Dad sent me to go and look at the Snowdrop patch at the end of the garden. What I didn't  bargain  for the beautiful  worker bee enjoying a foraging flight.

No more words. Just beauty.

 Hi there!

Phew! It's so nice to be on holiday now and be through the grimmest term of the school year.  Actually, it hasn't been too bad, for various reasons.

On Friday night, I headed over to Kent on the train to stay with my Dad,Stepmum and Sister.  They fetched me from the very handy Ebbsfleet International Station (makes getting over to them so much easier, although there is a longer drive for them to fetch me!) and we made our way back to the house.

We enjoyed a delicious Spaghetti Bolognese and then it was time for bed after clearing up and some final marking for my sister and I!

The next morning, Dad bought me a cup of tea in bed- what a luxury! He's amazing!

Dad had to head out to Chart farm to go and collect some extra ingredients for dinner so I threw some clothes on and joined him as I wanted to visit the wonderful Eco Pantry which is housed there.  This is a great refill store which my Stepmum often picks me bits and pieces up from as they have some products which my local refill doesn't have.

I came back with dried strawberries, Shiitake crunch crisps, dried mango, Upcircle night cream, frozen peas, Mozarella Bites, lentil burgers, fudge, Vegan jelly sweeties as this was all I could fit in but they have a super range of products.  The frozen items are a unique selling point!  Dad also picked me up some sausages from the Butchers and we headed upstairs to the Three Sisters to pick us up Pain Au chocolat and Cinnamon buns for breakfast back home.  They also have a great fish stall but I didn't have room for that.

Back home, we ate our breakfast and then we headed off to Lullingstone park for a walk with Monty, the Cavapoo.  We ate lunch there- I had a bacon and sausage baguette.

Back home, some work went on out in the garden to prune the apple tree and to make soup. 

In the evening, we ordered a Chinese takeaway and my sister's boyfriend came over. It was delicious but I was really super tired- three evenings of going to bed at 1am really had caught up with me!

Sunday, we had a walk and spent a lot of the day at home.

Dinner was an amazing Barbecue Beef ribs with corn, broccoli, potato wedges and apple tart.

The next day, my sister had to go back to school.  I woke late after finally sleeping well.  The three of us walked round to the local deli to fetch some items and then we spent the day home.  In the evening, I headed to the gym with my stepmum where she had yoga and I went for a short swim.  Then I headed back to Ebbsfleet via Sis and Dad.  

Very excitingly, I headed round to my childhood bestfriend's mum's house in my old home town.  My childhood best friend was over from Denmark and I got to meet her lovely 7 year old son. It was a joy to see them, particularly her. My favourite Chinese was open so I ran in to get some Szechuan Aubergine to eat on the trains home (I've never had it anywhere else!) 

Today, I woke up and after a slow morning, headed to the local market to get some vegetables and close-to-sell-by-date pantry goods. I also visited the library where I got two books which I look forward to reading.

Oh, I suppose I had better get onto TARDIS Tuesday

There was something  awry in Mum's kitchen last night as she made dinner.

Do you see it?

Let me know yes or know before looking  at the comments! Then see if you were right!

Xx

 I THINK I did a closet cosplay version of this (just featuring the top half) a few years ago, but apart from that, today's TARDIS Tuesday hasn't featured here since January 2018!

Image borrowed from Bimbampop.com

Image borrowed from Doctor Who TV.

A Barbour Duralinen jacket and some All Saints Jules boots complete the look

And here's to the FINAL complete look!

First things first, this dress is SO comfy to wear. It's light and soft! 

If you remember my version of this from 6 years ago, in my new home, you might think the colours have reversed. Yes, for my dress was originally grey! Urban Outfitters made this dress in grey as well as burgundy and many Clara fans have dyed it with Dylon Tulip dye.

I acquired the dress some 6 years ago and the dye soon after and....

there they remained.

Until, step forward, Clara cosplayer extraordinaire Rosie (who has the best Clara collection out there!) and offered to dye it for me! So I sent her the dress and dye and salt plus a spare Clara top I had and she did it for me! I very much like this dress in the burgundy!

I added the same grey cardigan as Clara into this picture. Funny fact- I have had this cardigan just as long but I have never managed to find it for any photos I've worn as it's always hiding!! Again, it is comfy, soft and stretchy.

The necklace was a eBay China find- in years of yore, you could find them really easily!

My final item of note is the Barbour jacket.   I have the same jacket in a tan shade and it's a really nice, breathable light jacket as one might expect from a high-end brand like Barbour.  I like wearing this in the Spring!

And that's the outfit! 

I was back at school today after enjoying my half term.

What did I do apart from the waffle about my dad's I shared last week?

Well...

