The mis-adventures of yours truly.

Hello readers, and it's time for another blog. And what a blog it will be! I have much to tell... We are in to the second week of being back to school and it's business as usual. I have been doing cover lessons in the art studios because of slight staff shortages and so have had some real experience at proper teaching...

... the up-shot of this is the fact that I'm already in need of another holiday, and my reputation as the only person in the school who doesn't shout has been quickly quelled and replaced with the reputation as the only person in school who can go from nicey-nicey to bastard in 0.4 seconds.

Anyway, I'm not going to use this blog just for complaining, it's supposed to be a happy place! So I will get on with telling you all about my little trip with some of the year 10s to Avoncroft museum.

Last thursday I was asked to accompany some year 10s to Avoncroft Museum! They are learning about "construction" and can get a qualification in it (apparently!) The first session (of which there are about 6) involved learning about health and safety. I knew i was in for a difficult day when I had to tell one of the lads how to spell "Woodrush" and was told that "All this writin' is unfair" by the majority of them. (It should be noted that they had only filled out one little form by this point!) They were in for a shock, because the entire day involved writing things down and taking notes. Even lunch time wasn't a relief because I had to contend with them running round the outer gardens and refusing to come in. Anyway, the day ran it's course, the kids complained and I came away thinking that maybe it was a bit of a waste of time.

We got back to Woodrush at 3:00pm and they all went home, leaving me to go and find a nice quiet corner of the staff room, so that I could have a cup of coffee.

I was a wreck after that day (and I'm going again tomorrow!)

Fortunately my sanity was saved at the weekend by Adam, suggesting that we go to the Hatton Country Park. I thought that this was a good idea and so on Saturday morning, Me, Adam, Jenny, Carl, and Marcus set off in Adams car. We got to the museum for about 11:00ish and went straight in to the bit you have to pay for. Jenny had a voucher so we got in slightly cheaper and made a bee-line for the little zoo... Where they had some dogs in a pen... yes, dogs. Strange I know but they were special working dogs as bred by the local shepperd (apparently) along with some pigs, rabbits, ducks, sheep, donkeys and guinney pigs. When we had petted just about every living thing in sight we went round the rest of the enclosure. We had a particularly good laugh when we came to the cow pen... Adam went trotting over to the field saying, "Wow, cows are cool, man" just as one reared it's head and sneezed over him! It was gross. His entire right shoulder was covered in speckled cow-snot! (He wasn't very happy about it.) We then saw a gay falconer trying to make an owl (called "Mopser") to work off-hand and by voice only.... It worked for about 10 minutes, and then the owl got bored and refused to move. The guy was obviously a fan of the botty because he was trying to get the owl to fly by calling "Come on Mopser, Come on, girl" while smiling and batting his eyelids at the poor creature. Honestly, I think even I could have done a better job! The birds of prey were cool, though, and they were all on display. I took one of a falcon as seen below.

Nice isn't he? I tried to tempt him on to my arm but he was having none of it... It would have just torn through my wrists, anyway, with it's talons, I think.

The day ended with the Duckdog trials. (yes reader, you read that correct) like a sheepdog, but with ducks! The herder got everyone in a circle with their feet apart, and he got the dog to lead the ducks through everyones legs, much like a giant, circular slalom, I got a photo of Marcus and Jenny because i thought that if anyone was going to be pecked in the crotch, then undoubtably, it would be Marcus... Much to his delight, (and my dismay) there was no crotch pecking to be had. Still, Marcus looks like he's enjoying it, doesn't he?

We left Hatton at about 5:00ish and went for a drink. The intention was to go for a bite to eat and get changed to be back in Solihull for 7:00 to go for a night out. This was eventually done and we were back in Weatherspoons (minus Adam, because he was knackered) for about 8:00pm. We moved on to Casa at 10:00 and stayed there for the evening. Afterwards we went back to Marcus's and watched Only Fools And Horses! Another quality night out...!

On Monday, Me and Selena, along with Kieron went to the driving range in Solihull with Debbie and Kevin. Kev' (who plays regularly) corrected my swing and got me hitting 150 yards with an 8 Iron. Lovely... I'm now looking on Ebay for some cheap Golf Clubs!

Ah well, I've sat here typing this now since god-knows-when and I'm getting bored and want to play Chromehounds... So I will!

TTFN readers.