Today has been something of a contrast after the glorious day of sun we had yesterday. The lowering clouds eventually gave way to rain just before the barbecue was due to be lit for lunch.
It was however warm enough to sit outside and the space under the house was also perfect to house the barbecue - after it had been placed down wind.
The usual overkill, which seems to be the norm where The Family is concerned with barbecues, ensured that there was a container full of uneaten meat which will be shamefully thrown away because we can’t be bothered to make something of it later.
But wait, my latest purchase from Amazon might be the answer.
I have begun to fear the innocuous emails I get from Amazon. I know that their system logs what one has browsed, hence the frighteningly apposite tasters that one gets from that company, but they are often just as bizarrely left-field with some of their suggestions which are supposed to interest you. Last week, however, one of their suggestions was exactly what I had been thinking about, though I am sure that I had not been near anything which could have given Amazon sufficient information to double guess my needs.
So it was with something approaching genuine fear that Amazon suggested that I might like to purchase a mini blender! Which of course I promptly did using that personification of evil in our times: one-click ordering.
In a forgotten drawer in the kitchen there lies a quantity of small metallic capsules which were bought in the first enthusiasm of finding something less expensive for the coffee machine. These are do-it-yourself coffee machine capsules which I thought could be adapted to produce the ideal cup of real tea. My idea was to purchase a quantity of Earl Gray leaf tea and some decent Indian leaf tea and then put them both in a small blender until a suitable powder had been produced and then spoon the result into a number of capsules and, hey presto! a unique blend instantly produced.
I have yet to test whether this actually works because my first trials some time ago were an unqualified failure. I cut open a PG Tips tea bag and placed that inside a capsule and made a cup of tea. Perhaps “cup of tea” was something of an exaggeration for the insipid liquid that I forced myself to drink. But I reasoned that with better quality teas, expertly blended for subtlety and aroma, pulverised to within an inch of their lives and packed (positively packed and tamped down) into a capsule I would be within reach of the Nirvana of a civilized cup of tea produced almost instantly.
And before anyone says that the same results can be obtained by using a tea infuser or by using two tea bags and dipping them for the requisite number of seconds each – then all I can say is that they are wrong and they can’t and they won’t. So there.
I realise that the one great drawback to my scheme is that the coffee machines do not deal in real boiling water: almost is not enough. But I have faith and I will reveal to the world the eventual success of my endeavours – or you will hear nothing more about it. But be suspicious if I am suddenly discovered to be producing a quality of soups or smoothies!
As is usual in this part of the world rain is not for ever. The sun, albeit a little shyly, has condescended to lighten the surroundings and there is a gentle haze of light purple which is what you get when the sky blends seamlessly into the sea. But the rain has stopped.
I think that my participation in this barbecue was a little optimistic as I decided that “tummy trouble” was a thing of yesterday and today could be given over to culinary ordinariness. I think that I have over-estimated by tummy’s resilience and I had a little nap so that my body could sort things out amongst itself.
It is now late afternoon and the adjustments (for which my body is justly famous) have been made and I am back to normal – though I think that I might stick to the second bottle of Vichy water that I bought yesterday to make sure that things are finally right.
Next week takes us deeper into June and therefore nearer to the end of term. We have decided that we can now count in days rather than weeks to that glorious event and during the last week we will be able to measure things in hours.
Examinations are about to begin (again) and then the timetable gradually disintegrates until the kids leave. We then have a week in which we are supposed to do as much as we can to prepare ourselves for the next academic year.
There is something to be said for having a school which is divided up into buildings. There are two buildings which I use for the junior secondary pupils and the upper school. Although there is a fairly large vertical distance between the two, it has the advantage of encouraging people to stay put where they are rather than moving easily between the two. This means that you can, if you so choose openly hide in one or other of the buildings. Unfortunately there are no hide spaces which are without a telephone, but I find the olde worlde wood panelled splendour of the original building of the school before its mushroom like expansion to be the more congenial to my needs. And there are fewer people.
My reading has been given a boost by my finding a cupboard with one shelf filled with single copies of books which Were Thought To Be Worth Buying To Try. I don’t think much came of that because the books are obviously unread, but I am making up for that and reading them fairly steadily. I then try and convince unsuspecting students to give them a try. I sometimes feel like a drugs pusher and I know it is only a matter of time before I whisper to some kid, “I’ve got some really good stuff: the latest Caroline Lawrence with real details of life in ancient Rome!”
