Tinkerbell's Pages

On making some easy money...

Usually if someone holding a clipboard attempts to stop me in the street, I get quite annoyed. There is always a flock of these people down my local high street who jump out at you at the most inconvenient of times (usually when it's pouring with rain or you're carrying about ten bags of shopping) and try to enter into conversation with you in the name of 'market research'. I have a special trick for dealing with this particular situation - if you manage to spot them before they spot you, quickly pull out your mobile and pretend to be having a conversation with someone (or really ring someone if your acting skills aren't that good!) Hence, you can easily ignore said people and get away from them. I tell you, it works every time. The boyfriend has a particular loathing for market research people on the street and goes into some kind of military mode, violently pushing me into any shop we might happen to be approaching, if these people clap eyes on us when we're out shopping.

So why did I find myself willingly partaking in a 90 minute market research interview on Wednesday night? Well, there were a number of reasons: (1) I had been approached by email and not accosted on the street; (2) I actually had an opinion on the subject matter and thought it might be useful to take part; (3) It took place indoors, not on a street corner; and (4) I got paid for it. Well, to be honest, it was really just because I was getting paid for it : )

So, on Wednesday night I found myself in a strange conference centre with just six chairs placed in a circle in the middle of a room. I imagined that this might be the same kind of layout used for an AA meeting or other counselling session. The market research was all about websites for teachers and I had been asked to bring someone along with me. I had to think of another teacher who was desperate for some quick cash, so instantly big sis came to mind! There were two market researchers (one of whom did absolutely nothing but observe the proceedings for the whole 90 minutes) and two other participants. There were also free bottles of mineral water and chocolate biscuits. The minute we sat down we were each awarded with an envelope containing two crisp twenty pound notes. We could have just sat in silence for an hour and a half and still gone home forty quid richer!

All we did was talk about ourselves and our jobs and the time flew by. It's got to be the easiest money I have ever earned in my life : )

On the bad parenting of Mr. and Mrs. Darling...

Went to see the extremely cheesy, but nevertheless highly entertaining Peter Pan on Ice at the Crystal Palace Sports Arena with school today. It was a very special day because the children have been looking forward to it for weeks and everyone in the school went together. The organisation of the trip wasn't easy and involved transporting 270 children on six coaches to Crystal Palace, but it all turned out OK in the end. The skating and the costumes were good and the show was just about the right length to keep the audience's attention, but the place was more than half empty, so there wasn't a particularly exciting atmosphere. Add to this the fact that we were watching this show at 11am in the morning - I think it is probably a lot better when it plays to a packed arena at night! It was actually highly amusing to watch 270 children (and that was just from our school!) cringe when Peter Pan and Wendy kissed at the end of the show! By the way, Tinkerbell was made to look all punky and chavvy - I was not impressed : (

As I watched, certain random thoughts entered my mind, including the one that I often thought about as I watched the Disney version of Peter Pan as a small child. How come the Darling family use a dog to babysit their children?! I had to check this fact, in case I had somehow managed to get the wrong end of the stick, but it does indeed seem to be true that the dog 'Nana' is left in charge of the children when the parents go out. It's all very strange. I'm sure it's a case for Social Services to get involved in. The original book states: Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling had a passion for being exactly like his neighbours; so, of course, they had a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her. She had always thought children important, however, and the Darlings had become acquainted with her in Kensington Gardens, where she spent most of her spare time peeping into perambulators, and was much hated by careless nursemaids, whom she followed to their homes and complained of to their mistresses. She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse. How thorough she was at bath-time, and up at any moment of the night if one of her charges made the slightest cry. Of course her kennel was in the nursery." But of course.

On laughing at the hilarious Ross Noble...

The boyfriend and I went to see Ross Noble's stand-up show at Brixton Academy on Monday night. It was quite a weird experience because I had only ever been there to see live gigs before but never a comedy show. The first weird thing was the fact that there were seats. Well, very strange spring-loaded seats which had been brought in especially for the occasion which acted a bit like a seesaw (ie. when someone sat down or got up from one end of the row, you were almost catapulted into the air at the other end!) I'm used to standing right at the back near the bar, balancing on my tiptoes, straining my neck to see a band play live whilst simultaneously attempting to dance and look cool (no mean feat I can tell you!), but this time we were able to sit down in relative comfort. Our seats were only about six rows from the front so we had a really good view, but we were unfortunately sitting right next to the men's loos. With the air-conditioning blasting out unnecessarily (it's November for God's sake!) and the constant whiff of urine, it was not the most pleasant of environments to be sitting in for three hours, as you can probably imagine...!!!

