Sunday, December 21, 2008

Have a Happy Christmas

By the end of the week there was a notice up at the school of commerce informing people of the slippery walkway. For a couple of days I had a strange tingling in my right leg when I bent it into certain positions, I wonder if I trapped a nerve when I fell. It’s much better now.

Dom is home for Christmas and Olivier is on holiday even though he hasn’t really been at school for two weeks because of the strike.

This morning we went into town for breakfast and then a little Christmas shopping. It was so quiet, I expect everyone was in town this afternoon…

It’s my mum’s birthday today. I telephoned this morning and thought that I was talking to her, I was talking to my aunt who thought that she was talking to my sister! It’s like that in my family. My aunt was telling me that Eleanor, as well as having two gold medals, has a gold Blue Peter badge!! Eleanor hadn’t arrived at my mum’s when I phoned, so I didn’t get to speak to her.

I've written another story for Christmas and last year's is here.

I doubt very much that I will have much time for blogging over the next few days. A very Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope that Santa brings you everything on your list!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

A shite start to the week

It’s exam time again so I’ve been very busy with that. Unfortunately I had to work some of the time with someone who doesn’t share my idea of doing a job as well as I can. On Monday we were in half of a big exam room which is usually divided off. The room wasn’t divided so we shared with another exam group – that’s not a problem because exams are silent anyway so we didn’t disturb each other. The people supervising the other group noticed that my colleague was just sat texting or reading a folder, instead of walking around observing. I walked by the desk, her folder was full of photocopies of cartoons! She also went to the loo several times. At the end of the exam she was quite nasty to some of the students who didn’t understand her instructions (One of the rules of leadership I learnt in my bank training was that if a group botches up it’s usually the one who gives the orders who hasn’t explained well).

As usual in that place I had the start of a migraine (I think it’s the air-conditioning). Then when I left the building to go home, I slipped on the wooden walkway and landed flat on my back. A student came running and helped me up – bless her. Only my pride was injured, fortunately and I have a nice bruise on my derrière.

I discovered on Tuesday that someone had mentioned the problem in Monday’s exam to the exam office, I was relieved, though when I talked to Rob and Olivier about it they warned me to watch out as they know this lady has Latin blood and a bit of a temper. I saw her on the bus this morning and she was the same as usual towards me so, I’m still alive.

On the bus I also saw one of my pupils from when I taught problem children. She hasn’t changed, her mental age was always behind that of her peers, but now she’s physically grown up and living with her boyfriend, I wonder how that will work out. It was nice to see her again, but she’s not in contact with her classmates at all.

Roll on the weekend...

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

BlogExplosion Forums and Approvals

For a while now MJ and I have tried to answer whatever questions we could on the forums. Unfortunately there is no one around to give access as moderators. Today I went to see if there was anything I could help with and the forums are completely inundated with spam. It’s impossible to find any real messages, that’s how bad it has got.

What I propose is to post any information I can here so that when you surf you’ll hopefully come across the information. If you’re waiting for your blog to be approved the queue is just over three weeks long. A lot can be done to shorten the time and avoid disappointment simply by reading the requirements on the add/edit blogs page. If anyone has more information as to what is going on please leave a comment.

As for the forum spammers I think that you will find that no one is reading your ads anyway…

Me and my legs

Thought you all might like to know about how yesterday morning’s session on my veins went. I assumed I would be having electrosis, but in fact a product was injected instead. It was bearable and my right leg seems to be more sensitive than my left. My legs were really sore during the afternoon. I’ve got four more appointments spaced roughly a month apart and by the third appointment we should know if it is going to work.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

words

Is it just me? Has anyone else noticed that the word verification words are now - words?

Some of them aren't proper words but they make a sort of sense. I'll have to start compiling a list of the more interesting ones. This evening I came upon 'Oringes'

A healthy post

For me at least...

The children always used to laugh at me because I couldn’t put those mini earphone thingies into my ears and make them stay put. Those of you who have been paying attention will remember that back at the beginning of August I had a nightmare about robots which left me with a shh, shh noise in my right ear which keeps coming back. I can still hear it as I type this.

On Friday I went for my three monthly check up. I mentioned the noise in my ear and the Doctor had a look with great difficulty because my ears are a funny shape inside; I have unique ears and now they can’t laugh at me. There is a bit of a blockage which could be responsible for the noise, so now I have eardrops for a week.

As usual he was pleased with my blood sugar readings in my little booklet. My blood pressure has been perfect the last few times so a month before I go back I’m to stop taking the tablets to see what happens. I’m really pleased about that because I will be able to eat grapefruit again.

Tomorrow I’m off to have the first session on the veins on my legs. She says it might not work as some of the veins are very old - 40 years for example.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Christmas is coming...

Christian has come and gone. We took him back to the airport last Friday morning. It was strange to see him again after two years. Most of his old friends seem to be scattered all over the world so he didn’t really have anyone to visit. He sorted out a lot of his old belongings and loaded up a suitcase to take home, they will now be in his grandmother’s loft instead of our garage. The weather was really sunny and we went for a lovely walk and he took lots of photos which I hope he’ll forward to me so that I can post some here

I’ve started decorating the Christmas tree. For years Rob did all of the decorating at Christmas, as it happens I’m happy to take over as I don’t put so much out and it was always my job to clear away….

Next week and the week after I will be supervising exams nearly every morning. As the school of commerce grows so does the examination period – good news for us exam ladies.