The One Where Kylie Nearly Misses The Plane

So in my previous blog I left you with basically Katie, Andy and Laura dropping me off at Mal and Ken's so we could head off to Heathrow.

What then transpired was a near disaster...

You see, Ken hasn't been very well this past week, and has actually had to have time off (very very VERY unusual for him).  So when I arrived at Mals at around 2.30pm, bearing in mind we wanted to be at the airport around 3.15, we basically took the bags straight out to the back porch and dumped them all there.  I then went to say goodbye to Katie, Andy and Laura, and then came back inside.  Mal said something about having to carry our bags down the back as Ken wasn't well - I misunderstood her at first and thought she was talking about when we get to the airport, which I thought was odd as Ken always drops us off at the drop-off lanes and then leaves.

So I didn't think any more of it until it was time to leave - and then I realised what she'd said.  So I grabbed as many bags as I could, and headed off down the back yard.  Mal grabbed some bags, and basically Ken followed behind.  I thought he was carrying some bags too.  We dumped them in the car and then headed off for Heathrow.

Once we arrived at Heathrow, we unloaded, said goodbye to Ken, who then drove off, and I ran off to get some trolleys whilst Mal stayed with the bags.  We loaded our luggage up on the trolleys and set off for check-in.

At the check-in counter the chick, who to be honest, was just more than a little stressy for her own good, asked about how many pieces of carry-on luggage we had.  Now I had checked the Singapore Airlines rules on the website, and it distinctly said that you could have 1 carry-on, plus a number of 'free' items - including a garment bag, a handbag, a laptop, an umbrella.... yada yada.  So I'd planned my carry-on stuff with that in mind, and I had a backpack, a laptop and a handbag.  Therefore I announced to the stressy chick that I had 3 bags - and she freaked.  Well, she would - she's the stressy chick.  

But as I went to hold them up, I realised a grave, terrible thing.  My backpack wasn't there...  MY BACKPACK WASN'T THERE!!!!!! Where could it be? It's got my hard drives, my big camera lens, my camcorder, my money, all my clothes for Singapore.... where is it?  I left Mal at the counter, arguing with the stressy chick about how much hand luggage we had, and I raced, literally tore through the airport, back outside to where we had unloaded the car.  Frantically looking around for any staff, I rushed up to the first I could find and practically screamed at them "Have you seen a black Targus backpack?"  No, he hadn't - maybe I should try the police.  I ran to them, but again, no luck.  They suggested going inside to the information counter - and they hadn't seen anything either, or had anything handed in.  Aaaaggghhh! 

I raced back to Mal, we finished our check in of our regular luggage and then tried to think what might've happened to it.  And that's when I realised it - no one had gone back up the back yard to check that all the luggage had been taken from the porch.  I hadn't done it, I had assumed that Mal and Ken, having followed me down the yard, would've done - and Mal said she hadn't - so I could only assume that probably Ken hadn't either.  I had actually thought about it at the time, but thought they had brought everything, so I didn't bother.  Why oh why didn't I go with my gut instinct?

Thus began the frantic phoning of Ken - but he never answers his mobile, and most definitely not when he's driving - so what to do?  We decided that, as we had a little time, rather than just go through Departures, we would have a quick coffee, keep trying Ken, and make a decision once we'd heard from him.

However, it took Ken a good 45 minutes to get home, and even then, because it was so dark, if the backpack had been on the porch, he mightnt've noticed it.  I went off again to ask airport staff about whether they'd seen my bag, and when I got back to Mal, she'd finally got on to Ken - and fortunately, he had my bag.  She put me on the phone to him, and in the background she was saying "he's really sick, he can't come back out here with it", but at the same time I was saying to him "well, how can you get the bag to me if not now?".  There was absolutely nothing for it, unless Ken came back out now, it would've been extremely difficult to get the bag back - and with all the important things in it, it would've been a real pain to be without it.  So Ken, being the trooper he is, jumped straight back in the car...

