Review of the Year
Well, it's New Year's Eve and everybody else is doing it, so I thought I might as well, since I'm here in front of the computer anyway. The Madwoman's domestic review of the year.
January - We weren?t too badly affected by the snow, though schools and Colleges were closed for 3 days. The boys had a great time. They may be teenagers but they still like to build snowmen and have snowball fights. The cats were somewhat less than impressed by the snow and stayed in until all risk of cold paws was gone. I managed to come down with some unspecified lurgy and ended up being signed off work for 5 weeks, not fun.
February - Nothing much. Half term came and went, I worked through it, trying to catch up and also trying to undo the damage that the supply lecturer did to my classes. She appeared to be nothing more than a menace. I had an argument with her within the first 10 minutes of meeting her. Apparently we weren't managing our time properly because we didn't have a telephone directory in the office (it's on the intranet) and we also didn't have a year planner on the wall in the office. Hellooo we are a Computing department, we use IT systems, including timetable software (it's a database) and Outlook why do we need a planner on the wall?
March - Busy month, still trying to get back on track. We were still working with unsuitable accommodation and having to work in 4 different buildings.
April - I officially became the short person in the family. No. 2 son had a growth spurt and shot past me. He's still growing, well over 6ft tall now. No. 1 son has also grown, and maintains his height advantage over his brother.
May - A/S exams for No.1 son and some GCSE module exams for No. 2 son. I sang in the Messiah at the Royal Festival Hall. Then the boys and I went camping for a few days at half term. The Isle of Wight was warm and sunny and not windy for the whole time we were there. That was a new experience, the first time ever we have been camping and not endured wind and rain. Both boys want to go back there as soon as possible, so we might think about that for 2012.
June - More exams for the boys and the final push on to get the results we needed at work. Of course most of the good students were pretty much finished by this point, but we still had to nag, drag, push and bully the duffers through so that they could finish their qualifications. Nobody said a word of thanks (naturally).
July - End of term for all of us. I got into a "use it or lose it" situation with my holidays so I decided to use it. That was good. On the less good side No. 2 son's cat, Hoopy, vanished and, despite leafleting the area and going out searching for her there was no sign. I sung with The Really Big Chorus at the Royal Albert Hall. That was good fun, as always.
August - is holiday month for us. Because himself is always busy during A level results week the boys and I go away that week, just to get out from under his feet. This year we went to Wales (camping again) on the western edge of the Snowdonia National Park. It rained for at least some of every day and it was also cold. Not cool, but cold. Twice it was so cold by 9pm that we could see condensation when we breathed out. That's colder than it was here at 9pm yesterday! Luckily we have a good tent, so we didn't get wet, but it was seriously cold at night. We now have a tent heater. We went to Harlech and Aberystwyth and did a fair bit of walking one way and another. No. 2 son managed to fail to pack his insulin needles so we spent the first day, trying to locate a chemist who had some. The Medical Centre in Bala was fantastic and looked after us brilliantly. We had to drive a fair distance but we did get the needles in the end.
September - Back to school time for us. I don't know (well, actually I do know but I'm not telling) who it was dithered about for so long on rooming allocation that we ended up moving our entire staff room from one building to another in the middle of Admin week when we were interviewing and enrolling new students. Of course then we had to change all the rooms on the timetable and check that they all had the correct software installed on the computers. 2 years ago my main teaching room was in an old building, it was large enough to get 20 computers round the edge and a table in the middle big enough to seat 20 students round easily. The air conditioning worked. I am now in the new building, there is barely enough room to get 20 computers round the outside (and no room to put notepads or anything next to the keyboards as there was before), I can fit maybe 10 students round the table in the middle - as long as I don't want to walk round and look at what they are doing. There is no air-conditioning and even with the windows (and half of *them* don't open at all) and door open (onto a busy corridor) it is still much too hot. This is progress?
