25 April 2012
A strange feeling.  My mum passed away last night and I'm feeling very sad and very tired today.  She's been ill for a couple of months, firstly with double pneumonia which left her very weak but then she gradually became weaker until finally last night.  I've given colleagues my schemes of work for my classes and told my boss a few things that he needs to do (actually that's not meant to sound rude) and said that I don't know when I'll be back.

Studying all done!

It's months since I posted and I guess lots has happened, but today I thought I'd write up that I finally posted the last assignment for my MA.  I can't quite believe it's over - I started in May 2007 and was hard at it for nearly 18 months, then we moved and I just couldn't get back into it for almost 2 years.  So for the last 18 months it's been nose to the grindstone - 3 hours at least 5 times a week.  My poor brain.

Last week was  a particularly bad week for brain.  I think I may have been having several conversations at the same time and when talking to a colleague at school I explained that instead of putting paper in the photocopier, I had apparently put 'fabric in the washing machine'. She looked surprised and laughed and  I just shook my head wearily.

Anyway today I came home and felt slightly lost.  I've got loads of things to do - tidying up the rooms where my books, files, articles, general reading/writing stuff have been strewn - but nothing i HAVE to do.

What a good feeling.

Friday 8 July

It was my appointment (again) at the gym this morning.  I turned up and met the owner of the place.  He took me through my 'baseline assessment' which just turned out to be height, weight, BMI and stretch.  Not rocket science.   I'm still not sure why it couldn't have been done a week ago and asked him.  He didn't know either but assured me that as a client, I was very important to them.  I did a circuit of the equipment and left.  I've signed up for 6 weeks so I suppose I should make use of it.

I recorded last night's 'Question Time' and the big news, of course, is the 'News of the World'.  Based on what I saw, I'd vote for Hugh Grant at the next election.  He was honest, fluent and made sense.  As did Shirley Williams.  I remember years ago at an embassy abroad where I was working, she was Minister for Overseas Development and on a visit she was very demanding, so since then I've been a bit negative about her.  However, she also made sense.  The conservative and labour party reps were each blaming the other for mistakes, and completely missing the point that this is an occasion where principles count, not trying to score points.  The whole business is depressing: it's brought in whole areas of society, not just celebrities and politicians, but also the police and people whose only reason to be in the spotlight was being related to someone who'd died in violent circumstances.

Thursday 7 July

I was met by one of my students screaming at me that there was only one pen for the interactive whiteboard and they'd practised with two pens.  Stress, poor thing.  Then there was a problem with the camera.  I stayed well away from that - one look from me and machines stop working.  Their presentations are done in pairs and have to be filmed so that the moderating panel can check on the marks that I give them, so we couldn't start until the camera was up and running.   Their names were pulled out of a hat to give the running order and then we were off.  Including the Q&A session, each one lasted about 25 minutes, during which I had to make notes on language range and accuracy, content, body language, use of Powerpoint, use of voice, knowledge and effort.  Nearly 3 hours later they were ecstatic and left with big smiles.  I now have to write it all up.

Earlier it had all been a rush and I was slightly later than I'd wanted at school as it was pouring down with rain and my beloved was driving me but had misplaced his glasses.  We looked everywhere and in the end could only surmise that they'd come off when he'd gone to post a birthday card and had slipped over.  Sure enough, there they were on the pavement covered in grass and leaves.  A lucky find - they're special glasses which are expensive and time-consuming to replace.

Wednesday 6 July

My Foundation group aren't ready for their presentations tomorrow.  They're a good group but the amount of work they're having to do is overwhelming.  They handed in their geography assignments today, so have been concentrating on that, rather than my assignment.  Most of their topics are natural disasters of some sort or another, so I hope that they're using their geography knowledge well.

Another blast from the past on Facebook.  A boy from school (well, a man now, I suppose) who I haven't seen since the age of 18 has befriended me.  It was good to see from his photos that he's as eccentric now as he was at school.  Or rather, he's grown naturally into his eccentricity.  He was the one in the 6th form photo who, when we were all casual sitting on the steps, wore a gas mask and twirled an umbrella.

Have spent some time trying to see how to edit the layout of the this blog.  I don't always manage to write on the same day, but give my own heading of the day I'm blogging about.  Unfortunately, the date that I'm writing on automatically comes up, giving 2 dates.  Need to explore some more to see how to change that.

