Tidal Waters

I feel I am on the tide line, The waves are rushing back and for making the day pass so fast and the weeks disappear too quickly. My old job is in a wind down for Christmas, the place has a vague feel of hibernation, of getting this finished and wound up, of marking time as a new topic or thing is not to be started now. The decorations are up, the dinner has been had, the parcels are out, and the hours, too close, are being counted, a slow down of the world. My new job is running at full pelt, cover in place, and  cover organised for the opening over Christmas, alternatives in place for computer cover, job cover, and line management organised, meetings planned for the first week back, new staff, new job applications, new timetables and work plans.

The Waves come and I am being tugged about and tossed around then the wave goes out and the calm descends and the sky is all you see until suddenly like the waves washing back I am picked up and shaken again! I think I didn't realize just how calming the peace and serenity was, and just well I have admitted to being bored in the past! Life couldn't stay the way it was, and I enjoy the challenge and work at my desk, but occasionally I get a two minute break and I think of what I used to do, and how much time I had to think in!

I have enjoyed various Blog posts this week, best has to be this one which I have been looking through all day and crying over some and laughing over others, from the letters of note (and yes I have ordered the book) looking at the most popular over the last year, number 10 had me sobbing in my keyboard! while number 14 had me giggling but unable to explain why! My Fave posts were both raising funds or profile, the incredible edible group raised its money to publish its book! woo hoo so pleased. while Jack Monroe who blogs as a girl called jack, (who I got off another blog originally) raised thousands of signatures to get a debate on the state of the welfare and food banks in Britain!

This time of year we are spoilt for sunsets and sunrises! I am not sure they occur in the summer months but as I do not get up early enough or stay up late enough any more to know you will have to just accept that this time of year is best for sunsets and sunrises!

This was Monday afternoon, around 2.30pm! cause that's sunset time round these parts! we gain so much and love it so much but this is our down side and I can live with this but I am not fond of the dark. The latest bell has gone and we are yet another class closer to the end of term.

I doubt I will get time to post over Christmas as my mother has no internet connection and I can get limited else where but my machine is at home and the Laptop I use not mine only borrowed. I hope we all have a peaceful and restful Christmas and a happy new year or Hogmany depending on your choice.

Strange Times of a Cat Lady

Who forgot to turn over my calendar and how dare it be December!

Sadly I have most of my Christmas cards done and out, and even went round delivering them to my neighbors on Sunday, but with an ulterior motive! One of my kittens went missing, no surprise, she wanders often but always comes home for tea, maybe late occasionally wet and windblown and one memorable night in a state after what we later found out was a fight with something bigger, which left her with a hole in her leg and very poorly and flat for a few weeks. Of the four cats we have had one to the vets more than all the others together and if any of them have an issue its her! but we love her and she is ours, we have had her from her birth (on my sofa!) she is pushy and loud, she starts fights and often breaks things, if something gets broken its her, directly or indirectly! But I spent a horrid sleepless night worrying about her and the day walking round checking empty sheds and garages, knocking on doors and asking passing folk. At 9pm on Sunday night someone I had chatted to during the day rang to say there was a lost cat on caitness.org, I checked and yes they describe her well but it may not be her! a benny hill esque series of phone calls led to a trip in my car at 10.15 at night to find that yes they had my Midnight, I gathered her up and hugged the stuffing out of her! The people had worried when she hadn't eaten! but as she is a madame and turns her nose up at all but one brand of sachet I wasn't too surprised! I could moan about folks who pick up cats who are not homeless or lost, and I could wax lyrical about people who care for even stray animals.
But Midnight is Home and now my husband isn't sure he will ever let her out again! Give that until Wednesday when she finally gets on his last nerve. :-)

Work is chaos and the weather is threatening 8 inches of snow later in the week when I have to be in Inverness! so we shall see what happens, we could do with some snow to make us feel christmassy!
Watching my pupils trying to write CV's and they have so few things they think are important! they run a social life and have a big social media presences and do not think they have skills! More in doing CV's and planning choices that are months off but more they do now the better they are aware come the spring choice forms. It is amazing how much they can find to do that isn't related to what they should be doing. I love being in contact with the pupils and their ideas and mindsets, keeps me on my toes.

I have been a part of the Good Reads web site for a while but haven't been as active as I should have been, and now I am catching up and enjoying reading for myself again. I even got some of the titles in the good reads for this year already read :-) the winners are here, and they look good there are some I really must read! When I went to Kindle I found I read more online and little formal books, but I now am trying to balance it back again. I even tried to read the Man Booker Prize list and got oms done :-) but sadly not the Luminaries as it was too thick! yes as a librarian I try to read thinner books! I do plan to get the Luminaries on my kindle for my Christmas read.

I also read this in my blog feed and it has given me ideas, both to do one for myself and to run something similar for the pupils in school!  A group of us used to meet up and share things here in the highlands, we used to call it tear and share, or more like steal and reshape as most things do not one size fit all, we have to adjust and develop our own resources, but I do object to reinventing the wheel! I will take it and make it fit us or use what I can but I do not like making from scratch!

Just been and signed a change petition, not my normal act but this was worth it. Set up by A Girl Called Jack, to debate the causes of the increase in use of food banks, and her quote that gets me every time...

In the words of Desmond Tutu: "There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in."

So I have signed and if you feel that way inclined please do so as well. #JacksPetition Thanks

Just to finish a quick shot of my much missing cat, who refused to look at the camera that day!