October - Good news. Hoopy turned up. We had had no news of her and since she is micro-chipped we were a bit worried. We got a phone call from the vet at the other end of town. Somebody had taken her in and she had been well looked after . The vet had been trying to sterilise her, but it had already been done, so he re-scanned her and found the chip. We were all very pleased to have her back. Well, all apart from Toffee, the other cat, who isn?t impressed. No trip away this half term, though No. 1 son and I went to my mother's house and cleaned it while she was away with my sister. No. 1 son lost his job and was part relieved and part upset. He's still looking for a new job, so if anybody wants a good part time (evenings and weekends) junior chef I know where you can find one.
November - We got the dining room back. For most of the summer we have had the contents of the sheds inside the house. The taxi firm who had their garage/office adjoining our garden moved elsewhere and the building was sold. The new owner pulled it down and built a house there, but of course the scaffolding had to go somewhere and since their house wall is our garden boundary wall, it went in our garden ? right where the sheds were. They came down, and everything came into the house so we were minus a dining room from the first week in July. All is back to normal (more or less) now though. The scaffolding has gone even if the house itself isn?t finished yet. I sung in "The Armed Man" with my choir mid-month, that seemed to go down quite well.
December - This was mainly Christmas preparation. Some singing with the choir, the usual rushing about. Of course I have the disadvantage of having 2 major birthdays to contend with since both Himself and my mother have birthdays in December, and so did my father. Now we are looking forward to the new year. We have avoided the sales so far, since we have no money to spend and anyway who wants to go shopping? Yesterday I was driving past Bluewater at about 1pm and was horror struck by the sheer volume of traffic trying to get into the place. Have these people nothing better to do than just shop? Have they no life? I was on my way to a concert (see previous post). Today I am planning to settle down with a book for a while before preparing the family dinner and spending time with my family. With any luck it will be at least another week before I set foot in any shop, and possibly longer.
Oh well, it could be worse. Happy New Year everybody.
Date posted: 31 Dec 2011
Distinctly Less than Brilliant
I took my mother to see the "Glen Miller Orchestra" yesterday. She enjoyed it immensely. I was less impressed. Several issues for me though. First off the sound balance was wrong. The singers (especially the female solos) were virtually inaudible above the sound of the band. Surely they can do a better mixing job than that. Then there was too little space on the stage for the dancers - though they were pretty good - to work properly. The male soloist sounded like a cross between Max Bygraves and Tony Bennet with a sore throat. There was a Vera Lynn section, and I detest Vera Lynn. I think it's the sound of her voice that puts me off, which is not great when you are allegedly singing.
The band, particularly in the first half, wasn't on the top of their game. They weren't very much together and they should have been. That splashing noise was Glenn Miller, spinning in the depths of the ocean somewhere. Let's face it, the repertoire is limited, stylistically pretty much the same, so there's no excuse for poor execution.
The band was not helped by their "leader" who stood out of sight of half the band most of the time. Not that it made any difference because nobody in the band was looking at him anyway. I could just hear the comments of the musical director of the choir I sing with about people who don't pay attention. In between the bits where he was waving his hands about with no clear purpose, the orchestra leader talked to us, introducing the songs and whatnot. Either he was drunk or he had very poorly fitting (just like the costumes) false teeth. He repeatedly addressed the audience as what I think was "Laydiz and journalmen"
However, the worst was yet to come. The band played a rendition of what was allegedly Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue". I say allegedly because it was like no version I have ever heard - including Miller's. The tempi were all over the place (not an uncommon occurrence during the concert), the piano was inaudible and the different sections of the band didn't seem to be able to hear what other sections were doing.
The second half of the concert was an improvement. The group of people along the row from me didn't wait long enough to hear it - they left at the interval, never to be seen again. I don't know what was said to the band during the interval break, but there was a greater focus on the core Miller material and I suspect that helped. The band leader (didn't catch his name, the announcement was muffled) indicated that a standing ovation would be in order and they got it. It would have taken wild horses to get me out of my seat.
