Sat sitting a'finkin' ...

29 March

Another bad day yesterday – nuff said.

This morning we are up early cos me foot butcher is due to check up on a big toe that she had to put a dressing on last week when she was here. I knew it was in a bit of a state, but not as bad as it was. It hurt like hell doing it too. But it seems OK now though.

There’s a growing need for more teachers due to two main causes from what was on the news last night; one is the growing number of children attending school, the second is that so many trained teachers are leaving school these days because of the amount of work they are required to do for the smaller than average salary they get, again according to the news. In other reports I’ve seen there is a rising number of them being assaulted by pupils too. A few local teachers I’ve overheard at times having a moan about their jobs (and have you ever noticed that get two teachers together all they talk about is their work?), another issue they face is bullying from head teachers and managers.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of all these bits of info, it’s a job I wouldn’t do. Why? Simply cos I don’t put with kids very well as it is, let alone having a class full of them. I might have considered teaching adults who volunteered to be there though. Of course, it’s all by the by now seeing as I have retired. Overall teacher is a pretty thankless task and I’m not surprised they leave as they are doing right now.

Successive governments haven’t help by closing or merging schools because the pupil numbers were supposed to be too low. Now those numbers are rising again and thoughts are slowly turning back to the mistakes of the past. However, in some cases it’s far too late now, the school sites have been bull-dozed and in some cases now have new housing on them. Here in Dorktown there’s a middle school close to where we used to live. It’s an old building dating from late Victorian times and it was claimed that falling numbers and that near-by school can take they few extra pupils when they closed it.

At the back of our bungalow was the playing field for the school and I remember one name more than any other seeing as every time the kids were out there this one boy was always in trouble. That boy was called Ryan. I wonder what happened to him? Whatever; a good sized chunk of that field now has a care home on it. The school buildings are still there after the locals who were fighting hard to prevent it being demolished a couple of years ago. But what can it be used for now that it’s been closed for last 16 or 17 years? The repair list was so long they couldn’t afford to do the repairs needed while it was open, how much more will need to be spent to bring it up to a useable standard now? I’m surprised that squatters haven’t moved in and really wrecked the place; which brings me too …

Nightmare Tenants and Slum Landlords, another documentary that we both enjoy. Last night we watched the latest edition and one the of stories covered was that of a closed pub that was due to be demolished and new housing built on the same site. Those plans came to halt when squatters moved in, and once they were evicted by county court bailiffs the owner got in to look around. True to form the squatters had wrecked the placed as well as using utilities that the owner will have to pay for. No matter how good the property is when they move in, it is always to same when they are finally removed; offensive writing and pictures over all the walls, loads of soiled, damp mattresses, rubbish left everywhere and anywhere, and of course the usual damage they do to doors and other filling within the property. In this case they had an educated idiot putting their case to the court. Top of their reasons for squatting is that it’s the government not providing enough housing, but nothing about them living for nothing of course. They lost!

Now for a photo …

A penguin.

Today’s funny …

My brother went to the doctor. He said, 'I feel like a bar of soap.
The doctor said, 'That's life, boy.'