Which I do have, having just finished reading “The Twelve Tasks of Flavia Gemina” by Caroline Lawrence another volume in The Roman Mysteries series. I have read a couple of the others and this one was well up to standard.
I find the setting, 79 AD Ostia, fascinating, but I am not sure about your average Spanish teenagers reading this in what will probably be their third language.
The story is gently interesting focusing on a young child who suspects that the woman who is close to her widowed father is a gold-digger. With the help of her friends and within the loose framework of the Labours of Hercules she finds out more than she bargains for. There is a sense of the didactic about this novel with Latin words and Classical allusions lovingly integrated into the story. There is even Aristo’s Scroll at the end which is a glossary written by the teacher character in the novel. If it is teaching then it is persuasive teaching and the story line is good enough to take it.
I’ve also read “Ark Angel” by Anthony Horowitz. This novel too is one of a series and, as I started to read it, I realized that I had read the next volume – but that did not interfere with my enjoyment of the novel.
Horowitz is a master story teller and an incredibly safe pair of hands in narrative terms. The novel is based around a fourteen year old, Alex Rider, who has managed to get himself involved with MI6, with the result that this novel opens with our young hero in hospital recovering from a bullet wound.
This is a Boy’s Own Paper story where, to all intents and purposes we have a young James Bond character (Horowitz didn’t get the chance of write the novels of James Bond’s youth, Charlie Higson did and very good they are too) engaged in hi-tec violence in a fast paced narrative which does not give you time to consider the essential unreality of it all. Indeed the unreality is the whole point: this is the modern remake of “and with a leap he was free” Saturday morning film series, except Horowitz always gives you enough information to make it at least barely believable. In this novel Alex rider does everything from space travel to tightrope walking between a burning tower block and freedom – but I’m sure you get the idea. This series is much to be recommended and in a native English speaking school I think it would make a good reader – as long as it wasn’t the only book that the kids were studying!
Tomorrow my first lesson with my new artistic pupil. I still don’t really know what to expect.
Roll on the morrow.
It was however warm enough to sit outside and the space under the house was also perfect to house the barbecue - after it had been placed down wind.
The usual overkill, which seems to be the norm where The Family is concerned with barbecues, ensured that there was a container full of uneaten meat which will be shamefully thrown away because we can’t be bothered to make something of it later.
But wait, my latest purchase from Amazon might be the answer.
I have begun to fear the innocuous emails I get from Amazon. I know that their system logs what one has browsed, hence the frighteningly apposite tasters that one gets from that company, but they are often just as bizarrely left-field with some of their suggestions which are supposed to interest you. Last week, however, one of their suggestions was exactly what I had been thinking about, though I am sure that I had not been near anything which could have given Amazon sufficient information to double guess my needs.
So it was with something approaching genuine fear that Amazon suggested that I might like to purchase a mini blender! Which of course I promptly did using that personification of evil in our times: one-click ordering.
In a forgotten drawer in the kitchen there lies a quantity of small metallic capsules which were bought in the first enthusiasm of finding something less expensive for the coffee machine. These are do-it-yourself coffee machine capsules which I thought could be adapted to produce the ideal cup of real tea. My idea was to purchase a quantity of Earl Gray leaf tea and some decent Indian leaf tea and then put them both in a small blender until a suitable powder had been produced and then spoon the result into a number of capsules and, hey presto! a unique blend instantly produced.
I have yet to test whether this actually works because my first trials some time ago were an unqualified failure. I cut open a PG Tips tea bag and placed that inside a capsule and made a cup of tea. Perhaps “cup of tea” was something of an exaggeration for the insipid liquid that I forced myself to drink. But I reasoned that with better quality teas, expertly blended for subtlety and aroma, pulverised to within an inch of their lives and packed (positively packed and tamped down) into a capsule I would be within reach of the Nirvana of a civilized cup of tea produced almost instantly.
And before anyone says that the same results can be obtained by using a tea infuser or by using two tea bags and dipping them for the requisite number of seconds each – then all I can say is that they are wrong and they can’t and they won’t. So there.