Date posted: 31 Dec 2011
Strange Happenings
Not all that strange as things go but still a bit odd for us. The boys and I went away for a few days holiday during half term. I mean actually away somewhere, not just lying around the house or going on day trips. The original plan was to get No. 2 son out of No. 1 son's way while he revised for his AS exams. Except No.1 son only had 1 exam after half term, most of them were before it. So, instead of staying home and revising, he came with us and we took the big tent instead of the little one.
We didn't go far, just to the Isle of Wight. We didn't go luxury, we camped. It was really good. Not only was it not very windy, but the sun shone all week. This has never happened before. Never in the history of the Madwoman camping with the kids has this happened. The longest sunny spell we have had before was 2 days. We always seem to get wind and/or rain when we go away. That's why the tent has a sewn in ground sheet, fewer draghts and less chance of waking up in a puddle. That's the theory. The tent needs a few minor repairs, replacement guy ropes and a coupld of replacement toggles but the biggest need is new tent pegs. We managed to bend almost all of them. The dry weather had made the ground incrediby hard. Once I have counted how many we will need no doubt we will be off to the camping shop to get some more. We are off to North Wales in August. Somehow I doubt we will have the same kind of problem.
Date posted: 12 Jun 2011
Teachers Arithmetic
You know it's getting towards the summer when people start whingeing about the long holidays teachers get. As people start coming back from their cheap off-peak, out of season holidays they took their kids on because they, after all, have a "right" to take their kids away on holiday, even if it is disruptive. Why complain now? Because this is the time of year when some people realise that the free baby sitting service called school isn't available in the summer.
Let's look at a little teaching arithemetic shall we? Teachers are required to teach a certain number of hours in a year. In my case that's 865. Spread out over an academic year of 36 weeks that works out at just on 24 hours per week. That means actual teaching time, when I am in a classroom with other people's children. Generally speaking, every hour taught generates an hour of preparation, and another hour of marking. So every teaching hour gets multiplied by 3. That gives 2595 hours a year teaching and related duties. Now, add to that staff meetings; if it's only an hour per week then that's an extra 36 hours (I doubt it is as little as an hour per week but it'll do as a ball park figure). That gives 2631 hours. Now add on communication with parents, carers, social workers. On a day to day basis that's probably another hour a week - on a quiet week. So another 36 hours gives 2664 hours. Now add formal parents evenings, say 3 per term and 3 hours each (usually 6pm to 9pm but not always) that's another 27 hours, giving 2694. Add to that report writing; a class of 20 kids (and it's usually 30 or more), done properly, can take 2 hours. An average teacher might have to do that for 10 classes over the course of the year. That's another 20 hours, making 2,714. I'm not adding in things like school concerts, trips, sports days, and all the other things teachers do for the "love" of it. Assume then a 40 hour week. To work that number of hours the average teacher would have to work for 67.75 weeks per year. It isn't until a teacher works 60 hour weeks that the number of working weeks drops to just over 45, which gives 7 weeks holiday.
Put it another way, if a teacher is at the top of the pay scale they will be paid 31,552 GBP per year. That is working outside London and not getting extra allowances for additional duties. This gives an hourly pay rate of less than 12 GBP. For somebody who has trained for a minimum of 4 years (degree and teaching qualification), who frequently has a higher degree and who does a lot of professional updating in the course of their work.
Teachers are judged every time they step into a classroom, by 30 very observant pairs of eyes. Those eyes often belong to children of parents who don't value education, who say frequently, and loudly, that teachers have an easy life and are over paid. Those children often seem to think that they have the right to disrupt a class and fail to do their work. There is no hiding place. Teachers can't have "off" days when they aren't quite on top form, because somebody's child will be looking to take advantage of the slightest apparent weakness.
If you are a parent of a child, of any age, ask yourself this; can you make your child do something they don't really want to do (like sit still, read something, write something, leave the mobile alone, don't surf the Internet, don't talk) for an hour? For 6 hours? While your child is in the same room with 30 of his or her friends, who also don't really want to do it?
Still think teachers have an easy life?
