Not Feeling Well

Whenever I'm not feeling too great with my health and am feeling a bit under the weather, I tend to get really emotional- whether that be really angry or really upset. I just got really upset.... Over not being able to find plain paper.

I wanted to get home and get things printed and put in my folder to make it up to date before I went to the cinema with my friends and first I had to change 2 of the inks for it to print one page and then be told that I had to change another. I got a little frustrated at this. But then I ran out of paper and I know we have a pack of paper around here somewhere but I couldn't find it. I rang my Mum up twice to ask her and she didn't know either. And so, because my back hurts, I'm cold, I've got a headache and generally feel like crap, I got angry and then I started to cry... Over not being able to find plain paper?!

I really don't know- I'm such a weird specimen of a person.

Anyway, that is my little quick blog before I go out to the cinema. Let's hope I feel better, eh?!

xxx

Mean Teacher

Today, my nice cap needed to come off when teaching. I was doing a mental maths test with 5 of my glorious students who decided it was the right time to talk... During a test.

I told them numerous times to stop talking, warning them that if they didn't change their behaviour, I would give them a zero on their test because they were talking and therefore technically cheating. I put the ball in their court after the second warning and they didn't listen. By the end of it, I stopped talking whenever they tried to initiate any conversation with me choosing to only speak to say the question.

They still carried on talking and so when they finished, I informed them that they were getting a zero mark on their test and to go and explain to their teacher why they got zero.

I didn't like it. I hate being mean to my students especially when the marks are recorded but I gave them the choice and they are now old enough to know what is right and wrong. They know when they should be quiet and listen to me.

I think it gave them a little wake up call that I wouldn't be a push over and I would actually follow through with what I say.

I want nice teacher to come back now!

Motivational Monday #46

Here we go:

You can't have a bad day when you've got this little cutie smiling at you.

You're most welcome for that happiness you feel in your heart now.

Have a good day!

xxx

Summary Sunday

I don't know why, but this was one of the blogs that I was most excited to write about this week. I think it's because I get to read back my old blogs and see what I was up to a year ago. It's not everyday that you think back to your past or what you were doing a year ago, or even five years ago to the very day and I just think it's so cool to be able to read it back as if it were happening over again.

I don't know about you, or if you are enjoying it so I need you to tell me if you aren't enjoying the flashback to a year ago. Give me a quick comment below if you like it, hate it or just simply ignore it!

So here is what I was blogging about a whole year ago in 2013...

21st April 2013: Lost Friendship

http://nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/lost-friendship.html

22nd April 2013: Motivational Monday #1

http://nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/motivational-monday-1.html

23rd April 2013: How to Conquer Revision

http://nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/how-to-conquer-revision.html

24th April 2013: Snapchat

http://nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/snapchat.html

25th April 2013: Discrimination and Funny Looks

http://nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/discrimination-funny-looks.html

26th April 2013: Time is Flying

http://nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/time-is-flying.html

27th April 2013: Care for Another?

http://nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/care-for-another.html

I hope you've enjoyed this week look back at the past and if any of them have taken you interest, go back and have a little read of what happened!!

And if you wanna stick around for next week, then be sure for another Sunday Summary next week,

Love you all, have a brilliant end to the week

xxx

Teaching Success

I had a moment on Friday when I looked at a child and really thought, I could be making a different to your life. I'm keeping their gender and everything about the child private for privacy reasons and am only sharing the experience that could have been the experience of any child.  I'm doing this for obvious reasons to protect any child in my care...

Anyway, this child is really not confident with their reading at all and I have been working with them since I have been there to try and encourage them to enjoy reading and to use what they know to read successfully. This Friday afternoon, I was a little tired and wanted it to be the end of the day already. We had decided we were going to focus on making the children finish their work rather than reading with them on this particular occasion. This child had finished their work and sheepishly went up to the teacher (not me) and quietly asked

"Do you think (my name- keeping this private to avoid anyone finding out the child via my connection) will read with me?"

The teacher smiled and told them to come and ask me, and I agreed happily. The child bound over to the table and was very eager to start reading. The day before, I had showed great interest in the story and kept getting excited modelling how pleasurable reading could be and I have reason to believe that some of my excitement has promoted her to be a lot more interested in reading. I think that in some respect, and I'm very tentatively saying this, I may have inspired her to want to read.

It was one of those moments when despite the week you've been having, you look at the child and you know you're making a difference. You know that you're changing someone's life in one way or another and helping to make it better.

