Pastries in a Day

I have never mastered the art of folding and rolling needed to create layered pastry, so I decided that it was time to do something about that. When I spotted the Showroom Cinema’s Pastries in a Day course, I jumped at the chance. The fee of £39.95 is really good value, considering that it […]

Waiting…

Today is the day that A level students across the country will find out their results.

I’m sure there will be tears.

Let’s hope they are the joyful variety.

A Grand Day Out–a flock of seagulls (and a few puffins) at Bempton Cliffs

There seemed to be a lot of puffins in the media this year. Every time we opened a newspaper or a magazine, there seemed to be a puffin lurking somewhere, flashing its plumage and showing off its beak of many colours. Which is why we eventually got around to asking Uncle Google where we could […]

A Grand Day Out – Flamborough Head

Summer holiday? Gloriously hot sunny weather? It must be time for a grand day out.

We packed up a picnic and headed to the coast. Our destination was Flamborough Head – a rather beautiful area, with its dramatic white cliffs and rugged coastline. There are one or two small stretches of beach, but we headed […]

Perpetual insanity machine

I may have been the only person in the country who was delighted by the arrival of torrential rain today. Torrential rain at about lunchtime? That’ll be perfect.

In not entirely unrelated news, we have been trying to get Ginger Cat to the vet for some time. His vaccination boosters are due, but every time […]

I receive an unexpected makeover

Q: What happens when you leave the sixth form alone for two minutes with your log in screen projected on the board?

A: You acquire a rather dashing moustache. And a monocle. And a top hat (worn at a jaunty angle, of course.)

It’s a shame that the excellent local fancy dress shop has […]

Looking back–and forwards. Well, it is New Year.

What kind of year was 2013?

It was a year that started well, with a relaxing weekend in London, taking in Cirque du Soleil and the Twelfth Night celebrations on Bankside, before delivering a winter that was rather too long for my taste.

It was the year when I completed the final module of […]

Rebooting my language learning with Duolingo

What happened when I went on holiday to France for the first time in about 3 years? Obviously I had a very nice time visiting interesting places, enjoying the local cafes and generally relaxing – but I’ll tell you more about that over the next few days. I also discovered that I had forgotten a […]

Thought for the week

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

attributed to Seneca (via Lifehacker)

How true. I’m hoping that my hard-working Y11 students make their own luck when they take their GCSE Mathematics exams this week.

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I had forgotten that I had written this post. Given what happened since […]

Clypping the Church at Wirksworth

St Mary’s Church in Wirksworth held their annual clypping service today. The old Anglo-Saxon word clyppan, which means to embrace or clasp, is the etymological root of church clypping, but how and why this tradition started seems – like many such practices – to be rather unclear. At Wirksworth, the modern-day clypping is considered to […]