I realise that the one great drawback to my scheme is that the coffee machines do not deal in real boiling water: almost is not enough. But I have faith and I will reveal to the world the eventual success of my endeavours – or you will hear nothing more about it. But be suspicious if I am suddenly discovered to be producing a quality of soups or smoothies!
As is usual in this part of the world rain is not for ever. The sun, albeit a little shyly, has condescended to lighten the surroundings and there is a gentle haze of light purple which is what you get when the sky blends seamlessly into the sea. But the rain has stopped.
I think that my participation in this barbecue was a little optimistic as I decided that “tummy trouble” was a thing of yesterday and today could be given over to culinary ordinariness. I think that I have over-estimated by tummy’s resilience and I had a little nap so that my body could sort things out amongst itself.
It is now late afternoon and the adjustments (for which my body is justly famous) have been made and I am back to normal – though I think that I might stick to the second bottle of Vichy water that I bought yesterday to make sure that things are finally right.
Next week takes us deeper into June and therefore nearer to the end of term. We have decided that we can now count in days rather than weeks to that glorious event and during the last week we will be able to measure things in hours.
Examinations are about to begin (again) and then the timetable gradually disintegrates until the kids leave. We then have a week in which we are supposed to do as much as we can to prepare ourselves for the next academic year.
There is something to be said for having a school which is divided up into buildings. There are two buildings which I use for the junior secondary pupils and the upper school. Although there is a fairly large vertical distance between the two, it has the advantage of encouraging people to stay put where they are rather than moving easily between the two. This means that you can, if you so choose openly hide in one or other of the buildings. Unfortunately there are no hide spaces which are without a telephone, but I find the olde worlde wood panelled splendour of the original building of the school before its mushroom like expansion to be the more congenial to my needs. And there are fewer people.
My reading has been given a boost by my finding a cupboard with one shelf filled with single copies of books which Were Thought To Be Worth Buying To Try. I don’t think much came of that because the books are obviously unread, but I am making up for that and reading them fairly steadily. I then try and convince unsuspecting students to give them a try. I sometimes feel like a drugs pusher and I know it is only a matter of time before I whisper to some kid, “I’ve got some really good stuff: the latest Caroline Lawrence with real details of life in ancient Rome!”
Which I do have, having just finished reading “The Twelve Tasks of Flavia Gemina” by Caroline Lawrence another volume in The Roman Mysteries series. I have read a couple of the others and this one was well up to standard.
I find the setting, 79 AD Ostia, fascinating, but I am not sure about your average Spanish teenagers reading this in what will probably be their third language.
The story is gently interesting focusing on a young child who suspects that the woman who is close to her widowed father is a gold-digger. With the help of her friends and within the loose framework of the Labours of Hercules she finds out more than she bargains for. There is a sense of the didactic about this novel with Latin words and Classical allusions lovingly integrated into the story. There is even Aristo’s Scroll at the end which is a glossary written by the teacher character in the novel. If it is teaching then it is persuasive teaching and the story line is good enough to take it.
I’ve also read “Ark Angel” by Anthony Horowitz. This novel too is one of a series and, as I started to read it, I realized that I had read the next volume – but that did not interfere with my enjoyment of the novel.
Horowitz is a master story teller and an incredibly safe pair of hands in narrative terms. The novel is based around a fourteen year old, Alex Rider, who has managed to get himself involved with MI6, with the result that this novel opens with our young hero in hospital recovering from a bullet wound.
This is a Boy’s Own Paper story where, to all intents and purposes we have a young James Bond character (Horowitz didn’t get the chance of write the novels of James Bond’s youth, Charlie Higson did and very good they are too) engaged in hi-tec violence in a fast paced narrative which does not give you time to consider the essential unreality of it all. Indeed the unreality is the whole point: this is the modern remake of “and with a leap he was free” Saturday morning film series, except Horowitz always gives you enough information to make it at least barely believable. In this novel Alex rider does everything from space travel to tightrope walking between a burning tower block and freedom – but I’m sure you get the idea. This series is much to be recommended and in a native English speaking school I think it would make a good reader – as long as it wasn’t the only book that the kids were studying!
Tomorrow my first lesson with my new artistic pupil. I still don’t really know what to expect.
Roll on the morrow.
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