Great British Breakfast
Halloween, Shmalloween...
Being a misery guts I don't do the American 6-week festival of Halloween.
Rather like being oblivious of that tennis tournament in SW London every June/July when I was organising my 50th birthday party, when hotel prices go up to £900/night.
I didn't even think to do a Halloween-themed adventure for Dungeons and Dragons at Pilton this year,.
It just passes me by. Rather like Harry Potter.
So this half-term thanks to Edspired Tutoring, I ran an oldie but a goody.
Nice team of kids too. Smart, enthusiastic, friendly and funny.
I tried to prepare by reading and making notes but it just was not happening. I found it impossible to knuckle down and get stuck in to the text.
So I winged it. Again, having picked an adventure which I'd run 3-4 times before it was much easier to just run straight out of the book.
It went really well.
I think.
Indulgence
Look at this. While the 6 week festival of Halloween drags on some bright sparks had the idea of making themed drinks. This is Northern Monk's Witches Fingers - that's their spelling not mine.
Yes, it is actually that colour. |
Friends Reunited
Sarah, The Arty Teacher.
I realised that throughout my pretensions of trying to be cool, Sarah and I were actually quite similar. We were both bored by 80% of schoolwork and did pretty much the minimum. Well, if you've got Ernie going up and down the playing field mowing the grass, it's far more interesting and soothing (hypnotic even) than learning German grammar or balancing some equation or other.
Both of us found revision for exams almost impossible, and duly did badly in our A-Levels.
I wonder if we're similarly neurologically diverse?
Haven't changed in 30 years. Well, Sarah hasn't... |
We did the Cathedral, Vicars' Close and Bishop's Palace. Proper tourists we were.
Sarah has a business in which she provides teaching resources to a global client base.
Check out the website. It really is something else.
Shelley who is so tiny that if it wasn't for her glorious hair and smile she would not be visible to the human eye.
She has the health of about 3 normal humans. She glows with wellness.
We laugh a lot. I like making her laugh.
I always did.
Then she said she'd seen something really profound while on a school trip in Sierra Leone, and she communicated it in a way that I suddenly felt the profundity too.
What was it?
A little boy, malnourished, stopped and stared for about 10 minutes at children in a private school playing football. It was as though he realised with his little 7 year old mind that he would never be part of that world.
Suddenly the mood had changed, and hearing the immortal words of Alan Partridge ('I want to keep it lite...') I said something dumb, and we were back to normal again.
Phew.
Clare is the adult who accompanies me from time-to-time.
We went to a cafe and I saw it had Basque Cheesecake on the menu. OMG - last had that at Brat years ago. Best cheesecake ever, and I AM AN EXPERT.
It was nearly £5 a slice and while it was delicious it was about half the portion we were expecting.
Mmn.
I felt that was a bit mean. We wandered around through the autumn leaves and got another coffee then walked home.
Clare's dog passed away recently, which is very sad. She is very laid back (she always was) and I can't imagine the stress she's been under recently what with her dog, moving house and stuff.
We talked about the awful things women do to their bodies - Brazilian butt-lifts, botox, filler and other implants and injectifications.
Big old ugly duck lips.
One of the things that women often have conversations about is 'What would you change about your body?'
Talk about fuelling self-loathing.
I thought about it. As a bloke, you're paranoid about the size of your John Thomas, my head's too large, and I'm rather puny. But those are things I can't do anything about.
Perhaps I should change my sense of anxiety to that of contentment - be accepting of who I am and how I look.
Yes - contentment. That's the part I want to change.
It's a brain-thing, not a body-thing.
This week made me realise that I spend too much time on my own.
I need the company of people more than I realise.