Life continues at a pace.
Firstly, I am beginning to get more work. Through supply work, I've built up a reasonable relationship with one particular school and they've asked me to cover for a fortnight's paternity leave. The first, introductory, getting to know you day went well and then it was back onto the scheduled timetable.
The children were divided into sets for Maths and Literacy. The sets were called Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor rather than High, Medium and Low. My desk, the teacher's desk, became an outpost of Slytherin House with house badge and house motto, etc. Actually, I really could have done with a lot more green.
It' was a Gifted and Talented Year 6 class so Maths, for example, was coordinates in all four quadrants and Literacy was colons and semi-colons. Yes, I used someone else's planning but I had to actually handle the class and keep them occupied and entertained.
The kids really enjoyed using Queen's Don't stop me now as music to leave the classroom by.
I have had to be on my mettle but I have really, really enjoyed it.
And, perhaps almost inevitably, there have been stories to dine out on.
We used the idea of clothes rationing during WWII as a Maths exercise for looking at different ways of achieving the same total. The children were allocated 58 coupons and they had to select all of their clothes for the coming year. We used a real list of items from those times which prompted a number of questions for explanations.
All questions were answered with the same pleasant smile and straight face.
Please sir, have you got a Facebook account? Yes. Well, I found you through my mum's Facebook account and I could see photographs of you. And I'm sure there wasn't anything interesting for you - right class, using a protractor to measure angles... Just checked my Facebook account in case - security was already completely locked down but there were some photographs in the cover photo album from a while back (which have now gone). Sneeky little so-and-so. But then, why would a mother allow her son the opportunity to do that? I do teach my kids (8 and 10) to use the internet on their computers, and that includes googling people or looking for them on Facebook - the idea being to help them understand online privacy, or more precisely, the lack thereof. Excellent, Chris. I applaud the way that you are encouraging your kids to have a sense of responsibility about cyberspace. I think it's odd that parents will hardly allow their children to step outside the front door without serious escort cover and yet will allow them to roam the world in in cyberspace completely unattended. Nevertheless, would you sit down with them and say "Let's find out something about your teacher?" No, I would rather select someone we're friends with (and whose page I've checked out before). But you're giving me an idea...
I've also started my collection of "the things they say" in their work. I marked science reports about the dinosaur, Spinosaurus, a mighty beast which clearly captured the class's imagination. Try this...
It had teeth for gripping its prey but not to rip it to shreds like a piranah at a party.
That achieved both a simile and alliteration in the same sentence. Big tick there.
And then I found this sentence in which one of the letters should be an "r" but really doesn't look like it.
It can sense its prey in the water because its snout can detect nipples. (LOL)
I also had a little frisson at this particular moment.
Child: Sir, why are you wearing a Visitor's badge when you're a member of staff?
Me: Well, lad, I'm not a full-time member of staff but bless you for thinking it.
I also went for my first ever interview for a full time teaching job: I thought that it went quite well. One or two questions I might have nailed more quickly but I used lots of pratical examples of what I have actually done rather than talking theoretically. I wasn't brimful of confidence understanding that it would depend on the calibre of the other candidates and whether or not they thought I would fit into their team comfortably. So I wasn't down-hearted when I wasn't offered the job.
The feedback was very positive and the head asked me to ring for a longer chat. When we spoke, she was somewhat taken aback by the fact that it was my first interview. Overall, she was very encouraging and encouraged me to focus some of my answers more into the needs of the school in future interviews.
Elsewhere, I've been in a very unwelcoming school in West Derby, spent a day in a tough inner city school where I made a poor job with a Year 2 class (that's when I discovered that classes with large numbers of EAL - English as an Alternative Language - children are not my speciality) and had an afternoon in a local school with another Year 2 class which went much better. I'm continuing to send out a steady stream of applications. I've visited several schools and had another interview which went better than my first but which was still unsuccessful. So, that area of life is going reasonably well.
Dad somehow just keeps going on. Mum keeps oscillating between between "Well, I didn't think he'd last this long." and "He'll not last the winter" to "Your dad'll surprise you. He could easily see me off."
