Weekly wash up

Its nice to have a natter and shoot the breeze with the average joe in the street. The older I get the easier it is to engage in conversation with people. I suppose looking like a mildly qualified village idiot helps. I never was one for fashion and totally detest shopping of any kind, particularly cloth shopping. I simply go on-line and order two of the same trousers, shoes, socks, shirts, jumpers and thats me done for the year. So, bad is my hatred of food and general shopping that I would get the milk delivered by mail if I could.

I was in the church last week using the mobile post office. We were all sat waiting for our turn when Pat sat next to me. Pat used to be a Headmistress at our local Sec Mod and is about the same age as me. Pat had been a Primary School teacher for many years and loved the wee ones, but things had go wrong when she moved to Secondary Education attracted by the higher pay and promotion.

At first she enjoyed the challenges that older children bring and felt she was making an improvement in their young lives. But, as time went on and Society changed, so did the children and Pat grew cynical along with her class. However, Pat persisted and made the jump to Head Mistress becoming more sanguine about Government interference in the form of targets and ever changing "new" syllabi and the mess that education has become in this country for no better reason than Governement loves to mess with it, simply because it can.

Then one day the camel met the last straw in the shape of a child Pat thought of as the nearest thing to the missing link in Darwinian theory. A temporary Teacher was trying to teach her class long division. All hell broke loose as she asked, lets call him Danny, a part of the problem. Up went his table and back went his chair as he cracked off with a stream of invective and spleen that can only be learnt in some of our more basic housing stock. So bad was the language and behaviour of our Danny that the poor Temp hit the panic button.

Pat was wondering around the corridors and heard the row and quietly slid in the class room door. This calmed down the riot, children went back to their places and the Temp breathed a sigh of relief. Pat sat down and with authority of many years said to the the young Danny, "what is you problem young man" he replied "Who the fuck cares if 10 goes into 6 three times, its fucking boring" Pat calmly said "interesting I can see that you and division may end up strangers for life, take the day off Danny, infact take the week off. Infact lets both take the week off" and with that she walked out wrote her resignation, took early retirement and put ten years back on her life.

I guess its not very often that you would expect to read something more contradictory than an estranged husband display pride in his ex wife! But it is with some pride that I got this photo from my ex. Its is of some kids providing food for those in need in London. It is typical of my ex to take the time to show interest in something that most folk in London would be only too happy to ignore. However, it would not be the first time she has taken time to give encouragement and listen to those less fortuanate than herself. 

For many years now she has run a childrens charity which this year alone helped 3000 families effected by having a child affected by brain injury. Nice one. I am very proud of you, you have a good heart and it does you credit. xxx