I've got a job!!

I was asked to do an afternoon in year a year four class in a school in Halifax.  

I googled it and found that it was an Outstanding school.  Nervous I turned up and was shown to my fellow year four teacher who gave me all of the planning. 

The first lesson, maths, went off without a hitch. The second was a bit of a muddle, half of the class had done the lesson before the others knew nothing about it.  

We muddled through and made it to home time, "you know miss you are very familiar". Said one of the boys, he thought about it and then said "I know you sound like Nanny Plum from Ben and Holly's Magic Kingdom.  

With a giggle I waved them all off and began marking.  I had to work out all of the answers before I could mark the books.  With a sense of achievement I went back to Tod.  

My teaching career "Oop North" had begun. I liked the school it seemed nice.  I thought nothing more of it.  

A few days passed and I received a phone call, the school needed a year one teacher to cover a mat leave until July, would I plan a maths lesson and have a bit of a chat?  I agreed.  

I was very, very nervous.  

I went online and asked the supply teachers network for suggestions, I had a plan, I only hoped it would be enough.  I carried out the lesson and had a chat, I wasn't confident.   "We'll have a chat and get In touch later, either way". Where have I heard that before?  I drove back to Tod and fifteen minutes later I got a call telling me that they loved me and wanted me to start that Thursday.   What a relief, just when I was convinced I would never get a job. 

Brontë Country - Haworth

"I'm going to take you over the tops!"  Well there's something I've never heard before.

GO decided to take me to Bronte country, a little village called Haworth.  To get there we had to drive over some of the hills between here and there.

I find all of the tiny, twisty, turns roads very scary.  The views are amazing but I don't think they justify the white knuckle

ride.

We arrived in Haworth to discover that everything was closed for Christmas.  The little gift shops close with the Bronte Parsonage Museum.

We walked down to the tourist information, gabbling away about Bronte stories that I could remember.   Shockingly not as many as I thought.

It was then I was greeted with a view I had seen hundreds of times.  It was the hill from the Hovis advert.  GO eased off down the hill towards his end goal, a train station.

All I could think as I followed behind snapping pictures, was "we have to walk back up this hill."  As it turned out the walk down was trickier as there was a bit of ice. My treat for getting back up without "whinging" was....

A cup of tea and a chip butty, absolute heaven on a plate.

First Day

First job for me this week was to register with the supply agency.  I had an appointment before Christmas but the consultant had to cancel, which has pushed EVERYTHING back.

It wasn't holding out much hope, having been informed that Halifax was "a bit run down".

However on arrival the complex that the agency was in The Dean Clough Mills turned out to be amazing.

The buildings were used as mills in a previous life but are now being used by many companies.  There were hotels, design companies and even an art gallery.

The Loom Lounge, a newly opened cafe was amazing.  The food was extremely tasty and ridiculously cheap.

The art gallery had a scale model of the mills made out of LEGO which was amazing.  My only comment was that it should have included a "you are here!" market.

The Angel of the North

After the worst ferry journey ever (IMHO), the room was grubby and too warm, the sea was so rough we kept pitching and rolling and the food left a lot to be desired, although that could have been to do with my queasiness.

We disembarked and waited to leave, we were officially the very last car through the security gate.  I asked GO if he wanted to go and have a look at the Angel of the North, "While we're here!"

It was huge, the last time I'd seen it I was a little hungover, let's leave it at that.

GO did all the usual poses, I couldn't  quite get the right shot, so I said I'd just walk down the slope a bit. 

Well obviously I didn't make it.  I felt my foot start slipping.  I couldn't get a grip and before I knew it, I was flat on my back.

"Oop a la!"  I heard some Polish guys exclaim.  I just lay in the mud and laughed. As I have said before and I'm sure I will say again; it's always me!

Mini Cruising like a Sleb - Part 2

Usually our journey back to the UK takes about 6 hours at most.

As we were travelling to Newcastle it would take us 18 hours. We decided to treat it like a mini cruise.

We treated ourselves to a massage (albeit on a massage chair) and took a stroll around the different restaurants.

For the first couple of hours it was all fun and exciting....

Then realisation hit, we had no entertainment, no access to wifi (so we couldn't download a film) and the room had one temperature, hot!

Slowly it dawned on me we had another SIXTEEN hours left.

By half five we had "dinner", sandwiches and crisps and then with nothing else to do we went to bed.

GO can sleep anywhere and was soon stacking up the z's.  I find it more difficult to sleep in a new bed so I struggled.

Forty five minutes laters feeling hot and bothered I went for a walk, it may have been hot in the cabin but in the deck was

Freezing.

On my return to the cabin, I tried to give it another go.  This time I lay as still as possible when the sea is rough as heck.

I lay on my back and within seconds I was on my side facing the wall.  I somehow managed to let the rhythm lull me to sleep.  I was finally getting to sleep when the people in the neighbouring cabin began chatting very loudly in Dutch!

