South Africa - Baboons at last!!!

I left you in my last post on New year's eve in Rooiels after a post full of penguins...but no baboons...

On New Year's Day, we headed to the beach again, at about 9am to go and have a swim again.  It was really enjoyable, we drew in the sand; Sarah (little girl) and I searched for sea shells and we paddled.

As we came back from the beach, suddenly, D said, "You've got your wish to see baboons," and there were a bunch of them hanging outside his next door neighbour's house.

Or rather, squatting on the balcony like an errant bunch of lairy teenagers.

It was hilarious seeing them but I was a tad apprehensive as they can be aggressive and they really don't respect women apparently, only alpha males, they just ignore women.

As I stood there photographing them, they looked down at me (I was accompanied by 2 males)

"See the monkeys scritch-scritch-scratching, tails hanging down, all scritch-scritch-scratching.."

And then, a few on the ground headed towards me.  Uh-oh!

There were a few Mummies with babies hitchhiking.

A whole host of them began walking and running along the road in front of us ahead towards our house whilst we snapped the nearer ones.

I loved the sight of this little one grabbing Mummy's hand!

And this little one riding Mummy like a rodeo!

There were older ones, teenagers and babies.

Slumbering infants too.

As we reached the house, we saw they had begun a party on the driveway.

And J was most unimpressed as 3 had climbed up using her windscreen wipers as a rope to board her car.  The windscreen wiper did NOT take to such rough treatment and subsequently broke, hanging down rather like a limp tendril.

It was fantastic to see them up close at last but it was an unnerving experience, given all the signs I'd been seeing all week!

After this, we packed up and drove back to Cape Town to spend our final afternoon and evening watching Mango Groove at Kirstenbosch with a picnic. It was the perfect setting for the concert- beautiful mountains surrounding us, luscious green shrubs and a happy crowd dancing to Mango Groove!

It had been a wonderful holiday and we just had to pack for our long flight back to England in the morning!

xx

Because we really all want to be doing it ourselves...

When I first went into have some pre-PGCE school experience, to see if I really wanted to be a teacher, I actually went to my school to do this.  I really enjoyed my time in the school and I always remember one incident when I was there that first time.
 When I was observing in a year 6 class, the teacher (who is still there) was asking them to create these monograms for something. As I sat there making notes, I remembered thinking, "I wish I could do one.  I'd do this...".  It was as if the teacher read my mind because 2 minutes later, she came over to be and dropped one of the pieces of paper and a pencil in front of me and muttered, "Because we all secretly want to be doing the work ourselves."  I duly and merrily joined in and drew my own monogram.

This has often remained in my head and I have often wondered if one of the subconscious facets of being a teacher, perhaps even being a good teacher, is that we like doing school work ourselves and would like to do it.  Is that just true for art or music work? When I did my LSO on track music training scheme, all of us teachers absolutely adored the creative days where we got to make compositions and try out the tasks we would be asking the children to do.   Whenever I taught art, I always modelled and took great joy in it.

But my ultimate favourite was writing. When I taught literacy, I always took great delight in writing modelled texts for my class and when observed or accompanied by teaching assistants, often the thing people would say is that they loved it when I did Shared writing with a class. Somehow that passion would come across and the whole class would be itching to join in with the writing, contributing adjectives, conjunctions, punctuation etc. I've not had to do so much of that since being a music teacher and it just happens that for half a year, I've taught a Literacy lesson on a Friday morning and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was the last one this Friday just gone as we will be doing Cornet lessons with the music service from next week.  The children were watching this film called 'Varmints' based on a book they are studying.  It is really beautiful and very mysterious too, I recommend watching it.  As I was marking their preparatory work for writing a diary based on the final day (from around 17:45 in the film), I commented to J, their class teacher, that I wished I could be the one writing the text and I said I might go home and write on the train, just for the fun of it. J laughed and said if I really wanted to, then she would use it as a model text with the children on Monday, she was half incredulous I was willing to do that.

