When the sun came out in Britain...

When we returned from Girona, we had around 4 days of lovely weather where I wore actual summery clothing without a covering of cashmere! I took some photos!

I thought I'd share those brief halcyon days' outfits to show it really did warm up...albeit briefly.

This outfit was one I actually bought in Girona! I know, I don't need any more clothes!!! 

I tried the trousers on- a beautiful light-weight chambray with a sort of broderie-anglaise pattern on them- they are not polka dots! In the shop, I grabbed this top to try on with them- white and red striped with ruffled shoulders...and liked the combination too much!

Fun fact, I went into the shop to try on some denim sailor trousers I saw on a mannequin. CBC saw me try those and then got bored in the 2 seconds he was waiting for me so he popped across Rocacorba, a cycling shop across and along a bit. When I came out the changing room in this, he'd gone.  The shop keeper said, "You can go and show him if you want."  She let me walk out the shop in her new clothes and walk to go and find him which was very nice and trusting of her!

I definitely wanted to add a beret to this outfit..and my Lotus pumps which I wore all holiday!

Not 100% sure that this outfit quite works...at least,I'm not sure about the chunky shoes.

The whole lot came from charity shops. The shoes and the trousers were bought last week (Rieker and Topshop via Chazzer respectively)

Plus my Solar system necklace from My Pretty Little Earth (via CBC for Christmas)

The snowball plant has almost reached its peak (the petals are turning more creamy...a couple of days and they will be ready!)

This was for church last week (not this week).

A Heywood floral blouse and Boden cashmere cardie (via charity shop) plus Hollyhocks daisy earrings and Lotus pumps (Haltwhistle shoe menders shop)

I thought this fly was very attractive so he got his own photo!

No TARDIS Tuesday as I am at the competition!

xx

The weekend that was

 Well, it's been quite a busy week.

I had to leave school early for my hospital appointment (nothing conclusive...more scans...though he hadn't had access to the last week scan results...where are they!?!?!).Got completely soaked cycling from the station. Luckily, on the way home, it was fairly dry so rather than cycling to the train station, I decided to cycle all the way home.  Went via town and bought a red dress in the charity shop (bad girl) as well as a walking stick I figured could work as Long John Silver's crutch for Treasure Island for school (the main reason I went into the shop....promise Guvnor!) and headed home with something from Greggs!Was so nice to be home EARLY!

Friday night, I met CBC to go and watch amazing unaccompanied 8 part vocal group, Voces 8.  They were performing at Southend Plaza  Centre. 

What a wonderful experience it was!  They were exquisite- the beautiful range of songs they sang, from the glorious polyphony of the Renaissance to Jazz classics such as  Straighten up and Fly right to songs my modern composers.  We were kept rapt throughout!   We were really lucky to hear them for the reasonable price of £10 per ticket (Voces 8 are such a renowned group that most venues charge a lot more)- there has been government support for concert series' in Southend but this has been rescinded permanently this year. This is very sad.

After the concert, we headed out for a Thai meal.  This was delicious!

The next morning, I woke up and headed downstairs to tackle the previous washing up.  Eventually, we headed into London to meet CBC's family for this sister's 40th birthday celebration.  

We went to Caravan for some lunch and then headed to a place called the Lightroom for an exhibition called MoonWalkers which was all about the Apollo space expeditions, an immersive experience. It was utterly brilliant and I left feeling awe-inspired and more knowledgable about previous visits to the moon. There was so much footage and photo and things to look at and I ended up feeling pretty excited by the Artemis mission which is set to go to the moon next year.  There haven't been any moon missions in my lifetime so I was intrigued by how it would feel to be here in for one 'live' as it were.

After this, we headed over to Dishoom, an Indian restaurant which I have heard blog friend Vix speak very highly of.  I can confirm, it was EXCELLENT!!!  All the dishes I chose were fantastic and I tried some of other people's (we sort of shared....).  I had a prawn dish for starter which I shared with CBC who had the Dishoom Chaat. I then had Lamb chops, a Chilli corncob dish, garlic naan... and had some rice and other bits from others. They were so yummy!

We headed home and headed to bed.

