The sixth form is silent: they are doing an exam.
I always forget the technical name for unnecessary repetition which, just as regularly as I forget, it comes back to me just as I am looking it up. And, indeed it happened again: ‘tautology’ was the word for which I was looking and it came back to me when I saw the word ‘technology’ in a brief definition which suggested the word ‘redundancy’ as the one I needed.
Short of death, I think that examinations are the only times that the Spanish shut up! And even then candidates speak to ask questions of such fatuity that it takes the breath away!
So, another examination has been set and sat and is now waiting for my red pen to slash its way across the cramped print on plain paper which is the usual medium of choice in this place.
If our pupils write on anything with lines then it is the peculiar Continental squared paper which they seem to relish. It does nothing for their writing of course but it is something they are used to. We do have a dwindling supply of ‘proper’ lined paper, but the kids react to it like Vampires responding to Holy Water! Odd.
Following yesterday’s weather today’s continues the trend to bright but cold. As long as you are in the sun and out of any breeze it is very pleasant. But it is not summer. Not by a long chalk and I am looking forward to the arrival of the real season of sun and warmth with a definite hunger.
The bambooing of our establishment has been such a success that we are thinking of extending the process to the fence which separates the garden from the communal pool. I am not fully convinced by this idea, but anything which keeps the neighbours from impinging on our space seems like a good idea. We now have just over a month before the obnoxious family moves into its summer home and starts behaving if they live on a spacious detached estate. Ah well, the most we can hope is that the daughter of the household now considers herself too mature to stay with her parents and removes herself and her group of adolescent admirers from the area. That is, unfortunately, a fond hope.
Meanwhile there are exams and marking to fill up my time.
I always forget the technical name for unnecessary repetition which, just as regularly as I forget, it comes back to me just as I am looking it up. And, indeed it happened again: ‘tautology’ was the word for which I was looking and it came back to me when I saw the word ‘technology’ in a brief definition which suggested the word ‘redundancy’ as the one I needed.
Short of death, I think that examinations are the only times that the Spanish shut up! And even then candidates speak to ask questions of such fatuity that it takes the breath away!
So, another examination has been set and sat and is now waiting for my red pen to slash its way across the cramped print on plain paper which is the usual medium of choice in this place.
If our pupils write on anything with lines then it is the peculiar Continental squared paper which they seem to relish. It does nothing for their writing of course but it is something they are used to. We do have a dwindling supply of ‘proper’ lined paper, but the kids react to it like Vampires responding to Holy Water! Odd.
Following yesterday’s weather today’s continues the trend to bright but cold. As long as you are in the sun and out of any breeze it is very pleasant. But it is not summer. Not by a long chalk and I am looking forward to the arrival of the real season of sun and warmth with a definite hunger.
The bambooing of our establishment has been such a success that we are thinking of extending the process to the fence which separates the garden from the communal pool. I am not fully convinced by this idea, but anything which keeps the neighbours from impinging on our space seems like a good idea. We now have just over a month before the obnoxious family moves into its summer home and starts behaving if they live on a spacious detached estate. Ah well, the most we can hope is that the daughter of the household now considers herself too mature to stay with her parents and removes herself and her group of adolescent admirers from the area. That is, unfortunately, a fond hope.
Meanwhile there are exams and marking to fill up my time.
No comments:
Post a Comment