I'd have to read through the pen-and-paper journal I keep in order to work out what has been happening since 11th April.
Back then, it was still the Easter holidays. A sort of leisure time - at least it was a not-teaching-children time.
(I still think of my first ever day of class music teaching, on the first day of term in January 2001; me, waiting nervously in the school hall mentally reviewing the lesson I had planned, and then the sudden roaring invasion of 33 seven-year-old boys. It was an ordinary state, mixed primary, but obviously something had affected the statistics for boys and girls and births seven years earlier. I emerged from the school hall several hours later having taught three classes, and reeling from the experience. Phrases like 'baptism of fire', 'lion taming', 'chimpanzee's tea party at London Zoo', reverberated round my mind as I staggered to the car and wobbled back home for a lie-down in a darkened room. Things have changed since then, but there are still days when I feel like I've been spinning plates for several hours.)
Where was I - oh yes, April 2018. I collected my new car on the Friday, that would have been the thirteenth (don't say it - I spent the whole day not thinking it) and dreading the drive home. To be honest, I had hated the car when I drove it at the beginning of the week - it seemed alien and wilful and sluggish and All Wrong. However, on Friday, after it had been thoroughly sorted out in the workshop, the horrible brakes had become efficient and predictable, the steering less surprising, the gear box more accommodating, and by the time I got home All Was Well. Since then I have driven several hundred miles and am slowly learning the final details -
indicators - switching and cancelling - check
windscreen wipers - check
rear windscreen wiper - still getting random results when I try to switch them on
Heating - check- I can switch it on (necessary for the end of April) and off (necessary for the beginning of May)
Radio 4 and Classic FM in the presets - check
Lights - probably OK - I haven't driven much in the dark yet
My next challenge is the air-conditioning. I suspect it may possibly be the snowflake symbol but I need to read the manual.
The term started on Monday 16th April - with an inset day at one of the schools. Bank holidays and inset days and SATS exam week and year 5 residential trip and two routine hospital clinic days have all played havoc with trying to schedule lessons, but I think I have managed to cram them all into this half of term.
Or I thought I had, until two routine doctor appointments, a staff training day, a broken tooth and a music festival added themselves to my diary.
The first of the clinic appointments has come and gone. No change to lung function HOORAY and THREE CHEERS! I'm always nervous when I am blowing up, no, into the weird machine in case things have taken a dive, and massively relieved when the result is 'same-old-same-old'. The consultant is also delighted to hear that I will be giving up class teaching at two schools at the end of July - that will mean 200 fewer children sneezing and snotting near me next winter.
The broken tooth is a minor affair - I'm not in any pain, and there are no sharp edges. Turns out part of an ancient crown has sheared off. I've chosen to have the crown replaced BEFORE it starts giving me any jip, and have managed to arrange an appointment for a time when I'm not teaching - perfect.
This coming week has the music festival, but only four days - phew - and next week the exam week, so there will be less teaching, and the following week is the one with my next clinic day, which means a day off teaching, and then it is half term.
I reckon I can get through this lot - so long as I can keep track of which pupils have been moved to which times because of all that is going on...
Right. That's enough for now - I'll write about the books I've been reading and the family doings next time. Hopefully sooner than next month!
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