I sent Mal through Departures and told her to please try and hold the plane, or at least, not to go without me (but with Mal's panics she assured me that would not happen), as I knew that we would be cutting it very close to the mark if Ken managed to get back to Heathrow in 45 minutes - and that could only happen if the traffic remained good.  According to our boarding passes, our plane was due to board at 5.15pm, and we'd managed to get on to Ken a little after 4 - so theoretically it could work.  It was just whether it would work in practice.

But hallelujah, Knight in Shining Armour Ken rocked up with his Cadillac cavalier at 5.10, and I raced back in to the terminal, flew through customs, dived through the scanners (even the silly shoe one), and made it in time.

What a lucky break!

So the moral of the story is - always check to see if you've left anything behind...!

The Wrap Up

Well, after a very stressful few weeks, the madness is finally all over. No more time for procrastinating, the packing has to be finished, farewells said, and off we go.

The weekend was particularly busy. On Friday, school finished at 1200, but not for us. Still so much work to do for the 'handover' to the new guys. And then it was off to hear our girls perform with Kinetika at the Royal Festival Hall - they were totally fab, too - and then off to see the Lost and Found Orchestra, which I really enjoyed as well. The Lost and Found Orchestra is run by the same people who did Stomp, which was brill - and its much the same sort of concept, which is making music using unusual instruments, like bits of rubber tubing, water bottles and so on. The opening number was a bunch of people banging on some cello cases. I've embedded a few clips here which I found on youtube of the performance:

Then Saturday, I had to go into school, because I didn't get everything finished on Friday, plus also the girls were doing exams. I managed to get my stuff done by about midday, then headed off for lunch with Heather in Wimbledon, as I had to try and bank cheques and cash. Fortunately I managed to get that done - no mean feat, as I had a load of coins because of collecting for Erik's leaving present - and no bank counter was open at the time. So we asked a load of street vendors if they would exchange my coins for notes, which they did - such a relief.

After our banking expedition / lunch, it was off to Katie and Andy's for take away and the Muppet Christmas Carol with Katie, Andy and Laura - and then off home to finish packing. Suffice to say 3am came and went, and I was still packing...

Sunday was the big one - kids band and Adult choir at church, which I was directing. Actually I need to mention a few things about the Army. I didn't finish telling about the fabulous leaving do that Jo organised for me at Jimmy Spices a few weeks back, which was just wonderful. This place is awesome, you can have food from pretty much anywhere Asian - plus some British / Italian stuff - so I had heaps of sushi, Chinese food, Indian kormas, a bit of roast beef and some yorkshire pud, man, it was soooo delicious and soooo wonderful. Plus what was really touching was how many people from church came! We fair booked out half the place!

And then the most touching thing though was the Kids Christmas the next day - the kids band was on in the afternoon, and then after the service, we had a bit of a party and a movie (one of my favourites - The Santa Clause) and then they presented me with the most gorgeous watch, one of those Citzen Eco-drive ones - I was so touched.

So anyway, I said my farewells, had a quick bite at Katie and Andy's, and then it was off to Mal and Ken's to then head out to the airport...

The Adult Choir

The Kids (Kidult?) Band - so many kids were away that a load of adults had to step in...!

Final Music Concert

Well Wednesday saw a very busy, and very emotional, final Music concert for myself and Erik.

The day started off with Erik and Mat heading off to Brooke to set up for the concert during period 1.  I had tried to devise a schedule of rehearsals but it seemed that it didn't suit everybody, so it was quite difficult to juggle it all around.  Eventually a reasonable solution was found, so I took advantage of the 'free' time in period 1 to finalise the programme and get it printed.  Mistake 1.  The Murphy's law of school concerts is that you should never print the programme until the absolute last minute, as there are always changes.  Oh well.

The rehearsals throughout the day all ran very smoothly, and contrary to my usual form, I didn't appear the least bit stressed (although I will admit, I was a bit).