But do it, I did and had a great time doing it. It's a bit waffly.  Of course, as  teacher, I wanted to ensure that all the things we wish children would do in their writing.  CBC read it and said, "You've got quite a lot of description there and indeed, when I first read it back, I got a bit bored of the complex sentences and starting with an adverbial each time.I decided to cut a bit but still, it is a page and a half.  Why not do the task we are asking the children to do. It is all good practice and, I think, helps you to advise the children better if you have done the same.

What do you think? Do you think you'd like to do the tasks a teacher asks a pupil to do or am I alone in that?

xx

January books

I was mortified to find that I had failed to write my January book reviews and it is almost time for February! I read 11 books in January, but two of those are picture books.  We are having a massive push on reading at the moment in school and I think that as a teacher, yes, even a music teacher, it is critical, that I know and have read a large variety of books for children, so I can recommend books to children who are struggling to choose, enthuse about those I have read, and be able to advise etc.  Thus, I made the aim to read a few new ones as well as an old favourite.  There were a few adult books in there too!

Let me know if you've read any of these or you'd read it based on my reviews- always good to know!

Image borrowed from www.Foyles.com where you can buy this book

1.  Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone -  J K Rowling

Having recently read 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child', I decided it would be fun to reread all the Harry Potter books over 2017.  I reread this with much alacrity, enjoying the young trio.   I loved seeing Diagon Alley and Hogwarts from the start and enjoying all the challenges at the end when they try to protect the Philsopher's stone.  However, on rereading, I find the fact that the Philosopher's stone faced an attempt to steal it JUST as Harry came to Hogwarts and thus it coming to Hogwarts rather too convenient.  Quirrel supposedly went to Albania 3 years ago so why did it take him this long to find out about the Philsopher's Stone and steal it?  All too convenient, even though most books are like that! It was also interest to reread Dumbledore's refusing to tell Harry why Voldemort wanted to kill Harry interesting now knowing the reason why!  I look forward to the next in the series!

2.  Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Militant Midwives - Michael Bond
I've read two of these books featuring culinary detective for Le Guide, Monsieur Pamplemousse aleady and was rather pleased to find a third one in a charity shop.  In this book, Monsieur Pampelmousse is rather confusingly goes to the funeral of a friend who was on his way to see him when he was killed.  At the funeral, a bomb explodes and everyone only narrowly escapes by his dog Pomme Frites rushes into the ceremony barking. He is then called to see the see the Director of Le Guide, who talks or rather doesn't talk, everything must be inferred, about something going on in Paris and sends him to see a CIA agent who is staying in a hotel to find out more.  It then transpires that someone is going to do something drastic to do with food to poison the population of Paris! What will it be and how?

This book is rather silly, full of nice food descriptions, witty moments and a lot of confusion! I was rather confused at times as to what was going on but it all sort of became clear by the end.

Definitely a funny book though- I particularly enjoyed the description of the aftermath of Pomme Frites being accidently fed a Viagra or something of that sort which landed M. Pamplemousse in trouble! I won't go out my way to buy this series brand new, but if I see it in a charity-shop or Barter Books etc, where I originally found the other two books I read, I'll definitely grab it.

3. Behold, here's poison -  Georgette Heyer.

It has only been a month since I read this but already the plot and details have grown hazy in my head! It's shocking what reading about 15 books more can do to your memory, eh?

This is one of Heyer's murder mystery books rather than a Regency Romance and features the marvellous Superintendent Hannasyde. The Randall family are gathered after the death of Uncle Matthew, who was a veritable tyrant and troublemaker. Of course, he has opposed a marriage of his niece, upset his spinster-sister and refuses to give money to his rather useless young-nephew and there's a whole host of those who could be responsible! It's run of the mill 1920's crime but that doesn't stop it being wonderfully enjoyable. When I read the final denouement, the murderer did not turn out to be the one I mainly suspected and was rather a clever and very far-fetched plot!
The characters are interesting.  Randall Matthew, I think, is a quintessential Georgette Heyer male- brilliant but awkward and deliberately obtuse.   I felt like Hannasyde did very little and not enough of the plot involved him but whilst I prefer her romances, this doesn't stop this from being a Good Read.