Date posted: 16 May 2011
Not quite the relaxing summer I hoped for
That about sums it up. We ended the academic year with the threat of redundancies in our department. This soon turned out to not be a threat but reality. Two of our seven and a half members of teaching staff were made redundant. We all had to re-apply for our jobs and generally justify our existence. I was OK but it was a very stressful time
We started the summer holidays with himself in hospital. A fairly major infection which took a while to sort out kept him in for 10 days. My peaceful few days at home before the school holidays started didn't happen as I was in and out to the hospital, visiting and delivering supplies.
After that, I was working a couple of days every week to get things organised for the new academic year. My mother was here for a week but we didn't do much, which included several things I had meant to do. We have a new kitten (number 2 son's birthday present) which is fun but time-consuming, expecially cleaning up after it or chasing number 2 son to clean up after it.
Our main holiday was spent camping just south of the Lake District at Bolton-le-Sands. It was good, the first three days especially so, as it was warm and sunny and there was no wind! That last point is significant. By the Wednesday of our stay, the wind was getting up a bit. On the Thursday night I got very little sleep because of the noise. Not too worried about the tent falling down, but the noise was awful. Not only was everything flapping about but there was heavy rain as well. Even light rain makes a fair amount of noise on a tent roof. The boys, of course, slept through most of it, even number 2 son who managed to forget to do a BM before he had his bedtime snack and had a hypo about 10 minutes after he'd finished. So we were up quite late while he ate a couple of bowls of breakfast cereal. I woke him up every few hours to check he was actually asleep and not in a coma, but he was fine. The last night of our stay we came back to the tent after a day out and the back had blown in. One of the guys had snapped and the pegs across the back attaching it to the ground were out. Luckily we had some spare pegs so we double pegged the back and tied the guy together and survived the night. Another night without much sleep.
Number 1 son has been working a lot this summer. He has been doing split shifts and zooming back and forth on the train. He had a great time and is enjoying spending some of his income. Of course, it's not much fun for us when he phones at just after 11pm to say he's missed the last train (or it has been cancelled) and he needs to be collected (him and his bike - which is actually my bike). He got his GCSE results this week and they are OK. Not as good as we had hoped, but a lot better than we feared. We did the school supplies shopping this week, he starts 6th form in ten days time.
Number 2 son is just starting his GCSEs this year. It will be a tough couple of years all round because he's not known for doing homework or coursework so it could be a complete nightmare. Almost every negative comment on his reports for the last three years have been for lack of homework, now it's a lot more important. He wants to get better results than Number 1 son. It's possible, but not if he doesn't get his act together. We have still to get his school stuff sorted out, including new shoes which isn't easy, given he's a size 13 already, just like his brother.
At the moment my mother is in hospital having been admitted in the middle of the night by ambulance. Chest pains. It seems not to have been anything serious and she may go home today. I will still need to nip up there (over a 100 miles each way) to make sure she has everything she needs, like food and milk and to see that she's OK. Good timing Mum, I really need to be doing that on a Bank Holiday Weekend when the world and his family will be driving somewhere. I'm not even thinking about the M25 roadworks which took me almost an hour to get through last time I went.
I still have some things I need to sort out before starting back at work properly but they won't take long, I hope. I went in one day this week and did nothing but go to meetings and do student enrolments. I hate meetings!
Maybe next term will be a little less activity packed. I can hope I suppose.
Date posted: 28 Aug 2010
A difficult time
It has been a tough few weeks in the Madwoman's household. Himself's mother died suddenly on Easter Sunday. Basically her heart stopped. A nice way to go for her, but not so much fun for the family, especially for her oldest grandchild who went to see if she was alright and found her. That must have been really hard for him.
So, the funeral was arranged and of course we all went. All four of her children with their partners, all of her nine grandchildren and the older ones took their partners. The funeral was held at the church mother-in-law attended regularly and the minister spoke about how she made such a good contribution to the church community with her husband (who died some time ago) and in her own right. He talked about how their marriage had been a real partnership. He talked also about how important mother-in-law's Christian faith was to her and how she lived a good life. Lots of people got up and talked about how mother-in-law loved her family, her children and grandchildren. How she was a kind and generous person.
