Encore for the Rhus Tree

CleanSteve blipped the tree here. It's in our garden, now looking distinctly autumnal. But today was one of those days: woke late, had to go and get my foreign currency before work; got to work and found some interesting conversations going on, following the school's appearance on the ITV news last night, after the announcement that it faces closure through lack of county funding.

We really believe that what the school has created in its 101 years of being is a culture where every disabled child does matter, and is celebrated in all his/her uniqueness. The staff do care for, and love, every child in their trust, and looks after some of them from the age of two to nineteen plus. There are no "one size fits all" solutions at our school, and the results are, as someone (OFSTED)? said recently, "truly transformational". We turn lives around and give everything we've got to support the children and imbue their lives with opportunities.

After work, I rushed off to catch the bus to my next job, pausing only to eat a doughnut for lunch! My self-help mission for the second half of term is to eat better lunches, and I've set some wheels in motion to help me achieve that. Second job (teaching aromatherapy) was also productive, though I got drenched by heavy rainfall on the short walk between the bus and the building. CleanSteve picked me up and zoomed off into town, where he got a much better rate for pound-to-Euro conversion at the bank than I had at the Post office! GAH!

We are off to Holland on Sunday, and the weather is tipped to be truly awful for our channel crossing. Had better find the Stugeron tablets. My brother and his family live in Northern Holland (Geesteren) and we are paying them a short visit; also staying in Brussels on the way back. My mother will be there, overlapping our visit by one night. She has been looking after three of her grandsons as their mother is busy looking after her sick father, and their father (my brother) has been working in Bogota. Confused yet?

I have a couple of hours extrawork tomorrow, but otherwise just have to pack, and also do the blasted homework for my online writing course.

Whose stupid idea was it to do this course?
Ah yes, mine!

Can't believe that this time last year I was, when not feeling stressed about being in a new job, feeling ever so slightly bored, that I did not have quite enough to do!