Who is he so dull of soul that hasn’t felt that at the end of the week that he needs (as Pooh would say) a little something.
And who has not realized as one balances a plastic cup full of wine on one’s knee that perhaps that point of equilibrium that has been so signally absent during one’s working day is now fully restored!
This has been a good week to look back on; it has been a bad week to work through. The frenzy of marking reached a climax during the last period of the morning (which was well into the afternoon, but that is our school for you) when I marked as if my life depended on it. Which, let’s face it, it doesn’t. Everyone looks stressed because there is much more marking to do and a limited time in which to do it.
In spite of all by bleating, I did finish all the marking I had to do in good time with the aid of a little space given to me by my colleagues who were baby-sitting a group of our first years who were watching “Finding Nemo” which was the key stimulus for a whole unit of work on biodiversity.
I have now finished all the marking that I have had to do and a soul destroying experience it was too. I lost the will to live on seven separate occasions during the expenditure of red ink this time round. Thank god this is the last time this year. We are now counting the days to our eventual release!
THz Monday sees us labouring under the duress of incarceration in yet another of our interminable and incomprehensible meetings when, as far as I can see, nothing of any moment is decided, but everybody has a chance to talk as much as they like about things over which they have no control. But at least they have the chance to make my life just a little less enjoyable as I listen to acres of screed in Catalan about the hard lives of over privileged kids!
But perhaps I am a little too harsh, my attitude reflecting the late stage of the term and the almost pathological tiredness and lack of motivation affecting all of us!
Meanwhile the weekend beckons and who am I to be insensible to its blandishments!
My new camera continues to please; though the exploration of its full potential will have to wait for me to print out the encyclopaedic details of how to use the damn thing! The pictures that I have taken so far scratch the surface of what this machine is capable.
Many of the last session of my photographs were taken from my seat on the Third Floor while sipping a very pleasant Rioja.
The view from the Third Floor includes a view of part of the sea. We are not far from the Med and our view is circumscribed by the pine trees which grow in the area. Our view is a section of the sea which is shaped like a reversed map of Catalonia and what little we can see of the sea is now threatened by the new growth of the trees. I think by the end of the growing season we will only hear the sea and not be able to look at it!
All I ask is that the sun is a more constant companion than it has been during the lead up to the summer.
Meanwhile the problem of Toni’s name day is becoming ever more pressing.
Always something to worry about!
And who has not realized as one balances a plastic cup full of wine on one’s knee that perhaps that point of equilibrium that has been so signally absent during one’s working day is now fully restored!
This has been a good week to look back on; it has been a bad week to work through. The frenzy of marking reached a climax during the last period of the morning (which was well into the afternoon, but that is our school for you) when I marked as if my life depended on it. Which, let’s face it, it doesn’t. Everyone looks stressed because there is much more marking to do and a limited time in which to do it.
In spite of all by bleating, I did finish all the marking I had to do in good time with the aid of a little space given to me by my colleagues who were baby-sitting a group of our first years who were watching “Finding Nemo” which was the key stimulus for a whole unit of work on biodiversity.
I have now finished all the marking that I have had to do and a soul destroying experience it was too. I lost the will to live on seven separate occasions during the expenditure of red ink this time round. Thank god this is the last time this year. We are now counting the days to our eventual release!
THz Monday sees us labouring under the duress of incarceration in yet another of our interminable and incomprehensible meetings when, as far as I can see, nothing of any moment is decided, but everybody has a chance to talk as much as they like about things over which they have no control. But at least they have the chance to make my life just a little less enjoyable as I listen to acres of screed in Catalan about the hard lives of over privileged kids!
But perhaps I am a little too harsh, my attitude reflecting the late stage of the term and the almost pathological tiredness and lack of motivation affecting all of us!
Meanwhile the weekend beckons and who am I to be insensible to its blandishments!
My new camera continues to please; though the exploration of its full potential will have to wait for me to print out the encyclopaedic details of how to use the damn thing! The pictures that I have taken so far scratch the surface of what this machine is capable.
Many of the last session of my photographs were taken from my seat on the Third Floor while sipping a very pleasant Rioja.
The view from the Third Floor includes a view of part of the sea. We are not far from the Med and our view is circumscribed by the pine trees which grow in the area. Our view is a section of the sea which is shaped like a reversed map of Catalonia and what little we can see of the sea is now threatened by the new growth of the trees. I think by the end of the growing season we will only hear the sea and not be able to look at it!
All I ask is that the sun is a more constant companion than it has been during the lead up to the summer.
Meanwhile the problem of Toni’s name day is becoming ever more pressing.
Always something to worry about!
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