Positive out of negation

My anger over the Saturday pointless meeting ignited spontaneously as soon as I set foot inside the staffroom this morning, more from the quiescence of my colleagues than the absurd imposition of the meeting on such a day in the first place.

The ethos of this place, such as it is, seems to invite total acceptance of one’s lot, with not even the token grumbling which is a healthy sign that members of staff have at least some resistance to the dictates of management.

The meetings qua meetings are bad enough, but when these impositions take up a healthy chunk of a sacrosanct weekend they are truly intolerable.  Except we will tolerate them and I, at least, will feel ashamed that I am knuckling under to what seems to be a malicious gesture of professional contempt.

Right.  That’s it.  I am going to spend the rest of the day moaning and then I am going to shut up.  As indeed I will on the Saturday when a stony faced silence is all that management can expect from me!

I suppose that I should have expected it after the cloudy and dull afternoon that we had yesterday, but this morning dawned bright and sunny with flawlessly blue skies.  So I am sitting typing this with my back to the view with the sunshine streaming around me but, apart from the heat on my back, I can ignore the bright invitation to leave the glumness of the school and return to the spaciousness of Castelldefels and the endless beach and the sea.

It is now that I need to think about the day totals that we have to work until various key holidays and we are even getting to the stage when it is allowable to work out the exact number of days to the end of the school year.  Again.

Today or tomorrow we should hear from Brian about his arrival in Castelldefels and we will have to work out which of the many restaurants in our town is the most suitable for our celebration.  I am tempted to return to El Elefant because that one allows for spicy (which I know he likes) and traditional-ish Spanish which will cover everyone else!

As his visit may cover a few days we will have to have a range of restaurants ready to cater to a variety of tastes!  What fun!

Well, Brian arrived and we started in the Basque restaurant and laced our conversation with Basque wine and an excellent selection of pinchos.  A delightful evening when we were able to catch up on a whole range of news.  We look forward to the next episode on Wednesday when we will go out for another meal!

Today has been remarkable for the fact that, due to an unexpected free I was able to get down to some creative work and do something that I actually enjoyed.  I managed to squeeze in some stimulating work in the middle of my marking which I was able to delay while I waited for confirmation of my mark for a piece of work which would then provide the clear indicator for the level of the other pieces of written work that I have to mark.  This is not an overwhelming amount of work to get through, but I don’t think it is going to be completed tomorrow when I have six periods to teach and therefore a limited amount of free time!  To put it mildly!

Chocolate Week (incorporating cakes) continues apace with two teachers contributing delights today.  A home made sausage like construction with nuts, biscuit and a delicious amount of chocolate was a huge success and a more delicate cake direct from France was equally appreciated.  And I hope that we can look forward to more!

Now to get some rest so that I can get through a hard day.