Tuesday 5 July

We're bursting at the seams a school with over 600 students this week.  We're double shifting, with 5 minutes between classes and have also rented extra premises at adult education centres in Penge and Crystal Palace.

To add to the mix, we had 22 student teachers from British universities come for the whole day today for teacher training before they fly out to China on Friday.  It was my job to run them through principles and methodologies for teaching young learners and also show them the material they'd be using.  It was fun but hard work.  I had them singing 'Baa baa black sheep', using a screwed up piece of paper as a ball to throw to each other, sitting on the floor listening to me telling them a story, jumping up and saying numbers in sequence - all sorts of good educational stuff.   Some of their comments made me slightly uneasy though: one thought for the topic of 'celebration' that making a wedding card (colouring and cutting out clothes for the bride and groom to stick to a card) wasn't a right celebratory occasion and preferred a 'christmas' card.  I asked her to think about religion in China but she didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with her suggestion.

The allotment people emailed me to say that I'm now on the waiting list and gave the password to see the list online.  They reckon that 15 people get allotments each year - I'm No 77 so that means 5 years!  I should be ready by then.

Sunday 3 July

Our appointment with the beekeepers at the allotments was at 11.30am so we made sure we knew where were going and how to get there.  There was a very discreet entrance, in fact so discreet that you wouldn't know it was there, no sign just a single driveway between 2 houses.  The beekeepers were already smoking out bees, some with veils others wearing just shorts and T-shirts.  Unfortunately, it quickly become obvious to us that our garden isn't suitable.  It's a shame as it's such a fascinating hobby.

One of the beekeepers told us he had a winery at the allotments, 20 yards away, and offered to show it to us.  We tasted his red wine - amazingly good!  There are 7 vineyards on this allotment who have got together with 'premises' and equipment and have a great time doing it.  So we decided to wander around and spoke to a few allotment holders.  We were extremely impressed - there's a clubhouse, running water, electricity and you don't have to grow vegetables or flowers, you can use the ground as a leisure area which some people have done with tables, chairs, barbecues, ponds.   After talking to the manager, I've put my name down for an allotment!   I've always said that I'd like a dog and an allotment so with a 2-5 year waiting list, the timing might be about right.

Last year my beloved and I participated in the UK Biobank, undergoing a series of tests which took about 4 hours in total.  Today I received an email asking what I'd eaten yesterday, down to the last peanut (no, I didn't actually eat any peanuts but I did have an ice cream).  Apparently this information will improve the health of future generations.  

Thursday 30 June

Manners, or lack of them, seem to be in the news.  Sometimes, people may say things they don't mean because of badly-worded phrases but other times people are just plain rude.  Last week I joined a gym and today was my first induction appointment to have my 'baseline assessment' and be shown how to use the equipment but I ended up feeling offended.  

I arrived at 10.30am, the appointed time, and was greeted by the receptionist who talked to me last week.  He told the trainer that I was here for induction and she took me round the equipment for 15 minutes.  It was strange that the trainer didn't ask my name or tell me hers but she was pleasant enough.  Until the end, when she asked if I'd thought of joining.  I told her I had joined and this was my induction and baseline assessment.  She expressed huge surprise and told me that she couldn't do the baseline assessment and I needed to make an appointment.  Of course, I pointed out that I indeed had an appointment.  Her riposte was that she hadn't ever seen me before and didn't know who I was, so how was she to know that I had an appointment?  I was staggered.    Did she really mean that there was no reason to know who I was and why I was there?  I was made to feel that I was in the wrong but hang on a minute. I'd made an appointment for 10.30am.  I'd arrived on time at 10.30am and I was justified in asking why the appointment could not go ahead.  Why couldn't she do it?  There was no explanation, just that she couldn't do it now and I'd have to come back.  My gut reaction was to leave and take my custom elsewhere.  But what would that have achieved?  There isn't another gym.  I've made an appointment with her for a week's time but my goodwill is 'sorely tried'.  

Typing it up here, it seems even clearer to me that I was not in the wrong.  On reflection, if she'd been polite, apologised and even explained the reason, I would (probably) have been forgiving, but there was no apology, it was made clear that the important consideration was never me, I was the one who would need to be flexible.  

Have I over-reacted?  Moi?  Surely not!

Wednesday 29 June

It was strange coming home to an empty house today.  My beloved had gone to the funeral of an old colleague in Tunbridge Wells and wouldn't be back until about 7pm-ish.

