Sherlock

Source.

Ok, so you need to know something.

When I lived in London last year and I had to travel an hour and a half both ways, EVERY FUDGING DAY to get to work from East Finchley (in North London) to Forest Gate (in East London) I still stayed up late (well, it felt late) to watch Sherlock on the BBC.

Source.

It's starting on WIN this Sunday at 8.30pm and you just really, really need to watch it. You won't regret it, I promise.

Watch! It! (I'm not kidding!)

Aside: While I'm on the topic of where I used to work - here's one of the classrooms I used to teach in and here are some boys from the school talking about what changes they hope to see in the area after the London Olympics. I didn't teach any of these guys though, innit. {The sound is not great, apologies.}

Oh, and one last thing that I just have to share. Did you know that two of Britain's greatest detectives lived on Baker Street? I am of course referring to Sherlock Holmes and Danger Mouse. I read it on Wikipedia so it must be true.

Psyching myself up

For me, this weekend has been about psyching myself up for the week ahead. What's happening this week? Year 9 camp is happening this week.

Don't get me wrong, I usually enjoy it, but it's full-freaking-on. We leave on Tuesday and get back on Friday. I'm even lucky enough to be going on a non-camp camp. I don't have to sleep in a tent or use a drop toilet. These are all good things.

And in order to psych myself up for it (mostly for the lack of rest and constant fraternising with fifteen year olds) I've been getting early nights and reading lovely things in bed like Frankie magazine.

I've also been flicking through the well-worn copy of my art textbook from Year 12. I always come back to this book. It's tres inspiring (for a high school textbook).

And I've been contemplating this painting by one of our art students.

It's inspired by the famous surrealist Rene Magritte and sits on the wall above my desk at work. Whenever I feel fed up with work, life and everything I can look up and admire it. Isn't that a nice thing to be able to do? I'm very lucky, really.
*     *     *
What I'm mentally preparing myself for is the fog of tired that will creep in by the time I get home Friday afternoon. It's the most insane tiredness I've ever experienced. I assume it must be somewhat like what happens when people have a newborn that never sleeps. I could be wrong, but I think I'm right. It's the kind of tired that makes you think twice about driving, even short distances and the kind of tired that leaves you vulnerable to walking out of the house in your ratty pyjama bottoms and a t-shirt with spag bol stains on it (not that I have one - ok I do, hush).

The positive side, is that come Friday evening I will sleep like a log and have the deepest slumber ever. {EVER.}

I'm really looking forward to that.

Afterwards, once I have recovered and washed my sleeping t-shirt, I'll post some of our adventures. They include a night-time trip up Mt Wellington (I heart that place something chronic), a ghost tour at Port Arthur, a trip to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and a trip to MONA (this is what I'm looking forward to the most, I can't wait to see it for myself). We're also taking the kids ice skating and for a spot of laser skirmish. We shall also be swinging by the lolly shop at Richmond where I plan to get fully sugared up whilst at the same time discouraging the students from doing so.

Fun times, my friends. Fun times.

Sunday retrospective - Photoplay covers, 1920s

Photoplay covers, 1920s. From How To Be A Retronaut. I love the style and colour of these covers, not to mention the articles listed: "Gossip Never Hurts" and "Talkies: Everything You Want To Know About Sound Pictures". Check out the source above at How To Be A Retronaut for more of these great covers (and even better articles), but here are my favourites:

"Is Bobbed Hair An Extravagance?"
"What Is Immorality In Pictures?"
"Fakers Of Hollywood: Do They Marry For Money?"
"The Real Hell Raisers Of Hollywood"
"Turn The Pages Now To The Ladies In Hades"
"Slipping The Marriage Noose"

I'm a bit keen on the '20s at the moment - I've been doing a history unit on this era with my Year 9 SOSE class. We're planning a '20s party for our last lesson together after camp this week and before the summer holidays.

I've got them researching music and fashion, famous people and news events, entertainment and technology. I've borrowed some bits and pieces from the costume room (don't tell anyone, I didn't ask first) and we're going to learn to do the Charleston. We'll listen to jazz, put our glad rags on and it'll be the cat's meow.

Old stuff and old places

I've been going through some of my old photos (thrilling you say, thanks for sharing, you say) and I came across some I took earlier this year at Stanley.

There is a lot of old stuff in Stanley, including tin roofs and picket fences (although, the actual fence probably isn't all that old, but the concept is).

The cemetery is ... well, old (as you might imagine). It's also very peaceful and has one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen.

Highfield House is also old. And haunted apparently (as is rumoured about many an old house).

What's more, this old house has a whole stack of old things inside it (who'd've thunk it).