He seems to be quite angry at present. There's a lot of shouting alongside the obsessive counting of numbers. For a man who was very mild in his use of language, he's also slipping in the odd expletive. Nothing too extreme, mind you. He told me that I was a "bloody waste of space" the other day. So, I told him that he was a daft old bugger and we had a good laugh together.
Mum still seems to be trying desperately to make some sort of contact with him. She tries to persuade herself that there is recognition. She tries to hear responses and comments and, almost inevitably, comes away feeling cheated or disappointed.
Following some advice from Colin, I am trying to accept dad as he is now. We sit and hold hands. I hold him while he sleeps and I tell him to be at peace and to let go. I put my hand to his chest and breathe calmly with him. We laugh and gurgle together. It's like being with a toddler who has yet to start stringing sentences together. In fact, if I were less emotionally involved in all this, I would spend more time observing how the children I teach are busy acquiring new skills whilst my dad is gradually shedding them.
Nutkin the cat is well on the road to recovery after his brush with pancreatitis. Various drug therapies seem to have done the trick and he is now even beginning to ask to go out during the daytime.
My vocal problems seem to have had a very easily sorted remedy. I was told to gargle after taking my asthma inhaler. I take this a stage further and actually use Sanderson's Specific as a tonic for the throat as well. Basically, the problem seems to have been that the powdered form of the steroid in the inhaler was gradually building up and affecting my oesophagus and larynx. A simple mouthwash solves this. Apparently, they see a lot of this in ENT.
Ross, however, seems to be getting worse. We've had a couple of hospital visits now. Upping the pain killers does not seem to do anything but keep Ross at home and out of the view of the medical staff. I seem to have spent a lot of time in waiting rooms, in A&E and sitting by hospital beds. Ross does have appointments with specialists and tests have been done and so, whilst everyone is waiting for someone else to pronounce, no-one is willing to take immediate responsibility. This pattern seems to very like Trish's brush with gall bladder trouble when I was working at Connect. It's very tiring and frustrating on top of everything else.
We've tried not to tie ourselves totally to the house although plans to go to WNO's new La bohème were scuppered at the last moment by hospital visits. We also abandoned a Sunday matinée RLPO concert through fatigue and general disinterest and gave up on plans to see Opera North's new production of Faust and English Touring Opera's production of Viktor Ullmann's The Emperor of Atlantis, a work conceived in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. This last one was a real disappointment but driving over to Buxton just did not feel like a priority at this time.
Luckily for me, Danish TV's Killing III has just started on BBC4. Thank goodness for catch up TV.
There is also the sanctuary of the back garden. Pruning the rhibes in icy sunshine is not the worst way of spending a Wednesday afternoon in late November.
We did, however, make it to FACT, for a live telecast of the Met's new production of Thomas Adès's The Tempest. I remember seeing this on the television back in 2004 when it was premiered at Covent Garden and liking it. I still do. There is some very fine music in the piece and Simon Keenlyside, Toby Spence, Iestyn Davies and the rest sang well. Robert Lepage's production provided some very pretty pictures but did not, I think, advance the dramatic experience very much.
![[Three Stars - Good]](3star.jpg){kind=small}
Roland and I completed our journey through Schubert with Paul Lewis and Mark Padmore giving Schwanengesang alongside Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte. I hadn't liked the other lieder recital by these two which I had attended - I'd felt that it was over-acted. Maybe I was more in tune with the material, maybe they were, anyhow this performance seemed far better balanced and very touching in its simple presentation.
![[Three and a Half Stars - Very Good]](3_5star.jpg){kind=small}
Ross and I went to the Plaza in Waterloo for Skyfall. It was great. By far the best Bond film in a while. Enormous cheers for the appearance of the Aston Martin DB5. Lots of great action and a sub-plot that told about Britain finding its identity again post Empire and post Cold War. Very impressive piece of work from Sam Mendes. I hope he gets to direct another Bond film soon.
![[Four Stars - Excellent]](4star.jpg){kind=small}
Our other big hit was Looper with Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Time travel, hit men, unravelling mysteries, a sharp script, excellent production values and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. What's not to like?
And, with a clear nod to the world of the visual pun, Justin Timberlake demonstrates a firm grip as he chokes that chicken.
Although, actually, it is a cock!!
And you have to hand it to Chris Mears as well - he is not at all shy and really does know how to play to the camera - and to one of his main audiences.