This is a very special photo. It is a tribute photo to the Benton family. Benton is my mother's maiden name, and although she lost the name when she got married she never lost the ability to take a photo with her eyes closed and her mouth open (It's what we now fondly refer to as the Benton curse) We decided that instead of trying to get the perfect family photo, we would roll with what the curse has given us - we embrased it lovingly and took the photo that all us Benton decendants are born to make. So as a tribute to our forefathers here are our closed eyes and open mouths for your viewing pleasure.

Last night I attempted to cook a new meal!!! There is a solid reason for using three exclamation marks after this sentence; the reason being I may actually be the first person in the world to be diagnosed with an allergic reaction to the kitchen. I told this to some of the students in my form class and young Ronnie Morgan said hogwash - she would give me an easy recipe that I could do with out any tears. (I wanted to trust her because she had such a great surname) However, upon receiving said recipe I was a little worried and starting to wonder whether I could trust her or not, because her last instruction was "put it in the oven until it looks cooked" WHAT!?!?! For someone with such a debilitating allergy this was not the type of sentence that fills you with grand feelings of culinary joy. I want times and temperatures and all the minute details that are the crutches that help me get through my allergy. However, I faithfully promised her that I would give it a try, so off I went to the supermarket with trepidation and fear weighing heavily on my shoulders to buy puff pastry, spinach and feta cheese. Of these 3 items I had only ever purchased one. To someone with my condition cooking with puff pastry is like rolling in freshly cut hay when you are an asthmatic or swimming in the ocean with your mouth open if you are allergic to seafood (ok, maybe not this one but I couldn't think of an example and examples always work better in twos)
Anyway I boldly went ahead, puff pastry and all and created the most beautiful little parcels filled with spinach, feta, corn and bacon. I was proud, beaming, jubilant,thrilled, delighted, euphoric, over the moon and pretty darn satisfied.
I am pleased to report that I left the kitchen with only a mild itch.

Am I a nurse?

Here are some little known facts about sick children (or well known if you are in fact the proud owner of child)
1. Children always get sick in the middle of the night
2. Children always get sick when you have plans to do something
3. Children always bounce back much quicker than you do (they may have been sick all night, producing all number of liquids from every orifice, and you may only have been kept awake and not sick yourself - but you will feel worse than them come 3pm the following afternoon)
4. It is extremely boring, I mean EXTREMELY boring to spend the day at home with a sick child
So far today I have made breakfast (delivered to sick child), made lunch (delivered to sick child) made several drinks (delivered to sick child) and cleaned and washed mess (made by sick child)
It is so boring you write blogs about it, in the hope that if you share the boredom around it will spread so thin you may experience less of it (kinda like how you spread your Marmite thin on your toast so you don't get too much flavour at once)
I have been writing about a lot of boredom lately - perhaps I should make another blog and call it The Boring Chronicles

Am I boring?

I became a little concerned today as I wrote a letter to my English class. The aim of the letter was to tell them about myself and then they have to write a letter in response that tells me about them. When I set out on this task it seemed easy enough, well I am here to tell you it's not!!! I came to the conclusion that it was difficult because I was so boring. Please indulge me while I explain (although I can totally understand if you don't want to, what with me being a bit of a bore and all) I wrote about where I grew up, coming to Wellington, teaching at Wainui and briefly about Bennett. Then I planned to write about my other interests - only to be horrified to discover I have NONE! I am not obsessed with a musical instrument, I don't have deep philosophical thoughts, I don't exercise, I don't cook, I don't garden, I have no favourite anythings - not a book, movie, tv show, food, song, band, type of music, actor, actress, painter. I don't collect anything, I never have collected anything, I don't go out in the weekend and do anything interesting, I don't knit, I don't even really surf the net. WHAT DO I DO?????
All I do is go to work, mother my son, clean the house, write the occasional blog and go on facebook once a day. The only thing I could think of to write in the letter was I read - Yawn!

It's a whole new world...

I have now spent 3 days at my new school. The word to explain (or try to explain) the experience so far is strange. Today was the first day that the "girls" were there (you find yourself using this word a lot!)and it was a really nice, grounding experience. I say grounding because up until they arrived it didn't really feel right, I couldn't relax or didn't really feel like I belonged or something like that. But once they arrived I found myself feeling like "Right! this is something I know, I know how to interact with kids this age and I can do it well"
There are so many things about this school that I have enjoyed so far but by far it was my first assembly experience. New staff had to go on stage and be introduced to the "girls" normally this would not really be something I love but the "girls" were so enthusiastic and chirpy and just delightful (I know this sounds really twee but its true) and we were all given flowers (apparently this is a tradition) What I really liked about the assembly (apart from the flowers!) was that the "girls" were really allowed to express their enthusiasm, and their emotions for everything. This is something that is often stamped on in Wainui assemblies (this is my opinion) I guess the reason for this is that the "girls" are very responsive to be quietened back down and perhaps this is a harder job at Wainui.
There are so many more things I could talk about but I don't want to make Richard jealous talking about well behaved students. One last 'strange' thing before I go; the staffroom has a sign on the door that says 'staff sitting room" - I have made sure I have not done any standing in there...