So the start time comes, and then we have a mini-freak out.  There's no-one there.  To be fair though, that is quite usual for our concerts, as, in the words of my girls, we run to 'Brixton time' - which means that 6pm is really 6.30 and so on... its a habit I've been trying to break for 10 years, but with very little success.  Surprisingly though this time, it was the school governors who were late!  And there was a surprise guest too, our previous headteacher - who had the vision and foresight to direct funds into the music budget and get the second specialism running - without her our department would really be nothing.

So we managed to kick off around 6.15pm, and I will admit, for the first part we seemed to be firing through the programme at an incredibly brisk pace - quite unlike our regular concerts.  I actually thought we may finish well within the alloted hour and a half.

However with the arrival of the concert band for their numbers, we soon lost pace again, as the pieces they played were a lot longer than I had anticipated.  We played 'Instant Concert', 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' (leaving off Mvt III Violet Beauregarde as no-one could really play it) and 'The Blues Brothers'.  Then I gave my little speeches, made my presentations, including an impromptu speech to Erik as I hadn't really planned to say too much about him at this event, as tomorrow night would be the big staff farewell - and the pressureful speech moment.  After this, the band wrapped it up with 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and that was that.  Or so I mistakenly thought.

The Deputy Head got up and said, "You don't really think you're going to have the last word, do you?" and then up got Nana, who read out a lovely speech to Erik and I.  Phew, that over, I thought we could go home.  No, up gets Mat - and suddenly Myrtle and Funmi, past students from 2 years ago, come out of the audience with their instruments, and the whole group performed an arrangement of "Land of the Silver Birch" for Erik, and "Waltzing Matilda (coupled with a few bars of "Auld Lang Syne") for me.  It was a complete and utter surprise, and I had no idea of how they managed to even pull it off - although I found out later that the students had all stayed back for rehearsal the day before until 5pm - how lovely that they would do this for us.  I was deeply moved, and of course the tears started to flow - and then out came the gifts.  I was overwhelmed by the generosity of the students and the instrumental teachers - they gave me the most lovely amber earrings, and the string orchestra had arranged a photo and frame of them at Bowles, and other students gave me individual things including chocolates, and teddy bears, and perfume... it was just overwhelming.  And the teachers gave me a gorgeous box with 2 mollard conductors batons - these are the best in the business - with a lovely inscription.  I was truly moved and touched.

Afterwards we went to the Dark Horse for our Christmas meal, just yummy - and then it was the time to say goodbye to all the team... so sad....

So I just want to take the time now to say thanks to all my students, and thanks to all my team - I love you guys and I will miss you terribly... please do stay in touch.  All the best.

Procrastinating Yet Again

So I'm right now supposed to be packing. Which means that I'm blogging instead.

I know things have been quiet on the blog front recently, and I'm sorry for that - but if ever you want to busy yourself up, leave the country. There's just too much to do! And no sleep to be had, which makes one more and more emotional - which causes tears at the drop of a hat, especially during leaving speeches and so on... but more on that later.

In the meantime, be aware that yes, I am still alive - only just - and will update the blog upon touchdown in the lovely Bris Vegas.

Merry Christmas!

Spoons

This past week I've been on our annual music camp to the Bowles Outdoor Education Centre.

The week was just fab, with a few exceptions. I have to say we will never ever again use that coach company. First of all, the guy couldn't find the school - he was just using a regular A-Z after all - but hey, its marked very clearly on the map so why he couldn't find it, I just don't know. I guess some men just don't know how to read maps, do they?

Anyway, the pick up time came, and went - and still no coach. Finally we made contact on the phone, and found out he was parked outside the church about a 15 minute walk away from the school. What a dope! So I had to send June down to find him, and then direct him to the school - which then presented problem number 2 - the luggage.