I watched Wimbledon alone and saw my Roger beaten in 5 sets by Jo-Wilfried.  J-W Tsonga is a fantastic player when he's on the boil and it took him 2 sets to warm up and then it was bham-bham - Roger tried but ...  I also wanted Tomic to win against Djokovic - we saw him live last week and he's young and new but it wasn't to be.  Then Lopez v Murray. It's assumed that because he and I are both British that I will automatically support him in tennis, but Murray hasn't commanded that yet.  He's too whiney - I'm tired, my leg hurts and on and on.  Grow up and stop whingeing.  I got all three wrong, just as well I didn't put any money on them.  I didn't see the Nadal quarter final but that was predictable -  how could someone with a name like Mardy Fish do well?  It just sounds like an insult.

I got a call from my beloved to pick him up from the station.  The funeral had gone well: it was a non-religious civil ceremony with a professional celebrant who had conducted the proceedings with dignity and empathy.  It was a good farewell.

He wasn't very hungry so around 8pm-ish we just had beans on toast with a fried egg - comfort food.

Monday 27 June

A huge intake today of 90.  Our biggest room can only take 40 at a squeeze so new students were scattered around school being tested and inducted.  Temperatures soared but I managed to grab a fan which I kept on me for the whole morning - some of the students were barely dressed in extra short shorts and strappy tops so they looked pretty cool, but I'm 'properly' attired so need all the help I can get.  The timetable has changed (again) and I have lessons Monday afternoons now too.  These are the students I need to write reports on (due today but late, oh dear) but they're generally a pretty good group and remarks like 'needs to maintain his/her steady progress' are true - unfortunately it's so much easier to write reports on obviously 'bad' students.

Saturday's The Independent has an article on camping in people's back gardens.  The journalist walked around the so-called 'Capital Ring' around London, passing very close to us and then camped overnight in a back garden in Crystal Palace.  He wrote about the people he stayed with, the food he ate and the route but unfortunately didn't say anything about the equipment he carried.  How much did it weigh? What sort of tent? Airbed? etc.

I had a look at the website campinmygarden.com and they still only have a few people signed up around the country.  They give general advice to would-be landlords including

"Contacting your council is usually unwise: Council's are not generally interested, except when being paid, yet they will exclude liability for anything said even if in error and will in fact be looking to find fault and enforce against anything it might find on site, which may have no connection with the matter of your query e.g. argue some other feature is unlawful like an extension, outbuilding, decking or boundary feature."

I wonder how long it'll be before a local council takes exception to this?  The website's advertising for more back gardens for the the 2012 Olympics.  If we were stay in London next year ...  actually we probably won't do that!

Saturday 25 June

The to-do list on the back of the envelope in the kitchen is as long as my arm.  A combination of a late night followed by a bit of a lie-in and then watching tennis meant that somehow I managed to ignore it.   Report writing, cleaning and studying will have to wait until tomorrow.

Friday 24 June

Two of the boys are still undecided about the topic of their presentation.  One of them giggled and told me that the subject they wanted would be too controversial: Bin Laden.  I reassured them that if that was what they wanted, then it would be an excellent idea.  BUT, they needed to be sure what the focus was.  We don't want a description, just regurgitating wikipedia,  it needs to be an analysis and use a variety of sources.

We talked about body language and then each of them had to stand at the front and give an introduction with peer feedback.  Giving an opinion is difficult for most of them as their cultures don't encourage young'uns saying what they like.  I also gave the class a vocabulary test.  It was all vocab that's come up over the last 2 weeks but they didn't do too well so we ended up with them looking up the words on online dictionaries and comparing the definitions.  Online dictionaries are very useful as you can hear pronunciation as well.

Tonight was the quarterly reunion with old colleagues.  It's a good way to keep in touch and even before retirement we used to make sure we attended, particularly when we were on homeleave.  It's not unusual to meet up with someone you haven't seen for 20-30 years and people had flown in from all over the world.  It was particularly poignant as one of the regulars died last week and there were a number of eulogies before we toasted 'absent friends'.  A good evening.

Thursday 23 June

I have to admit that I don't like U2 and this blog in the Guardian today made me howl with laughter.  Apparently Bono's peahen has been causing a nuisance and is described as "a living, breathing Bono metaphor – squawking, preening, strutting around like it owns the place, and an irksome drain on civic resources funded by taxpayers other than itself".  I may see some of their performance at Glastonbury tomorrow (if the BBC are showing it) but probably only to confirm to myself that I find them boring,  pompous, etc.


