Advice.

Marking. All evening. Not a problem. It's part of the job. Well, at our school at least.

James Maths book has still NOT BEEN MARKED despite it having been taken in last week. I am building up to a level of fury that could be quite dangerous.

Targets for different people:

For van drivers - To improve I need to
a. PICK A BLOODY LANE,
b. INDICATE PRIOR TO CUTTING IN FRONT OF SOMEONE,
c. USE THE SHINY REFLECTIVE THINGS ON THE SIDE OF YOUR VAN...they are called mirrors.

(yes, it was a fraught journey home - like Frogger except less entertaining. That was after a two hour journey to work this morning!)

For myself - To improve I need to
a. Get a life and stop working before 11.30 at night
b. Take the advice that I give out and put myself first for a change
c. Make sure I ask the right questions tomorrow.

I had a revelatory moment this afternoon. I worked with a colleague who I greatly respect and who challenges me (in the right way) to think about how things can be done differently. We had a very productive hour and aside from the joy of finding that we agreed and had the same ideas about where to take something, the BEST BIT was being able to delegate the task of going away and putting the ideas into a coherent format. The revelation was two fold - firstly that I was confident enough of our shared perspective that my colleague would come back with something we both agreed with and secondly - that I actually let him take it away without being territorial and trying to keep it to myself, even though that would have made my workload worse. Thank you, you know who you are!

The other revelation occurred last night, when researching on the internet, when I found out that the consultant who operated on me a month ago is actually a leading expert nationally on the problems that I am having. I discovered a wonderful research paper that he had done which actually will be very useful if I choose to pursue a complaint about ineffective care prior to my being transferred to his hospital. I feel confident that I am in safe hands now.

To sleep, hopefully, to face the day head on and to remember all of my questions tomorrow afternoon. We'll just ignore the fact that I will drive more than 150 miles tomorrow - home, work, to Chester (via home), and back to home. Will need coffee.

Must go - the cats are playing with a large raisin and are freaking out. I kid you not.