Day 38:It's not mirth, it's hysteria

Eeeeeeeeep, nearly time to be off!
Last night sort of almost went to plan. After I remembered to get a pizza on the way home (shopping list read: water purification stuff, anti-sickness pills, pizza) we did at least eat.
Poor little dog-in-law got progressively glum as the evening wore on, normally he's the centre of attention but I was glued to the laptop and the phone. Then I bought the rucksacks downstairs and he lost all hope.
Finally started packing at about 10pm, then unpacked a bit, then packed a bit more, decided I had too many socks, took socks out, put finger paints in, swapped some t-shirts for some crayons etc etc til I had no idea what to pack or wear.
Finally rucksack was full, felt very pleased with myself. Turned round and discovered heap of other stuff I was meant to take. Decided it could go in Mr Halford's bag.
Mr Halford returned from his second stint at work, went upstairs, scooped up an armload of stuff and had his bag packed in about 2 1/2 minutes. Then said, with some satisfaction, 'there's still loads of room in my bag' (not any more - I shoved all my make-up and extra underwear in there this morning).

And then, since it was midnight I tried the online check-in. About a million times. It didn't work. Waved booking confirmation paper at laptop in pleading fashion. No joy.
Thought, 'there'll be some perfectly logical reason as to why Virgin Atlantic have none of my details, I shall ring them up.'
Found a phone number with the reassuring words 'line open 24/7' after it and gave it ring. Got through to the 'all other enquiries' bit and listened to some modern  popular music. And that was it. No interrupting 'you are in a queue' or 'your call is important to us' type message. Hmmmm, began to reflect on 'line open 24/7' not necessarily meaning there was anyone there to answer the call.
Hung up, tried a flight re-confirmation option. Got a cheery automated 'no need to re-confirm your flight' message and then a dead end.
Hung up, dialled the first number again and this time hung on for grim death.
Hurrah, a lovely Welsh lady answered, did some typing and found the agent hadn't put any spaces in our names. Hoopla! problem solved. Then there was a loud static noise, such as may be heard at the apocalypse and the nice Welsh lady disappeared. I looked at the phone in confusion.
Welsh lady duly reappeared, but shrieking a lot. I tried being soothing but she couldn't hear me and kept shrieking 'Charles! the phones have gone! don't panic. NO ONE PANIC'
I left her to her not-panicking and gently put the phone down.

Triumphantly checked-in, printed boarding passes and gave the miserable dog a carrot, which cheered him up a bit because he loves carrots and thinks they are the best treat ever.

Day 37: AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

I'll say that again.

Aaaaaaarrrrrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!

Oh snakes alive, if ever there was a day to stick my head in a bucket of chocolate, this was it.
Just as I thought I'd defeated the chocolate gremlins, they come right back to haunt me.
Last night I thought it would be a good idea to get our currency ordered so we could pick it up from the airport, so I got on to the interweb and put the order in. The payment didn't work. I phoned my bank. Lo, their very efficient (annoyingly too efficient) anti-fraud system thought it looked suspicious. Spoke to a nice lady who gave me a number to ring and I resolved to try again the next morning.

Got up in the middle of the night (6am) to make sure I was all ready with hair combed and make-up on in order to phone the anti-fraud line at 8am (good impressions count). Phoned the line to find there were no actual people there, but a somewhat weird question system which I used the keypad to answer. It was a bit like trying to communicate with aliens, but still, it seemed to work until it asked me to confirm some recent purchases. There were quite a lot of them. All on Saturday morning. Hmmm.

Anyhoo, buoyed by this success I tried again. It didn't work. Phoned the bank again and spoke to two nice people who assured me all is well and fixed now. Would have tried again but had to gallop to work.
Went through the whole fandango again in my lunch break. Gave up, thought I'd ring up instead. Checked the website and saw the lines close at 5.30. Perfect.

Left work, bought last minute essential medication and the like and hoofed it up the hill in a manner to rival my 1996 land speed record for a flip-flop wearer success. Grabbed phone at 5.15, ring ring, 'thank you for calling......our lines are now closed' WHAT???!!! 'Our opening hours are 9 am to 5pm, please call back then.
Yes, I will call you then, but in the meantime I shall send you a very cross email.
I believe this places me at roughly point 4 on the 'losing it' scale i.e. 'a visit to strop central'

Ooooof.
OK off to pack my 'reasonable amount of reading material for the flight'. Choices, choices.

Day 36: packing is for wimps

Hmmm, really ought to do some packing.

