Photoshoot, School Quiz and Summer Fair

This week has been so busy!  On Monday after school I went with two friends to their wedding venue, about an hours drive from Duisburg, to take some practice photos before I take the real things on their wedding day in August.  Their venue is stunning!  Unfortunately it was torrential rain by the time we got there, which made my first official photo shoot happen under fairly tricky circumstances.  I did take some quite nice ones, that I think the umbrella added to the cute factor of, but i'm still hoping for sunshine on the actual day!  There are definitely some things that I would change about the photos, and there are backgrounds that I would use that we couldn't on Monday because it was too wet/dark, but on the whole i'm quite pleased with the results.

We were all starting to wind down for the summer this week (not actually at work - that was hectic as always.  I had 4 days of cover in year 5, including one very shouty day where they were driving me nuts.  I ended up excluding 6 out of 15 from the afternoon game of rounders.  Turns out this is an EXCELLENT punishment.  They were very upset and were good as gold for the next 2 days!).

On Friday after work it was the teachers quiz.  I won last year, and Matt came third.  Neither of us did very well this year, but at least I still beat Matt, who came last!  There were snacks and beer provided, and after most people had left, it ended up being my team of 6 girls having a bit of a disco in the school hall, with one of the boyfriends DJing cheesy 90s hits.  Lots of fun.  We then all headed to Shanke for a burger and rhubarber schnapps.  It ended up being one of those spontaneous nights out that are really good fun.  Always better than the planned nights out I think.

On Saturday we had to work the school Summer Fair - it chucked it down with rain all day, which is fairly typical summer fair weather.  Everything got moved inside, so it was more like the Christmas one, but it was still good fun.  I was on the bag designing stall, which was popular.

Matt had been voted by the secondary school kids to go into the 'dunk tank'.  It was amazing!  I unfortunately missed my 3 goes, but I ran over and hit the target so he got dunked anyway!  The head teacher got dunked in his suit!  And my head of Lower School, as well as a few other teachers got dunked too.  It was very popular (Matt had the second biggest crowd after the head teacher so he was very pleased.)  The poor teachers did get very cold though.

Matt played in the teachers vs parents match in the afternoon and they won 9-4, which was great news.  All in all, the fair was really nice.  I really don't mind working things like that as it's nice to see the kids outside of a classroom environment.

Today is Matt's last lazy day before he goes to Swaziland for 2 weeks on Friday!  He is busy packing and getting everything ready to go.

Enterprise Week/ Leavers Party

This week has been exhausting.

At school it was enterprise week, which in theory is great fun.  Each year group works together to plan, design, budget and make 3 products.  Each class (3 per year) gets 20 euros to spend on materials, and then they sell them to parents on Friday afternoon.  Sounds fun so far, right?  To be fair, the children absolutely loved it.  The teachers were all knackered though.  I was meant to be floating around my year groups helping out, but I ended up on cover every day!  I was in year 6 on Monday and Tuesday - taking over from the person who organised the whole thing.  Then Wednesday I was a year 5 teacher, and Thursday, Friday I was a different year 5 teacher.  Changing classes so much, and being off time table just felt like complete chaos.  The market place in my year 5 room on Friday was very successful.  The class had decided to make 3 products between the 18 of them - origami mobiles, tea light holders, and 'volcanoes' (bottles full of oil, oil based paint and then add an anti acid tablet, and the paint starts bubbling.  Pretty cool really.  We sold out of mobiles and volcanoes really quickly.  All of our products were priced between 1.50 and 2.50 euros.  We ended up making over 90 euros profit!  The other year 5 classes did similar, so I think year 5 will win the overall competition.

A hard week at work, but fun for the kids, and for me too, maybe.  Just a little bit!

In the evenings this week we've also been quite busy.  Matt was out watching the Euros on Monday evening.  I went to Shanke on Tuesday evening with the girls for a catch up.  Thursday night, Matt's friend came over to watch the football and look at our holiday photos.  Friday night, Matt played football in Cologne against our sister school.  They ended up losing which was a shame, but still went out in Cologne after for a few drinks.  I went to a friend's housewarming party on Friday night, which was nice, and much tamer than last time (no chipped teeth this time!).  On Saturday, we went to Dusseldorf for the leavers party.  It was meant to be a BBQ by the river, but it absolutely chucked it down with rain.  It was sunny when we left so we had shorts and sunglasses.  It started raining and got REALLY cold, not very nice for June.  I  hope the weather sorts itself out soon!  Matt stayed out later than I did, and woke me up at 3am by throwing the cat onto the bed.