The Wednesday, I woke rather late and I headed off to the train station to make my way to Basildon to meet my friend M for a craft workshop. I went with 2 bags of vintage clothes and my bike to see if I could interest the local vintage shop in any of my pieces for sale (but grrrr, they were unexpectedly shut). Luckily, I met my friend en-route and was able to store the bags and my bike at her house. 

When we arrived in Basildon, we went to a great cafe for lunch, M's treat for my imminent birthday. I had a delicious bacon, tomato and cheese omelette with fries and generous side salad plus a chocolate milkshake!

We walked across the 'road' to the Craft Shed, a great family business which specialises in pottery painting, foam clay and all sorts of other workshops! 

It's a great space with loads of different things to do and run by a great lady, Claire and her partner.

My friend M has been there to do glass crafts as well as pottery loves it.

We were there to take part in a 'make your own clay critter' workshop.

You were given a supply of clay, shown ideas and basics of how to make your critters and then given free reign to do what you wanted!

It was so enjoyable and chilled. There were 6 of us doing the workshop and we all enjoyed seeing what each other had made.

I ended up making 3 little critters, M made 2.  Included in our £20 workshop cost is also a return visit to paint the hardened model plus it will then be glazed and we come back and collect it.

It was a great way to spend an afternoon catching up with M and even better, I discovered that Claire and I had gone to high school together- we were in the same windband, even though she was 2 years younger than me!

I will post more about this when my models are complete but it was a SUPERB place to go and I thoroughly recommend it. So reasonable too!

When I got home, I began my school reports and managed to get 7 classes done before going to bed at 1am!

The next day, I woke fairly late and then headed to the train station to get the train to Lara's as we were going to play flute trios.

Had a lovely time with her and I, although we mainly ate food and chatted with ONE flute trio, plus a game of Bananagrams and then I headed home for more reports. Again, up till 1pm.

On Friday morning, I woke up and completed the rest of my reports and then tidied and hoovered the house, plus cleaning the ensuite before packing to go to Mum's. Again, I got on that train and changed to get to hers.  As it was now rush hour, I cycled to Mum's from the station which was quite satisfying to do. At Mum's, after a cup of tea and a chat, we had a delicious dinner of Spaghetti Bolognese (delicious!) and a chocolate eclair for dessert.  We spent the evening watching TV and chatting and playing with her cats and then headed to bed.

Saturday morning, I was woken about 6am by persistent scratching at the door by Rowan. Sigh!

Mum made us a tea and we read for a bit and then showered and ate porridge.

As the weather looked very pleasant, we headed down to the seafront to have a walk.  We saw some beautiful Turnstones and Sandlings which made the trip really rather special (I will post about them) and then headed back.

At which point, CBC called to say he was back to school.

Mum dropped me at the station and I met CBC back at another station. He headed home to have a much-needed shower and snooze and then we headed out to get some lunch.

A quick look in Holland Barratts and a charity shop (I resisted even though there were some Marco Tozzi beautiful leather boots in my size, brand new!)) and then headed home.

Sunday, we woke VERY late and spent most of the day doing school work and feeling generally glad to have each other back and equally depressed at the prospect of school!

And that's my half term!

xx

dfdfdfd

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Eating:

...kale from my own garden.  So happy these plants have made it through Winter and are growing again!  The kale is fresh and young and delicious. I picked an absolute mound today.

....Hairy Bittercress.  I learnt about this from Leon Lewis last year and have been spotting it on the streets but not picking it (pollution). However, today I noticed it growing in the pot with my olive trees.

...out of date chocolate from Bruges last year which I discovered in a drawer at home. It still tastes fine. Some of it was used in some chocolate rice-krispie cakes which I made in the holiday (with krispies which expired in Oct 2021- they taste fine!) 

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Watching:

... Guys and Dolls- the Immersive Experience.   It was a spur of the moment idea of CBC's to go and see it with his mum and sister on Saturday. He'd seen it with school.  We were in the standing seats.  The stage came up and down in blocks and you moved around.  It was absolutely amazing to be up close to the action. I was inches away from the feet of the main characters at times and got a couple of cheeky smiles from characters and even talked to one of the crowd!  

...Gladiators:  The BBC has brought back this great show! My new favourites are Nitro and Giant!

....Colin Baker's era of Doctor Who.

...The Apprentice- love it!

Reading:

...a fantastic range of children's fiction this month.  The last one was Robin Stevens' The Body in the Blitz which was very clever! I'm going to try and review them soon!

Grumping about...

...my school choosing to wear PJ's for World Book Day this year.   I am not alone in this unhappiness as one of my favourite year 6 girls wrote me a message AGHAST when she heard the news. We have plotted to rebel against this by wearing vintage nightwear as worn by characters in books! So we shall be in role.

Celebrating...

