Don’t You Worry Child

^{Don't you worry, don't you worry, child. See heaven's got a plan for you-(Swedish House Mafia: Don’t You Worry Child)}

Winter beckons it’s icy finger as the darkness draws in and the rain pours down. Life stretches out like a long and winding road ahead of me. I’m full of poetic phrases today which is just as well as this is going to be a post which does the usual weekly thing of summing up my week in a few paragraphs but also assesses my life at the moment. Back in the early days of this blog I used to assess my life at least once a week but now I’ve grown from a hormonal and confused teenager into an actual adult things are different. Nonetheless, it’s still good to take stock of life every now and again.

I survived week three of my teaching placement and am now half way through. It continues to be hard work, especially with the challenging behaviour I’ve had to face for much of the week. It wasn’t really a bad week but there is nothing to define it as good either. An average week. I suppose the highlight was finally grasping maths teaching- it’s probably my weakest subject and I’ve always found teaching it a bit of a challenge. My lesson on simplifying fractions though was a success so I know I can finally do it. I also had the bonus of an extra day off as it was a staff training day and I was not required. I am most grateful for a three day weekend as I never feel I’ve had a proper rest over two days!

It’s was a fairly restful weekend. Friday mostly consisted of preparing for next week’s teaching and Saturday mostly consisted of sitting around eating and watching TV, apart from the time I ventured out into the pouring rain to meet a friend for coffee. I came back looking like a drowned fish- how I love the British weather! Today my parents came to visit, although I was unsure why they decided to come. I guess they just missed me- well who wouldn’t. It was a good morning and I managed to get an advent calendar and a roast dinner out of it, which is a pretty successful day.

Friday did involve getting a haircut, which was something of a traumatic experience. I wandered into the upside down barber shop, so called because the words “barber shop” are written upside down on the outside. (This is already turning into an exciting anecdote, I’m sure you agree). I was sat down pretty quick and explained what I wanted. Ten minutes later and some awkward conversation about Christmas shopping later and my hair was significantly shorter. (This has turned from mildly interesting to a complete bore-fest but please bear with me). I am telling you all this because it was the best haircut I have ever had. The hairdresser was a genius and my hair now looks super and much less like the hair of a crazy scientific figure.

So here’s the assessing life bit. I see it that there is a triangle of things that kind of make up your life: career, friendships and family/relationships. The career bit is obviously going ok what with me teaching lots and not making a complete has of it. I can’t believe the how much more positively I view this area than I did about a month ago. Mu current teaching practice has made me far more hopeful about my future. In terms of friendship things are going fine. I’m usually too busy and/or tired to be particularly social on weekdays but I’m making up for it at weekends. I don’t have many friends but I’m perfectly happy with those that I do have. And various “issues” that our house and social circle have had in the past seem have been resolved so all’s good in that department.

I feel it’s now time for a new paragraph as I feel this one might go on a little. The third bit of the triangle is family/relationships. I have a great relationship with my parents which is wonderful and I really like that fact. On the other hand, shouldn’t I have more than that- a girlfriend and some hope of future family. I don’t mean to sound all miserable and I am fairly happy with life at the moment but it’s something I think of occasionally. I’ve been single for 2 and a half years now and it’s quite frustrating. Surely I am long overdue for some kind of romance? I had two drunken kisses on a night out about a year ago but that was it. I feel like I’ve been a bit hard done by in this department and it almost feels like it’s my fault. How does one go about finding their soul mate these days?

Yeah, not sure what that was about. I just end up rambling sometimes. I shall end by talking about the future of this blog. I really enjoyed the Vegetarian challenge and I’ve got a Secret Santa challenge coming up in December but I’d love to do some great things in the new year. Here’s where I need your help. Let me know if you have any brilliant ideas of a challenge for me to attempt over a month or two, as long as they are realistic. Hopefully you lot will have some great ideas! Thank you for reading and I’ll be back soon!