Today, we are going for a few drinks later with friends.  It's been a really busy and sociable week!

Tomorrow I am off to my friends wedding venue to have a look around and take some practice photos before I become their official wedding photographer in August - scary stuff!

First Week Back

This week has been hard work for everyone, as the first week back after half term always is.  We've had really hot weather, and some days of torrential rain.  The below picture is what I had to cycle home in on Wednesday afternoon.  It gets to the point where you actually can't physically get any more wet than you already are, and so your misery sort of plateaus.  Of course it stopped 20 minutes after I got home and Matt was completely dry when he walked through the front door!

Everyone is finally back in after 'Mumps-Gate' as it is now known, so I was able to go to a year 7 and year 9 class that I hadn't managed to get into yet.  I loved the year 7 Maths class, which was only 5 students!  They are all kids that I know really well from last year, and the atmosphere in the class is calm and lovely.  The teacher is great too.  I have the same kids, plus 15 more on Tuesday afternoons for Geography, which is more of an organised chaos.  I thought it was a horrendous lesson on Tuesday, as the storm made the kids all a bit jittery and hyper.  The teacher came up to me a few days later and said how much nicer the class were with me in there!  I dread to think what they are normally like!!!  The year 9 class was a mixed bag.  The kids were lovely and very friendly.  I enjoyed meeting them a lot, even though I was nervous because they are so much older than i'm used to.  Kids seem to do all their growing in year 9, so they were gigantic compared to the year 8s I had last term.  The Maths was quite tricky for me (not my strongest area), but I managed OK.  The trouble was that the teacher made a very snide comment in front of the kids when I first arrived about how I was meant to be in the class last half term but hadn't been able to make it.  It was really embarrassing.  The same teacher had made a comment to me in the corridor a few weeks before about how I 'hadn't bothered to show up' (I was covering other classes and let him know every week that I wouldn't be there).  I told my boss and he was so cross that I am no longer going into that class!  A shame, but the kids have exams from now on, so they wouldn't have needed me much anyway.

On Tuesday after school I ended up in the police station around the corner from my house.  Don't panic it wasn't for me or for anything awful!  My friend had her wing mirror knocked off the car that morning, and in Germany you have to report it or it is a criminal offence.  So we spent an hour and a half in the police station.  I went for moral support.

On Friday I covered a year 3 class, which was really nice.  It made a lovely change to be with the younger children for once, and the class are nice and well behaved.  One of the boys was sick in the classroom though, poor lad, so that made the day extra special!

Lots of us went to the pub around the corner from school to celebrate getting through the week, and for some, getting through interviews for the Assistant Head of years 1-6 positions.  Matt joined us after football, and we ended up staying for quite a while, not getting home until 9.30 - a long time to be drinking wine without any dinner!  The cat came to visit after dinner and I took some nice photos of her. Matt was teasing her with a ball of wool which was really funny.

Today we popped into Duisburg for a wander around, and had lunch at LoLu's, a vegetarian restaurant that does amazing falafel wraps. Matt isn't feeling well, I think he is getting a cold, so we're stocked up with vitamin C and honey and lemon, and hopefully he can stay awake for long enough to watch the England game tonight.

Half Term

Not many photos this week (I've done lots of crochet, but all those photos are on http://creative-faye.blogspot.com).

This week has been really horrible weather.  It's been wet, wet and more wet, but also roasting hot and muggy.  So we haven't really wanted to go out in the torrential rain, but it's been too hot in our roof flat too.  Today is actually blazing sunshine, which is nice because Matt is currently away on a 2 night stag party that he organised.  They had lots of outdoor activities planned like paintball and go karting and BBQs, so at least they will get to do those.

We haven't done a huge amount this week, enjoying just staying in and pottering around.  I went into Duisburg for a wander around the shops on Tuesday, went for cocktails (above) on Wednesday with 2 friends.  Matt and I went out for dinner on Thursday, and on Friday I went into Dusseldorf with my friend to find a dress for me to wear to her wedding in August. I found one, but of course it's Tommy Hilfiger and 200 euros.  I need it in my life though.  Will just have to save for a couple of months!

