Sunday afternoon: lying out on the third floor balcony in a pair of shorts soaking up the sun and listening to a BBC Radio 4 programme on Len Deighton via my Davies Donation wi-fi headphones. A perfect November (!) day.
I felt that such a languid approach to the afternoon was more than justified after the completion of various tasks in the morning.
There is surely nothing more satisfying than seeing the tick beside some of those irritating jobs that are only usually seen off during the first days of an extended holiday. Perhaps it was the lack of a half term break which is now showing itself in a half hearted attempt to persuade me that a weekend is almost as good as seven clear days of non teaching! Some hope!
So, armed with a small paint brush I finally touched up those smudges, scuff marks and smears that moving in to a new house produces with some frequency and in the most obviously visible places. In spite of the fact that as far as paint is concerned white is not white, the different shade of whiteness is certainly less obvious than the unsightly marks which are now more or less covered. I fear that close scrutiny will reveal the patchwork approach to the masking attempts but I am sure that everyone will be far too polite to mention anything. Far too polite.
There is something to be said for every wall and ceiling in our house being painted white: you don’t have to worry too much about the matching of some long forgotten shade of ‘Mystic Magnolia’ made only by Dulux in Aberdeen in 1997. The white you have bought may not be the white on the wall, but it’s certainly a damn sight closer a match than you’re likely to get with the shades of any other ‘colour.’
Not satisfied with this mammoth wall painting task (comparisons with Michelangelo came readily to mind) I also managed another task. I am not one to discard with any degree of complacency any gadget or gadget-like device. The pleasure of finding a pull-out computer keyboard attached to the underside of the desk was limited by the fact that it got in the way of my knees when I sat down. It actually took me a few months to realize that it had to go. It then took more months to get to the point where the screwdriver actually fitted into the Philips shaped hole in the screw: that point was reached today.
No wonder I needed the horizontal rest after so much activity!
The excitement for tomorrow will be to see how many of our charges have succumbed to the flu or The Flu.
I felt that such a languid approach to the afternoon was more than justified after the completion of various tasks in the morning.
There is surely nothing more satisfying than seeing the tick beside some of those irritating jobs that are only usually seen off during the first days of an extended holiday. Perhaps it was the lack of a half term break which is now showing itself in a half hearted attempt to persuade me that a weekend is almost as good as seven clear days of non teaching! Some hope!
So, armed with a small paint brush I finally touched up those smudges, scuff marks and smears that moving in to a new house produces with some frequency and in the most obviously visible places. In spite of the fact that as far as paint is concerned white is not white, the different shade of whiteness is certainly less obvious than the unsightly marks which are now more or less covered. I fear that close scrutiny will reveal the patchwork approach to the masking attempts but I am sure that everyone will be far too polite to mention anything. Far too polite.
There is something to be said for every wall and ceiling in our house being painted white: you don’t have to worry too much about the matching of some long forgotten shade of ‘Mystic Magnolia’ made only by Dulux in Aberdeen in 1997. The white you have bought may not be the white on the wall, but it’s certainly a damn sight closer a match than you’re likely to get with the shades of any other ‘colour.’
Not satisfied with this mammoth wall painting task (comparisons with Michelangelo came readily to mind) I also managed another task. I am not one to discard with any degree of complacency any gadget or gadget-like device. The pleasure of finding a pull-out computer keyboard attached to the underside of the desk was limited by the fact that it got in the way of my knees when I sat down. It actually took me a few months to realize that it had to go. It then took more months to get to the point where the screwdriver actually fitted into the Philips shaped hole in the screw: that point was reached today.
No wonder I needed the horizontal rest after so much activity!
The excitement for tomorrow will be to see how many of our charges have succumbed to the flu or The Flu.
I wonder if there is a limit to how far our penny-pinching educational establishment will collapse classes?
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