You see, Erik had asked for a trailer, and had been told by the company, no, it wasn't necessary. He checked several times, pointing out it was a music camp, the kids would have instruments - but they reassured us that we didn't need it - and that the drivers don't like towing one anyway.  So the bus eventually turns up (we'd booked a 79-seater so they sent us a double decker bus - but from the outset it was clear it was not designed for 79 passengers and their luggage, let alone 79 passengers, luggage, and musical instruments...! So we had a devil of a time getting everything on the coach. We ended up with instruments stored in the toilet, kids sitting on top of instruments, tubas on kids' laps and so on... for a 2 hour or so journey to Tunbridge Wells... how ridiculous is that? And then 20 minutes into the journey I get a phone call from the head honcho at the coach company complaining that the driver feels unsafe with all this luggage stored as it was, and requesting I book a trailer for the return journey. I soon set her straight, we should've had one from the word go. Then she tried to tell me it would cost £60 extra for the trailer - but because I wasn't in the office and couldn't pay in advance, she wasn't sure if they could do it. I mean, come on? We're away for 4 days - how on earth can I arrange payment in advance, and even if I could, why is that necessary? Its a school, its not going anywhere, if we default on the payment you could look up the address very easily - and seeing as we'd already paid some £1000 for the coach, why can't they just assume they'll get their money?  So, she said she'd phone me back if there was a problem, and seeing as she didn't call back, I assumed all was good.

We arrived then at Bowles and the kids quickly got into the swing of the routine.  Food, music / activities, more food, music / activities, more music / activites, free time, more food, more music / activites, then evening activity.  I have to say I was a little apprehensive at first as we had more kids on this year's camp than ever - but my fears were most certainly unfounded and everyone threw themselves into all the activities with such willingness and gusto, that an absolutely fab time was had by all.

In fact, this year it was so stress-free from the point of view of the kids' behaviour, but yet so labour intensive for the staff (as there were many more rehearsal slots and often several staff had to run two bands, so when the kids were doing outdoor activities, you often didn't get to be with your band but were running sectionals with another band or something) - that we decided to 'spice it up' a little.  This meant that at the start of the day, someone would come up with a word or phrase for the day, which you had to somehow get into your rehearsals or announcements in public.  So, the first day, the word was 'spoons'.  I have to say, I think I won that day, although Andy did come a close second with his singing of Mary Poppin's "Spoonful of Sugar" during one rehearsal, where he accused a girl of 'spooning the note' before telling another girl that she would get better if ... and then he sang the song.  My spoon mentions came more during the dinner time announcements, where I outlined suitable acts for our "CEBS Factor" evening - including, of course, playing the spoons - or when I told the girls they needed to get an early night's sleep to stop getting ill, as we didn't have any medicine jugs or spoons for them... I'm sure the kids must've thought all the staff had suddenly flipped out with all these mentions of 'spoons'!

The next day the saying was something like "I've never heard it called that before" which actually I think Jim and Andy won - to be fair, by default, as I didn't really have the energy having been up til 3am the night supervising our little treasure's bedtime...

The final day I just gave up on completely.  The phrase was something like "hot and cold" - and I just didn't have the creativity anymore to wangle that one into everyday conversation.  But the game "Spoons" sure made for many laughs at the staff table!

The talent evening on the Thursday night was just fab.  So many kids got up and did acts, and they were really good too - and then the staff did a few numbers.  Ruth and Jim decided to play the 'Trello' - which consisted of Ruth, the cellist, pressing down the valves on the trumpet whilst Jim blew the notes, and bowing the strings whilst Jim pressed the strings in the right position.  Very funny!

And then Erik got up and did a soppy number, 'You Raise Me Up', which had some kids in tears (and to be fair, me too - but probably not just because of leaving CEBS but also because it was played at Grandpa's funeral).

Anyway, it was a top night, and a totally fab camp, and I will keep it and my girls in my heart forever...

Ms Grant beating me in the sledging!

The cake the girls arranged for us

The staff band and "Ole Joe Clark"

Jim and Ruth and the "Trello"

It may not look like it, but I am hard at work here

My lovely girls and colleagues

Stop The World, I Want To Get Off! (AKA kmuki's Whirlwind Few Weeks...)

