Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: October 8th, 2010 Posted in: Life Tags for this post: My Life. Leave a comment
“It’s a bit foggy,” says Mr TLC, understating wildly. “Take care.”
I set off and start to play hide and seek with other drivers in the fog. Some of them have their lights on. Others have opted to present me with a higher level of challenge.
As is the way with these things, the small drop in altitude as I descend Crookes Mountain results in an abrupt change of weather. I emerge into bright sunshine. Nice.
I decide to revert to my normal route. Caution! Loose chippings! The one I’ve been avoiding because it was being resurfaced. SLOW Wet Tar! I try to spot a bit that has actually been resurfaced, but I fail to see a single loose chipping or bit of new Tarmac. As far as I can tell, all that has actually happened is that a lot of signs have been put up. Caution! No road markings! A sign to tell me there are no road markings? That’s a laugh. There haven’t been any for years!
Ooh, look at that woman up ahead, she’s got amazingly bright pink hair.
Oh, how disappointing. The bright pink hair turns out to be a bright pink hat.
Ooh, how flipping brilliant – that woman in the bright pink hat is Dellboy. Yay! Quick, park the car and say hello, haven’t seen her in aaages.
I proceed to have my reflexes tested by members of the Sheffield Society for Reversing Very Fast Out of Driveways.
A small boy at a nearby bus stop, his face a mask of concentration, solemnly performs a dance to no music.
That just leaves a brief encounter with a beautiful vintage car before I finally arrive at work.
“How was your journey?” asks a colleague.
“Not bad,” I reply, sweeping every minor incident under the carpet of conversational convenience.
I live on the dullest road in Sheffield. It’s lovely.
My road goes nowhere, so it’s quiet.
As far as I am aware, my neighbours are unlikely to attract the attentions of any passing paparazzo, so, as I said, it’s quiet.
Which leaves me wondering why I passed a camera crew at the top of the street as I arrived home. There was a surprising amount of kit being deployed to film a serious looking journalist and background shots of my unremarkable little road.
Has something happened? On my street? Surely not. I looked around for evidence of Things Happening. There did not appear to be any.
I toyed with the idea of walking back up the road and asking, but concluded that speculation would be far more interesting. (In fact isn’t that how most journalism works ?)
Anyhoo, if our local news media are as prompt as usual, I should read all about it, probably in about two or three weeks time.
I’ll let you know.
In the meantime, the big news from the Road to Nowhere is that nothing is happening. Again. Which is fine by me.
… but a little procrastination won’t hurt. Isn’t that what weekends are for?
Anyhoo, it must be time for a quick catch up, so here it is:
I’m now two weeks into my new job and still very happy that I’ve moved. I’m still trying to remember a great many names, getting lost/walking in circles with monotonous regularity and asking eleventy-nine dumb questions a day, but I’m starting to feel like I belong there. It’s nice. And of course I’m now teaching maths full-time, which is wonderful.
Less wonderful is the mountain of bags and boxes that I brought home from Former School. I wasn’t really aware of just how much personal stuff (books/resources/random boxes of things) I had amassed over the years until I had to shift it all. Time for some a heck of a lot of sorting out and getting rid. Despite taking quantities of books to the our local Oxfam shop, recycling mountains of paper and getting rid of a great many things, I still seem to be the proud owner of about twice as much stuff as I can comfortably live with.
The result of this is that sorting through bags, clearing out shelves and attempting to empty cupboards seems to be my new hobby. I think it may take a while – largely because Mr TLC and I turn out to be rather less than zen-like where possessions are concerned. We attempted to make a large dent in the number of CDs we own, but everything he wanted to get rid of, I was most attached to and vice versa. After an hour or so of determined and ruthless sorting, we only managed to dispose of half a dozen CDs that we owned two copies of, one misguided purchase that unexpectedly turned out to be a ‘Pickwick Singers sing’ type of thing and a disc that we can’t play without Ginger Cat yowling plaintively and running away. Could do better.
In other news, we’re doing all the stuff that we normally do: watching too much cycling and not doing enough of it ourselves, taking too many photographs, baking too many cakes, enjoying the company of Ginger Cat (must be autumn now – he’s home) and generally feeling rather happy. Oh, and I’ve started doing an M.Ed, which looks like it’s going to be interesting, although to be honest I’m not sure that I’ve cleared enough space in my life to fit it in. Of course, if waited until I had the time, I’d never do it, so what the heck.
Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to. How about you?
An unexpected treat tonight: walking through town we passed the Winter Gardens. Have they always been open so late? I’m sure they used to be bolted and barred from early evening.
Anyway, in we went and discovered that we had the place to ourselves (I’m sure there was a security guard/City Centre Ambassador/CCTV camera lurking somewhere, but we didn’t see them). We wandered among the plants, enjoyed looking at the shadows and had our own private viewing of the Pictures of Sheffield exhibition. A dimly lit private viewing, but still fun.
I’m surprised to discover that the gardens are open until 11pm most days. Should you happen to be passing, I can recommend a late evening promenade. It feels rather pleasantly fairytale magical in there.
Hello! Remember me? I’ve been exceedingly busy doing a great many things, some interesting, some not (such is life), so here’s a quick update:
I have been to Paris, which went something like this: count children onto a bus, set off, travel a bit, count children, arrive at science museum, count children, have a brilliant time, go on a boat, count children, go up the Eiffel Tower, count children, be very relieved to end up with the same number that I started with. First time I’ve led a school trip abroad. Been on many, but my first time in charge. It was good though – can I do another one?
