Summer Holidays

This last week was the final week of the academic year for most schools in this Midlands. As such, this means its time for six weeks of sun, relaxation, and drinking.

Or would do, if I didn't live in Britain, where there's rarely any sun, and I can't really drink due to the painkillers I'm taking.

The folly of drinking with a bad back was exemplified yesterday. Went out for a meal with the Waterhouses down to the Ruby Cantonese, my favourite local Chinese restaurant. I knew it was the last day of term, and that they don't have the chance to go out and enjoy themselves all that much as they're both teachers, so I figured I'd make sure I didn't take any painkillers during the evening so I could join them in a few beverages while we ate.

Good plan right?

Wrong!

See, while my back hadn't actually been all that bad during the daytime, by the time I'd spent 15mins in the restaurant, it had started playing up. Didn't bring any painkillers with me, thinking that the alcohol would numb the pain. Well, it did. But only as I downed three glasses of red wine in a row. Not my smartest move ever, especially as my alcohol tolerance is practically zero at the moment, but still...

Eventually - ie by the time we were walking home - the effects of the drink kicked in and pushed the pain to the background, but I must have looked like a right alcoholic in the Ruby, downing wine. ~_~; It's the kind of thing a guy with pride and/or a reputation would think twice about. Fortunately I have neither. :D

So that's how I started my summer holiday off. Full of food, drunk on red wine, and sprawled on the bed spasming in pain. My how fun my life is. I'd say "start as you mean to go on", but I'm not sure that's a good idea this year.

Still, my appointment with the spinal specialist is on Wednesday morning. Hopefully they can give me a better indication of what's wrong.

~J

A Day in the Life of a Teacher on Prescription Painkillers

I have a bad back. It hurts. The NHS physio isn't sure what is wrong with it, so is referring me to a back/spine specialist. That appointment is on the 23rd July. Until then I am stuck trying to do stuff on co-codomol painkillers.

Or, as the box clearly states: "Omg Caplets".



I had a day teaching today. I haven't done a great deal of teaching recently due to it being the end of term and year 11 having left for their exams - thus not many supply staff needed. This is probably a good thing, as too many days like today would be bad for me.

The basic outlook for today was fairly straightforwards:

Yr10 French (top set, small and nice group. Enjoyable lesson.)
Yr7 English (large set, no work left, but enjoyable blagged lesson.)
Yr7 French (low ability, real headache of a lesson)
Yr7 French (higher ability, enjoyable lesson)
Yr8 French (top set, nice group, fun stuff)

Not too bad a day. My french is hella rusty, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was the atrocious year 7 group. It's the kind of group that there's just no recovering from. As a supply teacher, its difficult to know what to do in awkward situations, and the one thing I've noticed about the school is that it has narrow corridors and you can't leave kids out there if they're being pricks. So I had to put up with two obnoxious HORRIBLE children for almost the entire lesson.

The lad was a pain in the arse, rude, disruptive, and had the misfortune to be caught out in the corridor by a senior member of staff on call. Therefore he got taken away with little fuss. Turns out that he wasn't the main problem I was going to have that lesson.

The girl, on the other hand.... NEVER have I actually physically wanted to strangle a kid before. Sure, I might have moaned that I wanted to, but it was only through intensive physical restraint that I actually managed not to shout in her face and physically push her out of the classroom and slam the door on her. She was so utterly putrid in terms of her attitude and outlook. She had to be the centre of attention, and was so disruptive that she simply couldn't be ignored. She moaned when I wasn't paying attention to her. She called people names. She lead the class in some bullying. She threw pencil crayons. She called one girl a "fucking bitch" right under my nose. She insulted me. I sent her out several times but she kept coming back in when my back was turned, then offering a pathetic "I'm sorry. I won't do it again." each time. It made my skin crawl, she was truly horrible.

Eventually she was caught outside by another member of staff as I tried to keep her away from this other girl she was bullying as well as deal with the rest of the class as well as organise the lesson. Said member of staff thankfully said she'd take the girl for a walk until the end of the lesson. I was relieved, said many thank yous, and closed the door on the kid.

For sixty seconds I was free to get on with teaching French.

Only who should turn up at the door but the girl again, barging in, grabbing crayons, and going outside to work in the corridor...

I could have stabbed her eyes out with them... There was just nothing I could do. I don't know the name of the teacher that took her away, but I'm really not impressed. :(

By the time I'd got home, I'd got through 6 co-codamol tablets. That's 6 out of my 8 total for 24 hours. That's quite a lot in a short space of time. I was actually rather dizzy and feeling a bit out of it by the time I got back, and went pretty much straight to the bed for a lie down. I dunno if I fell asleep or what, but it was suddenly an hour and a half later and Mother was asking if I wanted dinner...

Sweet and sour chicken with light and fluffy rice. At least SOMEONE knows how to cheer me up ^_^

Sat at the PC typing this blog I can't really feel my back now. Can't really feel my fingers hitting the keys either, so please excuse any spelling mistakes.

That was my day on prescription meds. How's your day been loyal reader?

July Already?!

What the...?!

Seriously, how is it July already? What happened to June? Where did it go?!

July is always a patchy month for me, as it tends to mark the end of the academic year. When I was a student, it was the time that I had to say goodbye to my social life and return home. Now that I'm a "teacher" it's the time that I have to say goodbye to any regular work, as towards the end of term there's very little supply work available. So I need to tighten my belt and look ahead to the summer months and consider my options.

That being said, there's a lot to look forwards to in these last couple of weeks of the year, and the summer holidays in general. None of these things are actually academic though.

Firstly, the new iPhone 3G is released in a couple of weeks. At £100 on a £35/month tariff, it's not cheap since I only got the last iPhone in March, but with its promise of much faster internet speeds - which is mostly what I use my iPhone for anyways - I don't see the point in not upgrading. Thus I have set some pennies aside for it.

Secondly, season 4 of Doctor Who is coming to a close this Saturday evening. The series has had some patchy moments - as any Doctor Who season does really - but the penultimate episode was rather over the top and a little bit surprising/shocking. There are gonna be a lot of people sat down on Saturday night to see what becomes of the 10th Doctor's regeneration sequence that started at last week's cliffhanger - I know I'm certainly intrigued by what they're going to do.

Thirdly, I am still planning on going somewhere over the summer months. It has been ten years since I actually went on a proper holiday somewhere and I figure it is about time I got a dramatic change of scenery. This will depend on finances, obviously, but again I have a few pennies set aside for it.

Finally there are a few movies out at the cinema that I want to watch. Some of them may not be very good, but I want to watch them anyway. These include: The Dark Knight, Hancock, Wanted, The Mummy III, and Journey to the Centre of the Earth. This probably tells you a lot about my cinematic "taste", but I care not.

The summer months. A time for BBQs, beer in the garden, friends getting together inside and outside, hoping for the best weather. Let's hope this summer is a good one.

(As I'm sat writing this it's raining heavily outside....)

~Jon