Friday, June 06, 2008

Not funny

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Two journeys to the Correos, one abortive, just to find out that what was waiting for me there was an official notification that my contract...
Thursday, June 05, 2008

There are simpler ways . . .

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“Did I see your photograph in the newspaper?” asked the gardener as I put my case in the back of the vehicle in the underground car park. I ...
Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Heel clicking time?

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The picture of me resplendent in academic gown, bushy white beard and witches hat waving a paint brush as a wand will have to live in your i...
Tuesday, June 03, 2008

It can only get better!

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An ‘Open Morning’ means that parents – usually kept safely outside the school gates – are allowed, nay, encouraged to break the boundaries ...
Monday, June 02, 2008

Dark morning, afternoon and early evening of the soul!

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Today has not been good. It started badly and got steadily worse until it climaxed in one of the worst meetings I have attended. And then, j...
Sunday, June 01, 2008

A long night's night!

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Sometime the world of the badly drawn comic seems much closer to the real world than is comfortable in an ordered existence. Yesterday, whe...
Thursday, May 29, 2008

A cynical moment?

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Displacement activity is as mother’s milk to me. Especially when there is marking to be done. As far as I can tell the actual, physical plac...
Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Time for reflection?

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My English class show how examinations used to be. All around me they are working quietly with only the soft slide of pencil on paper and th...
Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Tempus fugit!

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Our bus stop has gone! Toni went to catch the bus this morning and – nothing! The whole bus stop had gone: shelter, post, sign, people – eve...
Monday, May 26, 2008

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In the slightly eerie gloom of my blind shrouded room I am sitting at my desk, surrounded by empty desks as my class is taught music. I am g...
Sunday, May 25, 2008

We Wuz Robbed! Again! Again!

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This year I was determined not to lose my temper while watching the voting for the Eurovision Song Contest. I failed. And the day had starte...
Saturday, May 24, 2008

What was that again?

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I have read some of the western world’s greatest literature in English. My reading from the Middle and Far East has been more restricted rel...
Friday, May 23, 2008

Changing Times

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When you live by the sea you become wise in the ways of knowing the seasons. We pick up those small details which ‘inlanders’ (as we call th...
Thursday, May 22, 2008

The singing comes later

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Had I any shreds of self respect left they would have been stripped away yesterday in Barcelona. Arriving fairly early as I left for the ope...
Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Sisyphus had it easy!

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The story of the dishwasher now officially qualifies as an Epic. The fault, which I now understand is a common one after talking extensively...
Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The meeting of minds

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Situations never stay the same! A planned meeting changed time, personnel and participants. The group going to The Owner for ‘clarification’...
Monday, May 19, 2008

A little light reading

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Horror in Burma; disaster in China; financial crash looming and rain in Catalonia. What was my response on a Sunday morning when it was dry ...
Saturday, May 17, 2008

It's only a game!

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What are the chances of someone from Cardiff and someone from Portsmouth being in the same place on the morning of the final of the FA Cup i...
Friday, May 16, 2008

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‘Plug in and play.’ A simple enough phrase usually marking the start of a whole traumatic episode of self loathing and total frustration as ...
Thursday, May 15, 2008

Gainful employment

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“What are we going to do with you?” Not the most encouraging opening by The Owner when starting an interview about your future in the school...