However, the show more than made up for it. Once again, it was being filmed for a DVD (we always seem to find ourselves at shows which are being filmed for future release) and although we weren't in the line of the camera this time, one of my loudly-shouted suggestions for the finale to the show (which is much too long-winded to explain here) was taken on board, much to the boyfriend's sheer embarrassment! So if you ever find yourself watching the Ross Noble Fizzy Logic DVD which is due to be released before Christmas, listen out for someone shouting out: "On rollerskates!" towards the end - that's me : )

On getting lost in the dark...

Went to friend's wedding reception at the magnificant Horsley Towers in Surrey last night (not that we could really see that much off its magnificance because when we arrived it was very dark and misty). We had to miss the local fireworks display which we go to every year WITHOUT FAIL, which boyfriend wasn't too happy about, but I said that I was sure there would be fireworks at the wedding reception that we could enjoy instead. There weren't (that is, of course, unless we missed them...)The night didn't start off too promisingly really. The cab was 15 minutes late because the driver couldn't find our flat and then we got completely lost out in the deep, dark Surrey countryside for about another 15 minutes. When we finally reached our destination, we were so relieved to get there, I sprang out of the cab leaving my camera on the back seat, so boyfriend had to then run after cab to retrieve it.

Anyway, the reception was a good laugh. However, I do find that the annoying thing about arriving at an evening wedding reception is that all the guests who have been there all day are completely pissed already. We had no chance of catching up with them with the prices of the drinks, but we had a few drinks and were merry enough by the time the cab came to pick us up at the end of the evening (15 minutes late again!) It actually turned out that for less than the price we paid for the cab, we could have stayed in the guest house next door overnight, but I thought it was best to go home anyway because I've got so much work to do for school today. Going to see Ross Noble tomorrow night (more about that in my next blog I'm sure) and it's parents' evenings (which I hate) on Tuesday and Wednesday. I got up early this morning with the intention of making a start on all that work, but somehow found myself writing this instead : )

On feeling ill and a bit sorry for myself...

I am not feeling very well today. Most of the teachers at school have got this stinking cold and there is no money left in this year's budget to pay for supply teachers, so we are all having to soldier on. At 6.30 this morning I suddenly thought, why do they make cold and flu tablets so big?! They're difficult enough to take at the best of times, but even more so when your throat is swollen up and you can hardly swallow anyway! I managed to escape from school soon after the kids went home today, so it's a night curled up on the sofa in front of the telly for me. Thank God it's the weekend and only two more weeks of school until half term!

The boyfriend and I are supposed to be going out for dinner with friends on Saturday night and then to see Russell Brand at Shepherd's Bush Empire on Monday night, so I need to be recovered enough to go out by then. The torrential rain we've had over the last few days hasn't really helped matters either. I just want to get into bed and hide under my duvet at the moment : (

On being able to do something right (for once) ...

Usually, if someone at work wants something done or some advice on something, I am the last person they turn to. Being the youngest member of staff and the least experienced, I am never really much help to anyone. However, when it comes to fixing the photocopier, I am now officially first in command. This is one area where I am actually in demand now, mainly due to my several years experience of temping at different companies and using photocopiers for hours on end each day. Today I was really appreciated.

Photocopiers are an essential part of a school. If something goes wrong with the photocopier (which it does at least ten times every day), all hell breaks loose in the staffroom. Especially you've left everything to the last minute and the bell has gone. You know if you don't get your photocopying done in time, you'll have a class of 36 children waiting for you in your classroom and you'll have no work for them to do. So today at about 8am I was approached to attempt to fix the photocopier. I had an audience of about five eager teachers with their eyes fixed upon me. "Here's my chance to finally win their approval", I thought to myself. And lo, it came to pass that I was able to fix the machine. I received a round of applause led by none other than the Headteacher himself. I was truly honoured.

On turning 29 on the 29th...