Today I bought home all the donated loot from school and tried to take a photo of it. There was so much of it that it completely covered the settee and I couldn't fit it all in the frame.
Tally so far:
Posters (30)
Coloured paper (345 sheets)
Finger paints (32)
Plastic letters (4 random containers)
Wax crayons (168)
Coouring pencils (318)

and oodles more besides. Pity the poor drama teacher who offered me a lift home only to then have a box of loot shoved in his arms while I went to fetch the other one from the staff room. Then I remembered the massive cool box was still in library so fetched that too and in no time at all the car was full.

Unlike my rucksack which currently has nothing in it.

Day 35: Wooo! Back on the information superhighway

So many good things going on.
Yesterday I read 'Out of Shadows' by Jason Wallace, which is jolly terrific and gives you loads to think about and really, you should be rushing out right now to get your mitts on a copy (unless you are a young person as it's quite violent). (Well, really violent).

The dog is here! He had a major sneezing fit earlier but is all recovered now.

I got yet more splendid things to take to Nepal, and yesterday our lovely caretaker, Mr Cage, helped me wrestle the posters into a cardboard tube so they wouldn't get flattened on the way there.

I managed to buy someone a Mars Bar this morning and got it all the way to work and safely delivered without hoovering it up.
I fended off a 6th former who was trying to sell me some chocolate at lunchtime (behold my superb willpower!)

I met the nice dog from down the terrace who looks terrifying but turns out to be quite nice (at least while I'm hiding behind a gate).

OK, Mr Halford is determined we should do some packing, can't argue with that, only 3 more sleeps to go!

Day 34:(I'm not here, I've lost internet access)

(No, really.)

Day 33: new shoes!

New shoes! And a big day out in London with Mr Halford and Mum and Dad. And lots of sunshine and everything.
Giving up chocolate is proving a bit financially ruinous; yesterday I bought a pair of shoes, two frocks and two tops. Where will it all end?
Bankrupcy, possibly.
On the plus side my lovely Mum bought a majestic bag of crayons over today for us to stuff in our rucksacks.
Eeeep!
Only 5 more sleeps to go!

Day 32: not even any cheating or anything

Snakes alive, I have made it to day 32 without any cheating. How very unlikely.
Achieved almost nothing off my 'to do' list yesterday bar buying stocks of bird food.
I got very distracted by buying frocks and summery things, then discovered my small neice was over at the outlaws and so went over to play with her, then ended the day by having a trot round Hatfield Forest and baking some biscuits.
As a consequence I now have quite a lot to do before my parents arrive at 10am Sunday.
Also, all my library books arrived - finally - so I now have 4 to read before we jet off on Friday. And we haven't packed yet.
I wouldn't have time to eat any chocolate even if I wanted to!

Day 31: Fridays are the new Fridays (official)

Oh at last, Fridays have returned to being Fridays. Once again a beautifully warm and sunny day, so smiles all round.
I bagged a lift to work with a colleague for the second morning in a row (luckily, as I was trying to carry a hugemungous cool box down the road) and completed the hat trick as I got a lift home earlier in the week too.
Such are my nice friendly work colleagues - yesterday I was offered a lift while conspicuously carrying a tin of biscuits, today I it was a cool box that could possibly be full of beer (it wasn't, which will guarantee no lift on Monday).

All sorts of random excitement around school today - an ice lolly sale at break time which went incredibly well, and a visiting band (twenty twenty) with many a swooning teenage girl at break time. I was given some more goodies to take to Nepal and had to make a second collection box to put in the staff room.

My lovely friendly 6th formers were planning a get together at one of their houses tonight, 'til I reminded the potential host that the last time this happened he was found in the library wailing 'my house is in tatters because of you!'. They then decided to hold it at the house of the friend who wasn't present. Good thinking.

Then, even better, I got home to find I had won a book in a competition.

Nicely played Friday, good recovery.

Day 30:woooooooooo!

Today was excellent for many reasons, but mostly because of the Year 11 music recital which featured several jawdroppingly good performances. Even if I wasn't completely biased I'd still think they were brilliant.
Plus there were also excellent cakes in the interval
Even more plus, got home to find we are dog sitting for one more night as the outlaws are getting back from their hols late. The dog was wild with joy to see me, mostly because he thought he'd get fed again. But still.

In a fit of daring I purchased some chocolate brownies for someone (without their knowledge) and managed to give them to them without eating any first. An unexpected triumph.

