St Georges Day 2013             1800

And two years to the day (and about four hours from now) when an articulated lorry nearly snuffed my life out.

I am still wondering where the sun and warm weather got to, it wasn’t actually cold today but then it wasn’t warm either and just now when I was at the shops we had a rain shower. If anyone out there sees any of the much publicised global warming kindly give it directions to here.

I had a little heartwarming news this afternoon. You may remember Eve who I mentioned some months ago. She wanted to study abroad - in Canada - and she was seeking teacher references from here. I was approached and composed a glowing recommendation for her to send to wherever she wanted to apply. She took IELTS and achieved a score of 7 which is pretty impressive and applied to both Brock and Windsor universities in Ontario. Brock followed up my reference by emailing me for further information but Windsor presumably took it at face value. She was accepted by both and has chosen to go to Windsor. I hope my involvement may have had a small bearing on the result and I am really pleased for her. I think everyone should have the chance to travel and experience other cultures. So far of three people I have helped two have passed, I sincerely hope the third (Qing) will make it a hat trick. I will know within the week when she gets her score.

Wednesday 24th           2000

Roll on the May holiday on Monday! Nice day here from mid-morning onwards, had I not been riding the bike it would have been short sleeves weather.

This afternoon Kevin had an “inspection” for his class. It was the same as I had last term when 8 Chinese teachers sat in on my class. Ostensibly they are there to learn from us (well they certainly did from me!) but they must think we both came down the Clyde on a banana boat if they think we believe that - as soon as they leave they go into a meeting downstairs! I suspect Kevin took it an awful lot more seriously than me - nothing wrong with that, he takes his work equally seriously, far more than I do if truth be told - and of course he is not as fortunate as I am perhaps in that I can simply make up lessons as I go. He prefers it structured, yet I believe our job here is more in keeping them interested and engaged. We both of course aim to get as many as possible involved in discussions in English so we have the same goals. My view is that if my ability is insufficient then fire me, but in both our cases they would be hard pressed to recruit other teachers more dedicated to the students here. It was a pity they picked one of his classes of 3 year students (zombies) and he couldn’t  swap for 4 year bods as I did!

In my morning class I had two chemistry majors visit to improve their English. One of them had attended one of my lessons in my first year, had asked her form tutor how best to improve and been advised to come along. It was a business English class and perchance today was about job interviews. That involves me giving tips on how to be an interviewee and what to expect followed by me getting a panel of three “bosses” to interview applicants in front of the class. The chemistry girl was first to volunteer as a boss and she was utterly ruthless with the candidates! Actually she put a lot of my own kids to shame and I hope some of the wallflowers took notice - that girl wants to do a masters abroad and is boning up to pass the exam. In my opinion I don’t foresee any problems with her passing or indeed anything to hold her back in life.

I made some chilli mince and potatoes last night for dinner, loads left over so I chilled some for tonight along with some for Kevin. I am good but not that good - all the spuds went into mine and I left him to buy his own taters and boil them. Lazy git just bought some boiled rice to go with it from one of the cafes! I am sure it will be fine regardless and I think tonight he is as tired as I am.

Before I go I must mention the story I saw in the Telegraph that questions were asked in The House when a teacher approached their MP to complain that they had been instructed at their school not to use red ink when marking papers for fear of upsetting pupils. No matter how jaded you become or how much you have seen there will always be something to renew your faith in the belief that the PC brigade should all be taken out and shot.