It was my 29th birthday yesterday. All very exciting. Got loads of lovely cards and presents and am filling the last week of my (all-too-short) summer holiday with catching up with friends before the drudgery of going back to school begins next week! Have cashed my birthday cheques, changed back my remaining euros and finally get paid tomorrow, so hopefully my bank balance will perk up a little now. That's definitely going to be it for the trips abroad this year and I guess I'm going to have to be doing some serious saving from now until Christmas! Oh well.

Am feeling a little old now, but am trying to look on the bright side of things. As big sister put on her card to me, "Have a fabulous birthday and enjoy another year of not being 30." I suppose it's next year that I've really got to worry about!

On chilling out down in Brighton...

Big sis and I decided to get away from all our current stresses and spent the day down in beautiful Brighton yesterday. Despite the fact that the weather has been a little disappointing for the beginning of the summer holidays (after sweating it out in a greenhouse-type classroom for the last few weeks!), we had a lovely time. We sat on the beach for a bit (according to the weatherman on TV yesterday, the South Coast had the best weather in the whole of the British Isles), did a bit of shopping etc. She also decided we were going to get our tarot cards/palms read. We gave the expensive Ivor ("as seen on Channel 4 and E4") on Brighton Pier a miss (he was charging 20 quid!) in favour of an unknown Irish woman in The Lanes who was only charging a fiver per reading.

Here are the results: BIG SIS - Apparently needs to go to counselling of some kind (the lady was very insistant upon this!), is a spiritual person who everyone likes, is going to write a children's book in the near future and is going to travel for a bit, but end up staying in the UK. ME - Apparently I should never take up any kind of physical activity because I am so weak (!), will also write a book, but not for a long time yet, am not so independent as my sister (that's true), am highly intelligent (I really didn't need to pay a fiver to find that out!) and am subconsciously pushing the boyfriend away from the idea of getting married. So there you go.

On saying goodbye to Miss K ...

Last night the boyfriend and I went out to dinner with some others to say goodbye to my good friend Miss K. We went to La Nonna in Wimbledon Village and nearly died of heat exhaustion because there was no air conditioning. It was really too hot to eat properly and it just as well we weren't desperately hungry when we arrived at about 8.15pm because our food didn't finally arrive on the table until 2 HOURS later. Anyway, Miss K is very special to me because she helped my become what I am today. I was a student in her class when I was finishing my teacher training in the Spring of 2004. She managed to convince my examiner from university that I wasn't really totally useless and I came away from my final placement with an 'A' grade for teaching practice. Miss K really does have a knack of talking crap convincingly. It's a very useful skill to have when you're a teacher. Trust me.

Miss K is a friendly person who will talk to anyone. One night last year we went out for cocktails and she got talking to a stranger in the toilets of the bar we were in. Ten minutes later, the girl she had just met was busted for drugs. Obviously high, she pretended to be Miss K's best friend. The bouncers then started questioning Miss K about her relationship with this girl. Instead of telling the truth, Miss K (being a little drunk) pretended she was an undercover policewoman in an attempt to get herself out of the situation. As you do. That's what she's like.

Anyway, Miss K has now decided to up and leave us all to go to North Carolina to teach. She leaves next weekend. Who knows when she'll be coming back? I'll miss her : (

COUNTDOWN TIL THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS: 3 and a half school days.

On being worth it...

Had a lovely (but busy) day yesterday. Very much enjoyed my experience in the hairdressers, had a great head massage which was so relaxing that it nearly sent me to sleep and was pampered and pruned for a total of two and a half hours altogether! Was very pleased with the resulting 'do', which has thankfully left me looking a little bit blonder and a bit more socially acceptable than I looked when I first went in! The price, of course, reflected the time I spent in there and again, I might not be able to afford to eat this week, but hey - I'M WORTH IT!

After spending so much time in the hairdressers, didn't have too much time for shopping in the afternoon, but I still managed to get a few bargains. There are sales on everywhere - not good news for an addict like me! I really shouldn't be allowed out on my own. The girls night was really fun too - haven't laughed so much in ages. Finally got to bed at 2am this morning, but woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep. We've decided we're going to go bowling next time and we might even drag the blokes along with us if they're lucky... : )