Something that didn't make me howl with laughter was the parking ticket given for being 6 minutes over time.  I'd gone to check out a new gym that's just opened and expected to only be a few minutes while my beloved went to see if the kitchen shop had a replacement jug for our cafetiere.  Of course, the spiel in the gym went on and on, so I took much longer than expected and my beloved was waiting for me so, by this point, we went over the limit.  Damn and blast, there goes £60 or £30 if we pay quick.

Wednesday 22 June

Could barely drag myself out of bed this morning.  After two long days, I was feeling decidedly shattered.  Summer school has started, so the buildings are teeming with students.  Our long-termers need to be looked after very carefully now or they could end up feeling pushed around.

We're preparing for presentations but there were a few arguments about their topics.  I've put them in pairs and mixed up nationalities, so they have to speak English together, and also mixed them up so they're not working with friends.  They need to focus carefully and give a 10 minute academic presentation. Their initial ideas sound good, so the presentations should be interesting.  I distributed the letters to them from the earlier group giving advice which was appreciated.

Dinner tonight was different.  When I was a child, my mother used to make macaroni cheese but my beloved has always vehemently objected to the dish so I have never, ever made it and don't think I've eaten it for 30-odd years. Anyway, there was one of these 'easy, make it in 10 minutes' recipes so I decided to try it.  The recipe called for grated courgette but I only used half the quantity as the thought made my beloved grimace but I did add gruyere and cheddar.  Mmm.  Well, we ate it but I don't think I'll bother again.

Tuesday 21 June

Another early morning.  Mary arrived at 6.15 and wonderful dearly beloved drove us to the tram stop for our journey to Wimbledon.  I was optimistic and wore a short-sleeve cotton shirt with a cardigan (umbrella in bag) but she was wearing a fleece, padded jacket and woolly socks and boots!  The tram service is excellent, much faster than buses and way smoother than trains.

At Wimbledon we joined the queue, where they gave us a booklet on queuing (only in England!) and a queue ticket.  Security was very strict, just like catching a plane, with x-ray machines and security arches, and thorough bag search. After 4 hours in the queue, we finally got our tickets into the ground and almost wished we hadn't.   We tried to get onto any of the outside courts but the crush of people stopped us.  We're both reasonably tall, with sharp elbows but after 2 hours ended up on Henman Hill with a glass of pimms, watching the big screen,  and thinking that we could have stayed at home to see it on TV.  Feeling revived, we set off again and managed to get seats for 4 matches (Haase v Riba, Lu v Robredo, Tomic v Davydenko, Czink v Stosur).  This was the reason we were there: to see LIVE tennis.

The only time I've been to Wimbledon before was during the 80s and there were definitely fewer people then, which made the outer courts more accessible.  We ended up enjoying ourselves today but vowing to buy seats in the show courts next time.

Monday 20 June

I was at the station by 7.30am - my beloved drove me there, saving about 10 minutes - then I pushed through the marching morons at Victoria Station to catch the 8.20 bus to Oxford.  All the tutors spent the whole day in our subject groups and thrashed through the assessments and syllabus.  From what was said, it sounded as though we've had the most serious pastoral problems and this is something that really needs to be addressed.  Overall, it was worthwhile and only marred by the 'lunch' they gave us.  There was a tray of all white bread sandwiches, with dodgy fillings like sweetcorn and tuna, no salad in them, and some pale tasteless quiches.  My nightmare of a meal.  There was a moment of hope when they brought out a glass bottle of water which I mistook for gin, but that was wishful thinking.  Thankfully they had good coffee.

The wifi didn't work on board the bus on the return journey.  Shame, my laptop suddenly felt very heavy now that I couldn't use it.

Sunday 19 June

I slightly shocked by beloved by announcing that I wanted to go shopping today.  I've never particularly enjoyed window shopping and when I feel I need something new I prefer to go, look, buy, leave and not be sidetracked, ie if I want shoes, I don't want to be looking at coats.  I also narrow it down further by only shopping for 2 hours - this is the amount of time you can get free at Sainsbury's by spending at least £5.  This has the added attraction that Sainsbury's is the only place you can buy licorice tea and is also the only place that we buy doughnuts.  I announced that I wanted new tops for school - cotton, short sleeve.