This morning, I was up bright and early for church as I was leading worship (AKA playing piano  and singing and trying not to make mistakes!) for the 2 different church services. I had chosen the songs and could play the ones I had chosen.  Mostly went well and both were lovely services with everyone singing their hearts out. Once I'd cycled the 2.5 miles from church no.2 to home, I checked my phone and discovered my friend Izzie asking me if I could attend an orchestra rehearsal to cover the oboe part in 1 hour!  Managed to phone another member in the orchestra who lives locally to me, who hadn't left yet, and she picked me up and we travelled the 40minutes it takes to drive there.  Unfortunately, we discovered the oboist hadn't left her parts (sheet music) there so I ended up playing the entire rehearsal from my tinnnnnnny phone screen as we'd downloaded the parts from IMSLP (very useful website).  It was quite a fun rehearsal and I enjoyed trying the oboe part! Always lovely to see my friends in that orchestra.

Once we'd driven home, I somehow procrastinated a lot and here we are!

CBC and I made a late dinner of Halloumi, shallots, broccoli and tomato plus a bowl of leftover nettle soup. 

Eeek!! The final of my choir competition is THIS Tuesday so prayers, fingers crossed and happy thoughts all appreciated!  Not sure we have a chance of winning against the 5 other schools who I know are good but here's hoping!  Can we also pray for NO repeat of VOMIT GATE last year and that all the parents turn up to pick up their children on time and no one is sick!

Hope all is well with you....

xx

TARDIS Tuesday- Yaz Khan Flux

Hey there!

Hope you are well!

As you read this, I shall be back at school (Boo hoo!). I am grateful that we have an extra day off, returning on Tuesday rather than Monday although woe to the poor classes who keep missing Mondays! I teach two year 1 classes, one year 3 & one year 4 but since I have three of each class to teach in a week you can imagine how it wreaks havoc with my scheduling and delivery of plans to those year groups. At least it wasn't as bad as last year with NINE Mondays missed for various reasons!

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/television-academy-board-directors-nne-ebong-jamily-hunter-1235090265/

Anyway, onto our outfit inspiration!  This outfit was worn by Yaz Khan for the opening episodes of Flux, series 13 of Doctor Who.  I actually can't believe I wore this in November 2021, that's so long ago!

https://twitter.com/bbcdoctorwho/status/1454058707160113158

Since I wore this outfit last, the shirt was identified as the Bernie shirt from All Saints. I found one brand new with tags for about a 10th of the original price but I haven't worn it for photos yet.

She also wears her All Saints jacket, some button up black trousers (not been IDed but I did see an All Saints pair of trousers which had similar buttons...), Dr Marten Leonore boots, Alex Monroe Y&Z necklaces for Yaz plus a brown buckled belt.

Here's my 2024 rendition!

I featured the All Saints shirt.  It is so beautiful and soft to wear and lovely and wafty.

The colour is super intense in real life!

I wore my charity shopped £3 fake leather jacket.

The trousers I am wearing this time are much better than last time as they are more fitted.  They're ASOS charity shopped.

Mum's brown belt is back to play and I wore my Dune Pacey black boots to go with the outfit.

I wore my KZ floral necklaces from Avon (via eBay).  I don't know why I enjoy the fact that saying Kay- Zee, sounds like saying Kezzie.  It's the small things in life....

Couldn't resist doing a side by side of this short and added in some rubbish looking buttons! Ha!!!

I'm happy we are coming into the cooler-clothes season but it means TARDIS Tuesday gets a little trickier!

I hope all is well with you!

Kezzie xx

Green Springs

It was amazing to return to sunshine and warmth in the UK yesterday! Apparently, we are to have a few days of sun and warmth before a return to the cold and misery next week, at least it was, according to the Charity shop lady I chatted to today.

This morning, CBC dropped me off to the place where I was to have my ultrasound and internal scan.

I had to drink a litre of water one hour before and then wait until they'd done part 1 of the ultrasound before I could go to the loo.  The appointment was a bit delayed so by the time I went in, I was really struggling!!

After the appointment, I went across the road to the busstop to get a bus to Mum's house.  I had just missed the bus by 1 minute and the next one wasn't for 20 minutes. (It actually didn't turn up for 40mins and there were two of them!) 

Luckily, there was a charity shop by the busstop which I looked in. It was really nice and I found 2 things.

They had a nice Sheffeld Ukelele for £5 which I couldn't resist for school as an extra and I bought a pair of Rieker black and grey heels. 