4.  Death at the seaside-Frances Brodie

A delightful Christmas present from Char, this book features Kate Shackleton, a young detective who is the daughter of a Yorkshire police officer. She has decided to travel to Whitby to stay with an old friend from her boarding school, a Bohemian young lady, Alma, and her daughter, Felicity.  But when  Kate arrives in Whitby, she goes to a jeweller to buy Felicity a necklace to go with the dress she has bought as a gift, but finds the Jeweller knocked out cold in the back of his shop.
Due to her discovering the body and being discovered out on the cliffs late at night, plus being associated with Alma, who had dinner with the dead man, Kate is suspected of being the Murderer herself. To make matters worse, Alma's daughter, Felicity, has gone missing, gone on a journey in a boat to search for her Father, and then Alma is chief suspect.  The locals in Whitby are not being helpful so it all looks rather ominous for Alma and Felicity.

The book was cleverly told from the perspective of both Kate AND Felicity in different chapters so there was a real sense of finding a little out at a time which worked well.   The clues as to who the murderer is are subtle, but obvious enough for me to have worked out whodunnit and for it to be a satisfying conclusion.  I liked the character descriptions of most of the characters except Alma who was rather irritating. What was particularly wonderful was the descriptions of Whitby and the places around. I really enjoyed that and such was the impact, that when CBC said he wanted to get away at half-term, I suggested Whitby!

I've subsequently found two more of this series in the charity shops so I am eager to read more.

Image from www.foyle.com where you can buy this book.

5. Clover Moon -  Jacqueline Wilson

It has been such a long time since I read a JW book, that when I saw one of our year 5 pupils reading this, I asked her if it was good, and if I could borrow it.  I find kids love it when a teacher asks if they can borrow their book and I think is very important to prove you are a reader and that you love it.
In this book, Clover is part of a poor large family in Victorian London. Her own mother is dead and she really dislikes her mean Stepmother who picks on her.  She's very street-savvy and enjoys a friendship with the kind but hunchback dollmaker nearby but even he is very poor and unable to help much.  When her sister becomes ill, and her stepmother's treatment of her becomes intolerable, Clover decides to run away to a home for destitute girls that she hears about.  But the journey is far away, and the streets of London are no place for a young girl alone.

I enjoyed another book that JW wrote set in the Victoria era and this one is another classic.  Her main characters, mainly girls, are brave, streetwise, cheeky and plucky and are rather likeable.  I read this in no time at all.  I'd recommend this to any children of the same age.

6. Journey to the River Sea- Eva Ibbotson
This book, or rather, 3 copies of it, have been on my bookshelves for a few years now, but I've been saving my Eva Ibbotson books since she is an author I adore, and now she is no longer alive, there will be no more of her books to read once I've read them all. However, year 6 are reading this as their study book this term and I rather like to be able to talk to all my classes about books they are reading, even though I am a music teacher mainly!

The book is set in 1910 and a delightful little girl called Maia, is orphaned, so she must leave her lovely school and travel to the Amazon to live with some distant relatives who have offerered to have her, in exchange for a rather large amount of money.
As Maia and her new governess, the enigmatic Miss Minton travel on the ship, they fantasize about the wonderful exotic environment they will come to and picture a wonderful family and a happy life.

But the reality is somewhat different- her relatives are mean and grasping and fearful of all wildlife, so they exist on tins shipped from England and all wildlife is kept at bay.  Maia's twin cousins are awful- a real pair of ugly stepsisters to Maia's sort of Cinderella.

Maia gains access to the freedom she seeks eventually, but only in secret and slowly makes friends from the boy actor she met aboard ship, to the fugitive son of a recently deceased explorer and seeker of animals.

