Sometimes life is so complicated! - Episode #79

It has been a difficult few weeks for me so I decided to wait until the end of the half term holiday before writing a new blog entry. 

The neighbour we were “cat sitting” for died in hospital last week. Her son lives on the Kent coast and he came round to my house a few days later to tell me the news. He didn’t want to take the cat home with him and was planning to call the RSPCA to either re-house it or to have it put to sleep. My boyfriend and I were not very keen on either of these ideas so we agreed to keep “Zero” as our cat. Zero is old and rather deaf but seems happy enough. It is going to be a bit tricky when we are all out of work as none of our doors have a cat flap. Luckily the garden shed door has a section of plank missing so Zero can go in there if the weather is cold or wet. 

On the same day as the man came round I received the letter I had been expecting from the County Commissioner about my allegation about the current ladies county cross country champion. The good news is that he agrees that my performance this season should have got me a place in the county team – the bad news is that he doesn’t have the authority to make the selectors choose me if they don’t want to. It is quite disappointing to think that the best runner doesn’t get chosen automatically and that the egos of the selectors count for more than justice! 

The third thing that happened was cross-making rather than disappointing was something I came across by accident in the public library. Nan has been appearing in amateur dramatics and the reviewer said that she gave “an energetic and vibrant” performance”.  This is the same person who was said to be too frail and too mentally confused to face justice for the abuse I suffered at her and Granddad’s hands. She must be laughing that she managed to get away with lying to the Court! 

The best thing that has happened since I last wrote was that I have taken on the responsibility for the Bereavement Group jointly run by several of the local secondary schools. Until recently it was run by a local Methodist Preacher who also teaches in one of the schools but the young people said that they didn’t want the religious aspects about God’s Will and “going to a better place” – in the end my Head Teacher thought of me and asked me if I would be interested.  

After quite a lot of thinking I agreed so I get a half day off once a fortnight to meet with youngsters who have lost a parent or a sibling. It means that somebody has to cover my year 7 and year 8 groups but as they were my least favourite lessons of the week I didn’t mind too much. 

My boyfriend and I seem to coping with our new career as teachers quite well. Much better than one of the new staff in Humanities who has handed in her resignation once she realised that teaching wasn’t for her after all. 

This weekend my best friend and I have an all-ladies life modelling class. They seem to be a group of authors and illustrators  who specialise in erotic literature and somehow we are supposed to inspire them by posing in the nude. We have some reservations about this course but it is particularly well paid!  I will let readers know how we get on.

My first proper job - in Mum's (RIP) old school. - Episode #78

Well I have now completed my first few weeks as a proper teacher! It feels strange to be working where Mum was working when she and Dad got killed.  

It looks like Fridays are going to be my easiest days so I might try writing by diary and blog then. When you are a student teacher colleagues are quite careful about what they say in your hearing but once you are a member of their team they feel comfortable saying what they are really thinking. I have been quite surprised how many of them don’t like teaching in the 6^th form (years 12 and 13) – some prefer the youngsters in years 7 to 9 (generally fewer behaviour issues and less pressure from external exams) while others relish the challenge of years 10 and 11 where pupils can be much harder to manage (especially the girls!) but where exams give a focus to what is being taught and where high quality teaching is more easily demonstrated through exam results. 

One of the reasons that I have more than my “share” of 6^th form work is because more senior colleagues don’t want to it and so it is just a lucky co-incidence that it is my favourite type isn’t it!  

There is quite a strict dress code for the pupils that is strictly enforced at the start of the school year and a fairly strict dress code for the staff that isn’t enforced but should be. Some staff show too much boob, belly or bum and I don’t think it creates a good impression that senior staff just sigh and then say nothing. Of course I just keep these thoughts to myself.   

I found myself using one of Dad’s phrases yesterday. I mentioned “stirring up a hornets nest” which would have made him laugh. What happened was that the ladies county cross-country champion got a brief write-up in the magazine that goes out to the various athletics clubs. She has won 21/24 races in the 12 months which is good but what wasn’t mentioned was that all three of her losses were all to a certain Sally Ellis. I mentioned it casually in the club house at the weekend and by Wednesday the County Commissioner was involved, oh dear. 