Mum had made some delicious tomato soup for lunch with sour-dough. It was lovely to see her and to look round her beautiful garden!

I 

The Rowan tree behind me was just a twig when Mum bought it. As usual, her green fingers have made it thrive.

Here's what I wore.

I started with an Anokhi tunic top which I bought in a charity shop a few years ago. I am so glad Vix introduced me to Anokhi through her blog- the cotton is such amazing quality- it's a joy to wear!

I added my green speckled skirt.  This was handmade for me in Bali 19 years ago.  I bought the material from a lovely shop on Jalan Sulawesi in Denpasar, Bali.  It was full of contemporary patterned batik in bright colours.

Since it matched my Monsoon hat, I had to wear them together

The belt was from Landsend and I bought it from a boutique in Cardigan. I cannot believe it, but I paid £30 for this belt!  Utter madness!!!!

Added to this was my charity shopped Denim jacket and some blue pumps from Lotus (bought from Haltwhistle shoe shop), some earrings and my Nan's necklace (which had fallen off in this picture...but I didn't realise!

It made me so happy to wear lighter clothes again like this week in Girona!  So much nicer than Winter clothes!

xxx

Homecoming Dinner

 CBC and I got home this afternoon, around 5.30pm after 6 days in Girona, Italy.

We had a lovely time. Couldn't believe we came home to glorious sun and some warmth!

We didn't have a huge amount of fresh food in the house but I went out into the garden and 

discovered the chard has boomed! I cut a veritable bouquet of it. It's quite expensive to buy in the supermarket (when you can get it) so I'm gleeful this is self-seeded from last year's also self-seeded.

The kale plants are really trying hard to flower and go to seed but I've discovered the small flower buds look and taste rather like tender stem broccoli. I also still managed to pick lots of kale.

In the right flower bed,the three-cornered leek (self-seeded) is surrounded by Forget-me-nots but is still growing so I picked lots of that.

The Lemon Balm has started growing again so I picked some of that too.

Wasn't sure what to make for dinner.  We struggle to get back into the swing of cooking after being on holiday.

I had a brainwave.

I got two blocks of noodles (from the Refill shop) and put them into a saucepan along with the kale-occoli plus lots of Chard stalks. I added hot water and set it to medium heat.

I then made up some Miso paste into a thick liquid with about 100ml of hot water which I added into the saucepan.  Once it had been going for a bit, I added in a bit of vegetable stock (from a sadly,now closed Refill store) and the chopped up Chard leaves. I also discovered a third of an old courgette lurking in the fridge from a week ago and chopped that into small pieces and added it in.

I then beat an egg in the old miso jug and threw it into a small saucepan along with lots of chopped up 3-cornered leek and pepper and left it to cook. 

I served up the noodles, broth and veg into a bowl and added some more chopped 3 cornered leek plus I poured some Sesame oil on top.

Finally, I cut up the leek omelette into pieces and added on top.

Very pleased that it ended up being delicious and was very little effort to make plus quite healthy with 4 types of green veg plus the veg.  Plus it was pretty cheap to make!

I served it with Lemon Balm tea!

TARDIS Tuesday - The Horns of Nimon Romana

Hi there,

For TARDIS Tuesday, I am featuring Romana for a second week.  Mainly because, when I was putting together last week's look, I spied a garment in the cupboard that reminded me that on my 'To do' list for TARDIS Tuesday was this look from Romana in an episode called 'The Horns of Nimon'.

This is one of Romana's more Doctory looks!

 

 https://theultimateguidetothefashionofdoctorwho.wordpress.com/2017/10/19/romana-ii-the-horns-of-nimon/

It's a great look which has very equestrian vibes and is again, part of Romana's common palette of white and red!

I decided to do a closet cosplay of this, e.g. none of the items are actually obtained for this outfit but  I had anyway.

It's very much an approximation but hopefully, a nod to the original.

I started with the red jacket.  It's a slightly different shade and shorter. It came from Primark and I bought it about a decade ago.

The next garments I selected from CBC's wardrobe.  His Darcy shirt came from the Regency Shirt Co. and I recently discovered that Paul McGann wore this same shirt for his 'Night of the Doctor' 50th anniversary outfit.

I then grabbed his waistcoat he bought for his Newt Scamander outfit for Harry Potter night at his school.  I've used this same waistcoat for 2 of my Yaz Khan outfits as well as wearing his entire Newt outfit for World Book Day.

