The last week of term…

JS packed up our office. Site agents sped through town in their open -back van to home delivery of the trappings of teaching careers, visions of paper spewed round the hugh Street…( her career a dam sight longer and esteemed than mine!). They had covered it all over with a hockey net. ( Budget cuts you know). I had visions of target led objectives spread like confetti over the high street as they sped through.

In the midst of that, was my screaming, blooming back, bladder and brain….

The demise of a charity I have but briefly been involved with. The last two weeks of extraordinary conference calls, board meetings and dusting off of my old knowledge of rudimentary accounts. Sad to say the redundancies we tried so valiantly to avoid are inevitable. Insolvency expert in place. Actually I now understand he’s called a ‘ restructuring consultant’. That wasn’t invented in my day.  Horrible  Tuesday  the hottest day in a sweltering office trying to break it gently to staff. Not my best day. A ’tissueday’  for them. Unsuspecting patients everywhere will suddenly find their support gone unless we can still find a rescue plan…we are trying very hard. . This is a terrible thing to happen. I don’t hold grudges but …

My  mother? out of hospital- I extracted her from the Despatch Bay of our local hospital. She’d been moved there ready for exit hours earlier. Pharmacy as ever held up the process. Turned out Only for paracetamol. So we left….without this. Only one footstool for the three patients who needed one. Arghhhh. I felt a letter come on. They responded brilliantly. Even to confess she’d been booked in wrong clinic for check up. We’d have turned up at wrong time and wrong day. Sounds familiar?!  What the hell she’s only 81 lives an hour +  away so that’s four hours back and forth for me….frrr. let alone poor her, wheelchair, zimmers and manoeuvres into hot painful car.. . we have new time day etc. Debated anti clotting injections  no one agrees with anyone else. GP has over-ruled. Got stuff to her. Frrrrrgood. stair- lift zimmers  etc we already had in place. Dad ever the stoic.

But it’s nearly Friday. Yay end of term…..A good story to tell: one of my younger students… lets call him Tyson, at school. He’s got miserable home circumstances. He’s really tried so hard to turn round his foul language and curb his frustration s. He borrowed a pen from me a few weeks ago. I’ve been in and out ever since with medicalness and charity demands. You know what? he still has the silver Parker pen.Gave it back to me Monday. ‘ I’ve kept it Miss. Here in my pocket lining Miss. Don’t want it nicked do yer Miss?’ 

If ever there was a kid I’d take home I’d take him. Give him his favourite lasagne every day. The pen? I told him to keep it as a end of term/birthday prize. He’s whipped it back into his blazer lining. He ‘ won ‘ a Mars bar in our maths magic lesson Wednesday. His birthday. That made him grin. He told me he’d had a present at home but ‘ …it were f****** useless Miss’ .

Bugggerations. I should’ve taken lasagne in.

I’ll miss the teaching,  reckon there’s bits I just still just don’t understand. Today for example.  3 youngsters saw me fumbling with my new phone. My old brain still Apple indoctrinated. Android my new learning target. The quick-start- menu is all I have to go by. This threesome, are near impossible in maths. But my phone? Pips-y. They got my ‘Pokémon Go’ app going. Asked my permission to walkup- the drive. We all went, gathering Squirtles Pokeballs at the Pokestops we encountered.  Got back in time for next lesson. Off they went, carefully explaining to me what to do. Warning me not to use it in my car …’  dangerous Miss’  ‘take care Miss. ‘.

What can a phone and a bloody Pikachu do to engage children. with no written instructions anywhere. that we can’t in school? Guess what ? I did turn it on in the car. Dam near stalled in my excitement at finding the Pokémon pub they’d warned me about. Remembering  their wise words and I did turn it off before I caused an accident.

I could have just ‘accidentally’  hit the fire alarm. That is what one of mine did this week. That’d speed up the exit process. !

As I drove  out today there was a gathering of young boys with phones at school gates. Not in uniform. Must be from opposition schools. Whatever were they doing? OF COURSE They’ve found our very own Pokémon on the gate!! A whole attraction …lure em in…sign em up…it’s the only way. Life is just one big alter playground out there.

 Message from Min:

are you shredding/burning papers to do with education? except anything to do with Tyson (who incidentally will be arriving Saturday 9 am with all his worldly goods in a pound shop bag at the front door of Your House to occupy one of the empty beds and luxury showers and endless meals.).