The picture of me resplendent in academic gown, bushy white beard and witches hat waving a paint brush as a wand will have to live in your imagination because I made damn sure that no photographic evidence will exist!
My entrance onto the patio as someone from Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or something ready to take in my class was little short of sensational. Unfortunately I rapidly found that the full costume was impossibly hot to wear so beard and hat were soon jettisoned. By the end of the day I was glad to get rid of the gown as well!
The day started with a meeting to try and articulate our fears and simple incomprehension linked to the infamous End of Term List devised by The Owner for the intimidation of her faithful workers. We have been promised a written reply to our written questions because she knows how tricky people can be when things are only spoken. She (in the sacred name of irony!) should know!
Since today was a full teaching day for me there was little time for sly deception, skulduggery, subterfuge, gunpowder, treason and plot. Or indeed the truth.
My promised letter in reply to the two missives I have sent did not, of course, appear. I will ask tomorrow with no lively hope of success.
There is a definite feeling of ‘endgame’ about the school with a clear sense of eschatology lurking in every dark corner of the place!
Tomorrow there will be two teachers absent and a trip to the beach taking out a further proportion of our number so god alone knows how we keep going. My invariable advice in situations of extreme academic stress is “Close the school!” This simple, direct and effective advice is just as invariably ignored as those in authority seek to discover a remedy which is complex and usually involves people (usually not them) giving up non contact time or collapsing classes (not theirs) and generally looking to the PBI to get them out of trouble.
You never know, perhaps tomorrow will be the exception which proves the rule. But I’m not holding my breath.
Toni left for work this morning and soon afterwards returned. The police (on their way to the bar) actually stopped off and told the disgruntled people waiting for a bus that there was not likely to be one arriving as they were on strike. Nice of them to tell the customers! Perhaps The Owner has a stake in the transport system of this part of the world as well as a stranglehold on education in English in Sitges as well.
Ah, I seem to be getting more bitter as the weather gets warmer. Something of an oxymoron, but then isn’t life one as well?
Time to stop!
My entrance onto the patio as someone from Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or something ready to take in my class was little short of sensational. Unfortunately I rapidly found that the full costume was impossibly hot to wear so beard and hat were soon jettisoned. By the end of the day I was glad to get rid of the gown as well!
The day started with a meeting to try and articulate our fears and simple incomprehension linked to the infamous End of Term List devised by The Owner for the intimidation of her faithful workers. We have been promised a written reply to our written questions because she knows how tricky people can be when things are only spoken. She (in the sacred name of irony!) should know!
Since today was a full teaching day for me there was little time for sly deception, skulduggery, subterfuge, gunpowder, treason and plot. Or indeed the truth.
My promised letter in reply to the two missives I have sent did not, of course, appear. I will ask tomorrow with no lively hope of success.
There is a definite feeling of ‘endgame’ about the school with a clear sense of eschatology lurking in every dark corner of the place!
Tomorrow there will be two teachers absent and a trip to the beach taking out a further proportion of our number so god alone knows how we keep going. My invariable advice in situations of extreme academic stress is “Close the school!” This simple, direct and effective advice is just as invariably ignored as those in authority seek to discover a remedy which is complex and usually involves people (usually not them) giving up non contact time or collapsing classes (not theirs) and generally looking to the PBI to get them out of trouble.
You never know, perhaps tomorrow will be the exception which proves the rule. But I’m not holding my breath.
Toni left for work this morning and soon afterwards returned. The police (on their way to the bar) actually stopped off and told the disgruntled people waiting for a bus that there was not likely to be one arriving as they were on strike. Nice of them to tell the customers! Perhaps The Owner has a stake in the transport system of this part of the world as well as a stranglehold on education in English in Sitges as well.
Ah, I seem to be getting more bitter as the weather gets warmer. Something of an oxymoron, but then isn’t life one as well?
Time to stop!
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