It make me remember why I want to be a teacher and that perhaps I might actually be an alright teacher. There are days when I just think I'm the worst teacher in the world, but these little moments keep me going!

Those are my Saturday night muses

I love you all, keep smiling!

xxx

Feeling Naked

I've never been a watch person. When I was younger, my parents would buy me those little girlie watches for children but I never wore them. Not because I didn't like them, but mainly, and rather embarrassingly because I didn't quite know how to read the time. I knew if I really thought about it but it took me some time to work it out. That's why I mainly just stuck to asking what the time was because if people see you are wearing a watch, they ask you what the time is. I didn't want to embarrass myself!!

Then, when I got on my PGCE course, I figured that I would need a watch for good time keeping when I am teaching and so I made the decision to buy myself a nice watch that I could use for school. And it's so pretty that I forced myself past that awkward stage of getting used to a watch to actually really liking having a watch. AND it helped me to learn my times, finally!

My beautiful watch!

Anyway, today as I was getting ready- for some reason, I was running a little late. This was mainly because I really did not want to get up this morning at 6AM. It was such an effort as for the two weeks before, I was able to have a little lie in and wake up at 8:30/9. So 6 is a killer. 

As I was saying, I was running a little late, so the last thing I had to do was put my watch on and brush my teeth. Little old me thought to brush my teeth first and then grab my watch before running out the door for 7AM. 

I didn't quite pick up my watch and didn't realise until I was half way down the road and wanting to know the time to check I was on time for my bus... BUT IT WASN'T THERE!!!

My watch was no longer there and for a girl that never wore watches, I was surprised at how sad I felt when I didn't have it on.

I FELT NAKED! It definitely didn't feel right that I had nothing on my left wrist. And now, I believe that I am and forever will be a watch lover.

Random story for Friday over!

xxx

Throwback Thursday #18

8 weeks ago today, this little man was brought into the world and it was one of the best days in my entire life. He is such a little sweetheart that I absolutely adore and love with all my heart. He is everything that anyone would want in a child and I can't imagine how my sister feels when she knows that he's hers! 

He's grown so much over the 8 weeks he has been alive. He was born 6lbs 3oz and yesterday, he was weighed and he currently weighs 10lbs 9oz. It's incredible to think about how fast they grow up. I can't believe how quickly time has flown.

I wanted to share with you some of my favourite pictures of him on this Throwback Thursday. Nobody said that TBT had to be from ages ago!!

And this is the very latest picture I have of the little man!

So darn cute!

I love him.

I hope you have enjoyed this very cute TBT

xxx

Happy St. George's Day

I feel absolutely terrible because I didn't even realise it was St. George's Day today until half way through the day. It's funny because we all talk about being so patriotic (or some of us don't) but we rarely make a fuss of our patron st. There is always a lot of fuss over St. Patrick's Day with a lot of coverage around the Internet about the plans that people make, but a lot less is made of St. George's Day.

If you are like me, and forgot that it was St. George's Day, I'm glad I'm not alone. The school I am currently in had posters up to celebrate it and some of the teachers also wore a red rose. I feel so bad that I didn't do anything but my mind is so busy at the moment that I don't even have time to eat my Easter eggs. And if you know me, you know that I can't help myself around chocolate!!

HAPPY ST. GEORGE'S DAY!!!!

Maybe I'll remember properly next year and I'll hopefully have my own class and we'll do something St. George's Day related to atone for my sins.

Also, this is my life at the moment:

It also feels like it's a Tuesday today.

I got to hold two little kittens that my student had today. I wanted to steal them.

I looked round a school yesterday to see if I wanted to apply- I decided against it.

I'm making spaghetti bolognese for dinner tonight.

I'm also currently writing lesson plans.

And that is all I have to say to you tomorrow. Oh wait, I wanted to apologise for my lack of blog yesterday. I had a busy day where I was at school, went to visit a school and then went to tutor my little boy! SORRYYYY!

Love you all,

random blog out!

xxx

Review of We Will Rock You Musical

I really don't see how such a great show can be ending after such a long and successful run. It begs me to believe that at some point, they have to bring it back. Not only for the musical goodness, but also the story they have created.

After seeing the show, I loved Queen even more. It's strange how some artists now are no longer heard of after a year but Queen has managed to span time and popularity to continue living in people's hearts. It's something about that band that is unforgettable and it's same for We Will Rock You musical. 