The description is so magical and the characters are really well written.  Maia is good, but not saintly; the twins are utterly vile; Miss Minton is intriguing; the Aunt and Uncle- awful and wicked but sad; the twins- downright nasty!

The conclusion is really exciting and the journey that Maia and her new friends make is full of discovery.

I thoroughly recommend this one.

7.  The 65 storey tree house- Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton

Another Hexham charity-shop purchase, this book is told in cartoon, comicbook form with accompanying text is the 5th book in this series. The tree-house is a wonderful place with totally bonkers,crazy floors and contents and tells the story of Andy and Terry- the authors who live there in a chaotic world which one writes and the other draws.
Andy and Terry realise they haven't had planning permission for their extra extension of storeys and so, in a bid to appease the planning inspector who has turned up, they go back in time to try and submit the form for a license.  unfortunately, the time machine doesn't seem to be ending up in the right time and they end up in all sorts of hot water! The book is totally silly and full of groanworthy puns that a 9 year old would love, but left me a little bit, irritated!  I can see why children like these, there is a lot of imagination involved, but they are really silly, in a Chuckle Brothers kind of way.

8.  Sleeping Murder- Agatha Christie
I do believe this was one of the first Miss Marples I ever read and it is her final book! My Mum bought me a copy of it for Christmas as she wasn't sure if I had it, or had read it but since I've not read it for about 15 years, I was glad to encounter it again.
The book is set when Gwenda and her new husband decide to move home to England from New Zealand. Gwenda finds a house called Hillside, which seems right to her, to buy, and so the couple set about rennovating it. Gwenda has some weird predictions about the place- like the type of wallpaper that should go in the nursery, and a door that should be there in the dining room and suddenly thinks she must have lived there before when it transpires that that very wallpaper WAS in the room (it is revealed underneath.  She goes up to London to stay with Raymond West and his aunt, Miss Marple, and during the play, when a character talks about the murdered character dying young, she screams and remembers someone called Helen being strangled in the hallway of her new home.

Gwenda is determined to solve the mystery, which must have occurred 18 years ago, and is obviously unknown, as there is no news or recollection of it. Miss Marple ends up finding a way to go down to that part of the country to keep an eye on Gwenda and her husband as they set about as amateur-sleuths and they try to solve the perfect murder. But should they have let the murder lie? Might it reveal some uncomfortable truths for Gwenda?

The solving of this seems fairly incomprehensible and I remember not realising whodunnit, the first time I ever read it but remembered who this time.  Luckily, a second murder occurs which makes things somewhat clearer.  This is more complicated than other Miss Marple stories, but ingenious as Christie always is! Not my favourite one, but nonetheless, enjoyable and very unnerving!

9.  Alone on the Wide, wide sea- Michael Morpurgo

This features with my first book from February.   I've had this on my bookshelf for around 7 years and I've never read it.  Like the Jacqueline Wilson, in my early days of being a teacher, I read oodles of Morpurgo books, particularly as we studied him as a significant children's author in Year 5.  

His books have a distinctive style- told in the first person, featuring a child as main character who often tells an 'untold till now' story, often involving some incredible relationship between them and an animal, often the sea, often involving a difficult journey or childhood and this one is no exception.

The main character tells the story of his childhood, how after WW2, children whose parents had been killed were shipped to Australia for the chance of a new life.  In his case, our main character, who was seperated from his sister Kitty who stayed back in England,  ended up working virtually like a slave on a ranch in the outback.  His minder is a terrible man who works the children living with him like dogs, they subsist on virtually no food and get beaten.  He and his friend who he met, eventually manage to escape and live with a wonderful lady who collects sick animals.  The story continues as it becomes his dogged aim in life to sail a ship back to England to find Kitty, who he has never forgotten and to find out what the tiny key,  which she gave him before he left, is for. He's not sure if she is still alive or how to find her, but it is wish... I won't say anymore than that, but it remains for you to decide if you think he makes it or not.