...my birthday.  I got a few nice presents and some pretty cards. A couple of lovely books, a new blue bike helmet, a voucher for Seasalt, a fleecy wearable blanket thing and a lovely piece of flute music. CBC and I went out to our favourite Thai restaurant for dinner and they brought me a coconut ice-cream sundae and sang me Happy Birthday. The ice-cream was delicious! I'm not usually a sweet coconut fan.

Playing...

a beautiful piece of music by Ethel Smythe. Her Serenade in D is absolutely wonderful! Do listen.

Realising...

...I love being in my house when it is daylight!  I always feel so lucky to be at home considering I am so busy.

What have you been up recently?

xx

Hello friends!

I hope you are well.

Today's TARDIS Tuesday is a mixture of two fairly recent cosplays I shared on here worn by Classic and New Who companion, Sarah Jane Smith, played by the late Elisabeth Sladen. You can see them here and here (where my hair was the perfect length!)

The great thing about this cosplay is that it was worn by the character in multiple episodes AND the separate pieces were worn in other episodes too!

The main three episodes the whole outfit featured were: 

Day of the Clown, the Curse of Clyde Langer and Enemy of the Bane

Let's have a wee look at it!

All  images come from Gretchen's amazing Sarah Jane blog- 

https://sjscloset.livejournal.com/1750.html

https://sjscloset.livejournal.com/10722.html

It's easy to break this outfit down:

Turquoise/pale blue Joseph collared jersey top, Karen Millen pinstripe waistcoat with fake lapels, dark washed jeans, knee high boots.

I really like Sarah Jane's outfits from the Sarah Jane Adventures as they are really smart, have an overall idiosyncratic appearance and work well for school, particularly for performances. I last wore this waistcoat for the Royal Albert Hall concert last year.

And here's my version: 

As you may have realised, I decided to try and imitate Sarah Jane's poses from the stills above.  These outfits as as screen accurate as I can manage as the top half of the outfit has only been IDed- not that I'd be worried about obtaining screen accurate boots or jeans!  FYI, my boots are my eYe boutique ones bought well over 17 years ago- they've been reheeled and the zip refitted.  The jeans are my Clara Into the Dalek ones. They are from ASOS and really comfortable.

The Karen Millen waistcoat has a great back view- I'm planning to wear this outfit on Wednesday for the Primary Choir of the Year competition which I am taking my year 5-6 choir to perform at. If people are going to be seeing at my back view, they might as well have a nice outfit detail! Not, I hope, that they will be paying any attention to me. I will, instead, be wearing a pair of Black pinstripe trousers instead.

That's a bible in my hand! It matches her book well.

This particular bible has a lovely story to it. When I was studying in Bali, I was craving English reading material.  I mentioned to one of my friends online, that I wish I had brought a Bible with me and my lovely friends Rob and Amy bought one and sent it to me in Bali. I worked my way through most of the Old Testament which I hadn't done before.  Leviticus was hard going!

I'll keep you posted on the Choir of the Year competition. This round is to try and gain a place in the Final in April!

Hello there friends!

Realising I have debuted quite a few new TARDIS Tuesdays this year. 5 already and it's not even April! 

Happily, most of these are closet cosplays, e.g. I've looked at my wardrobe and realised I had items already that could work for the outfit rather than seeking any item specifically!

Today is such and outfit and actually, this one has been at the back of my mind for  quite a few years!

Let's have a look at it:

https://badwolfcloset.tumblr.com/post/62344369943/donna-noble-series-4-episodes-12-13-the

https://www.blogtorwho.com/journeys-end-more-promo-pics/

The entire outfit has been identified here  if you are interested but I realised I had potential items that could achieve a rough approximation of the outfit:

I'll start off with my leather jacket.  I bought this on a charity shop crawl in Ipswich with Sophie and Hazel.  Sadly, Sophie doesn't blog any more (I really miss her) and Hazel is rather occupied with motherhood alongside work.

When I bought this, it actually made me think of Donna's coat although I knew they were very different...buuuut, it gives the general idea!  I didn't buy it for that purpose, I bought it because I liked it.

The next item was this Brora cashmere sweater dress which I bought in November in a charity shop.  It's a lovely blue colour. I haven't quite worked out how to wear it- I wore it here with my F&F charity shopped denim sailor trousers- you can see their rather obvious waistband showing through the fitted cashmere. Not the most flattering look. Maybe thick leggings would work better as an outfit.  I bought it as I thought it would be an excellent Winter garment. Cashmere is always expensive, new or second hand. This was £7.99. Mine is a bit longer and more fitted than hers.

Fun fact about this sweater dress.  The original grey one is from Oasis. She also wore a purple version of this dress in another episode.  I used to own the purple version bought from Oasis when it was sold there. I had no idea until recently that I actually owned the same Donna Noble dress by total coincidence! Pity I got rid of it!

I didn't have quite the right colour of vest top but I found this charity-shopped pink one to be the most similar match.

Mum's brown leather belt made another appearance!

