Five things on a Friday #12 and #13

Ok i missed last week's Five Things post. Mostly because I had a flu thing all last week and so nothing much really happened. So i'll throw in a few extra wee snippets this week.

1) the weather! Yes, it's March but it's been like a mini summer. Mostly that means there have been long sunshiney days (of which i haven't seen much working indoors and all) as well as gorgeous sunsets and not to mention great views of the moon, venus and jupiter in close proximity. Sunday and Monday produced great clear skies and views. Even managed to see the red planet Mars. Nice.

Top Venus, middle Moon, bottom Jupiter

2) talking of planets. I read a tweet from Charlie Todd mentioning that the planets were in alignment and that they (over in USA) would be able to see it around 4-5pm EST (9pm here). So I tweeted him a picture of what I could see that minuted and he Favourited it! He favourited MY tweet. Well cool. Charlie Todd in case you didn't know is part of the founder of Improv Everywhere. And in case you don't know who they are well they're responsible for the no pants day on the New York Subway. It takes place in January each year. Obviously pants in America are trousers so it's people on the subway in just their boxer shorts or pants (as we call them).

3) Charlie also gave a great Ted talk that you can view here...



4) last week I went to Ryan's primary school as they were having an open night. By the way, it's also my old primary school and my mum's and most of my family's. Anyway, they were having this open night to try to raise much needed funds for the basics. When I went in it hadn't changed and yet it felt different. The corridors felt much smaller and narrower. The main sports hall/dinner hall also seemed much tinier now that i'm older. In the main hall was a little art gallery of paintings done by each class. Primary 1 (Ryan's class) were hand prints on canvas in various colours. You could buy them for £5. My sister duly did. Very cool. We headed down to the P1 classroom so Ryan could show us where he spends most of his day. It was filled with pictures on the wall they'd drawn, there were balloons with each month written on them and below were a list of names and dates of each of their birthdays. In the back left hand corner was one computer, i'd say a good few years old. One computer for the whole class of about 20 kids. Back right hand side was the house where they can play. Front right was the painting table. Paint pots, paper etc. Nice But also on the table that night were old register books from when the school opened to the recent past. I managed to find my name in there, along with my old class mates. We found my mum and my cousins too. It was good remembering all this stuff. We were allowed to have a look at Ryan's tray too. Inside was a large white folder with his picture on the front. This was where the teacher recorded his progress and stored all his drawings and stuff. The reports were good. It suggested he felt like he always has to answer every question the teacher asks. He got a bit upset if it was wrong. But he now knows that it's ok to be wrong sometimes and she gives him more thinking time. His reading and writing are coming along a treat (we were worried a little while back) and he's very good at sums. In fact when he goes home from our house every night first thing he does is get out his book (homework) and reads or does his sums. I came away feeling good about his progress but i also felt a little bit sad about the state of the school. It's a small school with only about 100 kids. It's close to my heart and perhaps i need to think of ways I can help it get more funds... Maybe that could be my next purpose?..

5) work has been frankly shit the past few weeks. Not that actual work. I love my job and what i do but the atmosphere is pretty low due to various things. Hopefully it'll pick up again soon because it's actually a good place to work. If only the..... nah i won't say any more. But, however, I decided to give spin class a miss again on Monday and went to see Contraband at the cinema. I seem to say this all the time but i quite liked it. Mark Wahlberg is his usual self but is really quite good. And i liked Giovanni Ribisi. He's pretty intense when acting don't you think? I'd give is 3/5 on the Ange movie scale. Not an official scale, just mine.

6) if you've been reading here for a while you'll know one of my all time favourite (if not THE favourite) blogs to read is Pacing The Panic Room by Ryan Marshall and his lovely family. I've been an avid reader for about 3 years now and I've watched as his family grows and takes turns and never fails to amaze with the love the shines through in his wonderful words and pictures. Anyways Ryan was on Twitter but kinda stopped tweeting but thankfully did take up Instagram in a huge way. Both he and his wife Cole's pictures are really great. Recently Ryan started a series on Instagram called #LifewithSMS It's about their little boy LB suffers from SMS. The pictures are so great and Ryan gives an explanation about what's happening to LB in the picture. In this post Ryan gives a fuller explanation in his post An Instagram Series: Life with SMS I urge you to head over and have a read. I did not know what SMS was until I read it on his blog a while back. If nothing else you'll see that LB is a gorgeous little boy and Ryan's pictures capture moments of time that for me give a little insight on how their days are spent coping with a kid with SMS. I say coping onlt because i'm not sure what else to say because from the outside looking in they appear to cope really well and never seem to complain. The pictures are always filled with meaning and there's laughing and obvious love and brilliant little moments. There's also cool posts on jobs, Tessa Tangerine (their smiley little girl), and Ryan's own thoughts about growing a family together with Cole. I love it. Enough of me rambling. Go over and visit. You won't regret it.

7) Thornton's strawberry fondant pigs. 'nuff said. I cannot get enough of these sweets. I am a huge chocaholic and Thornton's Moments are a fave at Christmas time, especially the strawberry sweets. But then *cue angelic lah lah lahing* i stumbled upon the kids sweet section. You know the one with the little dancing bear lollipops, the mini fudge pieces and then..... the strawberry fondants pigs! As soon as i read it my mind whirred into action and thought could this be the same strawberry from the Moments box?! YES IT COULD. It's all I can do to get into own of a weekend and purchase my 5 for £3. They're sooooo tasty. I'll be a piggy too if i don't stop eating them though! oink.

8) I bought a nice cute little summer outfit from Zara last week. I say summer but it's actually black shorts and two very smart drop hem t-shirts, one black one white. Classic shades. I cannot wait to wear them *crosses fingers and prays for good weather this year*.

And that my friends is all we've got time for just now.

Angela x

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