Drinking my tea in a staff room where everybody, apart from the IT technician, is stuck in front of a computer tapping away with the desperation which characterises a morning in this place, I am able to contemplate the fact that my thirteen hour (plus) day in school has just started.

The marathon begins with an examination for my 2BXT and ends with a Certificate Ceremony when the successful candidates in the EFL examinations last term finally get the piece of paper which proves that they have passed.

In past years we have had a speech from some public person to mark the occasion and they have generally been mercifully brief.  There might be some sort of reception at the end of the ceremony which I, of course spurn as I rush towards my car to make my escape.

I suppose that one good thing about staying on after the end of school is that I will be able to mark the examinations which were taken this morning.  And the fact that I can look on that as an advantage just shows how far I have sunk!

The pupils are now taking the exam and I am taking a chance in typing because this means that my full attention is not given to these characters who, it has to be admitted have years of experience of cheating to get their decent marks.  OK, I can touch type and therefore my eyes are constantly roaming over the bowed heads of the pupils as they vainly search for the meaning of the words that we have been studying, but I am trusting them to give this their best shot and not rely on notes secreted about their persons or hidden in the depths of their pencil cases.  We shall see!

Tomorrow is the start of the new swimming regime where I will go to the pool at the end of each day.  My card is up to date and this evening, when I eventually get back from school, I will repack my swim bag so that I am ready to enjoy a swim on my early departure from school on Friday.

As is usual for teachers who have a partial week to teach, the days off seem to intensify the stress in the days remaining so at the end of yesterday all my colleagues looked shattered and even the Nirvana of Friday seems distant and unreal.  Someone should (they probably have) done research on the DLS (Days Left Syndrome) and why it is so much more stressful than an ordinary week.

Just to test the theory we have Stupid Week in December where we have Monday and Tuesday off then we come in to school of Wednesday then we have Thursday off and we come back in for Friday.  If that doesn’t make stress go off the scale then nothing will.  I am hoping (probably vainly) that pupils will take the clear hint and go off with their parents for a week’s holiday and leave us in peace.

However, given the unholy zeal with which parents throw their children into school to get shot of them on every available opportunity (Why do they procreate if they don’t like the product?) I expect that we will have a depressingly large percentage of the kids traipsing in on the two days when they can come, being ejected with unnatural glee from the people carriers that bring them to school by parents who have started to remember what the summer holidays were like!

It is now truly autumn, but the weather, although cloudy is still quite warm.  Indeed yesterday it was “close” - the only word to describe weather which was cool yet sweatily unpleasant at the same time!

Tomorrow we are going to Terrassa for a double name day.  The presents are in the car already - an altogether unnatural piece of planning.

My teaching day is over and now I have the tedium of waiting for the ceremony to take place at 7 pm.  In a bout of enthusiasm I completed my marking for the examination this morning consequently I have a three-hour stretch to look forward to before the further tedium of the ceremony takes place.  Ah well, it’s better than teaching.

Home at last after a relatively short certificate ceremony in which two of my Proficiency students turned up to get their pieces of paper; big hugs all round!  The Spanish are a much more tactile people than we staid Brits.

I am at that stage of tiredness where only a long hot bath will bring me back to some sort of reality!