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Thursday, May 20, 2010

Unwelcome truth!


My humiliation is complete. Toni, playing in a foreign language and in what was obviously a British biased version beat me in the Wii game of Trivial Pursuit. I don’t quite know where I go from here to regain my tattered reputation. I know that the next time we play, the game will be in Spanish and my knowledge of Britain, British history and everything else will get me nowhere!

I couldn’t even rely on the opponent choice of the middle when my insistence on “Art and Literature” asked a question about neither of these and the correct response was “The Da Vinci Code”! I will retire and lick my wounds and come out fighting when I have finished sulking. And I got the colour of cranberries wrong! I don’t want to talk about it!

Nothing has been said yet about the possible reduction in our wages. I was absolutely astonished about the almost complete lack of discussion about this probably cut in our pay! I was reminded of the slogan which fired the workers during the General Strike: “Not a penny off the pay, not a minute on the day!” Though thinking about it, given the failure of that workers’ enterprise perhaps it is not the most encouraging phrase to have going through my head!

When I (the only person apparently concerned about the diminution in the money) engaged my colleagues in conversation about the proposed cut I was told that the school might do something to equalize salaries which (for some reason which is beyond my comprehension) are paid jointly by the Generalitat and the school, but “they don’t have to”!

I seem to belong in a different universe. All the teachers that I have ever worked with would have been up in arms about the government’s intention and have begun to gear themselves up for union action – with us in Catalonia: nothing! It is absolutely incredible.

I know that there is a financial crisis and, given the employer-weighted employment laws, people can have a quite justified fear of dismissal, but in spite of all that there should at least be some demonstration of spirit to defend the measly wages that we are paid.

Perhaps I am doing my colleagues a disservice and their true spirit will be revealed when the full details of what the government intends to inflict on the workers becomes clearer. Don’t hold your breath!

My short sojourn on the sun dappled Third Floor yesterday evening was enlivened by the hellish cacophony of various canine barks, screams, howls, yowls, whines and yelps which is the usual soundtrack to venturing out of doors in this area.

I am convinced that buying a dog in this part of the world comes with free lessons to encourage and develop the inconsideration of the owner. And with fitted ear plugs so that the owners cannot hear the raucous ruckus that their sonically challenged mutts make at every opportunity! The truly demented chorus of hopefully damned dogs reached new levels of awfulness today in a discordant symphony worthy of a tuneless Stockhausen!

Meanwhile I await the arrival of my new camera with growing impatience. I have decided (by way of unnatural economy on my part) that I will forego the buying of a new summer watch and instead put the money towards the camera which, together with the “cashback” which Canon say that I can claim for the particular model that I have bought, make the amount that I have paid merely large rather than extortionate.

All things are relative!

Last night was not the best night that I have spent: cough, running nose and inability to breathe properly were not the best ingredients to produce a good night’s sleep. So I didn’t.

It was an effort to go to school, but, as usual I felt better while teaching and much worse at the end of each lesson. Luckily there were not many lessons today and I decided to go home at lunchtime and rest and, although I still have the remains of a sore throat and a cough I feel much better. I wonder if I am not suffering from some sort of allergic reaction to the clouds of pollen which have dusted everything. Who knows?

Tomorrow a long weekend starts with Monday being a fiesta in Barcelona.

Hallelujah!

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