Little to big!

Unless I am kidding myself, and that is more than possible, I think that at long last the mornings are getting a little lighter.  This makes the obscenity of getting up at half past six at night (I refuse to say morning) a little more bearable.

One of the worst things about dark mornings was opening the gate.  I have rationalised my keys into two bunches: the larger bunch comprises my home keys and the more metallic and clinky bunch signifies school. 

From the mass of home keys I have to select one of the smallest keys to open the lock of the gate.  In the darkness it was always a problem finding the tiny opener.  What made it worse was the fact that I had a key-ring light to make things easier – and it didn’t help.  But the fact that it should have helped made the fumbling for the right key all the more frustrating.

It has taken me the best part of a year to work out a solution.  The M&S trolley coin (which I bought in aid of something or other) came with its own little line and chain to link it to your key fob.  I have now dispensed with the “coin” - which didn’t even work in the UK – and put the two house keys on that.  The end result is that if I hold the car key electronic opener, the house keys fall below the rest of the keys and are easy to find, even in the dark.

Why is it that we put up with irritation when it can be solved so easily?  Well, I have tried to work this out and it is, in my view, the fortuitous concourse of minor inconveniences that preclude immediate action. 

For example, my key fob has a central ring that is very difficult to open to get the keys out to place them elsewhere.  To do it effectively you need something like a screwdriver.  And the keys are always somewhere else when you feel the need to do something about it. 

Yes, I know, it is hardly asking a lot to get up from the chair and find the coat which contains the keys, but somehow one just doesn’t do it and then one forgets about it, until one is reminded by using the keys again.  But when you are reminded about it, you are already off to the car to go somewhere and the work remains undone.  Prevarication is always an immediate comfort, whereas action seems too much of an effort!

The tiny job is now done and the difference in stress levels as the keys virtually fall into place each time I need them makes one question what other tiny interventions could have a further disproportionate positive effect!  But indolent indifference will preclude my discovering just what I can change!

We are working our way towards the centre of the dark realm of Serious Examinations and (yet again) we have decided to change the “platform” that we use to put the Sacred Results in an electronic form.  Meetings are threatened in the near future to explain this new system and then meetings about the results and then meetings about . . .  and so on.  I intend to be unobtrusive to the point of absence for all of them.  It just depends if I am allowed to emulate the character in The Hunting of the Snark!

The retirement of The Painted Whore of the Seven Hills (if I may be permitted to quote one of the more outspoken Protestant critics of the dictatorial reign of a past jumped-up Bishop of Rome) could be lauded if it represented the head of that corrupted and corrupting religion finally taking responsibility for the multitude of disgraceful scandals which have blighted his leadership. 

But no, like the most blatant of bankers there is no word of apology for his destructively intolerant “ideology”, his illiberal attitude and his mendacious cover-up of illegal activities. 

He shouldn’t have been allowed to retire – he should have been sacked!

Although compared with some of his illustrious predecessors he is as a lamb!

Chocolate Week continues with a few bumps along the way with one horrendous day when the Chocolate Box in Building 4 had to be opened to the public to forestall armed rebellion when the chocolate offering of the day did not appear!  Insurrection was thus frustrated.  Today there is a delay as the chosen teacher for the provision of chocolate is doing something of less importance in another school.  I am assured however that the chocolate will appear at a later point in the day – though by then I will be in another building and not able to partake of the goodies! 

But no, just as I typed that, who should appear but the teacher in question, bearing gifts of milk and white chocolate chip cookies.  Life is good again!  Thank god for teachers who have their priorities right and ensure that their colleagues are fully chocolated before they go and do their duty elsewhere!

In spite of the fact that my iPhone’s connected to my . . .  iPad and my iPad’s connected to my . . .  iMac and my iMac’s connected to me – I still manage to miss messages.  I have so many platforms to jump into communications that my electronic life is like an over-fussy Olympic diving board array and messages still pass me by.  In my own defence I feel that some messages prefer individual platforms and not all my messages go everywhere.  I am sure that is not true but it is a way of saving face when furious people ask me why I have bothered to fully-Mac myself if it does not lead to a greater sense of connectedness.

Of course, I would maintain, in the best Satchmo traditions, that anyone who asks a question like that would not understand the answer!

Tomorrow lunch with Irene and a session of moaning, groaning and putting the world to rights, with a side dish of financial discussion.  

Who are we kidding!