Monday, February 2, 2015

Month in numbers January 2015


I like January, it makes me think of our fabulous honeymoon in New Zealand and I like the "back to school without being new" feel of the spring term.  

1 simple resolution for 2015 - live today.  Focus on what is important for us and will make us happy this year.  There have been so many reasons in the last few years to lose sight of what we are really about.  It is time to recapture the enjoyment of 'just now' and I want to get back to developing my language skills for me and not just for work.  


7/1 - this awful event was so moving and it was fascinating to watch how the debates have unfolded in France and here in the UK.  It is both terribly sad and impressive to see how democracy and freedom of speech are important to ordinary people in France.  It may not be a real Voltaire quote mais 'je ne suis pas d'accord avec ce que vous dites mais je batterai pour que vous ayez le droit de le dire'.  France is only over the channel so we sometimes forget that despite the entente cordiale it is a different  society to the UK and the revolution continues to have a profound affect on intellectual and political life.

Et alors, I have read 2 books in French this month. I haven't read in French on my kindle before and it is great because you can load the dictionary and then check new words as you go along, I have got so much more out of my reading and read more quickly.  The first was my friend Baptiste's account of the Boxing Day Tsunami, a truly moving and at the same time inspirational story.  Although they have been my friends for years his writing made me realise just how amazing Kristel and Baptiste are in focusing on the important things and living life to the full, they inspired my ideas for this year.  Really looking forward to seeing them this year too.

Continuing a theme, season 5 of spiral started on BBC 4, I love this mix of detective drama (also loving Broadchurch and Silent Witness!) and French slang.  Big shock ending to last weeks episode!  It is annoying though that there is so much good tv on this month and I still have to do planning and marking so end up with programmes stacked up on the sky box,  I do get great Saturday nights in though catching up! 



Nativity 3 dude where's my donkey?!  An end of holiday treat with popcorn and bags of sweets from our huge pile of Xmas treats smuggled in because you aren't allowed your own food!  A lovely way to end our family holiday especially when we had watched the other two films at home on our duvet days and in Friday night film club in December.  

4 weeks of a 6 week half term done already!  This term is going really quickly and we are almost half way through the year which is good for some things and scary for exam classes!  I even managed to get half a dozen opters out of my sets which is quite an achievement but also a big job for next year.

7 days without the washing machine felt like 7 months!  Any household with small children will feel the pain of not having a washing machine but one with Hirschsprung's Disease feels it more than most.  Although things are going well at the moment we still get through mountains of clothes and bedding and the weekend after the engineer had been was a washing frenzy!

A cuddle from a gorgeous 4 months old girl, and a visit from an old friend (in the sense of friends for a long time). It was so amazing to catch up and realise what we still had in common and why were friends in the first place.  I am so lucky to have such brilliant people in my life even if I don't see them as often as if would like.

I must find time to post between month in numbers!  It was Julie's idea at notesonpaper.blogspot.uk check it out along with her cool collaging and musings on topics various!





3 comments:

  1. Hi hi hi. It's nice to know the numbers are keeping your blog decorated each month though!

    I can really feel your fresh start / new beginnings / New Year motivational spirit in this post. Sounds like you've had some positive reconnections with your past last month - what an interesting way to begin 2015.

    I can relate to the 'new term but not new' feeling too. In my campus job I always feel that - once Christmas is over it's downhill to the summer! Even tough this semester will be just as long as the last, it never feels it!

    You're on the board with the other digit-documenters now Katie: https://www.pinterest.com/notesonpaper/my-month-in-numbers/

    Here's to a great February with plenty of countable moments!

    Julie :-)

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  2. Fantastic numbers, glad you've got the washing machine fixed, it really is a huge pain when they break.
    Claire xx

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    1. Thanks for your comment, we are over washing machine disaster now and getting ready for half term! Hopefully lots of things to count :)

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