Do you spot my gold hoop earrings?  Ha, reminds me of being a teenager.  I bought these in a charity shop for 50p a year ago or so for my Rose Tyler cosplay (which I can't do again as I sold the t-shirt last week!).

My black Clarks boots completed the look.  The cross necklace is not part of the cosplay but I wanted to wear a necklace as I always wear one!

I wore this for church on Sunday. Had to add a raincoat as it was pouring as I left!

What do you think of this look?  Doesn't totally work but I was happy wearing it! Church ended up being quite chilly in the end!

xxx

Some of the kids thought I was a ghost, one colleague thought I was Jesus, a few weren't sure, several admired my lovely summer dress and yes, a few knew I was Wendy!

Would you have realised who I was?

I managed to incorporate World Book Day into my singing assemblies that week.

Either the Schools Musicals company or Out of the Ark had 2 free songs available on the theme which I taught to the children.  I also played the William Tell overture to KS2 and told them the story of William Tell and played the story of The Noon day witch by Dvorak to KS1.

Oh, by the way...

My choir got through to the final of my local area's Primary Year of the Year competition.

We were one of 6 schools chosen out of  the 24 who entered!  My choir were EUPHORIC to find out on Tuesday as was I!

Now, I have 3 rehearsals to get them ready for the final!

xx

For TARDIS Tuesday this week, I thought I'd return to a comfy outfit worn by Amy Pond in two episodes, Time of the Angels and Flesh and Stone. Mainly because a) I spotted my Converse trainers yesterday when getting my Gamelan costume ready and b) also spotted the red hoodie in the drawer.

Source

Here's the outfit as worn by Karen Gillan. I first wore a version of this in March 2015 then October 2021.  

My sweater is from Primark but charity-shopped, the skirt and Converse trainers were both gifted to me. I bought the leggings in Tescos about a decade ago and I have never found any other legging brand or type as comfortable or durable as these ones.  All my other ones (except some Aldi/Lidl) ones have always developed holes or been uncomfortable.

When I was getting this outfit ready to wear, I realised that I really don't need 2 pairs of Converse trainers. I bought my black and red ones in Bali in 2006. I texted my niece (who, serendipitously, has similar-sized feet) and asked her if she would like them.  She was so excited and said she'd actually asked her Mum for a pair of Converse trainers recently. It's nice to be able to pass them on, clear a little shoe-space AND to make her happy.

Funnily enough, a colleague, the other day, said to me, "Can I ask you about something. I had a funny feeling you might be the one person who might know about this."

It turned out she wanted to know if I had ever tried Saltwater sandals as she was interested in them but as they are quite expensive, wasn't sure about them.  I said that I did have a pair and I really liked them.  I told her I'd bought mine 2nd hand from Depop for £12 (which is a really good 2nd hand price for them).  I suggested I brought mine in for her to try on and I asked her footsize.  

"I'm afraid I've got big feet- size 8!" she answered.

"Oh good, so have I!" I answered.  That's perfect. I can lend them to her for an evening so she can try wearing them around the house and see if they work for her!

I had a great weekend.  On Saturday, after a pleasant breakfast of porridge, I got lots of washing done and hung in on racks outside as it was so beautifully sunny.  Whilst outside, I picked some Kale from my extremely gangly plants from last year which have continued to grow and currently have tender young leaves. I also picked some hairy bittercress which was growing in my olive tree and blueberry pots and then some three cornered leek from the side bed! I love free food. Then I headed into London as  I had a Gamelan gig at LSO St Luke's.  It went really well and we had a hugely appreciative audience.  Afterwards, CBC and I went for dinner at Wagamama's on Old Street before we headed home.

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Sunday morning, I managed to get up in time for church...just! I got out of bed at 8.52am and managed to get to church for 9.10am to play flute for the first hymn. It was a lovely service with a very meaningful sermon. As we were playing one hymn, I had a vision of someone, who I couldn't see, walking with a wooden crucifix all around the church. 

After church, I came home and had some breakfast and folded up washing and put other washing one. Annoyingly, our washing machine keeps getting an error code which is a draining error and I never know how much it has actually washed the garments and the only way to get it to open is to do a Rinse and Drain mode.  

I received Nancy Birtwhistle's Green and Clean book for my birthday and I decided to try her method for washing oven shelves. I recently bought some Washing soda (ash) for cleaning from a Refill service which delivers door to door and I left the shelves and grill try in the sink to soak for a few hours. Happily, it did a good job.  This may be the first time, shamefully, that I have cleaned oven shelves.  Nancy replied to my message on Instagram where I asked to her to clarify what she meant by 'one cup'. I'm really intrigued to make up her Pure Magic shower cleaner once I've got a new large glass spray bottle to do it in! I really hope it can do something about the limescale!

