Just like riding a bicycle..

NYE 2011

New Years day I made the painful trek back to London... Literally!! NEVER again will I travel New Years day, not pretty. I finally got back to my flat around  3 in the afternoon and spent the day sleeping off my self-induced post-New Year's pain.
Sunday I decided it was time to get back at it and went for a run. After a week and a half with several fondue dinners and several (dozen) croissants, this also was not very pretty. But Monday morning I dragged myself out for a long run and started to feeling a bit better about myself when I made it home without having a major coronary.
I had the ingenious idea of setting my alarm an hour earlier each morning to ease back into my routine, Monday being a bank holiday and Tuesday being an inset (pro-d) for most schools. But, of course, this plan was shattered when I got a call Monday night around 8:30 asking me to work in the morning. I was at a movie at the time and hadn't even eaten dinner yet.. so much for my back to routine plan (Love and Other Drugs - I definitely do NOT recommend it).  Morning came very early since I had a hard time getting to sleep - getting back to human routine of bed before midnight and morning before 9 was not easy. Luckily I was doing TA work in a nursery class (3-4 year olds) and I had been in there a few days before Christmas break so it went fairly smoothly and did not require me to think too hard.
Wednesday and Thursday I worked extra days at my regular school replacing an Australian teacher who was not back from the land of OZ yet. I was in her nice little class of 8 eight year olds! Just lovely. And Friday I did my regular stint of French in each class for one hour. All in all I lucked out with a fairly slack first week back :)
Friday evening a bunch of us Canadian (and 1 Australian) teachers from the agency met up for drinks. As per my new years resolution I had a drink at the pub and ducked out as the grouped moved on to their second establishment, of many, of the evening.
I enjoyed a relaxing weekend, did some walking and running and on Sunday enjoyed a day at Westfields shopping mall with Josephine, including sushi lunch! Then Christine met us and we went to see The King's Speech - I do recommend this one.
Today I woke up not knowing if I was going to work or not and ended up being called in to a school I had gone to several times in the fall. I was having a lovely day until I looked on the wall, saw a display and realized that these kids were born after I graduated from high school. Suddenly felt extremely old...
Ah well, you can't win them all. Glad to be back in London and am eagerly planning all of my 2011 adventures in the time I have left in the UK. Funny how I have 8 months left, but feel like I am on the home stretch because I have so many exciting things all lined up!