I knew my eYe Boutique boots would be fine for the boots but the trousers presented me with a problem. I had white linen trousers but they were too baggy. Leggings were too tight so I remembered this pair of mink coloured bamboo trousers that Mum bought me a good few years ago. These have always been an awkward item in my wardrobe- not a flattering colour OR shape for me but they've sort of survived in my legging bag.

So that's the entire look!

If I could wear better trousers, I'd wear this outfit for school but those trousers will never be seen in public!!!

What would you do to improve it?

Hope all is well with you!

xx

19 years of blogging!

 Today  is my 19th blogiversary!

19 years ago, there I was, working  as PA to the principal of the Royal Academy of Music  whilst my friend  Rach was working  as PA to the  principal of Oak Hill bible  college. Rach had started her blog, and I had been reading  it for  a few weeks. The PA workload, at that time, wasn't  huge! I thought it was a really  good idea for writing  thoughts. 

My first  few posts were just random, enthusiastic  waffle. Over the years, I wrote  more and more and then  less as life got busy. 

I still love  blogging  even  though there  are less of us! So happy  to have met several  of you lovely  friends  in real life- Ang, Vix, Ann, Melanie, Lauren, Lily, Sophie, Hazel, Bev, Denise...

I would love to meet some of my other good friends but for now, here's  to year 20!

The Bridge

 We made a visit to Leigh on Sea on the estuary.  A short walk down to Old Leigh and we walked as far as this iconic bridge. It is the inspiration for many local artists.

Ggg

TARDIS Tuesday- Romana's swansong look from Warrior's Gate

Hello there!

For TARDIS Tuesday this week, I am debuting a new outfit AND it's another red one! 

It features in my favourite Classic Who companion, Romana's final serial called Warrior's Gate.

Romana had a real eclectic, costumey set of outfits in her wardrobe and her style is very much up my street!

Today's one is quite different from her usual look but not her usual colours:

Here's the designer's initial drawing of the outfit:

http://www.4thdoctorcostume.com/2015/06/lalla-wards-time-capsule.html

https://aminoapps.com/c/doctor-who-cast-crew/page/blog/romana-iis-outfits-ranked/6qpR_leSzukZwpj3n1ZVGYpKqKDpLlg15

As you can see, she wears matching red socks to go with the top and black Mary Jane shoes to match her black trousers.

https://doctorwhoworlduk.com/romana-2-gallery

The high-necked, almost Mandarain look blouse has covered buttons all over it- I hope there's another way to get in and out of it as otherwise, that set of buttons would take a LOT of time to do!

Here's my look!

I started with a high-necked top from River Island (bought from Vinted) which has lovely flowing sleeves. It's not my usual top silhouette but is really comfortable.  Although I didn't have identical coloured socks to accompany it, at a distance, they seem to match.  I wore these socks for my Romana Shada outfit too!

My shoes are from Clarks and are T-bar shoes but I tucked in the  T-bar and kept the ankle strap part.

You can see those lovely sleeves in this picture (which is a behind the scenes picture from @doctorwho_60s_70s_80s

Couldn't resist trying to (VERY BADLY!) recreate this picture!  Ha, ha, how bad is my editing!!! The MS Publisher equivalent of using Paint program!

The silhouette of this look, for me, is very much, Female Conductor! I feel like I've seen female conductors wear something similar in different colours! I would wear this for a choir performance when conducting or leading them!

I recently watched this on BBC iPlayer for the 2nd time and I enjoyed it but there was a lot of to-and-froing plus I thought the way Romana left was very abrupt!!!

What do you think of this look?  For a lot of Who characters, they find this look kind of boring but I like the thought of this being in silk!

xx

Happy Easter!

Wishing you a joyful Easter!!! 

Christ has died

Christ has risen

Christ will come again!

My Easter weekend has been one of joy and rest as well as being busy!

The school term ended on Thursday! I spent most of the day doing what is called Pupil Voice with children from each year group.  It's something one has to do nowadays as a subject leader in school.  Interview a small group of students to find out what they are learning in that subject to check it is being taught comprehensively, fully and to find out what is working for children/teachers and that the subject is going according to plan.

