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Jude made his first cake today - not bad given his teacher ;) and it was delicious.

The boys gave me a lovely necklace for Mothers Day and made me several cups of tea. And their cards were hilarious. 

Liverpool won 4-0 (half the house are unamused by the result) and are top of the league. 

And Jude's tweet a fortnight ago about a poster in M&S has been retweeted over 30 times this evening for some reason. Possibly helped by it being retweeted by Phil Willis from Radio5! Jude is very chuffed! (At time of publishing , 36 retweets and 11 favourites!)h

ttps://twitter.com/themightyjot/status/444866705651933184

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Spring is here, the sun is shining and I've mowed the lawn for the first time in over two years.

Sad as we said #goodbyetoBev but lots of smiles too as it's hard to think of her without smiling such was her energy and zest for life. Every daffodil and dark chocolate Bounty will henceforth remind me of her. As will loud trumping ;)

And dinner at the Cock Inn. Delicious!

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A lovely day in London today, brightened by seeing old friends and by meeting new people who enjoyed my presentation, and also by this chap on the Tube who kept smiling and bantering in spite of everyone trying to avoid eye contact. 

And these pics in Metro made me smile too.

If you want a smile, here's a link to a video of me in full flow being me ;)

https://twitter.com/joedale/status/449517351915229184

Glad to get home it has to be said - so tired!

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Struggling to find the energy to do much except work and then collapse at the moment but I can still manage the odd smile!
Year 2 always make me smile - the simplest game fills them with such excitement (getting them organised is therefore interesting!) and the clamour for the 'extra toast' is always amusing too.
I have done with school for the week now but am off to London tomorrow to speak at a conference. Looking forward to that but not getting up at 530, nor tackling the Northern Line in the rush hour. Still, I might see some of the 'guerilla tube stickers'

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No voice and feel rotten but you have to smile when the kid with the most problems and needs in the class greets you with a smile every time he sees you and enthusiastically sticks up his hand even when he doesn't know the answer because he enjoys Spanish so much!

(Translation : Smile. Today is an excellent day to be proud to be who you are)

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This was when the sun was shining and I was still smiling. Not the wisest move I've ever made insisting on running the Seven Pools 10k this morning with a horrid cold, especially when the wind got up  (right in my face!) and there was an almighty hailstorm. Still, I finished and made it home too. Worth a smile!

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Photo taken by @ICTMagic

That's me spouting forth last night about the need to support, nurture and look after one another as teachers - and human beings!
Love the arrow pointing to my head! The other photo of me has me with my mouth wide open. No surprise there then, eh?

Too tired and full of cold for more now - and I'm running 10K tomorrow :oS

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A hedgehog is not a normal sight at an educational (un)conference but Teachmeet is never predictable. And I managed to win a Hue webcam for my tweet about it:

A good time in Stafford earlier as I spoke at a conference; loved the enthusiasm of the teachers. 

The sun shone as I drove to and from conferences today, and I wasn't locked on the car park at the NEC as I'd feared. Plus I didn't have to pay to park. Hurrah!

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Liked this cartoon. A good day. Very tired though!

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Who says being a teacher is boring? You never know what you'll find going on in the hall as you walk through. I certainly wasn't expecting to find the head teacher doing the Dirty Dancing lift with the ICT manager (ably assisted for safety reasons by Y3 teacher and Y4 TA!)

Pretty impressive and certainly just what I needed on a day when I struggled to keep my Little Miss Sunshine smile.

Also cheered by a run and the discovery of a single daffodil in the garden. Think it's someone sending me a message?

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A very sad end to the day with the news that the hugely talented, every generous and always cheerful Bev Evans has passed away.  Her posse of teddies have kept us entertained during her hospital stay, getting up to no end of mischief on the ward. I'm really sad but whenever I think of Bev it makes me smile; she was that kind of person. A huge hole has been left in many many lives.

Miss you lovely daffodil xx

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A glorious day today, really warm and sunny.

Church then washing on the line and lunch. 

Then a looong run. What a lovely day to run, even when the wind was into face. Nearly got sucked into the RoadRelayRace in the park but contented myself with pootling along, occasionally overtaken (at speed!) by a club runner taking part. And I did give a few of them directions back to the start when they got lost on their warm ups!

I do believe I have a slight tan :)

And I am loving the discovery of JellyBelly Sports Beans. Much easier to eat than gels and you don't have to eat them all at once. Jude certainly liked them when I decided to share as he reached the top of Cardiac Hill in my wake ;)

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I love how my family make me laugh. Saturday lunchtime is usually a good time for giggles and the rugby gave us plenty of 'humour fodder' today, particularly when I started talking about Billy Sixtrees, unintentionally halving the size of the aforementioned gentleman's wood into a small copse. Incidentally I discovered when checking Wikipedia that Billy's dad is a tree surgeon. You couldn't really do much else with a name like that!

Fun also ensued in Marks and Spencer as John collected evidence of "M&S going downhill"

"This is why #m&s has lost the plot #hurtsmyeyes http://t.co/yvMDunvZFG"

...and Jude making amusing observations about the posters. 