The musical begins in a futuristic sort of way and I would be lying if I was a bit skeptical when it first started and wondered what the heck I was seeing. But as the story unraveled and the songs played on to reveal a plot line, I was completely immersed into it. Not only was there a good story line with fantastic actors, they also wove into the story a couple of good jokes from both past and the present. It was a show that I could laugh at and sing along to whilst thinking about how the world lost such an amazing artist with Freddie Mercury.

Every time I see a musical, it always makes me want to be able to sing and wish that when I was born I was given such a talent. They're such powerful singers with what seems an effortless performance. They really are beyond talented and they do such a good job every single day that the show is running. I admit how much passion and effort they put into every single performance whether it be a matinee or evening performance. You can really tell how much they love their job and I bet it makes it all worthwhile to see people being overwhelmed by their performance. It's nice to be able to watch something where they can belt out the songs of my past without it being a crap tribute band that doesn't do the songs justice.

If you're looking for a quick late booking for any musical, I would urge you to go and see it before it goes out of theatres. If you enjoy the music of Queen and enjoy a musical with a story line that based around love and finding who you are in a world where things are replicated, i.e. personality and fashion prescribed to you; I would suggest We Will Rock You. I don't think it's meant to be one of those musicals that make you think but it does make you wonder about what life will be like in the future. It seems like artists these days sing less from the heart and more for the money, which makes me sad. I think from this musical, I took the message to just be yourself and be determined to never lose who that is.

But I loved it! I completely utterly was smiling; laughing and singing all the way through. I'm so glad that I managed to go and see it before it left the theatres.

It makes me want to reiterate my first point about how such a brilliant musical can be taken away from the West End in place of what I hope won't be a let down.

Definitely worth it! I loved it

And remember, ROCK ON!

xxx

Happy Easter

I want to wish everyone a big happy Easter. I hope you all have a wonderful time with your family or whoever you are wishing to spend it with today.

 I've been spending my morning watching Frozen. I have a very unhealthy love for this show because I can't help but watch it. I think in total during these past 2 weeks, I have watched it about 5 times... Oops.

Mum has cooked a delicious full Sunday roast, complete with pigs in blanket and I can't wait til it all gets in my belly. We're just waiting on all my sisters to come home and feast on yummy food.

What are you doing for your Easter Sunday?

Did you go to church? Have a lie in? Already eat copious amounts of chocolate?

I love you all.

I missed you yesterday. I'm so sorry that I didn't blog. I had quite a busy day with hanging out with family and then I went to my sister's boyfriend's gig up London so completely ran out of time!!

xxx

DON'T EAT MEAT!!!

Everyone knows that you are not allowed to eat meat on Good Friday! Let's ignore the fact that I'm not actually really sure about why we're not allowed to eat meat on Good Friday but it's been a tradition in my house for as long as I can remember. Therefore, if you have eaten meat today, you have broken the cardinal rule.

DID YOU?

I had a yummy salmon and asparagus fish cake!!

Now, I'm getting ready to go out for some drinkies with my friend from uni for her birthday! It's okay to drink something other than wine today isn't it? Otherwise, we'd all have a serious drinking problem on Good Friday.

I hope you are all enjoying your day off (if you aren't working) and are super pumped the fact it is the bank holiday weekend. Love it!

xxx

Happy Birthday Daddy

It's my Pop's birthday today and we have spent the whole day out and about with Mum and sister as well as Max. We had another fried breakfast- do not judge me please. And then we went out shopping (his favourite)

Today, instead of saying how much I love him, which is obvious that I do. I wanted to share some pictures of some of the pivotal moments in my life that I have shared with him. So here we go. Pictures of me with my Dad!! Well, the ones that I have on hand... So not very many!

And even more recently, with little Max.

I love him lots and hope he has a wonderful birthday!

Muchos love,

Nicole

xxxx

Busy Bee Day

What. A. Day.

I've had a fairly busy today which has included a lot of anxiety, running and walking but I've had a smashing day. It started off with a cheeky Harvester breakfast with my Mum, Dad, sister and Max. Dad has got the next couple of days off and it is his birthday tomorrow so we thought we would go out for something to eat and just generally hang out because we don't have always get the time to. It was great if not a little filling!

After, my Dad drove me to Kingston uni so I could finally get rid of the assignment that has been dominating my life for the past couple of months. We got a lot lost going this way and that even though we did have our SatNav. I only know the way when I go on public transport so I was no help... As per usual. But thankfully, I said goodbye to that darn assignment and I was not sad to see the back of it.