It's a pain to do but it's useful and interesting and also reassuring (and frustrating when they can't remember things and you have to prompt them!.  Not sure what possessed me to ask them 20 questions this time!

In between that, I took my Samba band up to the hall to perform for the Easter Bonnet parades (as it was raining and windy, we had to do separate ones inside!).  The kids were incredible at performing the Samba and everyone was gushing about how good they were! I love that 1/4 of the group have SEND and are all brilliant!

Once I'd cleared up my room and sent some essential emails (annoyingly cannot access my school email at the moment from home!), I headed home.

I dumped my massive collection of things at home and headed to the doctor's surgery to see the nurse to see if I had a water infection (as have had abnominal pain for the past 2 weeks).  Traces of blood but not infection so she managed to get me in for a Saturday afternoon appointment for the Doctor.

I headed home for a quick snack and then cycled in the dark to church.  The wind was CRAZY!!! Rocking up on my bike to church through dark fields was interesting!

Our vicar is not very well at the moment and the lovely lady who regularly plays piano and leads workshop is currently receiving treatment after surgery so I was on for most of the Easter services.

It was a wonderful calm in the church in the midst of the hurricane outside. The service was beautiful and I only made a few bad crashes on the piano.

I came home and made dinner for myself.

Good Friday, after some sleep but not as much as I'd have hoped (SOMEONE's alarm went off at 6.45am and has done for the past 3 days!!!) I got up and cycled to the other church for the 10.30am Good Friday service. The wind was very much against me and I arrived bright-red and sweaty as I climbed the hill to church...annoyingly 5minutes too late to play flute (which I was going to do to support the lovely lady who was playing the piano for the first time since her op.

Again, it was a lovely service. We laid hearts at the foot of the cross and it was beautiful to be there. I was very glad I'd attempted the cycle.

As I waffle about my weekend, here are some photos of what I wore for Easter Sunday!

I cannot quite believe I have never worn this coat on this blog before but I honestly think it is true. I actually don't think I've worn this coat for about 10 years!  I bought it about 20 years ago from Mathew Williamson at Debenhams in the sale for either £30 or £40 and it is covered in beautiful floral embroidery! My mum was SO jealous of me when I bought it, when we still lived together.  She wore it a couple of times too!

For church I wore this floral Laura Ashley dress from the 80's that my Recorder teacher, Maggie gave to my mum.  Fast forward to 2021 and mum gave it to me where I wore it for my friend's Jane Austen themed Hen day! It's the most sumptuously soft cotton lawn.

Worn with my Karen Millen (charity-shopped) cardigan and some blue boots bought in Florence 2019!

Saturday, I did washing and some cleaning (including successfully using Nancy Birtwhistle's technique to remove some limescale from the taps in the bathrooms!).

CBC took me to my Doctor's appointment.  He's referred me to see a Urologist and to get some scans and ultrasounds (within 2weeks hopefully) plus a bloodtest.  I'm hoping it's Kidney stones perhaps but not sure.

CBC and I then drove to a cycle shop to enquire about a Bike Box as he is taking part in the Mallorca 312 in 3 weeks and we went and we went and had some late lunch at a Pizza restaurant. We shared a Puttanesca pizza with a garlic butter glaze on the crust and it was amazing!!! I don't say that about Pizza very often! We went for a short walk to the seafront and then we returned home

At home, we did some bits and pieces and I read and then I made some dinner.

Easter Sunday, as my abdomen was hurting in the night, I was really tired when my alarm went off at what was (due to clocks going forward) 5am, and I was really sad to miss the 6.15am sunrise service at church.  I got up at 8.30am and was at church by 9.05am to play piano.

It was a lovely, joyful service and I didn't make any major mistakes on the piano! I love this small country church- such a lovely gentle congregation.  After the service, I got a lift to the other church (we have a 2 church parish) for the second service I was playing for. Same songs but totally different service.  Equally joyful but in such a different way! I was inspired and invigorated by the services and am grateful to have faith in a God who loves me!

After church, I cycled home (downhill this time) and ate breakfast with CBC who had STILL not left for cycling. I carried on reading and then spent quite a gentle afternoon.

CBC and I just got back from buying each other an Easter egg at Sainsbury's and we are about to eat dinner!