Tomorrow (written on Sunday!) , I am taking my school orchestra to the Barbican to watch the London Symphony Orchestra.

Sweetly, on Friday, two little girls in Year 4 stood on the landing outside orchestra (with my permission) to teach another children who wants to join recorder club 7 weeks late, how to play all the music she's missed so far.  It was such a darling thing! All three girls are such sweet, gentle, kind girls.

On Friday afternoon, I got some of my choir to come upstairs to learn a harmony part for our new choir song for the competition (I have to add to the programme from the last round).  They sounded really good- I hope I can hear them above the rest of the choir!

Hope all is well with you!

2 weeks left of term!

xx

 Bright moments this week.

1.  The lovely boy with SEND who is doing so well in Drumming club.  I was playing Tequila on the recorder for the children to transition between instruments.  Totally impromptu, he jumped onto the bongos and accompanied me with the perfect syncopated accompaniment - he was grinning at me and we were totally in a groove!  It was the most sunshiney, wonderful, unexpected moment.  He exudes unbelievable joy when playing drums.  This drumming club have got more into the Samba vibe (they dance and move) than any group I've ever had.  They're also noisy and won't be quiet but they love it!

2. I noticed that my recorder matched my shoes. I held it agains my shoes and admired the similarity. I looked out up and noticed D in Year 6 laughing at me.  She raised her eyebrows and gave me a look. Later, we both laughed about it and no one else knew what we were talking about.

3. D told me usually she dances on the pole when on the train and always does it on school trips to embarrass her teacher. I asked why she didn't do that with me during our earlier trip.  "I don't want to embarrass YOU!" she replied.

4.  I decided to downsize my scarf collection.  I gave three of them to some girls in year 4 who were so utterly delighted.  One of them came into school a day later and she had made me a batch of Scottish pancakes to say thank you! They were still hot! It was nice to share my scarves as in a charity shop, you can't always guarantee that someone will buy them! Also managed to pass on a box from a fox plant pot I bought that was cute- one of those year 4 girls had it!

5.  My music room library is thriving. I've got so many children borrowing books including one boy who, a month ago, was a complete nightmare in my lessons.  Something changed and now he's really behaving for me and it was nice to be able to trust him enough to lend him a book.

6.  I was trying to make my way across the playground and got ambushed by a group of year 4 girls who all engulfed me in a massive hug.  As I tried to extricate myself, A, a girl from year 6 joined me.  "I noticed a large crowd and came to see what they were crowding around.  Once I saw it was you, naturally, I decided to join it!" It was so funny, the way she said it!

7.  Very successful trip to watch the London Symphony Orchestra on Monday with my children from orchestra.  They really enjoyed it and were really positive about it! It was a joy to take them!

8.  Had to run our Treasure Island rehearsal by myself on Tuesday as the Drama lead was off sick.  Managed to get the opening song and closing song blocked and learnt properly and even started to work out movements for the overture!

9.  I now have to teach Phonics to a year 1 class every Thursday (Wednesday this week) which is annoying as it cuts a big half an hour out of my music lesson but I am getting into the swing of it now- we use Essential Letters and Sounds and it works quite well!

10.  Very, very glad I made a large batch of Vegetable stew on Sunday.  It has meant 2 dinners I didn't need to think about. Topped up with homegrown kale, bittercress and 3-cornered leek!

11.  Bought a yummy Mediterranean platter from Lidl. Have very much enjoyed coming home to it, particularly the cream-cheese stuffed pimento peppers- they are delicious!!

12. It's only a week or so till the holiday!!!!

 I should really publish this post before it gets too far away from when I actually took these photos!

It was back at the start of February that I wore this outfit. It was Saturday and we were playing a concert with our more local orchestra.

We arrived to the venue with an hour before the rehearsal started and dropped off our bags.  The leader and chair of the orchestra was setting up!

"Hello Charles!" I smiled as we walked past.  He grinned at me.  

"You are looking utterly lovely! You always look lovely but especially so today!".

I grinned beatifically  as CBC and I carried on! He always admires what I wear which is sweet as I think he likes vintage style!

When I put on this outfit- elements of it made me think of one of the most stylish ladies, Vix, in Blogger world, as I put it together.  She'd combine better colours and accessories but I know the individual garments made me think of her.

 For today's TARDIS Tuesday, I am certain that I've worn this outfit for TARDIS Tuesday before but I can't seem to find it anywhere on my blog! Perhaps I didn't? Or perhaps it was pre-labels? Or did I forget to label it?  Hmmm, I'm not sure!

The outfit in question is from series 10 of Doctor Who and was worn by Bill Potts played by Pearl Mackie in her penultimate episode, "World Enough and Time".

We see it the images below.

https://theultimateguidetothefashionofdoctorwho.wordpress.com/2022/01/28/bill-potts-twice-upon-a-time-blue-varsity-jacket-blue-january/

It includes an H&M sweater, a varsity jacket, dark blue jeans and boots plus hooped earrings and a red hairbow.