Stop the world, I want to get off! Oh my goodness, I would just love to have a night in, for a change...!

If you ever want to guilt your friends into spending some time with you, leave the country. Seriously. And that goes for rellies, too.

Let me see, for the past few weeks I have:

* karaoke'd my little heart out at Lucky Voice for Erik's farewell do

* spent the equivalent of a 3rd world country's national debt on a day trip to France with Erik and Natasha

* enjoyed a huge Sunday lunch with Mal, Ken and Jeff at the Toby Carvery, Epsom

* experienced a German Christmas market, Ping Pong dumplings, and heard Abdullah Ibrahim at the world famous Ronnie Scott's Jazz club with Heather and her husband, Johnny

* attempted to do my best Kenny G impersonation with Mat's soprano sax at band practise - and dismally failed, but hey... it was fun... sort of... - but only after playing Tuba with the Salvo's at the lighting of the christmas tree in Wimbledon by St Raphael's hospice

* had the most glorious leaving do at the Skylon restaurant, Royal Festival Hall, with my work colleagues - and enjoyed the most magnificent views of London whilst feasting on chicken and avocado salad, roast duck with puy lentils, and yummy chocolate brownie... fab!

* recorded some 27 students performing their GCSE coursework in front of parents, family, friends - and colleagues

* spent a lovely couple of hours with good friends Jessie and husband Rich at Wagamama's after wandering around the German christmas market again...

And all of that in just one week! Phew!

And next week is no better - I've got a leaving do with the Sutton SA crew tonight in Epsom, Kid's Christmas services tomorrow (my band is playing), shock, horror - a night off on Monday night (although Agnieszka wants to meet up), then we're taking 70 odd kids on a 4 day outdoor team building music camp extravaganza to Bowles Outdoor Education Centre...!

No wonder I say, 'Stop the World, I want to get off!' And I've still got silly boxes to pack!!!!! Aaaaggghhhhh!

Moore Updates From The London Jazz Festival

So as I said in a previous post, its the London Jazz Festival at the moment, and boy is there a lot going on!

I was unfortunately unable to get tickets to Herbie Hancock, such a bummer, would've loved to go, and also didn't manage to get tickets to Chick Corea, which I would also have loved to have heard, but hey, again, they were sold out.

So, I hear you say, what did you actually get to go and see?  To be fair, not that much in the end, but the stuff I saw was sheer quality.  I managed the other day to get to hear again Take Six and an amazing guy called Cleveland Watkiss, who was just brill.  He had this electronic foot pedal thing, the same that Freddy LaFont from Vocal Sampling used at the World Choral Symposium recently, which allows you to record something and then loop it straight away.  He was just amazing!  We'd got there a little late but we managed to hear quite a few numbers (I went with Ira and Jean) and although I don't know what they were, they were just captivating, as you heard him lay down each layer one after the other.  Just lovely.

Then we heard Take Six, who as usual, were just brilliant.  They've put out a new album now, called 'The Standard', which is a collection of mostly Jazz and some RnB standards, but to be honest, they didn't perform all that many from that album, preferring to stick to some of their older stuff (which we were very happy about).  The funniest moment was when they did a trip down memory lane and the young bloke did his Michael Jackson impersonation, which was very good and very, very funny.  They are just so talented, so musical - and I enjoyed every second of the performance.

Then today I went up town to catch a bit more jazz, and saw the wonderful Tokyo Chutei-Iki, a 10 piece Baritone Saxophone ensemble, performing at Foyle's Bookshop on Charing Cross Road.  Oh my goodness, how fabulous were they!  I've never heard anything quite like it...  Just astonishing - I had absolutely no idea you could do that with a baritone saxophone!  Here's a few pics I managed to sneak on my phone...