Wishing you the joy of Easter and fresh chances

xx

I cy

At the foot of the cross

 

At the foot of the cross,
I can hardly take it in,
That the King of all creation
Was dying for my sin.
And the pain and agony,
And the thorns that pierced Your head,
And the hardness of my sinful heart
That left You there for dead.
And O what mercy I have found
At the cross of Calvary;
I will never know Your loneliness,
All on account of me.
And I will bow my knee before Your throne, '
Cause Your love has set me free;
And I will give my life to You, dear Lord,
And praise Your majesty,
And praise Your majesty,
And praise Your majesty.

Derek Bond

TARDIS Tuesday- Bill Potts World Enough and Time

 For today's TARDIS Tuesday, I am certain that I've worn this outfit for TARDIS Tuesday before but I can't seem to find it anywhere on my blog! Perhaps I didn't? Or perhaps it was pre-labels? Or did I forget to label it?  Hmmm, I'm not sure!

The outfit in question is from series 10 of Doctor Who and was worn by Bill Potts played by Pearl Mackie in her penultimate episode, "World Enough and Time".

We see it the images below.

https://theultimateguidetothefashionofdoctorwho.wordpress.com/2022/01/28/bill-potts-twice-upon-a-time-blue-varsity-jacket-blue-january/

https://m.facebook.com/billcosplay/

It includes an H&M sweater, a varsity jacket, dark blue jeans and boots plus hooped earrings and a red hairbow.

I was lucky enough to buy the sweater around 7 years ago from H&M in their sale for £4.

I decided to wear this outfit for school on Monday to take my school orchestra to the Barbican to watch the London Symphony Orchestra.

I wore the sweater with black ASOS trousers and some brown boots.  When I tried to consider what I'd wear in place of the jacket, I realised that my Ace McShane bomber jacket, as customised by the lovely Ang, was the perfect solution.  It has the name patch and Bill's jacket has patches on it and was roughly the correct colour.  Quite a few people made comparison with Bill and Ace when she was first cast and her costumes seen. I liked showing this comparison!  The final touch was adding this pair of charity-shopped hoop earrings (50p) I wore for my Donna Noble outfit 2 weeks ago.

This was a comfy outfit for a school trip. We had a lovely time.

xxx

Teal Vixen

 I should really publish this post before it gets too far away from when I actually took these photos!

It was back at the start of February that I wore this outfit. It was Saturday and we were playing a concert with our more local orchestra.

We arrived to the venue with an hour before the rehearsal started and dropped off our bags.  The leader and chair of the orchestra was setting up!

"Hello Charles!" I smiled as we walked past.  He grinned at me.  

"You are looking utterly lovely! You always look lovely but especially so today!".

I grinned beatifically  as CBC and I carried on! He always admires what I wear which is sweet as I think he likes vintage style!

When I put on this outfit- elements of it made me think of one of the most stylish ladies, Vix, in Blogger world, as I put it together.  She'd combine better colours and accessories but I know the individual garments made me think of her.

I actually realise that I changed my hat and I was wearing a blue cloche hat when I went out as I decided the Sheepskin hat was too warm.  Worn with my blue cape which CBC bought me one birthday.

Wearing my black wool gilet (£5.99 charity shopped Per Una)

The skirt was a Per Una birthday present from my Stepmum and Dad about 15 years ago.

The top came from Zara (charity shopped of course!) 

My necklace was the best Secret Santa present from someone at school back in 2010!

It's a bit too matchy-matchy perhaps but I was so happy to wear a maxi skirt- I can't do it on a bike as it always gets managled in the gear cogs!!!

12 Bright moments

 Bright moments this week.

1.  The lovely boy with SEND who is doing so well in Drumming club.  I was playing Tequila on the recorder for the children to transition between instruments.  Totally impromptu, he jumped onto the bongos and accompanied me with the perfect syncopated accompaniment - he was grinning at me and we were totally in a groove!  It was the most sunshiney, wonderful, unexpected moment.  He exudes unbelievable joy when playing drums.  This drumming club have got more into the Samba vibe (they dance and move) than any group I've ever had.  They're also noisy and won't be quiet but they love it!

2. I noticed that my recorder matched my shoes. I held it agains my shoes and admired the similarity. I looked out up and noticed D in Year 6 laughing at me.  She raised her eyebrows and gave me a look. Later, we both laughed about it and no one else knew what we were talking about.

