Monday 1st March - the Toughest Day

 It's not Monday 1st March that is my toughest teaching day, it is any Monday in term-time!

And now, at supper time, I can slowly let myself relax, settle, wind down, slow down...

These days my maximum number of lessons on any day is four, and the most in-a-row is three. However did I manage to teach between ten and thirteen lessons every day, just a year ago?

The amount of physical, mental and nervous energy consumed varies hugely from lesson to lesson, it just so happens that Mondays are 'expensive' in terms of energy demand, which is why I end up more or less incapable of speech, movement, or any intelligent thought. There is a risk that today's blog post might be just a whinge if I'm not careful! I think it is trickier to deal with these lessons over zoom - being a physical presence in the teaching space one can accomplish so much with facial expression, body posture, which is completely ineffectual via a screen. 

There was the occasion that a student carried on playing, paying no attention to the points we had been discussion, so I just started playing 'chopsticks' on my piano at home... her face, when she finally stopped murdering a piece of music and looked up...  

So, if I have only taught four piano lessons, what else has happened today?

The Dolby Vivisol engineer came to do the routine service on the oxygen concentrator that sits close to my side of the bed, which I use at night. That has exercised our combined planning skills for a few days. In the end we opened all the windows, closed off the doors to the downstairs rooms, and spread a towel over the bed and my bedside table. He came, masked and gloved, and was escorted upstairs and watched minutely to check which surfaces he touched. After he had gone, the towels were put in the washing machine and all surfaces wiped. were we too fussy? No, after all he goes from house to house all day.

He is only the second person who has stepped into our house since March last year. The other man was - the Dolby Vivisol engineer, six months ago, for the routine service!

There have been a few deliveries, (it's His birthday quite soon) and various jobs completed around the house. Knitting has happened, and a bit of baking (Apple Scone pudding-ish sort of thing to use some apple discovered in the freezer).

Apart from that.... oh, the tea-pot cosy has moved on a few rows. Well, to be truly truthful, it will have moved on a few rows by bedtime!