Rounding up the Easter Bunnies

Easter is now a distant memory, chocolate smears wiped up and school beckoning again.  Nonetheless, it has been a much needed respite from the usual round of work, collecting kids, organising uniforms and staying on top of my job.  Hence the title: the bunnies have been rounded up and put back in their hutches, now it’s time to get my work into line.

Surprisingly (well, perhaps not), I took some very good management advice from my hairdresser and will be implementing a new regime at work.  We all need some guidelines to help us co-operate (break it down = work together): be happy (or take steps to make yourself so); take responsibility for your own progress; don’t gossip; accept change.  These are some of the rules my hairdresser uses to run her team in her salon – I think they may be just as relevant in the classroom, or even the staffroom.

Anyway, work aside now.  The kids are coming along in leaps and bounds.  Florence is a natural climber and we have taken her again to the local climbing wall with our friends Laraine and Peter.  She shins up a wall with such glee and grace it is a joy to see.  Theo is so impatient for his 4th birthday to come along – he counts down the days and can’t wait for more presents.  We have been out and about on the train lately as the old banger has passed on.  Kids are very excited by train journeys and it’s much less hassle than I thought.  However we do have a new old banger now and I aim to be less bound by the car than I was.  In any case, I need to get my money’s worth from the shopping trolley… and of course be mindful of the carbon footprint.

We may have been more abstemious in terms of car usage (by necessity) but abstemiousness has never been my very strong point overall.  Nonetheless, it is time to be a little bit stricter with myself in terms of cake and wine, and a bit more free with the exercise and activity.  Watch this space!

¡Hola! from Parc Guell

Today we enjoyed the sunshine in Barcelona, and sustenance in the form of pizza (traditional?), tortilla, juice and beer we marched ourselves up the hill to take in the Parc Guell.

There was a sublime time of running around the hall of columns with the kids, listening to Spanish guitar music and watching Theo have his first holiday romance.  The sun  shone, the tiles sparkled and all was generally magnificent in a holiday kind of way.  We marched back down again, back on the bus for more views.

At the beach, Flo and I perfected our wave jumping technique, while Theo practised sand swimming before repairing to a nearby ice-cream parlour for refreshments.  After another hop on the Barca tourist bus we headed into the area around the cathedral for a snack, but this part of the adventure was cut short rapidly by Theo falling asleep as we were walking.  The little lambs were revived by Rita´s superb tortilla, which I hope to reproduce back at home.

Joyful holiday: zoo and shopping tomorrow.

Pasta banana

The bureaucratic hangover continues today: Chris and Flo left for Barca today while Theo and I await the conclusion of the passport saga.

Yesterday, I tried to teach Flo some handy Spanish phrases, managing a passable ‘hola’ and ‘una tarta helada por favor’. We concluded the lesson with saying ‘see you tomorrow’ (hasta manana, don’t you know) which was smartly transposed to ‘pasta banana’. My confidence as a teacher has been utterly undermined by a 4 year old, although she’ll probably have worked out how to order several different flavours of ice cream by the time we are all reunited – it’s in the genes.

Theo and I had an exciting day on four buses. Being on the top deck is amazing when you are nearly 3, and refreshing to see it anew for me. We companionably shared a margherita (pizza – what sort of parent do you think I am?) and chose me a new shiny lipstick in Boots. It was all so overwhelming that he fell asleep on my lap on the last bus, and conked out for the day before The Simpsons at 6. Today’s blog will be short, sweet and concisely paragraphed as tomorrow, I fear, will start at unreasonable o’clock.