Today, i'm just enjoying having the house to myself for the weekend and doing some more crochet and watching Vampire Diaries.  It's very chilled, just what we needed after our hectic holiday in America 8 weeks ago!

Kegel, Dusseldorf TV Tower, Boat Trip and The Tiger and Turtle.

What a busy week!  We're now on half term, thank goodness!!!

The week started with being interrogated by German health officials about whether or not we've had our MMR injections.  Both of us have (or so we thought, turns out Matt only had 1!), so we were both allowed into school.  Most people managed to get in, although some were waiting in reception for a few hours for UK doctors surgeries to open, so that they could phone for evidence of the jabs.  The whole of year 5 were out on Monday, as well as 2/3 year 6 teachers, and 1 year 4, most of the German and languages staff were out too.  So on Monday I was in year 5, with the English as a Second language teacher, and the special needs teacher.  We were meant to be off time table anyway due to it being  Enterprise Week, and a letter that had gone out about the Mumps said that we would be off timetable.  When I found out where I would be (5 minutes before the kids came into the building) we were suddenly told that there were in fact enough teachers in the school, so normal lessons would happen.  Ummm.... no year 5 teachers, no planning.  We winged it.  Absolutely and completely winged it.  One of the teachers who was in year 5 with me, was actually so impressed with how I handled the situation and took charge, despite having no warning of where I would be, she told my boss that I need to be paid more.  Always nice to get compliments.  Two of the year 5 teachers were back by lunch which was good.

On Tuesday I was in year 6 with the one teacher who was in.  So we had 3 classes split between the 2 of us, which was rather a handful.  We coped fine though, and managed to get some Maths and English in among play rehearsals and watching Matilda.  Needless to say we were all glad when Wednesday came to a close.

On Wednesday evening, we had booked (months ago) to do the old style of German bowling (Kegel) in the basement of our local pub, Shanke.  We had a great group, and really enjoyed ourselves.  I came 3rd out of 11.  Matt came 9th! HAHA!  They make their own alcoholic shots in Shanke, called Rhubarber schnapps, and we ended up drinking 3 bottles of it between 11 of us.  Our friends brother came to stay that night, but spent all of Thursday being ill!

Thursday and Friday were pretty chilled.  It was nice to be off work knowing that we still have a whole week to go.

Matt's parents and brother arrived late on Friday night, after their flight was delayed by an hour.  The flat was a bit crowded with 5 of us staying there, but we managed OK.  It was meant to rain over the weekend, but we managed to avoid it, and it was actually really warm.

On Saturday, we went into Dusseldorf.  We had a few beers along the Rhine, then walked to the TV tower.  With 3 people in our group scared of heights, I think we actually managed really well!  Matt even leaned on the sloping windows!

We had a pork bun for lunch, and of course an ice cream, then we went on a Rhine cruise to Kaiserswerth, a town not too far from our flat.  The cruise took 45 minutes, and it was all inclusive drinks, with the boys obviously made the most of.

I've only ever been to the area of Kaiserswerth right next to the tram station, but it's actually a very pretty old town, with some nice ruins, which we explored.

We went to What's Beef for dinner, a burger place, that does absolutely enormous burgers, and really nice chilli cheese fries. I had a lovely veggie burger with avocado.

On Sunday, we went for a walk through our local park and out the other side to visit Duisburg's monument, the 'Tiger and Turtle'.  It is branded as a walking roller coaster, and has steps so you can walk up most of it.  Again, our height phobia members of the group did amazingly well.  You get a lovely view of Duisburg from the top.  You can see how green and how industrial it is at the same time.

After going up the monument, we walked to XXL, the bar near school, for lunch and to watch the Monaco F1.  We came home for a look at our holiday photos from Florida, then went to Websters brewery in Duisburg town centre for dinner.  They do an amazing schnitzel there with an egg on top.  Delicious!

Our guests left early this morning, so now we have a week to ourselves.  It started torrential raining with thunder and lightening during the night, so the day is grey and horrible.  Not much incentive to leave the house really!

Birthdays, Ice Cream and Food Festivals

It's been a rather busy weekend.

