Our department decamped to another school today as part of a training day for local maths teachers. The bonus was that it's actually nearer to my house which meant getting up at the leisurely hour of 7am rather than the normal insane 530 I subject myself to each morning.

The headteacher at the school gave the day an introduction. He seemed a decent enough bloke but was trying too hard with the jokes: 'can i just advertise our school to anyone looking for a new job. I'd like to add that the weather is like this every day!' Which would have been acceptable if the weather was warm and sunny but it was in fact cold and dull outside, though I imagine he was at least being honest.

I also got to speak to the woman who'd done a mini-pre-PGCE-placement at our school last year and was now doing a proper placement at the host school. I now teach her daughter so was relieved that she wasn't holding an exercise book and shouting: 'what the hell is this crap you've being getting them to do?!' She's at the same university I went to we could compare notes. Apparently the tutors are still as patronising as ever and the lectures every bit as dull. It's nice to know they paid so much attention to the evaluation forms we filled in.

The actual content of the day was deathly dull with some education consultant talking at us for an hour about... I can't remember what. I was too busy daydreaming. I started to feel a bit sorry for my pupils having to listen to some boring bloke rambling on and on and on. The best part about these types of events is actually getting to do some maths, which is an opportunity for me to show off how brilliant I am. Not that I'm big-headed of course.

At lunch I was talking to some other young teachers who just so happened to be female. So later my head of department was taking the mickey out of me for being a ladies-man. Honestly this reputation isn't justified. It's not my fault that I'm in a profession with a (slight) majority of female workers.

We actually went home at about two o'clock. So even if it wasn't the most exciting day ever at least it was short. Trouble is if anyone asks what the day was about and what I've taken away from it the answer would be 'bugger all'. Nevermind.