Five on Friday

For my Five on Friday this week, I'm sharing some of the changes I've made as I move slowly towards retirement.  I'm still waiting for most of my teaching commitments to be passed on to a new teacher but a couple of schools have already been passed to one of the local teachers and other schools have been rescheduled to free up some more time.

One | I've rearranged my teaching days so that I now have Wednesday and Thursdays completely free.  At the moment, I still have half days on Monday and Tuesday, and all day Friday but that will eventually decrease to Tuesday plus one other day, for two hours each day.  I won't decide which other day to teach until I've investigated what's on during the daytime that I may like to do.  This has been the first week of this arrangement so it's too early to feel the benefits but I have enjoyed my days off and I really, really love the fact that I now only have one early start!

 

Two | In my Tuesday afternoon school the children have free choice to play board games after they've finished their class music lesson with me.  They've always wanted me to stay and play a game with them but up until this week I've always had to rush off to get to another school.  However, now I don't have to rush off so was able to stay and play a couple of games with them and I had a great time, even though they completely slaughtered me at Connect Four! Apparently next time we're going to play chess!  
 

Three | On Wednesday I went with a friend to an Odeon Silver Screen event.  This is restricted to the over 55s and for the bargain price of £3, you get to see a recent film which in our case was  one that was first released back in June 2015.  The price also included coffee and biscuits, and the parking was free, so all in all it was a cheap morning's entertainment!  We saw Mr Holmes starring Ian McKellen, which I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend a viewing if you haven't already seen it. The Silver Screen cinema trips have definitely made the list and I'll be looking out for more films in the future ... at that price it'd be rude not to!

 

Four | On Thursday I went for a morning walk and ending up buying some cheap vegetables from an honesty stall outside one of the house bordering the marina, then it was back home to cook it all up.  Not quite what I'd planned but I now have six portions of warming vegetable soup for the freezer, so I'm happy with that.  On my walk I checked the village notice board and also the boards outside the village hall and the club, and I  was pleasantly surprised to see there is plenty happening locally during the daytime; line dancing, WI, pilates, yoga, and also a walking group.  I've thought about joining the WI before but it never worked out because of teaching commitments, so I will try that again.  I've always fancied having a go at line dancing so that's also a possibility, but I'll stick to the therapeutic yoga classes I've seen in Bradford on Avon as I think they'll be more manageable for me.

 

Five | I've planned a series of photography mini projects.  This is really to get me out and about but also to test the waters and make the decision whether to continue with the photography degree or not.  I'm searching for a location fairly close to home for the first one project, which is going to be all about dramatic skies, but the location is everything, and so far I'm not having much luck finding what I have in mind. There is nothing within walking distance, so the next option is a short drive with easy roadside parking ... and that's as far as I've got. Fingers crossed on this one!

Thanks go out to Amy for organising this link up.