move him. I am really going to do a couple of ours of gardening now before the storm tomorrow. Then later on this evening after the baptism, we will do the housework, like all of it, elements stuff and then lesson planning which let's face it I've been doing for most of the weekend.