An update

Well the last few days have been busy and so it is time for an update.

Last weekend I spent looking after Scott and Lisa's cats as they were at a wedding which was cool. They are rescue cats and wary of new people especially men but sat just outside of arms reach and watched me. Then they lost interest and started playing with a toy and they were pouncing on each other. Lisa was trying to talk me into getting a cat and I agreed I would get one but it would live at her house, be looked after by her etc. Scott on the other hand was less impressed by the idea however. Also at last the dreadful Kate Garroway got voted of Strictly Come Dancing. Think of all the excellent performances you never saw as she kept mucking up instead.

Tuesday was a parents evening for Yr7 and Yr10 students in my form and was also a colossal waste of time. I had a number of appointments around 3.30 and then one at 5.30 so I was hanging around for about two hours so I could say nice things to a parent who I am in phone contact with every other week. They also travelled 15 miles for a 5 minute appointment which goes against the Ecoschool initiative that the school is running. The big gap did give me an opportunity to put together an application for a job teaching in the US. The British Schools of America have schools in Boston, Washington, Chicago, Houston and Charlotte, The letter was a masterpiece of jargonism and teacher speak and I have to thank Lisa and Richard for their proof reading and suggestions. I think it should get me an interview but as they are small schools they may not need a geographer.

Wednesday was the football and the poor result that eliminates England from the European Championship before they even get to the final section. This seems to happen every 15 years or so and caused a great wailing and gnashing of teeth. Everyone looks for something to blame and the role of foreign players in the Premier League seems to be the favourite excuse currently but I think if the English players are good enough they will be in the top teams. There are also plenty of good young players coming through. I think the issue is more the number of games that are played and the subsequent number of injuries. The team was missing all of its first choice defenders (Neville, Terry, Ferdinand and Cole) as well as the best two attackers (Rooney and Owen). There are also a number of back up players not available. So I think that there needs to be a reduction in the number of teams in the league to help. The only country in Europe that has the same sized league is Spain and they perpetually underachieve as well. The league won't suffer in quality much as the bottom two teams are usually rubbish. Less league teams means less gate money so the team owners will never go for it but we can but hope. The only good thing is they may bring back the Home Nations Championship where England, Wales, Scotland, Northen Ireland and the Republic of Ireland all play each other. Some of the Croatian players said they were put at ease by the singer of the National Anthem who sang 'Mila kura si planina' rather than 'Mila kuda si planina' and as I think you know this is 'My dear, my penis is a mountain'and not 'You know my dear how we love your mountains'.

At the same time Luton became thew worst run team in the league. The previous chairman and board made illegal payments to agents attracting players to Luton except they got relegated so the players they attracted weren't of a sufficiently good standard. Financial impropriety can lead to relegation which Luton may escape as they have already gone down. They risked the future of the club for a total of £160 000, about two weeks wages for a top player in the Premier League. With the chairman standing down the club had no financial backing and went into receivership. This costs us 10 points and puts us bottom of the league. At least the squad are strong enough to get us out of the relegation zone (starting with a win today). Lets hope adversity pulls the team together and not split it apart.

Then on Friday I caused myself an issue thanks to doing the right thing again. A student brought in a copy of Jordan's autobiography (well we are encouraging reading; next we will try and improve the quality of what they are reading) complete with pictures of her nude modelling days. I confiscated the book and she gets into a right strop and was disruptive and irritating. No doubt I will have her parents on the phone unable to see the bigger picture, defending their child to the hilt despite the fact she was in the wrong. I explained to her it was not suitable for a school environment and I would post it home but somehow this is not acceptable and this puts me in the wrong.

Also on Friday the student from UEA was observed by the UEA tutor. She did herself proud and it was a good lesson but she was nervous and went through all of her activities really quickly and got to the end of the plan with about 15 minutes to go. Credit to her she was able to keep it going but I imagine those were the longest 15 minutes of her life as she is running the class with one half of her brain whilst thinking up new activities with the other half.

Last night was the Humanities curry which was very tasty followed by some bar billiards. Tomorrow, korfball to look forward to.