There are also sheep who reside there (I didn't ask if they were old or not), but I didn't get a shot of them on that visit. They were running away too fast for me.

There's something nice about re-visiting old photos and old places.

This and that

Sunday retrospective - Alice in Wonderland, 1949, by Leonard Weisgard

And still on the theme of Mad Hatters and Alice in Wonderland from yesterday's post, here are some amazingly awesome illustrations by Leonard Weisgard from an article on How To Be A Retronaut.

Originally posted on November 10th, 2011, here on How To Be A Retronaut. Check out the original article to see more of these illustrations.

{Have I mentioned how much I heart that website? Yes?}

Playing catch-up

{Be warned - this is a picture-heavy post!}

I took a whole bunch of photos ages and ages ago at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party Exhibition and I totes forgot to share them. So, here they are ...

So much time, so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that, reverse it.

Blog description. See it? That's me right now.

I refuse to post photos of my working existence at the moment because it's too hectic, it's too stressful and it is freaking me out a little bit. (It'll be okay, it always is, but this part of the year is fudging insane).

Some things that are coming up:

• Getting all the final results in for all my classes (in the next fortnight, yowza)
• A school camp (with Year 9's no less - Hobart, might even be fun, definitely exhausting)
• Preparing for the next school year (champing at the bit to get stuck into this)
• Finishing up at work for the year (looking forward to the lawn bowls comp. for the last day)
• Stocking up my new madeit store look see (COMING SOON! Check back regularly for updates and the grand opening. More details to come!)
• Finally putting some art work up on my walls
• Christmas with the family
• New Year's and Falls with The Colonel
• Finding some second-hand furniture for my study and finally getting all my books back under my roof
• Putting onto paper all of those drawing ideas I had during the school year but have had no time or energy to create

There is more, but in the interests of my own sanity, I might stop there. Have you got a big to-do list at the moment? How do you keep yourself sane with all the end of year madness? Feel free to share.

Sunday retrospective - Black cat auditions in Hollywood, 1961

I have discovered the single most awesome site on the interwebs. It's called How To Be A Retronaut. I can't even begin to describe how great it is, you really need to have a looksy for yourself, but please be warned, you will spend hours trolling through the awesome posts they have there. It is literally everything the internet should be about. You heard me. Check out the Facebook page here.

Once a week I'll be posting a link to an article that has caught my attention to encourage you to seriously check this site out. Consider it compulsory viewing - you and I can never be friends if you don't start reading this thing, I swear to you.


So, to begin the inaugural 'Hsawaknow. Sunday retrospective', I present for your viewing pleasure: Black cat auditions in Hollywood, 1961.

All images by Ralph Crane, from the LIFE Archive.

Doing it for the kids

Andrew Hardy Photography - AHP Exhibition Opening

I'm at that stage in my teaching career where I'm starting to see the little kidlets I taught in Year 7 (and 8 and so on, and so on) graduate. The class of 2011 are a particularly favourite group of mine. I know you're not supposed to have favourites, but they are an awesome group of kids and I'll miss teaching them heaps and heaps.

In particular, a couple of kids I used to teach have pursued their own creative paths. One, you can see on his Facebook photography page here. Another, you can see on his band's Facebook page here. These two were in my class teacher group in their first year of high school and I take full credit for all their achievements so far. (Kidding. Sort of.) To be honest, they're just great kids who are enthusiastic and talented. As are most of the kids in their cohort.

There are stacks of others who are just as talented in their own particular fields, whether it's sporting or academic or the creative arts, lots of them are already out and about in the big wide world, making their mark.

So, as I sit here spending a nice sunny spring weekend in my study marking paper after paper and stressing about getting final results in on time - I'll try to keep in the back of my mind the reason I'm doing all of this and how great it is to see them making it on their own.

And when I falter, at least I know that hipster bunny lamp is keeping a keen eye on me with his hipster glasses, judging me when I procrastinate and assuming that I'm marking them too harshly. He thinks he's so smart.

Ok, ok. Enough procrastination. Back to the books. Sigh.

Eight thousand

Erm ... I'm not sure quite how to put this, except to say ... Hsawaknow. has now reached over eight thousand page views.

Eight. Thousand.

Yowsa. That's a lot.

Cheers to anyone who has read this er... uh ... stuff. Thanks for doing that! And, if you read it more than once? Well, cheers doubly to you! Thanks to those who have made lovely comments online or in real life - it's very sweet and very much appreciated.

I'm more than a little surprised that anyone looks at my blog in the first place, let alone that it has managed to reach 8, 000 page views. So here's cheers! Thanks for having a squiz!

Here are a couple of Instagrams showing how weird the weather has been lately, the first one I took on a drive down to Sisters Beach on Monday afternoon, the second one was taken at my place yesterday afternoon (and this afternoon is pretty much just as foggy).