"Woman in M&S annoyed about dropping her ice cream. http://t.co/pvWryKgsc3"

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A beautiful sunny day.

A challenging run in the sunshine. And lots done before as well.

A core class at which I actually managed to do everything quite successfully (although I am definitely lopsided!)

Lunch in the sun and then planning in the garden with my (soon to be patented) "Bootbox laptop sunshade"

And then the boys came home, and then John came home.

All smiles :)

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Buds on the trees. 

A good day at school with Y2 making me smile so much first thing in the morning and Y6 exasperating me but making me smile in spite of myself. And I cracked a joke in assembly that amused me but went straight over the kids' heads! 

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I was mid sentence about family words in Spanish this afternoon when I looked up and out of the unusual skylight and spotted a tree covered in blossom. Cue the entire Y3 class being invited to look up with me. 

And on my return home...

Hurrah! Spring is springing up all over our garden!

Also making me smile today, a fun staff meeting that involved singing HSM, demonstrating passion with Josh the NQT and dancing badly. 

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WCPS staff - I salute you for humouring me and joining in with HipHopPhonics (thanks @senoraelliott) at my staff meeting. You are an exceptional bunch.

Wish I'd taken pictures... ;)

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I can walk this morning - first cause of a smile.

Exhausted but not stiff. I ran a couple of seconds faster than I thought - another smile. Y4 were fun - less said about the rest of the day the better! Still, all work done in time for bath and bed at a decent hour. Night!

This advertisement causes oohs and aahs in the house, and also demands for the purchase of more digestives 'just in case...'

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I've been thinking about Fry's chocolate cream since Dave B mentioned them last weekend - and I found one in Wilkinsons. And I thoroughly enjoyed it as I sat in the sun this afternoon having run a race this morning.  

My ability to switch from struggling to put one foot in front of the other with 500m to go to sprinting across the line simply because Jac told me to 'come on' amused - and bemused - me no end. 

And discovering flowers in the garden. 

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Having great fun asking Siri silly questions.

"You're making me angry" said Jude.
"That's OK - just don't squeeze me like that!' Siri replied.

"Have you just farted?" asked Jude.
"No comment" replied Siri.
"Have you just farted?" asked Jude again.
"You are certainly entitled to that opinion" replied Siri.

And my favourite -

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Playing an Egyptian university student made me smile today. A very mature one although I did feel rather young looking at the congregation...

Loved looking up at the huge round stained glass window at St Peters too. And the children's pew bags are a brilliant idea. 

Then this evening Jude thought that Laurence Llewelyn Bowen was Laurence Olivier. That amused me!

And he also "obtained luxury balls." That made us all titter!

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I have a new downstairs toilet. After 10 days without it, I'm very happy. And after years of saying "the downstairs toilet needs replacing" I'm also very pleased we've finally got around to getting it done. 

A fun day for World Book Day at WCPS although I did get a little tired of being asked if I was Cinderella, Dorothy or Little Red Riding Hood when I was in fact Heidi. Fun to keep re telling her story and telling "Höppla!"

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A beautiful sunrise after a better sleep than I've had for several days. 

Good afternoon with year 3, all fighting to be in my Spanish story even if it meant wearing a silly hat or mask. And it was someone's birthday so I got chocolate cake!! Year 6 were noisy but there were some good shapes 'busted' in our HipHopPhonics (thanks Nina!)

Time for sleep now. That's worth a big smile!

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My pancakes obviously didn't look like these hence I didn't bother taking a photograph! They were however delicious.

We had a meeting about Isaac's German exchange this evening - that made me smile as Herr Götschel is a very amusing man!

And I got home in time to have a run before it got dark. Whoop!

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A (relative) lie in and leisurely start to the day as I was on a course. 

The bunting in Western Arcade made me smile - very cheerful. I shouldn't have been walking that way but my sense of direction once more let me down! Oh well! 

The course was brilliant - as expected ;) - great to see Clare too. 

And although the day ended with lots of to-ing and fro-ing, I was smiling as Jude's parents' evening only confirmed what we already knew - he's a funny clever happy chap :)

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It's the little things that make me smile, like Jude dancing or Isaac head butting a wall as he laughed at Jude dancing. Or singing Titanium in silly voices, or Jude's face as he saw the digestive advertisements with the kittens for the first time and his squealing as he saw the puppy version.

And I love our new wardrobe 'door' - so much better than the old ones that didn't fit when we moved in and fitted even less well 12 years later. And so much quieter to open. 

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Spring has sprung. Let's hope it sticks around as I personally like the sunshine!

To escape the paint fumes, Isaac wrapped up in several jumpers and a hat and sat by the open back door. He then tried to watch TV from the garden but was thwarted by being unable to undo the window as there was no key and he couldn't hear. So he came in and sat on the window sill next to the other window that would open!

The ongoing adventures of Harold, Maude and friends recounted by Bev (who is stuck in hospital bless her) continue to amuse me, as did a discussion about how it would be do much better to be in hospital of your doctors were JD and Turk from Scrubs! 

Liverpool won and are now 2nd in the Premier League. 

The Fulham manager's glasses are rather amusing too.