Then on Sunday, being the Festival finale, although I had missed getting tickets to Chick Corea, I managed to get a ticket to hear the Bireli Lagrene Trio and Martin Taylor.  It's quite funny how I managed to get these tickets, because I knew that Major Mingay and Neil were going to be going up to hear them, and had tickets, but I hadn't got any and didn't really want to gate crash - so I happened to mention to Neil that I thought I would maybe go up and see if I could get a ticket.  He told me the row they were in, and low and behold, the only seat left in that row was right next to theirs!  So I snapped that up real quick...

Anyway, Martin Taylor was on first, he's a guitarist with just the most beautiful touch, his music was beautiful.  The write up in Time Out advertising this event went like this:

Dream double bill for guitar fans featuring our own internationally acclaimed solo guitar virtuoso Taylor and phenomenal French gypsy jazz master Lagrene. Both pay tribute to iconic jazz violinist (and their old boss) Stephane Grappelli in the 100th year of his birth. Taylor opens with a unique duet with himself (using pre-recorded parts) creating beautifully interwoven lines, before the sparks fly in a frantic gypsy jazz guitar face-off with Lagrene.

I have to say they were right, it was a 'dream double bill'.  Taylor played on his own for a bit, amazing improvs, and then Lagrene came on and improv'd with him - so clever his music was, cleverly weaving snippets of famous tunes in and out of his improv, it was just wonderful.  And then the trio played, again that was amazing.  They were finally joined again by Taylor for the big finale and received 2 encores.

What a fab festival!

Femi Kuti and the Positive Force

Every November, for around 10 days, the London Jazz Festival takes place at music venues all around London.  The festival is absolutely magnificent, its a wonderful opportunity to hear some absolutely top quality musicians from all round the world at very reasonable prices - and because its an annual event, you'd think I'd be able to sort myself out to find out in advance what's going on, so I can give myself the best chance at scoring some top seats for some brilliant gigs.  But alas, this is me we're talking about - and whilst I can make a fair stab of organising stuff in my job, I'm rubbish at it in my home life.  So again, the Jazz Festival arrives - and I manage to secure very cheap (£2.50 anyone?) tickets for the kids to some good gigs (its part of the 'New Audiences' programme), but I never manage to book anything for myself.

So last night I was sitting there at the Royal Festival Hall with 15 or so kids from school waiting to see Femi Kuti, son of legendary Fela Kuti, and as you do, I was leafing through the festival brochure - and kicking myself.  Absolutely kicking myself.  Why?  Because I discovered, whilst sitting there, that tomorrow night, Saturday night, Herbie Hancock was performing.  Herbie Hancock!  Wow, that would've been fab - and I say would've, because as we all know, the tickets would be sold out by now (and they were - I checked).  So what an opportunity missed.

But I'm determined not to miss anything else if I can.  So hopefully, fingers crossed, this week I'll get to see Take 6, Andy Sheppard (who wrote the Saxophone Massive thing I did last year) and maybe even Chick Corea... if I can get tickets, that is...

So anyway, back to Femi Kuti.  The concert was pretty good, my only criticism was that it went way too long (for me with my 15 kids who needed to be home at a reasonable hour).  Femi didn't come on until the second half, after the supporting artist Ayo, a French singer who was very good.  But anyway, when he got on - well, I obviously never saw Fela Kuti in real life, but from all accounts, he was very flamboyant, energetic, extremely talented performer - and this was how Femi was.  To be fair, I wasn't quite expecting all the dancing, and all the singing (and all the political stuff) but hey, it was still a very good concert.  He played both trumpet and saxophone, and really wasn't bad at either.  Oh and a bit of keyboard too.

So let's see if we can get to anything else in the Jazz Festival, eh?  Need to make the most of these opportunities while I can...

 

The Most Stupid Thing I Ever Heard

For those who don't know, my school is in a borough of London called Lambeth. It's one of the toughest in terms of gangs, gun crime, knife crime - and generally some parts of the borough e.g. Brixton are considered to be very unpleasant places to live. This has repercussions on the classroom (seeing as many of the kids live in Brixton), as we have some of the toughest, hardest kids you would ever hope to meet. You know you can cut it as a teacher if you can teach in a Lambeth school (and by teach, I mean - keep the kids in the class and not killing each other!).

