Let the scoffers eat their scoff and the sneerers reform their features into something more fetching. I have used the mini-mixer to make something!
The something was a “soup.” I have placed inverted commas around it because the consistency was only liquid in the way that lava is liquid. It also managed to retain its heat in much the same way too. When poured into a dish there was nothing resembling a meniscus on my soup, no, to continue the volcanic theme it looked more like the Pahoehoe lava flow of Hawaii – though possibly a little more tasty.
I was very impressed with the efficiency with which the mixer, well, mixed. I am therefore preparing myself to start Project Unique Tea in which I will formulate a drinkable tea equivalent of the coffee capsule utilizing the mini mixer.
I realize that the Perfect Tea Capsule might be as illusory as the Philosopher’s Stone but in one way at least the coffee capsule has achieved the principle of the Alchemist’s dream by giving customers much less and charging them much more for what they haven’t been given. If that is not making gold out of base materials I don’t know what is!
I have started to read a novel by Pullman with which I am not familiar, but I fear that it’s completion is going to be delayed for some time because of the avalanche of examination scripts which is about to bury me in boredom.
Because of the seemingly arbitrary and sudden deadlines which we set ourselves the marking will quickly descend into ill controlled panic and frenzy. I have reasoned that this completely unnecessary misery is inflicted to make the end of term sweeter. At least I hope there is some reason behind it rather than simply SNAFU!
The first “private” lesson has come and gone after a hair raisingly (or scalp crawlingly) horrific drive into the centre of Barcelona to the meeting place. The GPS was fine until the final adjustments almost at the destination when everything went pear-shaped and I had to navigate the last bit more by instinct than by geo-stationary satellite!
My pupil’s knowledge of English is much more sketchy than I was lead to believe but that need not necessarily make the lessons any the less enjoyable. He has practical knowledge of a whole range of arts so there should always be something for us to talk about.
Catalonia has always been a place full of new experiences for me. Today sees another one. The unions have called a general strike in the public sector for all those paid by the Generalitat. This usually means civil servants, but in this country there are whole areas of public life which have public servants – including the teachers. You may think that this is similar to Britain but the teachers in Spain who are civil servants and are paid for by the government have very different conditions of service to those in other areas and are better paid.
Our school is in the anomalous position of being a foundation and a private school funded partially by the government. Rather like the most exclusive and expensive private schools in Britain which also, grotesquely, are classed as charities! Our school will be subject to reductions but the extent of the reductions is limited by the different proportions of the salary which each individual teacher is paid by the government.
Union membership in our school is subtle: it’s like being in the Masons but without the handshakes and the power and influence! Although I have been told that there are other union members in my school I still do not know of anyone else who is actually a self-confessed member.
Although my name may suggest otherwise, I am no willing martyr and I know that any action I take will be easily covered and my future employment may well be compromised. The end result is that I drove resentfully along clearer roads than usual to a school that probably should be closed today.
It is ironic that the parents of some of our pupils are the movers and shakers of the commercial world of this area are certainly the people who had more to do with creating the crisis than the teachers who try and educate their children. And they remain unaffected by the action. As usual. Just as their salaries are unlikely to be cut by 5%! Still, I would surely be jejune if I was looking for justice. Or perhaps that is not strictly true, one should always look for justice; it is jejune to expect it!
Enough cynicism!
The reality of marking will soon bring its own meaning to life!
The something was a “soup.” I have placed inverted commas around it because the consistency was only liquid in the way that lava is liquid. It also managed to retain its heat in much the same way too. When poured into a dish there was nothing resembling a meniscus on my soup, no, to continue the volcanic theme it looked more like the Pahoehoe lava flow of Hawaii – though possibly a little more tasty.
I was very impressed with the efficiency with which the mixer, well, mixed. I am therefore preparing myself to start Project Unique Tea in which I will formulate a drinkable tea equivalent of the coffee capsule utilizing the mini mixer.
I realize that the Perfect Tea Capsule might be as illusory as the Philosopher’s Stone but in one way at least the coffee capsule has achieved the principle of the Alchemist’s dream by giving customers much less and charging them much more for what they haven’t been given. If that is not making gold out of base materials I don’t know what is!
I have started to read a novel by Pullman with which I am not familiar, but I fear that it’s completion is going to be delayed for some time because of the avalanche of examination scripts which is about to bury me in boredom.
Because of the seemingly arbitrary and sudden deadlines which we set ourselves the marking will quickly descend into ill controlled panic and frenzy. I have reasoned that this completely unnecessary misery is inflicted to make the end of term sweeter. At least I hope there is some reason behind it rather than simply SNAFU!
The first “private” lesson has come and gone after a hair raisingly (or scalp crawlingly) horrific drive into the centre of Barcelona to the meeting place. The GPS was fine until the final adjustments almost at the destination when everything went pear-shaped and I had to navigate the last bit more by instinct than by geo-stationary satellite!
My pupil’s knowledge of English is much more sketchy than I was lead to believe but that need not necessarily make the lessons any the less enjoyable. He has practical knowledge of a whole range of arts so there should always be something for us to talk about.
Catalonia has always been a place full of new experiences for me. Today sees another one. The unions have called a general strike in the public sector for all those paid by the Generalitat. This usually means civil servants, but in this country there are whole areas of public life which have public servants – including the teachers. You may think that this is similar to Britain but the teachers in Spain who are civil servants and are paid for by the government have very different conditions of service to those in other areas and are better paid.
Our school is in the anomalous position of being a foundation and a private school funded partially by the government. Rather like the most exclusive and expensive private schools in Britain which also, grotesquely, are classed as charities! Our school will be subject to reductions but the extent of the reductions is limited by the different proportions of the salary which each individual teacher is paid by the government.
Union membership in our school is subtle: it’s like being in the Masons but without the handshakes and the power and influence! Although I have been told that there are other union members in my school I still do not know of anyone else who is actually a self-confessed member.
Although my name may suggest otherwise, I am no willing martyr and I know that any action I take will be easily covered and my future employment may well be compromised. The end result is that I drove resentfully along clearer roads than usual to a school that probably should be closed today.
It is ironic that the parents of some of our pupils are the movers and shakers of the commercial world of this area are certainly the people who had more to do with creating the crisis than the teachers who try and educate their children. And they remain unaffected by the action. As usual. Just as their salaries are unlikely to be cut by 5%! Still, I would surely be jejune if I was looking for justice. Or perhaps that is not strictly true, one should always look for justice; it is jejune to expect it!
Enough cynicism!
The reality of marking will soon bring its own meaning to life!
No comments:
Post a Comment