I couldn't take it anymore, I got up read my book, had a snack and just fidgeted.

I was about to take another solo stroll when GO woke up.

I manage to convince him to join me on my wander, we hit the deck.

After a bracing wander outside we headed back inside.  

We heard music, we followed it and it led to a bar.  There was a guy on a guitar playing classic Neil Diamond, cheese ball!  I was about to leave when a waiter ran across the floor and began the most awesome tap dance routine I have ever seen.  We were mesmerised and found a seat, we enjoyed the show.  An hour later we headed back to the cabin all tuckered out and finally ready for bed.

Mini Cruising Like a Sleb - Part 1

"You have to leave early... 9am should do it.  Give you of plenty of time."  Papichen said emphatically.

I wasn't convinced, leaving at 9am meant we would get there at 12pm and our ferry was at 5pm!

Never the less in the end we actually left at half eight and after a teary first half and hour. I always hate leaving the "rentals".  This time we'd had two fantastic weeks.  We made excellent time, arriving with five hours to kill.

As is the norm for me my priority was food.  I was starving and I knew we wouldn't be eating on the ferry (£30 each for dinner, I think not, we had rolls), so we headed into the Amsterdam suburbs to find something to eat.

We went into Ijmuiden town (there's nothing there we were wrongly informed) and began by looking for a supermarket.  Jackpot, Albert Hjeine, not only could we pick up some food the had free coffee.

After a stroll past the giant crabs and fishermen tribute we spotted Subway, I was tempted but sandwich for lunch and tea was a bit much.

Just as I was about to give up we found a cool little bistro that served burgers and Frikadellen and pommes (no horse meat here, hopefully).

After filling our tums we made our way back to the port.  

We wasted a bit more time at the docks watching the ships arrive and making friends with the seagulls.

We decided to find out where we were supposed to be, we drove past a long queue of cars.  They must be on an earlier ferry I mused.  Nope that was the queue for our ferry, and we were at the back.  Bit of a theme for the journey.

He's done the dirty deed

Well it is official GO has handed in his notice.  He had been anxious about it, but following the tense staff meeting earlier in the week, he decided that now was the right time to move on.  As he said he left home when he was very young and he would like to spend some time with his family while they are still around to enjoy life.  I thought that it might have been a very volatile occasion, but apparantly they had been expecting him to do it a few years ago and were surprised he had stayed as long he had.  All we very sad but they wished him well and then tried to convince him to stay longer.  His very polite response, no thank you.

And So Our Adventure Moves On

It is time for us to pack our bags and take the Murray house and it's life to pastures newer and hopefully greener.  

Moving on is always difficult.  So however, are more experienced (30 moves in my lifetime so far) at it than others; and are able to partition our lives quite easily, others find moving more traumatic.  

I love moving!  I love the planning, packing and the sights and sounds of moving days.  I can remember most of my moving days and look back at each one with fond memories. 

With this in mind I am slowly but surely getting excited about our impending move. I have bought boxes, found a storage unit (just in case) and have downloaded a "moving plan" from Pinterest.

I am working in a new school for the first month or so, just to build up a little nest egg before we head on up and start all over again.  

For how long?  Who knows there has been talk of heading abroad at some point.

My current thought processes

For about a year now, actually if I'm honest, for my entire adult life, I have been seriously considering adoption. It kills me inside whe I think about the time I have wasted, waiting....

Initially I wanted to provide GO a biological child because, as I have always said, I wanted to see what our DNA would make.  I had visions of little curly red heads running around, creating mischief and just being loved.  Over time (7years) and after many, many, procedures and agonising weeks of waiting it just hasn't happened for us and I think there is a reason for this.  

I think we were meant to open our hearts andhome to the many children who are alone, for whatever reason, in this scary world and who need love, guidance and protection.

We had planned to start the proceedings in January, to give ourselves the chance of being a family this year.  I/we decided to postpone after a lengthy discussion with my GP.  We also made some pretty massive geographical decisions.

I have now come to the conclusion that we are waiting for nothing.  We are not going to conceive a child naturally, I don't want to go down the IVF route, it is painful, expensive, and there is no guarantee that it will work. 

I suppose the epiphany I have had is that I want to be somebody's mother, I want GO to be somebody's father.  At the end of the day we are not blood related (that would be so very wrong) but we are family.  We have the love and time to care and raise a child, there are thousands of children who are living without love who could fit perfectly into our hearts and lives.

What now?  Well I think we need to resettle and then start the process, it's a new chapter in the Murray house, a scary and exciting chapter.  I will have to let GO take the lead, I can't pressurise him, he needs to feel comfortable about all of this.

I once asked him if he wanted to move on from me, to find a wife who could provide him a child, he's younger than me, he has plenty of options. His response was one of confusion; "why would I do that?  You're the one I love. We will be parents however it happens they will be our children and we will love and raise them together."  

That's the man I love.  That's the man I married.  He's my hero