Day 29: even more muchos excitement

Yay! An excellent day today! Not only was it lovely and sunny and suchlike but 2 (two) parcels arrived today. One parcel contained 'Little Princes' by Conor Grennan, an account of how an initially casual volunteering experience in Nepal grew into a mission to an all consuming commitment to help some victims of child trafficking amidst the horrors of the civil war. I'm making it sound terribly serious and worthy, but so far it has been warm, funny and enlightening, though it doesn't shirk from the grittier side of life.

The second parcel contained the posters I ordered on Monday afternoon and they are so fabulous I had to do a bit of spontneous dancing. Really, they are great. You have no idea how great. I'm still really excited about them.

Got home and resisted the urge to sit in the gorious sun and read my new book. Instead, I set about baking some coconut and cherry shortbread. It was much like the cake baking episode of the other week but most of the chaos was caused by a localised fog of icing sugar and too many shoes in front of the fridge so the door wouldn't open properly and then there was a bit of a landslide of shortbreads. Only one made a proper bid for freedom (it got as far as the bin) the rest were juggled back on to the baking sheet and shoved into the newly excavated fridge.

If Mr Halford is reading this: this is why your shoes are all in a pile in the middle of the living room floor.

Day 28: a month without chocolate (if it was February)

(which it isn't, so I am cheating a bit) (never mind)

Had a great day playing at libraries, with only a few cataloguing related mishaps such as accidentally taping my hair to the books when putting the spine labels on. Could happen to anyone. Possibly not bald people though.

Still no sign of my reserved books in the public library which gives me a great excuse to read something else. Like Failbook.

Day 27:muchos excitement

So much excitement in fact, that I forgot to update the blog.
Today I ordered 27 posters to take to Nepal, hurray! They should be here early next week, which is lucky since we are leaving at the end of it.
Also, we are looking after the dog-in-law for a few days and he is all cheery and affectionate  - much the thing for lack of chocolate miseries.

Day 26: what I lack in chocolate, I make up for with treacle tart

Another lovely sunny day here, apart from the current downpour.
As it's Mother's Day I called my Mum at about 8.30 this morning only to discover that she had already opened all her presents from me. On to part two - making a treacle tart for the family gathering at the outlaws. Managed to get all the right ingredients in, in the right order this time, and get it cooked on time despite a detour out to buy some plants for the garden.
Raced over to the outlaws and had a curry fest so tasty that we all over indulged and had to go for a walk before we could manage pudding.
A large amount of chocolates appeared from somewhere so I had to hide in the kitchen moving things about in the oven so that I wouldn't fall prey to their cheeky advances.
Very snoozy now, and I would so much like a hot chocolate but it's all off-limits so Mr Halford has made a coffee version instead. Genius!

Day 25: Are we nearly there yet?

Why is there so long to go until Easter, why?
Possibly it's because I haven't yet learned to suffer my lack of chocolate with good grace.
A lovely sunny day today, sat out in the garden at my outlaws reading the rest of Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld - a fine example of steampunk, should you be in need of one.
And now on to A Hat Full of Sky.

Day 24: Look on the Carnegie shortlist, ye Mighty, and despair!

Fridays are the new Mondays. I now have conclusive proof.

Whiffled into work with a spring in my step and a tin of biscuits in my hand. All was well with the world.

Got to work, checked emails, all went wrong.

For lo, there lurking in my inbox like a roasting tin that you turn round and catch sight of just after you’ve drained all the washing up water, was an email from CILIP with the new Carnegie 2011 shortlist.

And what a list.

I’m still seething hours later. Admittedly there is always at least one howler on there. The type of book that has us all scratching our heads asking ‘how could they shortlist that? How could they? Did they even read it?’

This year that book is ‘Monsters of Men’. 300 pages too long, central characters with no development and a bleating tendency to cry each others names in agonised fashion, a plot the author couldn’t be bothered with, quite a good bit with a horse and the biggest cop-out ending to rival ‘it was all just a dream’.

Such is my loathing for this book – inexcusably bad when the two preceding it were so good – that it has instantly made me despise the rest of the shortlist. Quite unreasonably so, since I’ve only read one other book on it.

When I saw MoM on the longlist I did half jokingly say that I’d ditch Carnegie completely if it made the shortlist, since there was absolutely no reason for it to do so. Now it’s happened I find that I really do want nothing to do with it.

Oh dear, dear. Excuse me while I pick all my toys up and put them back in my pram.