My baby’s ill

Last Friday Liam the cat disappeared for a long time. This is highly unusual as he is a bit of a baby and rarely strays further than the back garden. Hours later he nearly knocked me off my feet and he leapt through the front door. Then I noticed that although he’d moved fast he was limping badly. He then threw himself down onto the floor and looked up mournfully, rather like Puss in Boots in the Shrek films (2 and 3).

In a panic I took him to the vet where they said he’s not well and kept him in over night. This, rather than calming my panic, only set me off into a greater sense of fear. My over-active imagination kept ticking over all the awful things that may result. The next day I went to fetch the little lamb and he was a little better. However, he didn’t stay better. He was pathetic all weekend so on Monday I was really happy to be taking him back to the vet. He had barely eaten anything at all and that was highly unusual.

So now I have to give him pain relief liquid once per day and one and a half antibiotic tablets TWICE per day. What a palava! So now, not only is he ill and feeling rough, he’s starting to resent me. I give him his medicine and then he goes and hides elsewhere and sulks until it’s time for me to pin him down again. Back to the vet this afternoon and hopefully he’ll get the all clear. Please…. No more medicine to administer!!!!

Summer holidays

Almost half way through the summer holidays and I can’t even think what I have achieved! But perhaps that is the point of the holidays – to NOT achieve things and just relax. Although relaxing is not something I can think of having done too much. I hope my colleagues and students have had more luck in that department.

The French girl has been here for almost 3 weeks and we’ve been tourists quite a lot. We went to Windsor and saw the town and surrounding countryside. It was a beautiful day and it was fun to realise that the Queen was in residence. I also took her to Hayling Island on the south coast. Unfortunately it turned out to be a nasty rainy day (despite what the weatherman had said) but we had fun nonetheless. We had the delights of a fish and chip lunch in the drizzle on the beach, where I introduced her to the delicacy that is mushy peas! We then spent a few happy hours playing with the 2p machines. Oddly they don’t seem to have them in France so it was quite funny to see the look of surprise on her face when she saw all these tiny English kids shoving 2ps into the machines like there’s no tomorrow.
To be honest, it’s been good fun to be a tourist and it makes me wonder why we all go abroad so much. In the same breath and just to be a total hypocrite, I am soooo excited about my trip to Naples next week. It’s going to be amazing. Lots of sun and the hotel will be right next to the sea. Once I am back from that trip I really will be focusing on getting my school stuff sorted out. I still haven’t been into school to do my filing or organised myself for the first few weeks of term! There’s so much I could do, it’s just a question of prioritising what would be the most beneficial.

Race for Life

Many of the staff at school signed up for Race for Life around Easter time. I thought “what the heck? Might as well…” As time went on I forgot all about it until suddenly last week it dawned on me that it was on the 15th July! Got up bright and early on Sunday morning, donning a delightful pair of leggings, school t-shirt and my old school trainers and dashed off to Reading. What a big event!
Obviously I knew that it’s a national thing but I hadn’t expected to see quite so many women all ready to race. My friend and I were chatting during the warm-up when she commented on the fact that she was surprised there were so few men taking part. I thought she was joking! Turns out she’d forgotten it’s women only!! It gave us a giggle nonetheless.
5km doesn’t sound a long distance. I was separated from the running crew so I ended up in the walking section. Easy, thought I, a little stroll around Prospect Park and back for a slap-up BBQ. It was a nice walk, and at the end I did a little sprint (to justify the ‘race’ part of the event) but there was a big hill. It’s hard to get up a big hill whilst chatting non-stop, I discovered. Or maybe I’m just not as fit as I had originally thought!

Still, it’s done now and it’s time to start harassing people for the sponsorship money they offered on my form. Always a good conversation starter…

School Musical

Last week there was a great deal of excitement throughout the school. There was the summer production of a certain (recently) famous Disney made-for-tv movie. Kids of all ages became like little Duracell bunnies, chattering and bouncing away non-stop. Out of pure nosiness I went to see it. I was blown away. I never knew there were such talented kids at the school. Weirdly I only knew about 5 of the kids out of around 80 that were involved. I was so impressed that I helped out on the final night. Among the drama queens, guys that think they’re the hottest thing ever and the giggling girls there were a lot of professionals! They did their part and really threw themselves into it. I stood by, watching like a proud parent!!
My colleague who organised the whole thing has absolutely amazed me. How did she know how to do this? Where did she get the energy from to keep this going?
It was a really great end to the year, marred only slightly by the fact that Sports Day has been postponed. Not that I am complaining because I never fancied sitting on a soggy field trying to entertain loads of kids who’d prefer to be wandering about than penned in.

Brotherly Love?

Today I had a particularly mean incident happen at school. Two kids decided to take it upon themselves to “decorate” another kid’s school bag while he was out the room when I turned my back. Obviously I was suspicious something was up but I thought I’d removed all the offensive items they could fiddle with. One of the kids was picking on his own brother!
Now, I’m all for keeping family close, but I am not sure that brothers being in the same class are a good thing. They can gang up on others when they are together if they are identical or they may well fight. I didn’t even realise these boys were related until about a term had passed – I stupidly didn’t click that their surname is the same! But as soon as I did notice it was clear as to why I hadn’t: they could not be more different.
Their time in the classroom together is spent in one of two ways… either ignoring each other or making little comments. Plus when there’s anything physical involved it seems different as I am sure brotherly relationships change the rules slightly on those sorts of issues.
However maybe it needs to be judged on a case by case basis. Some twins and siblings I’ve had in the same class have been nothing but a joy to teach. I just hope that these brothers don’t damage their future relationship by falling out too much now.
Image from: http://allyballysally.deviantart.com/

McWorld

Yesterday I went on a course about McDonalds, run by McDonalds to gain information to use in school projects with my students. To say I am not a fan of some of their practices is an understatement. However I went to the session with an open mind; I like their fries so they can’t be all bad!
The course was far more interesting than I had ever thought it would be. Obviously there was quite a lot of biased language used etc. but it made me stop and think. Why do we often blame one company for the UK obesity problems? Surely we visit other restaurants and eat other foods. I honestly don’t know anyone who lives off McDonalds foods alone.
The film by Morgan Spurlock ‘Super Size Me’ was very extreme. While I do believe that living off that food alone is not healthy for anyone, I also don’t think that people should be daft enough to think they can get all the nutrients they need from a fast food restaurant. However, since the release of the film in 2004 the press has not let up over here about how awful McDonald’s is. They have a looooong way to go to get that trust back.
Now I am not saying that I have been brainwashed into loving McDonalds but I have certainly become more cynical now that I have heard both sides of the story. Perhaps I won’t feel so ashamed at buying the odd portion of fries!

The dating game

Having been on my own for a while now I have begun to think about dating… I’m not in a hurry to go out with the first person who comes along but it’s got me thinking. I was chatting to a friend on Sunday about the ‘rules’ of dating. I didn’t realise there is a particular etiquette that we all are supposed to play by. Now I’m anxious… what if I slip up and don’t play by the rules? And anyway what ARE the rules?
At school the kids have boyfriends and girlfriends and they get all worked up about different aspects of it. Weirdly theirs do not seem different from adult relationships. There are still games to be played, confusion over mixed signals and second-guessing to be done.
If anything though, dating when you’re at school has to be worse. When things don’t work out you still have to see them around the campus all day every day. There is no escape. At least it’s possible to separate yourself when the going gets tough as an adult.
Then there are the student couples who seem like they are a mini-married couple. How do they do this? They have obviously been given a heads up in the relationship department!