Time to slow down!

Yeah right, as if!  It's been all go here the last couple of months with Katie taking the last of her IGCSE exams.  After our visit to Bristol for Art, the remaining two, ICT and Computer Studies, were sat in Attleborough, South Norfolk with a couple of weeks between them.  A little closer to home, but still and hour 1/2 drive away, so it warranted a couple of overnight stays because of early starts.  We went self catering at The Lodge at the the Old Manse which was extrememly comfortable and well equipped with plenty of goodies in the fridge and cupboards to keep us hunger free at breakfast time and well oiled with tea and coffee!  We stayed there with my friend and her daughter who was also sitting exams in Attleborough, so it was nice to have someone to hang around with while the girls were busy, especially as one exam was for 3 hours.  There were plenty of coffee shops to sit and natter in, and plenty of well stocked second hand shops too for a spot of browsing and purchasing.  We had such a fabulous curry at The Shapla on our first trip that we decided to return for our second trip, taking Paul and Ben along with us too.  A lovely evening both times, delicious food and friendly staff, although it took several attempts to get a bill out of them at the end of the meal!  Exams seemed to go OK, pretty much, so we just need to wait for the results and keep our fingers crossed.  Katie's had another college interview, at Stamford, and got the impression she'll be accepted, subject to the necessary exam passes.  She's really pleased about this as the course seems to tick more boxes than the one at Peterborough College.

So, now exams are out of the way, text books are being put firmly back on the book shelf and course work hidden away (probably under the bed!), Katie finally has some time to do absolutely nothing!  Actually she's decided to find a little job to bring in a bit of money as her list of horsey things is growing and growing and she'd like to save up for a better laptop.  It'll feel weird if she manages to find a paying job - she'll have more money than me ;0)

Ben has been working away throughout all this upheavel on his GCSE Maths, ICT and English without any hint of trouble.  I've decided a good break is well needed, from a teaching point of view, so the Maths will take a bit of a back seat until after Summer, unless I get a sudden urge to sit down and plough on with it.  He's more-or-less finished the exam course already, so I'm not too worried about leaving it for a bit.

My desk is a mountain of unattended paper work, bills to pay, money to sort, things to look up etc., etc.  You know how it is, it's never ending.  Summer is a busy time with outings, birthday get-togethers and Ben's jujitsu demos which will kick in very soon taking up a lot of weekends.

On the sewing front I've started a new wallet in grey and 70s style swirly/paisley green and white, and have listed two new items, a keyring and a necklace.  Taking photos of these two seemed to take an age, and tweaking them to get the colours right took even longer.  Hope you like them.  Others are in the pipeline as is a new idea of a mixed media picture.  I'll keep you posted :0)