I was lucky enough to buy the sweater around 7 years ago from H&M in their sale for £4.

I decided to wear this outfit for school on Monday to take my school orchestra to the Barbican to watch the London Symphony Orchestra.

I wore the sweater with black ASOS trousers and some brown boots.  When I tried to consider what I'd wear in place of the jacket, I realised that my Ace McShane bomber jacket, as customised by the lovely Ang, was the perfect solution.  It has the name patch and Bill's jacket has patches on it and was roughly the correct colour.  Quite a few people made comparison with Bill and Ace when she was first cast and her costumes seen. I liked showing this comparison!  The final touch was adding this pair of charity-shopped hoop earrings (50p) I wore for my Donna Noble outfit 2 weeks ago.

Derek Bond

Wishing you a joyful Easter!!! 

Christ has died

Christ has risen

Christ will come again!

My Easter weekend has been one of joy and rest as well as being busy!

The school term ended on Thursday! I spent most of the day doing what is called Pupil Voice with children from each year group.  It's something one has to do nowadays as a subject leader in school.  Interview a small group of students to find out what they are learning in that subject to check it is being taught comprehensively, fully and to find out what is working for children/teachers and that the subject is going according to plan.

It's a pain to do but it's useful and interesting and also reassuring (and frustrating when they can't remember things and you have to prompt them!.  Not sure what possessed me to ask them 20 questions this time!

In between that, I took my Samba band up to the hall to perform for the Easter Bonnet parades (as it was raining and windy, we had to do separate ones inside!).  The kids were incredible at performing the Samba and everyone was gushing about how good they were! I love that 1/4 of the group have SEND and are all brilliant!

Once I'd cleared up my room and sent some essential emails (annoyingly cannot access my school email at the moment from home!), I headed home.

I dumped my massive collection of things at home and headed to the doctor's surgery to see the nurse to see if I had a water infection (as have had abnominal pain for the past 2 weeks).  Traces of blood but not infection so she managed to get me in for a Saturday afternoon appointment for the Doctor.

I headed home for a quick snack and then cycled in the dark to church.  The wind was CRAZY!!! Rocking up on my bike to church through dark fields was interesting!

Our vicar is not very well at the moment and the lovely lady who regularly plays piano and leads workshop is currently receiving treatment after surgery so I was on for most of the Easter services.

It was a wonderful calm in the church in the midst of the hurricane outside. The service was beautiful and I only made a few bad crashes on the piano.

I came home and made dinner for myself.

Good Friday, after some sleep but not as much as I'd have hoped (SOMEONE's alarm went off at 6.45am and has done for the past 3 days!!!) I got up and cycled to the other church for the 10.30am Good Friday service. The wind was very much against me and I arrived bright-red and sweaty as I climbed the hill to church...annoyingly 5minutes too late to play flute (which I was going to do to support the lovely lady who was playing the piano for the first time since her op.

Again, it was a lovely service. We laid hearts at the foot of the cross and it was beautiful to be there. I was very glad I'd attempted the cycle.

As I waffle about my weekend, here are some photos of what I wore for Easter Sunday!

Worn with my Karen Millen (charity-shopped) cardigan and some blue boots bought in Florence 2019!

Saturday, I did washing and some cleaning (including successfully using Nancy Birtwhistle's technique to remove some limescale from the taps in the bathrooms!).

At home, we did some bits and pieces and I read and then I made some dinner.

Easter Sunday, as my abdomen was hurting in the night, I was really tired when my alarm went off at what was (due to clocks going forward) 5am, and I was really sad to miss the 6.15am sunrise service at church.  I got up at 8.30am and was at church by 9.05am to play piano.

Hello there!

For TARDIS Tuesday this week, I am debuting a new outfit AND it's another red one! 

It features in my favourite Classic Who companion, Romana's final serial called Warrior's Gate.

Romana had a real eclectic, costumey set of outfits in her wardrobe and her style is very much up my street!

Today's one is quite different from her usual look but not her usual colours:

Here's the designer's initial drawing of the outfit:

http://www.4thdoctorcostume.com/2015/06/lalla-wards-time-capsule.html

https://aminoapps.com/c/doctor-who-cast-crew/page/blog/romana-iis-outfits-ranked/6qpR_leSzukZwpj3n1ZVGYpKqKDpLlg15

https://doctorwhoworlduk.com/romana-2-gallery

Here's my look!

I started with a high-necked top from River Island (bought from Vinted) which has lovely flowing sleeves. It's not my usual top silhouette but is really comfortable.  Although I didn't have identical coloured socks to accompany it, at a distance, they seem to match.  I wore these socks for my Romana Shada outfit too!