So that's why I think this has just got to be the most stupid, most absurd thing I've ever heard:

Foot massages calm unruly pupils

Disruptive schoolchildren in south London will be given foot massages by therapists to help get their aggressiveness under control.

Reflexologists will visit 74 primary and secondary schools in Lambeth and tend to children under 13.

Lambeth Council has budgeted £90,000 next year for reflexologists from London-based charity Bud Umbrella.

The council said it makes "no apologies for using different and innovative methods" to tackle aggressive children.

"We need to deal with the root causes of young people's behavioural problems and nip them in the bud" - Lambeth Council spokeswoman

Bud Umbrella's website says the therapy can calm aggressive feelings, improve listening skills and concentration as well as relieve anxiety and stress.

A spokeswoman for Lambeth Council said: "We make no apologies for using different and innovative methods, but this obviously won't replace more traditional ways of dealing with anti-social behaviour.

"We need to deal with the root causes of young people's behavioural problems and nip them in the bud."

The council said it had put an extra £2m into youth services and its programmes used traditional and innovative measures to tackle anti-social behaviour.

It said its programmes had led to a 50% increase in attendance and 60% decrease in exclusions among young people in the borough.

Reflexologists apply pressure on specific points on the feet to treat a number of conditions.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/london/7707019.stm

Published: 2008/11/03 18:43:52 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

What?!  You've got to be kidding, right?  Now isn't that the most stupid thing you ever heard?  

You know it was so stupid that even LBC, "London's Biggest Conversation" had something to say about it - and I can assure it was not in the least bit complementary.  What stupid burke thought up this one?  Any idiot can see that this is a completely ridiculous idea.

So when little Miss X (because I can't use her name, I'm still at the school) kicks off this week in my lessons, I'm supposed to be assured that her behaviour will be dealt with seriously and severely by a ... reflexologist?  (What does that even mean, anyway, aren't they just people who test your reflexes?  Suppose it wouldn't be so bad if Miss X got a whack on the knee with a hammer when she got sent out...) 

It seriously beggars belief, and poses the question - what planet are these people on?! - cos it sure ain't the same as the rest of us!  I dare any of the idiotic bureaucrats who came up with this dumb idea to come into my classroom after their 'treatment' has been administered - and just see how 'beneficial' its been to the student... bet they wouldn't last 5 minutes in the class!

What is the world coming to?

Oh How I Hate Packing!

Aaagghhhh!  I have literally been tearing my hair out the past few days with this silly packing!  I'm beginning to think that coming home was not really the smartest idea I've ever had...

You see, there's not enough room in my room to build the boxes, dump stuff, document every single tiny little thing that I pack, actually pack the stuff - and then try to heft the box down the stairs ready for the fella to pick up this week.  Its just madness!  So I started to move everything I needed to pack out into the garage, but the weather has been rubbish, and it is absolutely freezing cold in there - so there's no way I can stay any length of time in there and pack.  Therefore Jean suggested I put everything in the living room, as it'll only be there a few days, which I've done - but it is still painstakingly slow going - and very emotional, too, as I try to chuck out as much as I can.  But you can't chuck out photos, and you can't chuck out souvenirs that you bought, and you can't chuck out many clothes as - let's be honest - I won't be paid for about 2 months, so I won't really be able to go out and buy new clothes now will I?

So I had made quite good progress on the packing front, and then today I phoned up Anglo Pacific to book my collection date, and found out that every single little wooden thing has to be put into a different box, to make it easier for the customs guys - so that has now meant unpacking everything already packed!  Aaaggghhh!  It's enough to make my brown eyes turn... RED!!!!

Anyway, bring on Thursday when the whole bang lot will have had to have gone...

Tearing my hair out!

Two hours on, and there's still so much to pack! 

(in fact it looks like there's even more to do than there was before...!)