I have left my job. Sort of. By which I mean there was a last of day of term when I said goodbye to lots of people, although I was most insistent that I would not be making speeches etc – we went to the pub after school and chatted instead, much nicer. The following week I went back to school (what holidays?) and said hello to many of the people who had bid me farewell just days earlier. I realised a long time ago that I wouldn’t be ready to ‘leave’ at the end of term: there were still displays to put up, classrooms to empty and rather a lot of things to deal with. I’ve still got a few bits and pieces to do, but the real end is nigh, my self imposed ‘final’ day is on results day next week.
I have embarked on a spot of mad decorating/DIY, as is traditional during the summer holidays. 100+ years of paint has now been removed from banisters (they’re actually starting to look quite nice), the landing floor has been sanded and it’s looking as if I might even finish before I run out of holiday. Woohoo!
Whilst I attack the landing and stairs, Mr TLC has been industriously working his way down the long list of things that need painting outdoors. We meet up for tea/coffee breaks and I admire his painting. He doesn’t seem to be admiring my wondrous woodworking skills though, maybe I need to drop some bigger hints.
I have read books, watched films and enjoyed evenings chilling out with Mr TLC. I feel strangely guilty about spending an evening reading a book or watching something on TV, which is ridiculous really, I am on holiday – I’m supposed to be doing that kind of stuff.
And we seen to have found a new local: the Nottingham House (or Nommingham House as we prefer to call it) ticks all the boxes: decent beer, nice food (but more of that later) and a not-half-bad music/entertainment quiz. We decided to give the aforementioned quiz a go, resurrected the Three-Legged Cat quiz team moniker and scored a more than respectable 29 out of 30. Sadly we were not alone in achieving this score, but I can report that we maintained our 100% record in the tie-breaker: yes, we lost it. Ho hum. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, honestly, who do we think we are, Sheffield Wednesday?
Our next stop on our journey around the back roads and byways of Britain was at a school field tucked away in Willaston. It was time to meet some charming folk.
Sadly we were a little late, having been delayed first by a Rose Queen’s parade and then by the need to pull in and wait for a magnificent steam engine as it passed. But that’s fine, we were in search of B-Road Britain – and we found it.
Our late arrival meant we didn’t witness much of the World Worm Charming Championships, but we were still in time to be astounded at the bewildering array of devices used to persuade the local worms to appear and be counted: garden forks aplenty, sticks, basketballs, xylophones and even a euphonium. Baking hot sun and a spell of dry weather meant that records were unlikely to be broken, but we didn’t stop to see the prizes awarded in any case. We’d spotted something interesting earlier in the day and decided to head back for a closer look.
Our trip around the highways and byways of Britain took us through Derbyshire, across the Pennines and into Cheshire.
We passed through Smalltown, where I used to live, so we took a little detour to allow me to point out my old house to Mr TLC. It was rather strange to drive through the area where I grew up, but which I haven’t visited for more than two decades. A little nostalgia is always nice, but I can’t say I’ve missed the place.
We headed off for our first planned stop, which is one of my favourite places: Jodrell Bank, home to the University of Manchester’s beautiful radio telescope.
The first thing that strikes you about the Lovell telescope is its sheer size: with a height of up to 89 metres (depending on exactly how it is oriented) and a bowl diameter of 76 metres it really is impressive.
Mr TLC had his usual effect – he is after all the man who can make Tower Bridge open just by expressing the desire to see it do so. He casually mentioned that he would like to see the telescope move. Sudden creaks, whirrs and the sounds of various motors indicated that Mr TLC was about to get his wish. First we were treated to the sight of the whole structure rotating on the railway tracks it sits on. This occurred at a surprisingly fast speed – the telescope moves constantly, to correct for the earth’s rotation, but normally rather more imperceptibly. Then the dish tilted downwards until it was almost facing us. It was a treat to watch.
There’s various other things to see and do there: a planet trail, an arboretum to visit, a couple of parabolic dishes that will allow you to whisper sweet nothings to someone standing several metres away. We skipped the 3D theatre, but we did stop off to say hello to Copernicus before heading off to meet some charming folk.
Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: June 25th, 2010 Posted in: Everything Tags for this post: Leave a comment
Way back in the time known as 2007, Mr TLC and I spent a few happy evenings in the televisual company of Mr Robbie Coltrane, as he wended his way from London to Glasgow via the nation’s B-roads.
Actually, the London to Glasgow business was a little misleading, since Robbie’s journey took him veering from one side of the country to the other and back again. But hey, it was only a TV show, we didn’t need geographical or temporal realism.
What we did get was a wonderful pastiche of people and places. We loved it.
We’ve always been tempted to follow in Mr Coltrane’s footsteps and set off on a B-Road odyssey of our own. Tomorrow we’re actually doing it: a trip that will start with the dish of the day, before taking us to meet some charming folk and ending on a high point.
It’s the silliest day out that I’ve ever planned. Can’t wait.
This is where I blither on about life, the universe and everything - sometimes even three-legged cats.
I am: a resident of Sheffield (it's been my home town for more than 20 years), a Londoner, a teacher of maths and ICT and a student of French.
I like: cats, Sheffield, walking, doing the pub quiz, maths, cooking, reading, red wine, theatre, weekends in London, cycling, eating out, museums, gardening, going to the cinema, real ale, learning French and spending far too much time online. (My partner, Mr TLC, says this is making me sound like a lonely hearts ad. Oh well.)
Any opinions expressed in this blog are my own, I don't claim to speak for anyone else in education or outside of it. If you disagree, feel free to comment!
Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: October 8th, 2010 
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