My shoes are from Clarks and are T-bar shoes but I tucked in the  T-bar and kept the ankle strap part.

You can see those lovely sleeves in this picture (which is a behind the scenes picture from @doctorwho_60s_70s_80s

The silhouette of this look, for me, is very much, Female Conductor! I feel like I've seen female conductors wear something similar in different colours! I would wear this for a choir performance when conducting or leading them!

I recently watched this on BBC iPlayer for the 2nd time and I enjoyed it but there was a lot of to-and-froing plus I thought the way Romana left was very abrupt!!!

What do you think of this look?  For a lot of Who characters, they find this look kind of boring but I like the thought of this being in silk!

xx

 We made a visit to Leigh on Sea on the estuary.  A short walk down to Old Leigh and we walked as far as this iconic bridge. It is the inspiration for many local artists.

Ggg

 Today  is my 19th blogiversary!

19 years ago, there I was, working  as PA to the principal of the Royal Academy of Music  whilst my friend  Rach was working  as PA to the  principal of Oak Hill bible  college. Rach had started her blog, and I had been reading  it for  a few weeks. The PA workload, at that time, wasn't  huge! I thought it was a really  good idea for writing  thoughts. 

My first  few posts were just random, enthusiastic  waffle. Over the years, I wrote  more and more and then  less as life got busy. 

I still love  blogging  even  though there  are less of us! So happy  to have met several  of you lovely  friends  in real life- Ang, Vix, Ann, Melanie, Lauren, Lily, Sophie, Hazel, Bev, Denise...

I would love to meet some of my other good friends but for now, here's  to year 20!

Hi there,

For TARDIS Tuesday, I am featuring Romana for a second week.  Mainly because, when I was putting together last week's look, I spied a garment in the cupboard that reminded me that on my 'To do' list for TARDIS Tuesday was this look from Romana in an episode called 'The Horns of Nimon'.

This is one of Romana's more Doctory looks!

It's a great look which has very equestrian vibes and is again, part of Romana's common palette of white and red!

I decided to do a closet cosplay of this, e.g. none of the items are actually obtained for this outfit but  I had anyway.

 CBC and I got home this afternoon, around 5.30pm after 6 days in Girona, Italy.

We had a lovely time. Couldn't believe we came home to glorious sun and some warmth!

We didn't have a huge amount of fresh food in the house but I went out into the garden and 

discovered the chard has boomed! I cut a veritable bouquet of it. It's quite expensive to buy in the supermarket (when you can get it) so I'm gleeful this is self-seeded from last year's also self-seeded.

The kale plants are really trying hard to flower and go to seed but I've discovered the small flower buds look and taste rather like tender stem broccoli. I also still managed to pick lots of kale.

In the right flower bed,the three-cornered leek (self-seeded) is surrounded by Forget-me-nots but is still growing so I picked lots of that.

The Lemon Balm has started growing again so I picked some of that too.

Wasn't sure what to make for dinner.  We struggle to get back into the swing of cooking after being on holiday.

I had a brainwave.

I got two blocks of noodles (from the Refill shop) and put them into a saucepan along with the kale-occoli plus lots of Chard stalks. I added hot water and set it to medium heat.

I then made up some Miso paste into a thick liquid with about 100ml of hot water which I added into the saucepan.  Once it had been going for a bit, I added in a bit of vegetable stock (from a sadly,now closed Refill store) and the chopped up Chard leaves. I also discovered a third of an old courgette lurking in the fridge from a week ago and chopped that into small pieces and added it in.

I then beat an egg in the old miso jug and threw it into a small saucepan along with lots of chopped up 3-cornered leek and pepper and left it to cook. 

I served up the noodles, broth and veg into a bowl and added some more chopped 3 cornered leek plus I poured some Sesame oil on top.

Finally, I cut up the leek omelette into pieces and added on top.

Very pleased that it ended up being delicious and was very little effort to make plus quite healthy with 4 types of green veg plus the veg.  Plus it was pretty cheap to make!

I served it with Lemon Balm tea!

Hey there!

Hope you are well!

As you read this, I shall be back at school (Boo hoo!). I am grateful that we have an extra day off, returning on Tuesday rather than Monday although woe to the poor classes who keep missing Mondays! I teach two year 1 classes, one year 3 & one year 4 but since I have three of each class to teach in a week you can imagine how it wreaks havoc with my scheduling and delivery of plans to those year groups. At least it wasn't as bad as last year with NINE Mondays missed for various reasons!

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/television-academy-board-directors-nne-ebong-jamily-hunter-1235090265/

Anyway, onto our outfit inspiration!  This outfit was worn by Yaz Khan for the opening episodes of Flux, series 13 of Doctor Who.  I actually can't believe I wore this in November 2021, that's so long ago!

https://twitter.com/bbcdoctorwho/status/1454058707160113158

Couldn't resist doing a side by side of this short and added in some rubbish looking buttons! Ha!!!