3. D told me usually she dances on the pole when on the train and always does it on school trips to embarrass her teacher. I asked why she didn't do that with me during our earlier trip.  "I don't want to embarrass YOU!" she replied.

4.  I decided to downsize my scarf collection.  I gave three of them to some girls in year 4 who were so utterly delighted.  One of them came into school a day later and she had made me a batch of Scottish pancakes to say thank you! They were still hot! It was nice to share my scarves as in a charity shop, you can't always guarantee that someone will buy them! Also managed to pass on a box from a fox plant pot I bought that was cute- one of those year 4 girls had it!

5.  My music room library is thriving. I've got so many children borrowing books including one boy who, a month ago, was a complete nightmare in my lessons.  Something changed and now he's really behaving for me and it was nice to be able to trust him enough to lend him a book.

6.  I was trying to make my way across the playground and got ambushed by a group of year 4 girls who all engulfed me in a massive hug.  As I tried to extricate myself, A, a girl from year 6 joined me.  "I noticed a large crowd and came to see what they were crowding around.  Once I saw it was you, naturally, I decided to join it!" It was so funny, the way she said it!

7.  Very successful trip to watch the London Symphony Orchestra on Monday with my children from orchestra.  They really enjoyed it and were really positive about it! It was a joy to take them!

8.  Had to run our Treasure Island rehearsal by myself on Tuesday as the Drama lead was off sick.  Managed to get the opening song and closing song blocked and learnt properly and even started to work out movements for the overture!

9.  I now have to teach Phonics to a year 1 class every Thursday (Wednesday this week) which is annoying as it cuts a big half an hour out of my music lesson but I am getting into the swing of it now- we use Essential Letters and Sounds and it works quite well!

10.  Very, very glad I made a large batch of Vegetable stew on Sunday.  It has meant 2 dinners I didn't need to think about. Topped up with homegrown kale, bittercress and 3-cornered leek!

11.  Bought a yummy Mediterranean platter from Lidl. Have very much enjoyed coming home to it, particularly the cream-cheese stuffed pimento peppers- they are delicious!!

12. It's only a week or so till the holiday!!!!

TARDIS Tuesday- Amy Pond Time of the Angels

For TARDIS Tuesday this week, I thought I'd return to a comfy outfit worn by Amy Pond in two episodes, Time of the Angels and Flesh and Stone. Mainly because a) I spotted my Converse trainers yesterday when getting my Gamelan costume ready and b) also spotted the red hoodie in the drawer.

Source

Here's the outfit as worn by Karen Gillan. I first wore a version of this in March 2015 then October 2021.  

Here's my 2024 iteration which is exactly the same as my 2021 one except for a better hair length!  No need to upgrade this one.

Recently, whenever I've worn a red sweater for work, people have commented on good the colour looks on me. I always enjoy wearing red so I am glad it works for me!

My sweater is from Primark but charity-shopped, the skirt and Converse trainers were both gifted to me. I bought the leggings in Tescos about a decade ago and I have never found any other legging brand or type as comfortable or durable as these ones.  All my other ones (except some Aldi/Lidl) ones have always developed holes or been uncomfortable.

When I was getting this outfit ready to wear, I realised that I really don't need 2 pairs of Converse trainers. I bought my black and red ones in Bali in 2006. I texted my niece (who, serendipitously, has similar-sized feet) and asked her if she would like them.  She was so excited and said she'd actually asked her Mum for a pair of Converse trainers recently. It's nice to be able to pass them on, clear a little shoe-space AND to make her happy.

Funnily enough, a colleague, the other day, said to me, "Can I ask you about something. I had a funny feeling you might be the one person who might know about this."

It turned out she wanted to know if I had ever tried Saltwater sandals as she was interested in them but as they are quite expensive, wasn't sure about them.  I said that I did have a pair and I really liked them.  I told her I'd bought mine 2nd hand from Depop for £12 (which is a really good 2nd hand price for them).  I suggested I brought mine in for her to try on and I asked her footsize.  

"I'm afraid I've got big feet- size 8!" she answered.

"Oh good, so have I!" I answered.  That's perfect. I can lend them to her for an evening so she can try wearing them around the house and see if they work for her!

