I often have occasion to feel glad that it's not possible to see into the future. So, about the time on Friday afternoon that I was dropping a colleague off at home after a day in school and collecting Keith's prescriptions, he was busy slipping on ice outside the shop and breaking his ankle. Not content with doing things by halves, he broke it in two places and, just to finish the job off, chose the ulcerated one, which is giving him all the problems at the moment.
Once in the hospital, the doctors quickly realised that this was not going to be straightforward. Having plastered it to keep it stable for the x-ray, they then had to remove the plaster to assess the condition of the ulcer and surrounding skin as the first option was to put a plate in. However, as there was a strong possibility of introducing infection in such an operation, because of the ulcer, the consultant has decided to pin the bone on the outer side of the foot and manipulate the bone on the inner side where the skin is broken...................
in FIVE DAYS when the swelling has gone down.
Fortunately, as he is now on a self-administered morphine drip because of the combined pain of the break and the ulcer, he is taking a slightly more relaxed attitude to this prospect than he would be if he were fully compos mentis but, it ain't good.
Now you know why I tend to give the crystal ball a miss.
Great work if you can get it?
It's about 18 years since I last taught Nursery on a regular basis, which probably explains why I am feeling so exhausted at the end of each day! The Reception children are fine - they have been in school long enough to have become 'civilised.' They now understand the rules of the game of this thing called school, they know that when the teacher asks them to be quiet and listen, it's a good idea to comply - makes life easier all round.
Nursery, now they are in a different universe, especially if the general routine at home is along the lines of being allowed to do what they want, when they want and never having to do as they are asked, which seems to be the norm for a sizeable minority of the little treasures.
And so we have the daily routine - come in, drop coat on floor and walk over it, have a tantrum when made to pick it up and hang it on the peg, run round the room and roll around the floor when Miss is trying to get everyone settled and call the register, throw oneself on the floor when the classroom assistant intervenes and tries to persuade one to sit still like the other children. The next tactic is to start goading other children and disrupting their attention - and then of course, one has to have another screaming fit when chatised.
Myself, I would love to be a fly on the wall when these children are six foot teenagers and their parents are belatedly trying to exert some control over them. What goes around, comes around, as the Americans say!
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Nursery, now they are in a different universe, especially if the general routine at home is along the lines of being allowed to do what they want, when they want and never having to do as they are asked, which seems to be the norm for a sizeable minority of the little treasures.
And so we have the daily routine - come in, drop coat on floor and walk over it, have a tantrum when made to pick it up and hang it on the peg, run round the room and roll around the floor when Miss is trying to get everyone settled and call the register, throw oneself on the floor when the classroom assistant intervenes and tries to persuade one to sit still like the other children. The next tactic is to start goading other children and disrupting their attention - and then of course, one has to have another screaming fit when chatised.
Myself, I would love to be a fly on the wall when these children are six foot teenagers and their parents are belatedly trying to exert some control over them. What goes around, comes around, as the Americans say!
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Moving again
Told you I had a low boredom threshold! For the past week or so I have been creating my new blog at www.20six.co.uk and I have now decided to move there permanently. I have already put links to those of you on my Blogroll over there, so I hope you will put my new address on yours and come and visit me just as usual.
Reasons - apart from liking a change every now and then?
Well, it is much easier to change my colour scheme or template if I want to, you don't seem to get the problems of slow running and hold-ups that you do with Blogger and I like the layout generally. You can even set up categories for your posts according to their topic and you can have a photoblog running alongside it, although I haven't tried that yet. All this is available on the free version but there are two paid-for options as well.
So, see you there, folks. Don't let me down now!
Reasons - apart from liking a change every now and then?
Well, it is much easier to change my colour scheme or template if I want to, you don't seem to get the problems of slow running and hold-ups that you do with Blogger and I like the layout generally. You can even set up categories for your posts according to their topic and you can have a photoblog running alongside it, although I haven't tried that yet. All this is available on the free version but there are two paid-for options as well.
So, see you there, folks. Don't let me down now!
No signs yet!
Still waiting for those signs to go up, pointing the way for customers struggling through the roadworks to our shop. If I don't see them tomorrow, I guess I shall have to do some more shouting!
On the plus side, It's nice to be going home in half light these evenings instead of pitch black as the days begin to lengthen. Last year, when I was still teaching and charging back and forth to L:iverpool every day, I never saw the house in daylight, except at week-ends, for months. Come to think of it, I can't imagine how I ever got up at 5.30 every morning to set off on my journey at 6.30 ready to start my day in school at 7.30. Now I struggle to get up at 7 o'clock. I put it down to having to catch up on sleep after all those months of too-early rising!
On the plus side, It's nice to be going home in half light these evenings instead of pitch black as the days begin to lengthen. Last year, when I was still teaching and charging back and forth to L:iverpool every day, I never saw the house in daylight, except at week-ends, for months. Come to think of it, I can't imagine how I ever got up at 5.30 every morning to set off on my journey at 6.30 ready to start my day in school at 7.30. Now I struggle to get up at 7 o'clock. I put it down to having to catch up on sleep after all those months of too-early rising!
Council War
Having tried in vain last week to get someone at the council to talk to me about the effects the local roadworks are having on local businesses, I have been making further attempts this week. It's like being on a roundabout - to Highways, to Planning, back to Highways and so it goes on but no-one bothers to return my calls. Then, to add insult to injury, yesterday morning, as I drove to work, I saw council workmen putting up direction signs around the diversion route for the multi-national supermarket just up the road from us! As if they need the extra help more than we smaller businesses!
So I've been doing some shouting in my best deputy headteacher manner. Never mind about 'sorry, we don't think there's anything we can do....'
'I'm afraid our department can't help you....'
'Well, of course, you'd need planning permission to put up signs on the roadside.....'
Forget it, folks. Jenny's on the warpath. This is people's livelihoods we're talking about here!
All that shouting must have had some effect because, within the hour, I had the site foreman visiting us in the shop - and wiping his feet before he stepped off the mat! - and agreeing to have signs made with our name on, at no cost to us and placed on the main road and along the diversion.
How's that for a result?
It's just that a little voice in my head keeps muttering something about believing it when I see it........or is that me just being cynical?
So I've been doing some shouting in my best deputy headteacher manner. Never mind about 'sorry, we don't think there's anything we can do....'
'I'm afraid our department can't help you....'
'Well, of course, you'd need planning permission to put up signs on the roadside.....'
Forget it, folks. Jenny's on the warpath. This is people's livelihoods we're talking about here!
All that shouting must have had some effect because, within the hour, I had the site foreman visiting us in the shop - and wiping his feet before he stepped off the mat! - and agreeing to have signs made with our name on, at no cost to us and placed on the main road and along the diversion.
How's that for a result?
It's just that a little voice in my head keeps muttering something about believing it when I see it........or is that me just being cynical?
Christmas tree?
This is the set of spanners that Keith bought to use on the Camaro when he's working on it. Since he bought it, whenever it has not been in use, it has been sitting on the dining table, together with an assortment of other tools, sprays and tubes of noxious materials. However, Keith has great plans for these spanners. He has decided that, next Christmas, they would make a wonderful Christmas tree table decoration, once they have a few bits of tinsel thrown artistically over them. Considering that this is the man who, before I met him had a 7 inch 'Christmas tree' consisting of a few wires with lights on them and a 'Christmas wreath' nailed to the wall which remained up till the following year, I consider this to be probably one of his more reasonable ideas.
But that still won't stop me putting my foot down with a firm hand when next Christmas arrives.
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