I'm happy we are coming into the cooler-clothes season but it means TARDIS Tuesday gets a little trickier!

I hope all is well with you!

Kezzie xx

 Well, it's been quite a busy week.

I had to leave school early for my hospital appointment (nothing conclusive...more scans...though he hadn't had access to the last week scan results...where are they!?!?!).Got completely soaked cycling from the station. Luckily, on the way home, it was fairly dry so rather than cycling to the train station, I decided to cycle all the way home.  Went via town and bought a red dress in the charity shop (bad girl) as well as a walking stick I figured could work as Long John Silver's crutch for Treasure Island for school (the main reason I went into the shop....promise Guvnor!) and headed home with something from Greggs!Was so nice to be home EARLY!

Friday night, I met CBC to go and watch amazing unaccompanied 8 part vocal group, Voces 8.  They were performing at Southend Plaza  Centre. 

What a wonderful experience it was!  They were exquisite- the beautiful range of songs they sang, from the glorious polyphony of the Renaissance to Jazz classics such as  Straighten up and Fly right to songs my modern composers.  We were kept rapt throughout!   We were really lucky to hear them for the reasonable price of £10 per ticket (Voces 8 are such a renowned group that most venues charge a lot more)- there has been government support for concert series' in Southend but this has been rescinded permanently this year. This is very sad.

After the concert, we headed out for a Thai meal.  This was delicious!

The next morning, I woke up and headed downstairs to tackle the previous washing up.  Eventually, we headed into London to meet CBC's family for this sister's 40th birthday celebration.  

We went to Caravan for some lunch and then headed to a place called the Lightroom for an exhibition called MoonWalkers which was all about the Apollo space expeditions, an immersive experience. It was utterly brilliant and I left feeling awe-inspired and more knowledgable about previous visits to the moon. There was so much footage and photo and things to look at and I ended up feeling pretty excited by the Artemis mission which is set to go to the moon next year.  There haven't been any moon missions in my lifetime so I was intrigued by how it would feel to be here in for one 'live' as it were.

After this, we headed over to Dishoom, an Indian restaurant which I have heard blog friend Vix speak very highly of.  I can confirm, it was EXCELLENT!!!  All the dishes I chose were fantastic and I tried some of other people's (we sort of shared....).  I had a prawn dish for starter which I shared with CBC who had the Dishoom Chaat. I then had Lamb chops, a Chilli corncob dish, garlic naan... and had some rice and other bits from others. They were so yummy!

We headed home and headed to bed.

This morning, I was up bright and early for church as I was leading worship (AKA playing piano  and singing and trying not to make mistakes!) for the 2 different church services. I had chosen the songs and could play the ones I had chosen.  Mostly went well and both were lovely services with everyone singing their hearts out. Once I'd cycled the 2.5 miles from church no.2 to home, I checked my phone and discovered my friend Izzie asking me if I could attend an orchestra rehearsal to cover the oboe part in 1 hour!  Managed to phone another member in the orchestra who lives locally to me, who hadn't left yet, and she picked me up and we travelled the 40minutes it takes to drive there.  Unfortunately, we discovered the oboist hadn't left her parts (sheet music) there so I ended up playing the entire rehearsal from my tinnnnnnny phone screen as we'd downloaded the parts from IMSLP (very useful website).  It was quite a fun rehearsal and I enjoyed trying the oboe part! Always lovely to see my friends in that orchestra.

Once we'd driven home, I somehow procrastinated a lot and here we are!

CBC and I made a late dinner of Halloumi, shallots, broccoli and tomato plus a bowl of leftover nettle soup. 

Eeek!! The final of my choir competition is THIS Tuesday so prayers, fingers crossed and happy thoughts all appreciated!  Not sure we have a chance of winning against the 5 other schools who I know are good but here's hoping!  Can we also pray for NO repeat of VOMIT GATE last year and that all the parents turn up to pick up their children on time and no one is sick!

Hope all is well with you....

xx

When we returned from Girona, we had around 4 days of lovely weather where I wore actual summery clothing without a covering of cashmere! I took some photos!

I thought I'd share those brief halcyon days' outfits to show it really did warm up...albeit briefly.

The whole lot came from charity shops. The shoes and the trousers were bought last week (Rieker and Topshop via Chazzer respectively)

Plus my Solar system necklace from My Pretty Little Earth (via CBC for Christmas)

The snowball plant has almost reached its peak (the petals are turning more creamy...a couple of days and they will be ready!)

This was for church last week (not this week).

A Heywood floral blouse and Boden cashmere cardie (via charity shop) plus Hollyhocks daisy earrings and Lotus pumps (Haltwhistle shoe menders shop)

I thought this fly was very attractive so he got his own photo!

No TARDIS Tuesday as I am at the competition!

xx