Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE
I hope I can finish this blog before disaster occurs. So far today my computer has suffered from two deadly sounding ailments. Not only has it been subjected to an “error of type 36” but it has also been afflicted by an “error of type 5016.” I am hoping that nether of these are terminal but I am also intrigued to know whether a type 36 is more or less serious than a type 5016? Should I be worried? Should I panic? Should I call Ghostbusters?
It has been the usual mix of very busy few days and in the build up to the end of term things are only getting faster. I was in school yesterday, yes a Saturday, rehearsing with the cast of Peter Pan along with two Music teachers and a Drama colleague. The show is going fairly well at this stage although there is still plenty to do. Later today I am off hunting material for the dozen Tinkerbells and I am hoping that the school principal is successful in his mission to IKEA that I have set him. If he manages to pull it off I will be really impressed and will then be able to mention IKEA I glowing terms in my next blog…..
I came across a challenging cultural difficult in yesterday’s rehearsal though. Shortly after the entrance of Peter Pan for the first time I needed him, well actually her, to strike three poses to show how pleased s/he was with managing to attach his/her shadow again. The three poses that came to mind immediately wee the obvious ones: Usain Bolt, then Mo Farah, finally Bruce Forsyth. My actor understood the first two but Brucie went straight over her head. I have to remember that I am working in an international school and that while Bruce is something of an institution in England he does not have global brand appeal. Maybe he should be brought over to KL so that students can have the Brucie experience? In the meantime I will have to set my actor some homework: research Bruce Forsyth.
On Friday it was the Teachers Dressing As Pupils Day to raise money for the schools MUFTI DAY charities. A box of scruffy looking old school polo shirts were put in a box in the staff lounge and I set to work finding one that fitted. All of them were at least three sizes too small for me, with the smallest one being a size perfect for Trixie. I selected the biggest of the small ones and quickly came up with a plan. I found a pair of blue shorts, nearly regulation wear, and then put on shirt and tie, with polo shirt stretched to bursting pint over the top. I then dinned Trixie’s broad-brimmed school hat to finish off the look. Why this strange collection of clothes? Well my official reason was that because I am so young looking and have such youthful skin and hair I was concerned that people might mistake for a year nine pupil. By wearing shirt and tie as well there would be no possibility for confusion. I had a meeting with one of the deputies during the day to discuss timetabling. We both agreed that it was strange me dressed as I was and her dressed as prefect. The things you do for charity.
Yesterday evening Lexi and I engaged the services of a colleague’s teenage daughters as baby-sitters and we went off to a party. Hosted by the school’s principal he had invited us to cocktails and food at his place along with the other teachers who had arrived at the same time as us in August. It was a very nice opportunity to natter with people who I tend to pass on the corridor and simply exchange a fleeting greeting. Sharing a taxi there with two others we almost didn’t get to the right apartment due to the fear of four. We rang the bell of flat 1 on floor 23 only to discover that the party was in fact on floor 23A. Isn’t it about time that we all got over our number superstition and allowed the Malaysians and Chinese to start using the number four again as well as having house number 13s in Britain?
Latest news from Edwin Lawrence: Loser of Objects Man. The great man managed to lose hos violin for the second time this week. Thanks to the intervention of four different teachers the instrument was eventually found in the canteen, exactly where he had left it, despite him swearing blind that he had looked everywhere for it including, of course, the canteen. On Monday this week he had delivered a box of chocolates to his bus driver who had kindly handed in his violin when he lost it last time. The cost for the chocolates was RM24.50, ambassador approved Ferrero Rocher, and the deal we had was that if Edwin managed to lose nothing else all term then Lexi and I would pay the chocolate bill. If Edwin did lose anything else this term then the bill would be his. His Lordship arrived home on Tuesday having lost his latest water bottle. Edwin will be back in pocket money credit by 15 December. I can take comfort that he is not the only forgetful one at my school. A year 8 girl lost her i-phone and a year 11 lost her hi-tech Samsung Thingy. Both were found and handed in by Drama’s excellent and honest cleaner.