I had a great weekend.  On Saturday, after a pleasant breakfast of porridge, I got lots of washing done and hung in on racks outside as it was so beautifully sunny.  Whilst outside, I picked some Kale from my extremely gangly plants from last year which have continued to grow and currently have tender young leaves. I also picked some hairy bittercress which was growing in my olive tree and blueberry pots and then some three cornered leek from the side bed! I love free food. Then I headed into London as  I had a Gamelan gig at LSO St Luke's.  It went really well and we had a hugely appreciative audience.  Afterwards, CBC and I went for dinner at Wagamama's on Old Street before we headed home.

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kezzie (@kezziesquirrel)

Sunday morning, I managed to get up in time for church...just! I got out of bed at 8.52am and managed to get to church for 9.10am to play flute for the first hymn. It was a lovely service with a very meaningful sermon. As we were playing one hymn, I had a vision of someone, who I couldn't see, walking with a wooden crucifix all around the church. 

After church, I came home and had some breakfast and folded up washing and put other washing one. Annoyingly, our washing machine keeps getting an error code which is a draining error and I never know how much it has actually washed the garments and the only way to get it to open is to do a Rinse and Drain mode.  

I received Nancy Birtwhistle's Green and Clean book for my birthday and I decided to try her method for washing oven shelves. I recently bought some Washing soda (ash) for cleaning from a Refill service which delivers door to door and I left the shelves and grill try in the sink to soak for a few hours. Happily, it did a good job.  This may be the first time, shamefully, that I have cleaned oven shelves.  Nancy replied to my message on Instagram where I asked to her to clarify what she meant by 'one cup'. I'm really intrigued to make up her Pure Magic shower cleaner once I've got a new large glass spray bottle to do it in! I really hope it can do something about the limescale!

Tomorrow (written on Sunday!) , I am taking my school orchestra to the Barbican to watch the London Symphony Orchestra.

Sweetly, on Friday, two little girls in Year 4 stood on the landing outside orchestra (with my permission) to teach another children who wants to join recorder club 7 weeks late, how to play all the music she's missed so far.  It was such a darling thing! All three girls are such sweet, gentle, kind girls.

On Friday afternoon, I got some of my choir to come upstairs to learn a harmony part for our new choir song for the competition (I have to add to the programme from the last round).  They sounded really good- I hope I can hear them above the rest of the choir!

Hope all is well with you!

2 weeks left of term!

xx

World Book Day 2024 Costume

Hello there!

I hope you are well!

Finally managed to get around to getting the photos of my World Book Day outfit from my work colleague!

Remember, I told you my school was donning PJs or World Book Day.

I was very disappointed to say the least as was one of my lovely pupils!

I decided I could get round this.

I remember illustrations from JM Barrie's Peter Pan depict Wendy and her siblings in long white cotton night shirts and gown.

I also knew that I had my Mum's white cotton full-length nightgown from when she was one of the Major General's daughters in The Pirates of Penzance.

So, I donned this nightgown on a Thursday at school. Sadly, I decided it was a bit too wafty and nippy to wear on the train to work (much as I delight in the bemused side-eye from commuters when I sit there in costume) so I had to change on my way. I wore my Avid Reader's Book club sweatshirt from Joanie on the way.

I thought carefully about my accessories.

You might be able to spot the anchors on my white ballet pumps- a nod to the nautical setting for the story. Sadly, it's probably their last outing as the sole of one shoe had broken apart and disintegrated. There were bits of my shoe everywhere.

My hair got totally messed up in the wind but I added my purple Lady-tie bow into my hair.

Tinkerbell made an appearance!!! I decided to add this brooch as a nod to my character....even though Tink doesn't like Wendy!

 Did people recognise who I was?

Some of the kids thought I was a ghost, one colleague thought I was Jesus, a few weren't sure, several admired my lovely summer dress and yes, a few knew I was Wendy!

Would you have realised who I was?

I managed to incorporate World Book Day into my singing assemblies that week.

Either the Schools Musicals company or Out of the Ark had 2 free songs available on the theme which I taught to the children.  I also played the William Tell overture to KS2 and told them the story of William Tell and played the story of The Noon day witch by Dvorak to KS1.

Oh, by the way...

My choir got through to the final of my local area's Primary Year of the Year competition.

We were one of 6 schools chosen out of  the 24 who entered!  My choir were EUPHORIC to find out on Tuesday as was I!

Now, I have 3 rehearsals to get them ready for the final!

xx