Another Quiet Weekend...

Well, another week-and-a-half has passed since my last post. I got a full week of work last week related to the volcano-induced travel chaos; some schools had as many as 10 or 15 teachers missing on the Monday after the holiday. Shows you how many teachers go abroad on vacation during the holidays...by this week, schools seemed to be back to normal functioning for the most part. Last Saturday, I met some friends and we had a picnic in Hyde Park. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for it, 21C, and I think half of London had the same idea. The park was filled with friends, couples, families some with picnic lunches, others with balls and frisbees and towels to lay out and enjoy the sun's rays.

Erin and Jess, my teacher friends on our makeshift picnic blanket (a bedsheet).

Sunday, Wood Green was having a no-church Sunday to encourage everyone to visit a different Anabaptist church. I chose to go back to Barking Baptist as I hadn't been there in over a month. It was good to see people I hadn't seen in a while, and I enjoyed a long Sunday afternoon to walk around the neighbourhood, and relax. Over supper, I was making a batch of banana muffins, so I had my laptop down in the kitchen (I didn't have space to bring a truckload of cookbooks with me, so if I can't find the recipe I want in one of my few books here, I look it up online and read it off the internet) and had a nice chat with a friend from my Stirling church family in between mixing muffin batter.

This week has been pretty good. I had nursery (am) and reception (pm) classes on Wednesday which was fun. So cute! On Thursday and Friday, I had my regular tutoring work again. I got quite upset and angry on Thursday upon hearing about one of my 9-yr old students (who is struggling in math) who is under a high degree of stress and being made to feel like a failure because of the government's bloody fetish with standardized testing results...the whole rant is on Facebook, if you care to read.

This weekend I have very few plans. I do need to get to a laundromat today--our washing machine broke down (with my housemate's clothing inside it) last Friday night, and because the door is on the side and it electronically locks, it won't open now (because the water is still inside). My landlord has been here several times this week, but the engineer who was supposed to come never came and now this company (who's supposed to cover any repairs with our appliances) is making the excuse that this engineer was in an accident and now they're a week behind. As of last night, it had been 7 days since Maria's laundry went in the machine...I hate to think what the clothing will look like when it comes out eventually--which could be another 3-6 days. Who knows? I cannot wait that long, so will shell out a bit of cash today to get it done.

Monday is a Bank Holiday, and Thursday is election day, so it is going to be a short week this week. Here, they close the schools and make schools the polling stations for some reason. Other than going to church tomorrow, and maybe trying to catch a walk locally here in Barking today, I have no particular plans. Heck, it's 10 am and I haven't eaten breakfast yet...must be a lazy Saturday. I should start my day.

Ciao for now.

Julie