Unfortunately, I was meant to remember to take my library books back to the library so I didn't get MORE late fines but I forgot. The one thing that I had to remember and I couldn't. My lovely Dad did offer to take me back there tomorrow or Monday so that I can get rid of them so we'll see when we have time to go back. It's such a pain and I'm so mad at myself that I didn't remember. GRR!!

Anyway, after that we went on a veryyyy long walk with Max, Molly and our two dogs Daisy and Tiny. It was an epic journey but I loved it.We walked half an hour to the park, then walked all around it and then back home. I have a step tracker on my phone and when we had got back at about 4:30, I had done 6.1 miles in the day and had taken over 12,000 steps.

I probably needed the exercise though after my big fried breakfast. FATTY!!

And I've just finished medium term planning for school next week. It's been a busy day but I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family and a great career ahead of me that allows me to have plenty of time off to spend with my family. I know people moan about how much time teachers get off, but if you were to do the job, you'd understand that it is needed!

I'm having a good day so I won't get into the politics of teaching and time off because it'll just make me mad.

I love you all guys!

xxx

Looking For Jobs

Oh hello!!!

This is the situation for me at the moment. I have about 2 months or so until I finish my course and hopefully become a qualified teacher, which means that I need to start looking for jobs in September. A lot of the people on my course have been freaking out about applying for a job for months and I've gone alone not worrying too much because I knew that there would be lots of jobs coming out in Easter.

Well, now it's Easter and I've been looking for jobs the past couple of days but I'm petrified. I'm petrified of applying and getting an interview, or hopefully getting an interview. I don't feel like I necessarily am ready but I am looking and trying to secure some time when I can view the schools I want to apply to.

The problem I have is that I don't drive, and I don't have any other way of getting to schools other than my own two feet or public transport. So I see all these wonderful schools being advertised and I feel like I might want to apply and then I go to TFL to work out how long it would take me to get there and  most of them are probably not very feasible. Therefore, I'm already limiting my search to a 30 minute bus journey or less, which I might have to start ditching if I can't find any schools that accommodate them.

I kind of don't want to be an NQT just yet because the prospect of having my own class and being 100% responsible for them scares the living day lights out of me. But I know I have to take  the step and so anyone who sees a good school advertising, please send it my way. I want to find a job and get on the road to a fully paid salary.

And I have big plans for my first pay check! Namely learning to drive. I can't wait.

Keep your fingers crossed for me to find a job. It's all getting very real!

Love you all, have a happy Tuesday.

Also, keep your eyes peeled for jobs for me, please!

xxx

Motivational Monday #45

GOOD MORNING BEAUTIFUL! Yes, you. Right there, sitting reading this right now. You are beautiful. 

Did that make you smile on this Monday morning? Well, I have more news that might just crack a smile today. It's a 4 day week because Easter weekend is just around the corner. That has to make you a little more happy this morning? It has to because I have something a little different for you guys and it involves a little bit of participation! It requires not just me spewing motivational messages to you, but a challenge.

So, hindsight is such a wonderful thing. We can look back on past mistakes or events and think about what we could have done to have made it better or not have done (i.e. worrying). And I think when we look back on our past, we always have an element of regret or wanting to change specific things. Also, when our parents say things to us like "we know best", "we've done it before" or "don't worry, everything will work out." - we really don't believe them because we think that we know best. But the majority of time, we don't! 

Instead of thinking about being happy on Monday, I want you to think about how your younger self used to be and how you have changed. I want you to think about if you could go back and do things again, what knowledge of the future would you take back with you? What would you take back to tell your younger self to change your situation.  BUT you are only allowed to tell yourself two words. You need to sum up what you would want to say in TWO WORDS!!

When I was younger, I was incredibly shy, quiet and had very low self-esteem. I worried too much about everyone else and their judgement choosing to squash any personality I had to avoid being criticised. I am still a little like this but I think I am a lot more confident now and worry a lot less.

The two words that I would choose would be:

Don't care.

I would use these two words to convey to my younger self not to say not to care about everything or everyone but to not care about what other people think or what other people would say. This is for all aspects of my life: not caring about whether people dislike me, or dislike my personality/my choice of music/my clothing etc. To not care so much about other people so that in turn I could care more about myself and my own happiness.

I think that would have changed my perspective on life and I would have been a lot happier in life.

