New Monitor.

We had a frosty morning and cloudy day. While I was at work Peter replaced the tiny monitor (above) with an even bigger than the last one monitor (below). He only ordered it yesterday so that was a very quick delivery. We nearly missed the delivery, the delivery people are paid so little (about 60p per item I think) that if you don't answer the door immediately they drive off. On one occasion the chap drove off before Peter had the chance to stick his head out of the window to say he was on his way to the door. This morning I was sat at the kitchen table with a clear view of the front yard while Peter was upstairs in his study. Luckily he was keeping an eye out and saw the delivery van head down to our neighbours' where he must have knocked on the house door and got no answer, everybody being out in the barns or on the land. Peter quickly ran out onto the drive and stopped the driver as he was going off up the hill with a 'missed delivery'.

As I drove home this evening I saw smoke coming from the chimney and thought the oil man still hadn't come but he had, the central heating was on and Peter had lit the fire to make things extra cosy.

At school I had a pleasant afternoon teaching children how to write m correctly. This was followed by a staff meeting where we discussed ways of showing the parents how we teach reading and maths so that they can be a bit more involved. We already run afternoon and evening sessions every year to talk about reading especially and the video clips we made a while back are on the school website but parents may be invited to watch their child in guided reading sessions or to take part in maths games with the children and/or we'll make maths video clips so that parents can be directed to appropriate activities for their child.

After the meeting I popped into the Co-Op for fresh vegetables. In the clearance section I found some storage bags (made from a kind of synthetic fabric that zips up) at 75% off. In the optimistic hope that the house will sell this year I bought 6 as I thought they would be good for putting each room's curtains in. Peter had a serious word with the estate agents the other day and we have dropped the price to a more realistic level. We've got one viewing booked already and somebody drove down to the top of our drive to have a look today. Fingers crossed for this year.