We went to our friend and colleague Arlene's funeral today. The vicar commented that our school seemed to have more staff than the usual school has children - maybe because not only every member of the current staff, including cooks and cleaners attended, but many past members also, including the two previous head teachers and the interim head we had for six months last year, not counting a number of supporters from the junior school.

Typical Arlene - not only had she somehow arranged to die so that her funeral could be held on the last afternoon of term and so cause the minimum inconvenience, but she had also planned it to the last detail.

The vicar said her definitive descriptors were "Reliable" and "Organised" and he wasn't wrong. Nothing was really said about her other great quality - an absolute refusal to look on the dark side of things, but to always be positive and cheerful. Whenever anyone asked how things were, in times of trouble, the worst she would ever admit to was "OK. We're getting there."

But she certainly had the last laugh. As the cortege exited the church for the crematorium, the recessional song was "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from the soundtrack of Monty Python's "Life of Brian."

We Will miss her!

My last day today - though the others have to do tomorrow too - and just as well, as we all felt somewhat jaded after three parties on Wednesday. As we have morning children and then different ones in the afternoon, we do everything in duplicate, including Christmas parties and we had perhaps foolishly also booked our Nursery Staff dinner for last night, too.
The day went well. We swapped about as usual, so that I spent the first part of the morning helping children make party hats and the second part playing circle games in the garden before helping with all hands to feed them their party food.
Then in the afternoon I spent the first part singing and dancing with the ones who already had ideas about what a party should be (rather than play as usual, like some of the younger ones) then the second part helping to lay the tables before helping with all hands to feed them their party food.
The food was provided by the parents and was a good selection of savoury and sweet, home cooked and shop bought, and the usual variation from the parents who had no idea it was even party day (after all, there had only been a message in the newsletter, a large message on the notice board for the two days prior and verbal reminders the previous day) to the ones who came with enough food to feed all of the children a substantial meal.
After sending the children all home happy, we rushed off early ourselves (after a quick stamp round the block to walk off some of the snacking we had indulged in during the day) and met up again for our meal.
We are so lucky in our Nursery team. We all get along really well together; not that we are particularly alike in character or ideas, but we understand each other and laugh together. Despite the fact that we work alongside each other every day for many hours, we were pleased to have the opportunity to socialise and relax together, and the six of us didn't run short of anything to say before it was suddenly time to remember we had to work again today.

My Mum and I have long bemoaned the fact that living so far away from each other "girly days out" together, shopping, drinking coffee and having lunch are an all too rare treat. We both look on when we see other mother/daughter combos out shopping and envy them, and hugely enjoy the rare occasions we do get out together minus menfolk.

Today, for the first time ever in my life, I enjoyed a wonderful new treat - a girly day out shopping with my daughter-in-law! It was lovely and I counted my blessings every second of it. Life being as it is, it looks as though this too will be a rare treat rather than a regular one, but at least I can happily look forward to repetitions of this new pleasure!

After decorating the Christmas trees with the children last week (heaps of tinsel and not much else, but they look very special!) I was inspired to come home and do ours. Here it is; fairly similar to last year as it's the same old ornaments (Liff: "Bauldy - shabby Christmas ornaments well past their prime but still displayed for sentimental reasons") collected over the decades with the occasional new addition, like our Christmas Kiwi from Don and Linda.

I also put the wreath on the door and was so busy admiring it on our way out that I walked into the gatepost and hurt my thigh!!

I just read Lissa's blog about her messy house and began a comment which turned into a rant - so I've transfered it here!

Unlike Lissa, the two of us live in a small three bedroomed house, but we had no problems until Ed started working from home and turned the dining end of our solitary living room into his office.

Now the place never looks tidy, but on the contrary always messy - not helped by the fact that he also leaves magazines and his film books all over the sofa in the sitting end every day too. Whilst I'm not particularly house proud or tidy, I do like to have the main "reception room" in a semblance of order. For the first time the other week, I kept our neighbour talking on the doorstep because I didn't want her to see the Saturday morning state of the house.

I hate it; but there doesn't seem to be much I can do about it, as I have already appropriated the larger spare bedroom as my study cum laundry room...

Today was not the usual Wednesday at work. The morning held a treat - Globe Players came to school to perform Cinderella, and our morning children were invited.

In the past we have invited the afternoon children to come in early, taken them all to the performance and had a quiet afternoon without children, for catching up on the chores that always mount up in a busy school. However, nobody told us the play was booked until Friday, and we deemed it too short notice for our afternoon parents to make new arrangements, so decided they would have to forego the treat.

The morning children loved it. Globe Players work on a shoestring and the scenery was simple and the costumes decidedly ill-fitting and very shabby, but our little girls gasped with joy when the Fairy appeared in a gold lurex and darned net frock and when Cinders appeared in her blue and silver ballgown (rather short and tight, with a gusset of different fabric inserted at the back to help it out) and none of them noticed that the Fairy was also one of the Ugly Sisters, and that Buttons doubled as Dandini.

As usual, we distributed the potential problem children amongst the staff, ready to be hushed and shushed at easy reach and as usual, they behaved beautifully and were enthralled throughout, whilst totally unexpected children were noisy or fidgetty - Amy couldn't help prodding her neighbours to discuss aspects of the plot, whilst Raheel thought "This is just ridiculous" and hardly bothered to watch at all.

Anyway, they all behaved quite well enough to avoid the censure of the ever critical reception teachers and came back to nursery full of what they'd seen.

Our concerns about the parents and their afternoon arrangements came to nothing. When collecting their children, three separate morning carers remarked on the "smell of gas" and we had to send for someone to test our supply. We were instructed to evacuate the building pending the results, and had to send our afternoon children away with no notice whatever of the change of arrangements - such is life.

As it happened the smell, though still unidentified proved not to be a gas leak, and our worries were groundless, but by the time we discovered this, we were well into the afternoon and had had our childless organisation time anyway! Unfortunately we had no access to the Nursery, but at least I managed to do some sorting of the History resources, a task that has been niggling at the bottom of my to do list for a while now.