Morpurgo really makes you care about the characters in the book.  I am always drawn into his writing and you gain a real sense of the places he writes about from the description, which comes across simply, not through reams and reams of descriptive passages, but by a sort of narrative osmosis. There is a slightly unbelievable relationship between a character and an animal towards the end of the book that left me slightly incredulous, let longing for such a thing to be true! The characters are believable and very likeable and the plot always leads you forward.  A great one and a slightly longer than his average-length book.

10. Lost and found-Oliver Jeffers (picture book)
11.  Up and Down- Oliver Jeffers (picture book)

I cannot seem to get this picture to rotate! Ahrgh!

I bought both these books in Hexham's Oxfam and was very pleased with 2 hardback picture books. I've read these to Reception in the last few weeks and they really enjoyed the story.
In Lost and Found, a penguin turns up at the door of the little boy.  He tries to find out where it has come from and assumes it is lost so he sets out on a journey to help it get home. But is that what the penguin wants.
We had lots of discussion about friendship in Reception and it is a great book for talking about helping and being a good friend. There were some fun ideas like using an umbrellas as a boat too and the illustrations by Oliver Jeffers are really eye-catching and soulful.

The story continue in Up and Down. The boy and his penguin are still great friends and do everything together but the penguin really wants to be able to fly.  The boy can't seem to help, so when the penguin sees an advertisement asking for a new 'Human Cannonball' with the circus, he excitedly sets out to try his luck, forgetting to tell the boy where he is going. But is this a wise move?

Again, the theme of this book is friendship, trying to achieve your dreams but being realistic and knowing what is truly right for you and learning from your mistakes.  The children loved the idea of shooting out of a cannonball and were willing to talk about their predictions about what would happen next.

When I went to teach that class this week, they asked me if I had brought the next book to follow 'Up and down' which was lovely as I hadn't seem them for 2 weeks, so the fact they remembered showed they really enjoyed it! They are 4-5-years olds but I know 7 and 8 year olds who enjoyed doing work on this book too.

So...have I convinced you to read any of these and are any of these your favourites>

xx


P.S.  If you want to keep progress of what I've been reading over the past few years and what I've already read this month, then here's the link to my book page

In the red

Morning!
Hope you are all well and dandy. I'm fine, just completed an epic marathon of washing up from a busy week of school, rehearsals and reports. Yes, I have completed all 500!

This weekend is fairly chilled except for a moving in party this afternoon and then viewing 2 houses and playing at church the morning tomorrow.

This is an outfit from half term week. I realised that when I did my 10 top charity shop purchases of 2016, I rudely neglected to include this Per Una coat.
I have worn out pretty frequently for school since October. It was my one purchase from our regular half term flute charity shop crawls that my lovely quartet make (I had to miss last week's one and was v about this!). £5 bought my a comfy warm coat in my favourite hue which looks smart!

I really should get out into the garden to rake some leaves, they are all over the end the garden but it is so chilly that it feels like a chore!

Except for my Ralph Lauren boots which were a Tk Maxx bargain 3 years ago, everything else in the outfit was charity shopped out given second hand by a friend!

CBC frowned at me out of the window as I was taking this so the timer caught my retort!

Someone was asking me the other day which of the shopping towns or indoor malls in the surrounding area that I mainly shop at and I honestly couldn't answer. I really do mainly frequent charity shops in small suburbs or online. Funny to think of that!

I have to mention this pretty Swarovski necklace I'm wearing here. It comes from an independent business in Hexham called Artful of Hexham. 

I really wasn't in the market for buying yet another piece of jewellery but what compelled me to purchase it is the need to support independent businesses, artists who are trying

To make a living and are trying to keep our high streets not so full of chain s. They display a poster in the shop talking about supporting independent with a campaign called 'Just one card' where if everyone who went in just bought 1 card, then creative business like this would stay open. Now, I tend to make most of my cards so if I can buy something else instead, then I will. I chose this necklace because it is an almost identical one too the one my Mum gave my sister and I when we were Bridesmaids for her when I was 6. I loved it so when the chain broke some 15 years after and I lost the heart, I was quite upset.

