Another day

To celebrate only 42 working days with the kids left in this academic year our Head of Department was immediately absent!  Immediate chaos: not because we cannot operate without our Beloved Leader, but rather because there was no suggestion that any substitutions (let alone a supply teacher) would be used to cover her classes.  We are working so near the limits than any absence is a potential catastrophe!

I have six classes (6!) tomorrow so I would heartily recommend any member of management to keep well clear of the space that I have in my overlong timetable if they are think of utilizing me to fill any lessons.

As it turned out I did not do any more lessons than my allocated number but classes were collapsed and everybody was tense.  Perhaps this is a sign of how things are going to be in the future with everything kept to a minimum and the school constantly hovering on collapse.

At the moment we are living in a state of expectation while we wait to discover how the school is going to cope with our reduction in wages.  Since our colleague has been sacked there is an air of resignation about what is to come.  As a fellow member of the English Department said this morning, “They can just sack us whenever they want to, can’t they?” 

I felt like replying that of course they could and oh, by the way, what exactly did you do in the General Strike.  It is truly depressing to see what has to happen to intelligent people before they realise that they are in the firing line and perhaps ought to do something about it.

Steve from the Union has sent me an email and asked for a chat.  It will be good to hear what progress, if any has been made towards a more reasonable settlement with the present government.  Or at least to talk about what might happen in the future.

I have given up with the waterproof earphones and pink mp3 player as I found it impossible to swim more than a length before I had to readjust the damn things.  Today I swam with ordinary earplugs and had a proper swim.

I also called into my “new” swimming pool but the woman at the desk said that it was not yet open, in other words the administration to certify the place is not yet in place and to my asking how long it would be before this happened she did not give a specific answer. 

Ah, Spain!