She loved her children so much that she only remembered two of the four in her will. Not as in she only left things to those two, but as in she only mentioned those two. There was not a single mention of any grandchildren, except in the case that one of the named children would fail to inherit, nor of her sister (who was so distressed that she was too ill to attend the funeral).Not surprisingly, some people feel rather upset. Himself and I were not surprised to be left out since we never expected anything different, but having those expectations confirmed stung a bit. Not even being mentioned stung a bit more. We, and the other invisible family members, are not to receive even a momento to remember her passing or her existence.
The two offspring who were mentioned have decided to "honour" her memory. Fair enough. Except, I doubt that their children will get exactly what was left to them in the will, so I'm not quite convinced about the honouring bit.
One of the least thrilling experiences of my life was having to explain to my children that their Nana, despite what she said, and despite what was said at the funeral, really didn't care for them very much. It would have been nice not to have had to explain it, but they are Facebook friends with their cousins and some of those cousins were very angry at the way their parents had been treated and said so. Personally I think that anybody can leave their money to anyone or anything they want, it's their money, but obviously a quarter share in something has to be better than a kick in the teeth. I'm glad we didn't have to jump through the hoops that the others did to get included. Mind you, going to watch football with your mother once a week (unless something more interesting comes along) isn't that difficult, especially if you aren't going to be allowed to watch football at home, but I digress.
Betrayal is word that keeps popping into my mind. That woman betrayed everybody, the beneficiaries and the others. What she didn't do was betray her relationship with her long dead spouse, he dominated her right to the end, and she let him.
Date posted: 09 May 2010
Are these people real?
A friend directed me to this article
I know it's aimed at Americans, but really, how daft do you have to be to feed your kids some of the muck they are talking about? I doubt it's just an American problem. Do people not read the writing on the side of the packet? All those years getting decent labelling on packets of processed foods and people don't bother to read them. This article puched so many buttons for me that I don't know where to start.
"Ditch the kids' yogurt and replace it with simple, real, wholesome yogurt not marketed as a "fun" food or to kids."
How about "don't buy any food marketed as being fun for kids". Now, that's a novel idea, letting kids eat real food. I don't see whe people think feeding kids has to be fun or difficult or anything. My kids ate pretty much the same as us right from their first solids. Now No. 1 son eats almost anything and No. 2 son eats most things. They are not picky eaters, and we must have saved hundreds of pounds by not buying special food. If I am not prepared to eat something then I'm certainly not going to offer it to my children.
"Can the instant oatmeal and instead opt for whole oats you can microwave."
They mean porridge. What's wrong with cooking it in a saucepan? It'll taste nicer, the texture will be better, and you won't have to scrape dried-on porridge from inside the microwave either.
"Be picky about the peanut butter you choose and pick the brands with fewer ingredients."
The peanut butter I buy has only one ingredient, peanuts. I don't get putting other things into it. Why would you? I once accidentally bought some American peanut butter. One mouthful and I spat it out, talk about disgusting. What kind of moron puts sugar in peanut butter? No wonder kids are getting fat if they have sugar in everything.
I always used to read the labels on processed food, because I want to know what I am eating. Now, with No. 2 son a type 1 diabetic that has become even more important. Too much food has too much sugar in it. Low fat foods are positively toxic in many cases because of what they put in to replace the flavour and bulk provided by the fat. In terms of processed food I buy bread, soups, some breakfast cereal (the 100% wholemeal sort or porridge), butter, cheese and whole milk greek-style yoghurt, jam and marmalade, some cooked meats like ham and so on and the occasional pack of sausages and cans of soup, tuna, tomato and baked and other processed beans like borlotti beans and chick peas. That's pretty much it. Meat and vegetables are fresh or frozen, and I cook our dinner from scratch almost every night and I know what's in it. There is nothing difficult about this, it doesn't take any longer to cook a dinner for 4 people than to cook one dinner for children and a different dinner for adults and there's a whole lot less washing up. That could be a new slogan "Save the planet - feed your kids real food."
Date posted: 04 Mar 2010
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