Do you try to support the Just a card campaign?

Xx

5 broooches #55

300 reports complete. 200 to go.... Ahrgh!

A quick post here- one that was already ready to go but I always feel it is nice to add a welcome to you, written on the actual day!  It's only 6 days since my last broochage post but I haven't got much time to do anything else but I wanted a wee distraction!

Hope there's something you like here!

You can just see Nessie on the right. He's from @fairytalecollars on Etsy!  He seemed to fit right in with the Orla Kiely pattern I felt.

And here are the teapot and teacup brooches I made a while back out of Shrinkplastic. I started making another brooch the other day, one that has been sitting waiting for ages. The subject of it is so cute so I will be dismayed if it goes wrong in the oven!

Two photos of this one.  I thought I'd wear my Glitterpunk pastel keyboard with my Miss Patina Aristocat blouse!

Last but not least, is an ensemble you will have seen a few weeks ago. My charity-shopped Robin jumper with Rosebud Casson Robbin necklace plus her Blackbird pin and a Primark bird pin plus a Christchurch welcome badge!

Any favourites here?

xx

South Africa- penguins at Rooiels and Pringle Bay

The day after we were in Cape Town's city, we drove to Rooiels which is around 2 hours drive from Cape Town to stay in the beach home of J, our host's dad.  Her sister and family were there too and I was immensely glad to be spending New year's eve in a home rather than braving vast crowds which always sets me On Edge.

After arriving at Rooiels, we saw signs warning of and were told about the baboons that roam the tiny little seaside suburb.   Yet, I'd seen all these signs for baboons but not ACTUALLY glimpsed one of the elusive beasties!  We drove to nearby Pringle Bay to see the penguins! We were super keen to see them since the day we were supposed to see them at Boulders Beach (the day we went to Cape Point), the beach was absolutely heaving so we decided to forgo a visit!

Pringle Bay was beautifully bereft of tourists. If you ever go to South Africa, whilst Rooiels isn't a big well known place with much to do (great in my opinion), it was a great place to see penguins!

This comical fellow walked up the slope towards me!

I delight in penguins leaning down to, what I perceived to be, inspecting their tummy buttons!

It was truly a mesmerising activity. I liked seeing them in various gradations of down showing a plethora of ages.

Suddenly, as we reached a low hedge, I spied a small furry animal...

Unbelievably this Rock Rabbit came right up to the hedge and was less than 10cm away from me.

As it chewed upon leaves, I couldn't believe I managed to capture such a cheeky shot!

CBC and J and D were less impressed than I and so soon we continued onwards.

When we reached the very end of the wooden walkway, we noticed other birds- are they Cormorants?

The colours suddenly seemed to change here with light, almost white-coloured rocks and an increasingly blue and turbulent sea.

Alas, it was all too soon that we had to leave as the sun was baking down and J was keen to get back.

I captured a pair of bickering birds on film which I found quite amusing so it is here for your delectation.

I couldn't believe it that on the way back, every else spotted 2 baboons on the road, and I somehow missed them! Ahrgh, would I ever see them?

Following that, we proceeded back to the house as Rooiels where we collected together our swimming costumes and walked down to the beach (no camera alas!).  This beach was on the WARM side of the ocean so the sea was really pleasant to swim and splash in.  This beach had many sea shells and a lovely lagoon too so it was a great AND quieter place to swim. I still couldn't believe I was spending New Year's Eve swimming in the sea!

Back at the house we had a bonefide South African Braai (barbecue) with tasty food and then chatted. I watched The Gummi Bears on the TV with J's adorable nieces and ended up sleeping on the sofa until midnight whereupon, I was hauled out onto the balcony/veranda to see in the New Year!

It was a wonderful way to spend New Year.  Chilled, with friends and no crowds!

xxx