Our elderly neighbour is still in hospital. They want to discharge her but without a “Care Package” in place they are not allowed to. So her cat is living with us and if I cannot find the cat at meal times I have to wonder along to her proper home to find her. The cat seems happy enough, providing she gets food and a bit of attention everyday she should cope until her owner returns. By chance I noticed some people moving into one of the houses in our street. This happens a lot but what made it unusual was that one of the helpers was a girl who shares the same adult mentor as me. The last time I saw here was in Kidderminster so it was rather a shock to see her so close to my home.

Sorry but Facebook and Facebook Groups are not helping me move on!

I am trying hard not to sound passive-aggressive here but sadly, despite all the hype, Facebook and the associated Facebook Groups don't seem to be what I want or need in my life at the moment.

Most of the bereavement related groups on Facebook are, unsurprisingly, dominated both numerically and in terms of messages posted, by people who live in the USA and who are both older and more openly religious than me. I don't seem to have much in common with the typical group member and perhaps that is the source of my problem?

Recently I asked the members of all the bereavement groups I belong to for information on blogs that might be helpful for me - nobody bothered to come up with a single suggestion. Yet when I posted the same question to a much smaller UK based group I got 7 ideas from three different people. What makes it even stranger was that these 3 were complete strangers to me, none were my so-called "Facebook Friends" 95% of whom never comment on anything I post to Facebook or write in my blog.

I have made a few friends via Facebook and I am pleased and grateful for that but overall my experience has been deeply disappointing.

On the launch pad - ready for take off!

I suppose the most significant thing that has happened in the last few weeks is that Granddad has been moved to a different prison. I don’t know all the fine details or the reasoning behind it – and Nan isn’t saying – but it sounds like he has been sent to an open prison as an experiment and as a “concession to his age”.  

I am amazed that I am still receiving my monthly compensation payment from him. I had felt certain that he would try to wriggle his way out of paying me what had been agreed but so far every payment has been on time.  

After quite a long quiet spell the strange builder from the house at the bottom of my garden has now circulated draft plans for a revised building development to all his nearest neighbours. There is nothing on the plans to say that he doesn’t own the land he wants to build on and nothing to say that the houses he wants to demolish don’t belong to him. He sent his wife round to deliver the letters because he knew that I wouldn’t have opened the door to him!  

I had my strangest ever modelling session last weekend. It was for a group that like to draw science fiction and fantasy people. So I had a number of strange poses to do including wearing a set of wings like a fairy would have!  There were 3 models, Sally and me and a new girl called Davida. This was her first “paid for” session and she was rather nervous before the start but she coped quite well. She lives somewhere over on the west coast of Wales so she had a fairly long trip to the venue.  

We haven’t had any proper summer this year have we? We have had lots of cloudy and quite cold days but not much rain and some of the little streams on the cross-country running courses have no water in them at all which is very unusual. We got back yesterday from a short trip (Monday to Thursday) to Cambridge to see some friends. Houses are very expensive where they live and although they both have quite good jobs they have to live in a small flat on a rather noisy road. They work in industry so they don’t get the long holidays that teachers enjoy.  

The new school term starts on the 1^st September and the children will come back on the 3^rd of September. Although I am now a qualified teacher I get offered some extra support for my first year – this is called your NQT (Newly Qualified Teacher) year. I don’t have to teach quite so many lessons and I have an experienced teacher who acts as my mentor. I’m sure that Mum and Dad would be pleased that I have gone into the same job that they both had.  

We seem to have acquired a cat. We offered to look after her for a few days while her elderly owner (and Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator) was in hospital. The first day I went round to the house twice just to feed the cat but then she decided to follow me home. I think cats would love anybody who feeds them. Even a cat is quite a tie so I hope our neighbour comes back home soon.