This week I was off sick (again).  I am now finally feeling better, after 3 weeks of being ill with various things.  My chest infection finally got the better of me, and I only went back in for one day on Friday.  Other than being very confused by what day of the week it was, I had quite a good day, covering a year 6 teacher who was off sick.  We had a poetry slam, which a very shy lad won.  He is a lovely boy, who has grown so much in confidence this year.  He even performed his poem off by heart in assembly in front of all of year 5 and 6.  I got all misty eyed along with the other teacher watching him.  It was wonderful.

The highlight of my day was doing some play rehearsal with year 6.  They are doing a Shakespeare medley which is really funny.  One of the German girls has to do a cockney accent, and was really embarrassed about it.  So I held a cockney accent workshop with her.  It was HILARIOUS!  I did a few awful accents to get her to relax a bit, and wrote out some of the words phonetically to help her.  The accent came out somewhere between American and Australian.  I'd promised her that I wouldn't laugh, and I really worked hard to keep that promise.  So funny.

On Saturday, Matt and I went to the ice cream place around the corner from our house for 'lunch', if you can call just having ice cream a meal!

Guess which was mine?

On Saturday evening we went into Dusseldorf for two friends birthday celebrations.  It was Japantag, which is Japanese Day, so the old town was really busy with people dressed up in Manga costumes, and just some really random, non Japanese related costumes.  They love an excuse to dress up in Germany.  We went to the Irish bar to watch the English football final, and ended up staying until after 11.  Matt and I left then for a cheeky cocktail just the two of us, then managed to catch up with our friends for the very busy tram home.  It was a fun night.

Today we went to the Food Festival at the Landschaftpark in Duisburg.  I went last year and enjoyed some fabulous food, so Matt came along this year, with a couple of our friends.  Like last year it absolutely poured with rain, which was a shame, but it didn't stop us from enjoying a surf 'n' turf burger, a chorizo and potato wedges plate and for pudding, a snickers cup, and a selection of homemade marshmallows with chocolate sauce.  I must admit I did feel rather sick after those!

Work will be rather interesting next week.  We have now had 3 cases of the Mumps in Primary school teachers within the last few weeks, so tomorrow we all have to go in and prove through a signed doctors letter that we have had the MMR vacccination.  Matt and I have both had it, but only have it written in our baby books, not actual evidence, so we won't be able to go to school for the week!  We're thinking of going for a day trip to Movie Park, the local theme park instead!

Cologne Hen Party

This weekend was the hen party that I organised with a friend from work for our other good friend who is getting married in August (I am taking the wedding photos!).  The hen didn't know what the plan was right up until we got to the train station!

First we went to a spa in Cologne called Claudius Therme.  It was wonderful.  There are lots of pools, all different temperatures, all with quite salty water, one with copper, one that was really hot like bath water, a fast rapids, and a jacuzzi.  There were also saunas and outside areas for swimming, as well as a bar, where we had a few glasses of prosecco and a good chat.  We were meant to stay for 2 hours, but were enjoying ourselves so much that we ended up staying for 4 hours!  It was so relaxing, Matt and I are going to go for our anniversary, and add a massage in.  Wonderful.

After the spa, we headed to our hotel in the Belgian quarter of Cologne.  The hotel was nice, and inexpensive.  I was sharing with two girls, and we had a bed each in our room which was a nice surprise.  We thought we would have to share.  We got ready to go out, and then went to the above restaurant just down the road from the hotel, called Balthazaar.  The food was incredible.  I had a chicken tikka massala, which was heavenly, and some lovely sparkly rose wine.

After the restaurant we went to a few bars, and played some games, like Mr and Mrs, where the hen had to try to answer questions that we had asked her fiance a few days ago.  It was very funny, and she got loads wrong, so had to have lots of shots!

We had brunch the next day at the hotel, which was lovely, and headed home, all very tired and in need of a rest.  Luckily we have today off for a bank holiday, so we should all be nice and recovered by tomorrow when we go back to work.  I am going to work via the doctors, as I am still sick (3rd week in a row now).  Currently it is a very nasty cough that is making my breathing very laboured.  Hopefully I can get some anti biotics and be on my way, but knowing German doctors it will be a lot more complicated than that.

Today, we just went for a walk around the park for some fresh air, and are about to settle in with a take away and a movie.

Matt had a very busy week last week, catching up from being away for a whole week.  He went to the casino on Friday night, and ended up coming back with a fair bit of winnings, so he was pleased.