March

Yesterday I went on a demo march and rally in support of fair pay for teachers.  Between 20 and 30 thousand people marched through Glasgow to George Square.  It was magnificant!  People applauded us and cars tooted support.

Out of the 36 OECD (Organisation for the Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, Scotland's teacher salaries are in the bottom 5.  And we're the lowest paid in the UK.  On average, teachers work an extra unpaid 11 hours a week.  That's an average, so people do more than that!

We're asking for 10%.  We won't get it but we 're hoping that we'll get a better offer than the current 3%.  Police officers here have just been awarded 6.5% and they deserve every penny.  Public sector workers have had their salaries frozen for years under austerity measures and now people are really struggling as the cost of living has gone up.  In real terms, my salary is worth 24% less than it was 10 years ago.

I've said before, teachers are leaving the profession in droves.  They're over worked and underpaid.  In my local authority (it's not that big) we have 4 primary schools without permanent headteachers. One more resigned this week saying she's had enough of education.  She's 42.  No one is applying for the vacant posts. Frankly, education in Scotland is in crisis.

*gets off soap box*

Here I am in my fetching yellow t shirt ready to go!

On the bedroom front, I'm just waiting for the carpet to be delivered and fitted.  Photos and more details coming soon!

Whoosh!!

Well, that's another holiday week just whooshed by!! But I've packed a lot in. As well as hours and hours of painting(!!) I've visted my parents, spent an afternoon with my eldest son shopping for house stuff and met up with an old colleague/dear friend for supper.  I feel quite sociable!

My peach bedroom is now pristine white.  It took 4 coats of matt white to cover it up.  It's got a few wee bits that need to be touched up but nothing major.  I've still got all the woodwork to do so that's today's job.

I had a tin of mystery paint in the garage that I got on the bargain shelf ages ago.  It had a label that said "customer return."  I couldn't even remember what colour it was as it was one of those Dulux mix to order paints.  Imagine my delight when I opened it up to find it was bright red or Brothel Red as I've been calling it!! 😂 So instead of wallpapering the inside of my wardrobe, I painted it red.  It took 3 coats!!!  I love it 😍  I've still got a few 'finishing touches' to add to it 😉

Emma has loved me being at home this week.  As much as I could, I've taken her with me everywhere.  She's such a good girl.  It's hard to believe she's almost 7!! She's still just a big puppy at heart 💓

Holiday Plans

I'm on holiday! Woohoo!!  It's lovely to know I don't need to get up tomorrow morning and go to work.  But I'm not lounging around.  Oh no, I'll be getting rid of this 'lovely' 1980s peach colour in my bedroom.

You can see that the eaves in my room are curved which makes it hard to wallpaper (although the previous owners have had a good go in my son's old room!!) It's also curved at the ceiling.  So painting is the easiest option.  Probably white.  I'll see what it looks like with the first coat.  My drawers are cream so maybe white might not look right.  I won't know until I do it.

Inside my wardrobe also needs painting as I had some damp treated.  This was before I got the woodburner installed and rain was getting in the chimney.  There are a couple of holes in the ceiling and walls where the pipes and wires that came to the old water tank must have come through the wardrobe.

You can see the capped pipes and a huge hole that's just been covered with a piece of plywood.  I might wallpaper the inside if I can get a cheap funky roll at B&Q.  Watch this space!😉

I was taking out some of the shoes from my wardrobe and put them in the hall.  They're rather colourful, aren't they? 😁

So, busy week ahead!  I'm hoping to have it all done by the time I go back to school next Monday!  Best get cracking then!

Harvest

We had our Harvest Service at school on Monday.  We collected tins and jars of food for a local charity that provides a food bank service.  Every week they provide food to 300 families in our community.

As part of the display we had fresh fruit and vegetables provided by 'Apple Lady.'  🍎🍏   Unfortunately the charity doesn't take fresh produce so staff were offered apples, potatoes (still covered in dirt), pumpkins and courgettes (zucchinis if you're outside the UK!!) No one wanted anything!!  One of the young teachers was revolted that there was a wee tiny slug in one of the potatoes!!!!!

So, guess who got a basketful of apples, big bag of potatoes and a huge pumpkin??? 👍

More meal prep

Thanks for all the lovely supportive comments on my last post.  It really helps keep me going 👍

As it's Sunday that meant meal prepping for the week ahead.  Meal prep now means I prepare some ingredients (rather than full meals) that will help make fast meals when I get home tired from work.  Thankfully there's only 5 teaching days until my October break! Yesterday I got a 2kg bag of red lentils for £3.  It's normally £3.80 so just a small saving but it all helps.  It will last me for months.

I like decanting them into my glass jars for tidier storage but 2 kg of lentils won't fit into a 1litre jar!! 

Obviously this week's soup had to be some sort of lentil.  I had some carrots, red onions and sweet potatoes lurking in the fridge and cupboard along with half a carton of chopped tomatoes.  This big pot of Spicy Tomato and Lentil produced  7 very generous portions so that's my lunches sorted plus a few for the freezer.

I poached 3 chicken breasts and shredded them.  I'll get 5 meals out of this lot, probably stir frys or pasta.  I find shredding the meat makes it go further.  Very useful when OH and The Teenogre are around as they eat SO MUCH MEAT!!!  Last weekend I made a vat of beef stew with 1.5kg of meat, loads of root veg and dumplings.  They pretty much ate the lot in one sitting!!!  I had planned on a few meals using the leftovers!

I made a chocolate cake and some muffins from the Betty Crocker GF Devil's Food mix.  Again OH and The Teenogre demolished them last night but I did manage to sneak a few muffins into freezer for later 😁

I also tried a new recipe but the jury's still out on it.  It's a Tuna and Egg Mayonnaise salad.  Can't say I'm loving it but I've made a big tub of it so I'll have to eat it.  Maybe I'll put it on oatcakes as part of my lunch.

Tonight I'll prep a few bowls of overnight oats for breakfast then I'm sorted 😋 Cannot wait until Friday now!!

A good laugh

It's been a dreadful week at school this week.  I've had several teachers in my room at the end of the day in floods of tears.  Some things I can't even mention (yet) as there may be legal action.  But I can say that various members of teaching and support staff have been verbally abused, spat at and punched.  We had a young teacher screamed at by a parent in her classroom in front of her pupils and other parents.  We had a group of parents verbally attack a child and their parent.  It was only thanks to the DHT's quick intervention it wasn't a physical assault.  And yesterday a lovely pupil found that someone had put a human poo in their school bag.  It's safe to say staff morale is VERY low.

We had a long standing staff night out arranged for last night and about 10 people pulled out.  I'm so glad I wasn't one of them.  For a few hours we just put aside all the crap (literally!!) and had a good laugh.  It was fab to talk with some of our new members of staff and get to know others even better.  Most people including me weren't drinking so it wasn't a boozy night.  Just proper old fashioned eating and talking round a big table.

It doesn't solve any of the issues from the past week but I think it's bonded us together and recharged our batteries for the final week of term!

I quite like this selfie I took before I went out 📷