What would your two words be? Let me know in the comments below and your reason about why they would be your two words. I really want to know what they are so PLEASE if you're reading this, talk to me and leave a comment.

Love you all, have a wonderful Monday and start to the week!

xxx

Summary Sunday

It's one of those days again when I really don't know what I want to blog about. I should blog and do a review about We Will Rock You last night but because it's Bumday Sunday, I think I might leave that to during the week so that I give it enough effort as it deserves. So keep your eyes peeled for that blog about how fantastic the show was. And the beauty of being able to  do a quick blog is that it is Sunday and since introducing the idea of Summary Sunday last week, I'm just going to roll with it today.

I really do love being able to look back on all the blogs that I did a whole year ago and think it's pretty darn cool that I can do this and have the content from a year ago to share with you. So, if you read the last Summary Sunday, you'll know the deal and if you haven't, I'm basically going to be giving you the links to the blogs I wrote for the past week but they will be from a year ago.. Exciting!

Let's get started!

7th April 2013: Movie Magnificence

http://nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/movie-magnificence.html

8th April 2013: Grandad Baker

http://nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/grandad-baker.html

9th April 2013: This Is Me

http://nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/this-is-me.html

10th April 2013: Shall I Continue?

http://nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/shall-i-continue.html

11th April 2013: Greedy Puppy

http://nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/greedy-puppy.html

12th April 2013: Positivity

http://nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/positivity.html

13th April 2013: The Lion King

http://nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-lion-king.html

And that was this week summary from a whole year ago. How exciting and a little depressing... Never mind. I look forward to seeing what next week was a whole year ago. Make sure you check back next Sunday for that summary.

AND don't forget to watch out for the review that I do on the We Will Rock You musical later in the week.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and I shall be with you again tomorrow. Love to you all.

Nicole

xxx

We Will Rock You Musical

I am so excited for today because I am officially going back to the theatre to see the We Will Rock You musical. Unfortunately, this musical is going out of theatres in May and that makes me a little sad but when my Dad found out that it was closing, he had to go see it again. Thankfully, after my Les Mis and Wicked viewings, I have wanted to get back to the theatre for more goodness and so when he said he was going again, I decided to go with him. So, me, my Mum, my Dad and my sister Jo are all going.

I'm looking forward to going to see it because I absolutely love Queen. When I was little, my Dad used to always play it for us and so I grew up with the music. A funny little story about this actually came from uni where I was out on a night out with my housemates, dragging them to the cheese room when Bohemian Rhapsody came on and I proceeded to sing the entire song word from word with all the muster I could. When I had finished, thinking everyone in the entire world knew the song and the lyrics, I was surprised when Harry looked at me as if I had 3 heads and asked me how I knew that song. To say the least, I was shocked and a little embarrassed (for him) that he didn't know the song as well as I did.

Anyway, pretty boring irrelevant story done; the very point of this blog was to let you know that I'm going to see We Will Rock You today.

Yippeeeee!

I'll let you know what I think of it.

Love you all,

Enjoy your Saturday

xxx 

Late April Resolution

I'll tell you something- I completely forget about making monthly resolutions and it's only until today that I have even thought about what my resolution for this month would be. The end of last month and the start of this one has been a very funny time. I've been up and down with the weather and my moods have been a little bipolar. My life is always a little stressful and emotional and these past couple of weeks, I've been letting everything get on top of me. But now, I feel a little better in myself and I want to be a lot happier. I'm determined to be happy.

And so, my resolution for this month is simply to make sure I remember how lucky I am.

A lot has happened in my family in the last couple of years, with a lot more sadness and devastation than anyone wants in a lifetime and I know that isn't a reason to give up, but it does get you down from time to time. I always try and be happy and most of the time, people comment on how upbeat I am and that's what I need to remember to always be. I need to remember that on those days that I am feeling down and mad at life, I need to look at how much goodness there is in my life.

I have:

1. Wonderful parents.

2. Lovely sisters and a brother.

3. A beautiful nephew.

4. Amazing friends.

5. And such a good future ahead of me.

When life gets tough, we always look towards the clouds in the sky when we should really be searching for that rainbow. And so, that's what I'm going to be doing this month. No matter how mad/angry/sad/depressed I get, I want to always be able to remember how much of a lucky person I am for everything I have in life!

P.S. It's Friday, and almost Easter with the sun shining. What could possibly make me sad at this moment in time?!

xxx