The fog completely matches how my brain feels right now - I'm in a fog of marking that isn't going to abate until after at least a couple of weeks. It's that time of year when everything has to be done so that final results can be collated ready for the kids to take home at the end of the year. If I could just learn to do marking in my sleep that would really help things along, but alas, no luck with my experiments on that front so far.

Oh ... and just in case I don't get the chance to say so later on, Happy Happy Happy 1st Birthday to the Made With Love Market Bazaar - unfortunately I'm going to miss this month's anniversary market (that bloody pile of marking just won't do itself, no matter how much I plead with it) and I'm so disappointed - but looking forward to getting back on board for December.

If you're in Wynyard this Saturday the 12th of November between 9am and 1pm, make sure you pop in and wish those amazingly crafty and talented people a happy birthday, they'll very much appreciate it!

First world problems - the return of the curls

{Clickety-click for the whole bit}

Hey, has anyone heard of that Twitter hash-tag thingy called "First world problems"? I should preface this by saying I had an early dalliance with Twitter once, but it didn't work out. I neglected it and now I can't remember my log-in details. Oops. If you don't have Twitter, or if you do have Twitter and like me have neglected it, you should totally make the effort (even just for one day) to get one/re-activate your account and check it out. Quite funny. In a first world problem type of way.

So ... back to my point. I'm having a first world problem. About my hair. And it's making me sad.

It's curly again. I loved having it straight for the Grad Ball and the wedding I went to on Saturday. It was so smooth and so ... well, straight.

But, my scalp and I had a conversation (my scalp hates me, btw, but that's a whole other post) and we came to an agreement that I couldn't put it off any longer and I had to wash this blow-dry out. Sigh. So the curls have returned.

I know, I know. It's not like world hunger or poverty or anything, but it still makes me sad. So to cheer myself up, I trawled the internets for images of fabulous curls.

one.  two.   

one.  two.  

one.  two.  three.  

Ah. Yes. That feels better.

Celebrations - A Garden Wedding

{Click to read the whole thing!}

As cynical as I might sometimes be, I can't help myself. I do like a wedding. Sigh. It's nice to see people making a commitment to each other, especially in the kind of throw-away world we live in. In fact, I could go into a whole rant about Kardashians and equal rights for gay people who'd like to get married and can't legally do so - but suffice to say, if two people love each other and want to make that commitment who cares if they're the same gender? I doubt god does, so why should anyone else? Kim Kardashian's sham marriage has done more damage to the institution than any gay couple ever could. /end rant

Aherm. Moving right along.

On Saturday I got to see a couple who I have known for quite a little while now get married. I saw the beginnings of their relationship and it was great to see them make it this far together as well. They are so suited to each other it's crazy (and awesome). I particularly remember the whispered conversations between myself and the bride at the beginning of their relationship - we had desks next to each other at work that year and we spent a lot of time whispering to each other over our partitions in a very girly way. It was just lovely to witness that beginning with them and I was very touched to be invited to the wedding to see its culmination (and a whole new beginning, when you think about it).

The bride and the father of the bride walked down the aisle to Eva Cassidy's 'Songbird'.

I remember going on a school camp with the bride a year or so after they began their relationship, we shared a cabin and the bride was reading a book lent to her by the groom, who texted and called her to say goodnight. How wonderful are those simple things about being someone's special someone? A book and someone lovely to say goodnight to. It doesn't get much better than that, does it? /end soppy bit

The bride told me that in the lead up to the wedding she felt quite calm and generally relaxed - and I think that not only is that an indication of hers (and the groom's) personalities, but I think it bodes well for their future together.

So, here's to love and all it means in big ways and small ways. Congratulations you two!

Celebrations - A Graduation Ball

Having straight hair makes a nice, if temporary change

{Click to read more}

I decided to get my hair and make up done for the Graduation Ball on Friday night. I'm so pleased I did. It was nice to get dressed up and it felt like I scrubbed up good! (If I do say so myself. And I do. Say so. Myself.)

I actually changed my cardie, but wished I hadn't. I think the green is a much nicer colour in the end. Oh well, I'll remember that for next time.

This is me with one of our lovely library ladies. And it's true, Barbs is awesome (as are our other library ladies - we are very lucky in that way)!

We also learnt some important information about bread rolls. They do not make comfortable pillows for napping. Just in case you were ever wondering.

It really has been a weekend of celebrations. After the Grad Ball on Friday, I went to a wedding yesterday and there'll be a post on that rather soonish. As for right now? I'm getting changed and heading to the gym. And as for tomorrow? Tomorrow is a public holiday - huzzah!