A lazy Sunday.
It’s a concept that I have, of course, heard of – but rarely experienced. But today I am experiencing it. A long lie in and an eventual cup of tea or coffee. A television filled interval leading to a light lunch and a depth of nothing to fill in the time until evening.
Toni lying comatose on the sofa, now having developed a stomach upset and a thoroughly morose attitude to the world.
A few cups of tea later and I am now able to appreciate fully the true icing on the cake of a real lazy Sunday: the realisation that Monday (tomorrow) is just another day, and not the horror of the restart of work after a holiday!
The spring term (such a misnomer) is an odd one in school. The major learning term is the autumn, and for GCSE the bulk of course work needs to have been completed by Christmas. The early months of the year are wilfully erratic in terms of their length and usefulness: they give the impression of being far before the deadlines of anything, but in fact they are deceptively close to everything important.
The start of the school year, starting in September, makes it appear as though you are starting the struggle with only a few months until the natural break of Christmas and, therefore, it is bearable. It is by such self deception that the profession of teaching manages to survive!
The start of a new term in January is actually more intimidating than in September because you actually look forward to a whole, complete year ahead. The idea of Easter and summer holidays seem almost illusory and are certainly not real enough to keep your faith going strongly enough to make the future stretch of the timetable seem bearable.
All this is now not part of my paranoia for the beginning of the year. I know that some teachers who have retired from school feel a sharp pang of regret at the start of each term and feel a momentary hiccough of guilt that they are not participating in the general gloom before they face the fresh challenges that the year will present.
Actually, that’s not true. I don’t know any teacher who feels anything but hysterical relief at the thought of pupil free days!
If I see another ‘Move him into the sun’ type programme I think I shall scream. Toni has become one of the world’s experts on analysis of value-for-money houses in foreign lands (especially in Spain.) I think that it is his way to join a vicarious move back to his native land – and I can’t blame him. As the rain gently falls it is difficult not to think about drier climates. In some ways, you could actually see our move to Spain now taking place a year later than when we wanted to move: forget the number of months – it’s now 2007!
I’m looking forward to this new ‘term’ so that I can get on with setting out the house again for the selling season. There are a great number of ‘tareas’ to be completed if the house is to be presented in the way that I want it to. I think that I have lost a little of the urgency which I first had when the place was first on the market and that is something which I need to re-find as soon as possible!
It’s a concept that I have, of course, heard of – but rarely experienced. But today I am experiencing it. A long lie in and an eventual cup of tea or coffee. A television filled interval leading to a light lunch and a depth of nothing to fill in the time until evening.
Toni lying comatose on the sofa, now having developed a stomach upset and a thoroughly morose attitude to the world.
A few cups of tea later and I am now able to appreciate fully the true icing on the cake of a real lazy Sunday: the realisation that Monday (tomorrow) is just another day, and not the horror of the restart of work after a holiday!
The spring term (such a misnomer) is an odd one in school. The major learning term is the autumn, and for GCSE the bulk of course work needs to have been completed by Christmas. The early months of the year are wilfully erratic in terms of their length and usefulness: they give the impression of being far before the deadlines of anything, but in fact they are deceptively close to everything important.
The start of the school year, starting in September, makes it appear as though you are starting the struggle with only a few months until the natural break of Christmas and, therefore, it is bearable. It is by such self deception that the profession of teaching manages to survive!
The start of a new term in January is actually more intimidating than in September because you actually look forward to a whole, complete year ahead. The idea of Easter and summer holidays seem almost illusory and are certainly not real enough to keep your faith going strongly enough to make the future stretch of the timetable seem bearable.
All this is now not part of my paranoia for the beginning of the year. I know that some teachers who have retired from school feel a sharp pang of regret at the start of each term and feel a momentary hiccough of guilt that they are not participating in the general gloom before they face the fresh challenges that the year will present.
Actually, that’s not true. I don’t know any teacher who feels anything but hysterical relief at the thought of pupil free days!
If I see another ‘Move him into the sun’ type programme I think I shall scream. Toni has become one of the world’s experts on analysis of value-for-money houses in foreign lands (especially in Spain.) I think that it is his way to join a vicarious move back to his native land – and I can’t blame him. As the rain gently falls it is difficult not to think about drier climates. In some ways, you could actually see our move to Spain now taking place a year later than when we wanted to move: forget the number of months – it’s now 2007!
I’m looking forward to this new ‘term’ so that I can get on with setting out the house again for the selling season. There are a great number of ‘tareas’ to be completed if the house is to be presented in the way that I want it to. I think that I have lost a little of the urgency which I first had when the place was first on the market and that is something which I need to re-find as soon as possible!
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