10 Things I've Learnt Since I Turned 30

I've been 30 now for just over a week. In the lead up to my birthday it seemed like quite a big event but, if I'm honest, it was nothing to worry about. Milestone birthdays are only as significant as we want to make them.

That being said we never really manage to live up to our full potential, and any chance to take a step in the right direction must be a good thing. As a teacher, I love to learn new facts and so having my 30th birthday seems to be a good opportunity to start trying to learn a few extra new things.

Here are 10 of the facts/truths that I've discovered in the last 9 days:

1. On the subject of ironing: there can be no doubt that using a steam iron is three times faster and ten times more efficient than using a normal iron.  But they are also a million times more dangerous when they are filled with water and little drops start trickling towards the cord. Also, why are ironing board manufacturers so mean to tall people?  I had to take off my clogs and stand with my knees bent so that I didn't injure my back!
2. Water can work really effectively with oil paints... is that cheating? Soaking the brush before using it makes a fabulous translucent effect.
3. Being 30 is not at all scary until you consider that the next major birthday is your 40th...
4. It is fun being the second eldest in the house, but it never feels quite right! Still, it's great that we never really did grow up and still have our little clubs within the family. Last time the parents went away we concluded the week by buying a collectable Battle of Trafalgar plate to celebrate our watching of Hornblower, this time Clemency made us pendants to celebrate our watching of Arrow. She's a clever cookie!
5. On the subject of Arrow, I've discovered that John Barrowman can act... no, really act! Who knew?!
   
6. In the absence of Dad, Mum and the car - and therefore walking pup around town - I discovered that Orlando (our dog) has a preference for orange bottles, most especially Irn Bru and Lucozade. Is anybody else's dog this picky about colours?
7. Playground fitness is a great thing. Thanks to Wick Gala we now have an amazing playpark that is accommodating to adults as well as children. I'm attempting to better my balance, which has always been poor, and I've realised that you never really outgrow swings and climbing frames. But I hate the zip wire. 
   
8. Peach stones are crucial to making peach jam. Judith left some on the side and I threw them away because I thought they were rubbish. Then she couldn't make her jam. Apparently that is what contains the setting agent - sorry! Still, we got some nice cooked peaches out of it.
9. Crowd funding is not always a waste of money! After giving £150 to someone and never seeing the promised perk in return I had decided not to take part in any crowd funding again, but seeing Duck Egg's project on Facebook I thought it was time to lay the ghost. I know the person who runs it and, as it's a youth arts programme, we're pretty much in the same line of work.
10. Finally, it's never too late to learn something new. People who say that they are too old to try are often just too afraid to fail. I live in a house where the collective age is 252 years, but not one of these six people believes that they have learnt all they are going to learn. I love that about my family and it makes me even more proud of them.

So, to sum up, age makes no difference to discovering new facts. It might change how quickly we can remember them, but never use your age as an excuse for your reluctance to learn. Knowledge is the key to making our corner of the world better and knowledge only comes through the commitment to continue learning.

A Day In The Life Of A Music Teacher

My 25th May Resolution

25th May 2015 11pm may not strike you as an especially important date and time, and for every person reading this I am willing to bet that it was just another minute in another day.  But for the writer - that is me! - it was a groundbreaking moment that (I hope!) will have echoes and repercussions across many years to come.  I'm approaching a milestone birthday, not a huge event but one that has given me cause to ponder on things, and a series of events - some good, some not so good - has given rise to this decision.

So here it is:
Every minute of every day has to count for something.

This is not too hard.  I have the most rewarding job in the world, the most wonderful family and am in that fortunate position where natural disasters and war are something that I read about on the internet.


It is 7 years (where has the time gone?!) since I qualified in a job I swore I would never do.  Both of my parents had worked in this profession and I informed everyone who made the mistake of asking that I would NEVER do it.  It was, of course, teaching.  But today I am in a job that I would not trade for the world, I'm a self-employed music teacher.  It's not easy and it is certainly not a job to have if you have any ambitions of being rich, but it is so hugely rewarding.


So here is the day in a life of this music teacher, and you can decide if I have made every moment count for something...

It begins with an alarm, then a snooze, then an alarm, then a snooze and then a slight panic that there was no follow up alarm  because I accidentally pressed "stop" on my phone instead of "snooze".  But there is very little rush - my working day starts at 9:30am, so although it can run through to 8:30pm it does mean there is a gentle start.  I'm not a morning person.

By 9:30 I'm at the local school where I am helping out with a couple of the classes for this year's music festival having called en route to deliver a card to friends who have recently had a new arrival!  There are huge differences to what I remember from my primary school days.  The classrooms now have computers in and the coombers are no longer triangular.  There are still corners of toys, and desks with pencils and felt tips in the middle of them and for a second there is an image in my mind of being told off by the teacher for colouring my hand in with felt tip pens - that wasn't today, I should add, that was a good number of years go!  You can't work with children if you want flattery or compliments.  As part of today's music session they were trying to guess my age and it ranged from 64-72 years old and, as if guessing over twice my age wasn't bad enough, one of them delighted to inform me that their grandfather was 55 and younger than the age he thought I was!  But some 90% of the children loved singing in the choir including one who had told me that she hated singing last week, but loved it now.

By 10:30 I'm leaving the school and heading home to take our Sprocker Spaniel for his walk.  It's never a walk, though, he doesn't know how to walk.  It is reliably a charge, a frenzied bark as he throws himself at the closed gate and then a systematic destruction of all the daisies along the path side.  The Forestry Commission site that we always walk him at was undergoing maintenance today which meant a slight detour to avoid the pup undoing all the good work of the volunteers!

11:30 and I'm home again, sharing a cup of tea and a chat with a family friend who popped over to go through a box of bric-a-brac bought at the local auction where we have acquired some absolute gems in the few months it has been open.  Dinner, then, is a rushed affair but the joys of living at home include home cooking and I can count on one hand the number of times that my Mum has ever disappointed in that and all of them contain mushrooms - yuck!

Then 1:30-7:30 are private lessons, and I have the privilege to hear musicians blossom and teach them so that they can share their musicality with family, friends and the world.  These include violinists who practise the same piece repeatedly because they know they are my favourite pieces; singers who are just beginning to find their own voices instead of emulating others; and pianists who choose to work on extra music.  While most of my pupils are children I teach right the way up to a couple of people approaching the age bracket that the school children tried to fit me into.  In my life as a music teacher I have been invited to share in Christenings, marriages and parties and, on one sad occasion, a funeral.

And then, because it is Tuesday, it is the family games night.  We take it in turns to pick a game and tonight's was a game called Pit which basically involves trying to out-shout everyone else at the table so that you can win... Not too much skill but a useful thing being a singer and being able to project my voice without shouting.  It means that while my brother is nursing a sore throat I'm fine!

After that it is music making time with my two little sisters.  Yes it is approaching 10:00pm but it's still light outside and doesn't feel at all late.  I've arranged a piece of music from the TV series "Hornblower", which we were watching recently (I'm resisting watching the final 2 episodes as Archie Kennedy is without doubt the best character), for the 16 instruments that between us we play.  Perhaps this counts as taking your work home with you but when you have work that is as enjoyable as mine it is hardly work at all.

So it's been a full day and I feel like I have completed the first part of my 25th May resolution.  Mashed in between these things I've snatched minutes here and there in preparation for a Music Summer School that I am running with my two sisters.


Conclusion: Life as a teacher is an exhausting but inspiring thing that I would not swap for anything.