Anyway, all that went out the window when I bought a new sleeping bag.  There's a camping shop that opened in the High Street about 4 months ago but they were having a closing down sale.  This year I've been particularly cold when camping so I now have a 3 season bag, good down to -10C, at 45% discount.  I also bought a top and a pair of sandals.

At home, I finally forced myself to finish off the exam marking.  All of them did better than in the mock, in fact one of them was 21% higher.  He failed the mock so it was obviously the kick he needed.  My beloved checked my adding up and I'm so glad he did: I'd given one student an extra 10%.

Early to bed as I'm off to Oxford tomorrow morning.  Tutors from the 3 schools are getting together - we  don't have an agenda so I'm not sure if it's just reflections or something more substantial.  Maybe they'll give us all a bonus, as my beloved suggested on Friday?  Fat chance.

Saturday 18 June

A friend from 20 years ago has tracked me down on Facebook.  We were good friends in Nigeria and spent lots of time together so it's good to catch up after losing touch for so long.  I know a number of people who are adamant that Facebook is evil and will steal your soul, but as far as I can tell, the person posting is in control of what they publish, so the advice has to be: 'don't post anything that could come back and haunt you'.  Personally, I like being contacted by old friends.

 It's Father's Day tomorrow and people are posting photos of their fathers.   My Dad died in 1978 so none of my photos are digital.  I wonder if I can manage to scan one?

A reply has come from the Advertising Standards Agency re Asia Pulp and Paper's advert calling large parts of Indonesia 'wasteland'.  This is a company that's been called 'one of the most destructive companies on the planet''  but unfortunately, they won't take any action against APP.

"While I appreciate your point, we have to consider how consumers in general are likely to interpret an ad.  In this case, while we note that there have been recent investigations into the business practices of APP, we consider that viewers are likely to interpret this ad as highlighting APP’s hopes and aspirations for their business rather than any direct claims relating to any culpability, or lack thereof, in creating these ‘wastelands’.  On this basis, we consider that the ad is unlikely to mislead consumers to their detriment, in breach of our Code, and will not be taking any further action on this occasion."

Friday 17 June

Need to mark exam, say goodbye to 2 groups and attend 'hello summer school' party.  The exam went well and all students seem to have done better than in the mock.  We had a lunch at Prezzo to say goodbye, which had one of the students in tears.  We gave her a certificate and Amazon book token for her 100% attendance, which is an amazing feat for 9 months of school.  She came in during the terrible snow, also when she had bad colds and generally felt homesick, so it was well-deserved.


For this evening's event we had to take a dish and a bottle, so my beloved made a peperonata salad - various sweet peppers, roasted with a dressing of olive oil, mustard and garlic with sultanas (yum).  The idea was to have a barbecue at school for all staff, including partners and children.  There's a really nice garden so the kids could run around but of course the weather's gone wintry with lashings of rain, so it was indoors and no grilled meats!  The turnout was not particularly good which was a shame, but at least the principal turned up and I heard my beloved telling him that I deserved a bonus.  


I'm getting interested in keeping bees.  No planning permission is required and they need to face either south-east, south or south-west on level ground.  We have a space under a tree at the end of the garden which could be ideal.  According to various websites the best thing to do is 'join your local beekeepers club' so that should be my first stop.  Also, I suppose we should check with the neighbours just in case they're allergic.

Tuesday 14 June

Phew, it was hot on the tennis court this morning.  Mary and I managed 2 sets - she beat me, but not before she'd whacked a ball at my head while I was bending over and then banged me on the shin with another shot!  She was already winning too!  This was on top of bruising my knuckles when rummaging through my sock drawer.  I looked like I'd been in a fight.  It was good though to run around a bit, although by the end of the second set we'd both had enough and were more than ready for lunch at the pub.  Last week we sat in a different section without waitress service but today we took it easy and had them running around after us.

We made our plans for going to Wimbledon next week.  It'll be an early start and tickets only for outside courts.  If we wanted centre court, we'd need to camp overnight and we're not up for that.  They have lots of rules: no credit or debit cards, cash only; only 1 bag per person which cannot have hard sides or be larger than a certain size, etc.  I suspect some people in the past have been totally unreasonable and now they have to penalise everyone.  Or maybe they're just awkward dinosaurs?