A class act....

04 September 200823:41:18 o'clock BST Feeling Exhausted Hearing Various ipod shuffles

It's been some time since I managed to rouse my weary bones enough to splurge a few lines in the blog. Unlike some of those friends I aspire to emulate who blog daily, sometimes more that once a day, or at least weekly. It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's just that, as usual, I'm up to the armpits in activities! School is back in and I an the proud owner of a surprisingly good P6 class! They are really quite delightful and on the whole, they are seemingly biddable and keen to learn.... well a lot of them are, and even the ones who aren't so keen are nice kids anyway!
The holiday in Egypt was a corker, the cruise down the Nile was blissful and I loved visiting the temples and ancient sites and monuments. I was sort of expecting to feel a sort of primeval 'coming home' sensation - every time I've been in Greece I have felt completely at home and as if I could happily live there, and I suppose I felt that I would feel the same way about Egypt. Yet there was something about it that I was able to remain relatively detached from it. The sheer size of Karnak and Luxor, not to mention the Pyramids, takes your breath away and you can't help but wonder not only how they were able to build them, but how did they design and decide on the shapes. What made them want such massive edifices in the first place. How did they come up with the idea of such collossal places - places that people didn't even live in - just the Gods! How were they able to carve, without the aid of machines, hundreds of identical statues to line the causeways from one temple to another, and to line the courtyards of the temples? It is, to quote the King of Siam, 'a puzzlement' Anyhoo, the other considerations - the boat, the food, the weather and the company were absolutely fantastic! We met up with some really terrific people and have kept in touch since we came home, in fact we've all met up since we came home!! Very nice and I'm hoping we'll continue to keep in touch! The second week was a bit of a let down though. We were expecting a five star hotel such as we had been in, in Tunisia, but we got a staggeringly gi-normous impersonal resort, with nothing to do but lie about in the sun and bake or sit in you room and watch telly. We're not sun worshippers but I wasn't going all that way to sit and watch telly!!! So we spent most mornings under a sun canopy, reading some of the dozen or so books we took with us and the afternoons wandering about the complex while Alistair had a doze. We spent our evening playing cards with a couple from the boat who were in our hotel - there weren't many - and had a fairly good time. The hotel was very impressive but the food was rubbish. Another niggly thing was the smoke from the ciggie suckers who were everywhere - we are really blessed here in Britain that smoking is forbidden in public places - you take it for granted now, but you really appreciate it when you go abroad and they are all puffing away polluting the atmosphere! So, there we are a short ramble on the holidays.
I' going to bed now as it's late and I have to be up very early again tomorrow. I may manage another burble soon... don't wait up.
Till next time.

11 June 2008
18:04:39 o'clock BST Feeling Stressed Hearing The sound of my high blood pressure.... Edit Entry Delete Entry
It's the Final Countdown
Well the final two weeks are perched like vutures on the near horizon. This week has been a manic and stress filled one. I have spent all my time getting as many things finished in the classroom as possible. Displays, topics, maths and language programs, reading books and all that goes alongside. Seems daft to be panicking about getting the displays up as I'll be hauling them down next week, but them's the breaks! I will spend a great deal of time this evening putting together a last week booklet of activities for my class and will spend tomorrow after school photocopying it and binding it! We have a trip to the Glasgow Science Centre on Monday and the School Sports Day on Tuesday so it's a very short week and I'm not holding out much hope for getting anything important done.
However, on the up side, I have been given the maternity cover for Mairi from August till March and so that's a major plus point!! I have time now to find a full time permanent job without having to sell my organs or body....parts! Having a wage is extremely important as I have a horrendous amount of accrued debt from my Post Grad year. I had hoped to get rid of major chunks of it this year and, on paper, it looked possible, but reality reared it's ugly head and I'm not much better off. Maybe next year will allow me to get more paid off. Student loans are an awful thing, I'm hoping I can afford to pay the girls through Uni so they don't have to have one. So, can rest easy and really enjoy my holiday to Egypt, knowing I don't have to penny pinch. I got told today that I'm funded for the first three weeks of the term, even though Mairi won't go off till the beginning of September and This means I can start fresh with my Primary 6 class and get set up before the term begins and get my guff put up on the walls. Oh the fun!!!!!
Getting grief from Victoria who wants to use the computer for her homework. Huh! Some cheek eh? Anyway I'd better let her go on or she won't have time to finish up before bedtime.
Till next time