Looking after yourself...

This blog has probably sounded like a broken record the last couple of weeks... so busy, so busy, things broken, me broken, so busy LOL. This week and next, I have the benefit of being on holiday from university (and also for the most part my job, the hours drop right back in school holidays) and I'm using the time to get my life back on track.

Big and small changes occuring in the Scribbles household. I'm moving out into my parents' internal entry garage. My abode during my teens, it gets me living at the opposite end of the house with my own private entry, making life at home far more tolerable when I'm not at SB's. For many reasons, this seems like the best option over summer so I am quite excited. However, my sister left a lot of junk behind when she moved so there's a fair amount to tackle there. This along with walks with Mama Scribs is good exercise!

Today I went and got a pedi and my brows done; after my hair cut next week (huh, just typed Hair Cute... hope it is) I think I will feel much more pulled together and professional - job interviews are hopefully just around the corner. As well as teaching position interviews, I'm currently on the look out for a job over Christmas to bring in some extra cash. I'm so picky though, and lucky that my parents are willing to pay me to be their housekeeper to cover my basic bills over Christmas. Meaning that I'm going to be staying at mine more often to be here to tidy... thus the move to the bigger, more independent summer space.

On that cyclical note, I'm off to finish tidying my room. Hope that you are managing to take time for yourself, Scribblettes!

Well we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto...

Today I survived a tornado.

I wish I was joking.

SB lives in rural South Auckland, in a farmhouse on his parents' horticultural property. Today, being the first day of school holidays, SB left me sleeping as he went off to work. I got up and was just finishing my leisurely breakfast when the rain started bucketing down. I looked out the lounge room window and could see the palm tree in the pool yard flapping like it wanted to take flight.

Crikey.

That's glass on the lawn there... I heard a thump on the side of the house. What the hell? Is it hailing? I looked towards the kitchen window and realised what was probably happening. I screamed and ducked for cover. Panes of glass were flying off the glass house straight at the kitchen window. Huddled into the computer desk, I hear an almighty crash.

And there went the kitchen window... thank goodness for security grilles and net curtains. We curse them all the time but they are what stopped the glass from flinging into the kitchen and across the lounge. It's all open plan.

Then as quickly as it had started, the wind died away. Poor SB's parents have completely lost their crop of tomatoes and have extensive losses and repairs to claim on insurance, including but not limited to a buckled conservatory, windows, glass house panes, gates blown off hinges, fence panels blown off and a massive clean up of glass from the property.

We weren't hit the worst... but for sleepy old rural NZ, it was pretty damn scary. I don't think my blood pressure went back to normal for several hours. So much for a relaxing start to the holidays!

Online soonish!

Hey all,

I have my new computer - a shiny new MacBook Pro! Dad was attracted by the techy bells and whistles. However I'm having some technical glitches getting the wireless internet working at SBs house and so my time online is still fairly minimal. I'm hoping to get this sorted within the next week and be back to my regular schedule. In the meantime, if anyone can explain a little more about why his network is showing up on my comp but it won't let me access the internet on it I would love an answer!

Swimming against the flow...

It's the last week of term. For those of you unfamiliar with the New Zealand schooling system, we have four school terms of around ten weeks each, two week breaks in between each term except for our summer holiday which extends from mid-December until the beginning of February. In three teaching days, school wraps up for the third term and teachers get a holiday... well at least from the actual teaching, not necessarily the paperwork and planning. I'm hearing a lot of murmurs from fellow teachers this week about how they are weary and tired and... I'm not?

Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to a break! Don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, I have assignments to get on with, my hair is desperate need of a cut and I try to hide my manky chipped toenail polish from SB when I can. I wonder whether something has clicked for me this week... is it just that I am feeling more well or is it more that I have found my groove? Is it that I have got to the point when I know that I have planned all I can and that what we are going to get through this week relies on the students, not on me. Have I just relaxed about it more, have the kids picked up on that, is that making me a more effective teacher?

Whatever it is, I love the feeling I have right now... more please! Have any of you experienced some unexpected bliss lately? Let me know in the comments!

The murky depths...

First of all, as an aside, apologies for the lack of blog love lately. I'm only able to access the blog at school, at work or jumping on someone else's computer - none of which is conducive to actually getting any quality time to write blog posts. I will be buying a new laptop this weekend so posts should get back to a semi-regular schedule!

Many, many thoughts running through my head this week... let these hit you or dodge them as you will.

• Being judged gets tiring - on placement at the moment, I'm getting observation feedback after many of the classes I teach. To put this in perspective, think about your job and getting a performance appraisal two to three times a day. I respect the feedback but sometimes it just makes you wonder how fit you are to be a teacher when you still manage to get so many things not-quite-right.
• I am exhausted. I have had a cold pretty much since I started my placement and for the most part I have just kept on chugging. I cannot wait until I am like a normal person: work-life balance is chaotic when it is work-placement-uni-life balance... and this leaves Scribbles feeling unbalanced.
• The silver lining (well, it's more like gold lining, it's fantastic) of course is the lovely relaxing times I spend with SB. We went away to Rotorua recently to celebrate six months of being together - I never get sick of that boy. I don't get to see him tonight because I am working and I miss him. And he misses me! You know that you have something special when just being in the same place is better because the other person is there.
• My visiting lecturer is ticking me off - he won't reply to give me a time that he is going to visit. It's driving me slightly mental.
• Amazing - eating pineapple stops running noses... one of those crazy but true things that has stopped me plowing through my purse packs of tissues at a crazy rate.
• I'm looking forward to spoiling myself in the holidays - pedicure, hair cut and generally gadding about with a tonne of extra time... doing lunch with the boy and absorbing myself in some big beefy books.
• I now need to crack onto some planning for lessons tomorrow so I must bid adieu... but let me know how your weeks are going!
  

Money Money Money...

... must be funny, in a rich man's world.

I am a compulsive planner, as some of you may know (it's not exactly a secret :D) and I struggle when I come up against a wall where I can plan no further. Having looked up the ERO reports for all the high schools in the error, selected which schools I am keen to work with and having prepared CVs and subscriptions to job sites... it's now just a waiting game until those jobs become advertised. I can't stress about my registration yet - we can't apply for it until November - so my mind has turned even further ahead.

My student allowance runs out at the middle of November, leaving me to subsist purely on my work wages (which, btw, is not a lot). My work contract expires just prior to Christmas. I'm not likely to get paid from whatever teaching job I find until the second week of February. I had a mild-to-moderate panic about this last night... at least a month (and probably closer to two) with no income at all.

SB is being lovely and volunteering to help me with my bills. My parents will help out too. But part of me feels pathetic that at 24, I can't do this alone. Saving to cover the period I have off is a nice idea in theory, but I don't have enough left over at the end of the week at the moment to make a significant difference. I'd like to find a secondary job, but I need to know my end dates (i.e. when I start teaching) before I accept any work.

What it boils down to is that I need to find a teaching job for next year and then work backwards, hopefully finding some employment that can work in with that. I need to suck things up and accept the help of my parents, telling myself that this will be the last time I ever need their assistance. I need to appreciate SB's offer and let him help where he can. Most of all, I just need to focus on the here and now... let the other pieces fall into place as it comes.

Still, if anyone knows of any summer jobs...