Weekdays Come and Gone

This week was pretty great.

Monday: Craig sent me to a school in Hayes and Harlington to TA in a Nursery class. It was snowing again so, naturally, the transit system was in a bit of a mess. Had to wait for the Tube and for the train, couldn't take a taxi from the station since none were about, so had to take the bus instead. Ended up being a little late but it wasn't as though it could be helped; this city's complete inability to deal with a little snow would be comical if it weren't so embarrassing. The day itself though went great; I basically got paid to sit in a circle for an hour, then colour Disney characters (Pinocchio, Jasmine, and Ariel, if you're interested) for an hour, then hand out milk and get kids set to go home...then an hour later a whole new batch of tykes showed up and the process repeated. Can you say easy day? Getting back to the house turned out to be much easier than the journey there, likely because the snow had stopped falling by then but, seriously, this city needs to work on that.

Tuesday: Went to Catholic school in central London - you could see the London Eye out of some of the classroom windows. Did Nursery in the morning with some very, very curious little tykes. They were split in to groups for the lesson part of the day so I got to repeat the same lesson two or three times. Otherwise kids just played. One little boy jumped in a puddle and got DRENCHED. Trying to keep him inside afterwards (it WAS cold out there, after all) proved a chore - he alternated between balling his eyes out and hugging me tightly. His mom eventually came to collect him. In the afternoon, I was in a Reception class with some pretty unruly kids; none of them listened and some of them were just out-and-out bad. For example, one little girl pored her milk carton all over a classmate's bag and then, after getting in trouble, sat there tearing pages out of her reading book. Delightful.

Wednesday: Went back to the Catholic school. Got a text that morning telling me to go, so off I went. Came out of the tube station to my phone exploding with text messages from my consultants asking me to call, asking me where I was, telling me they had work for me. Apparently the consultant who sent me to the school neglected to tell the consultants I'm assigned to that I was booked. I definitely felt the love. Was doing PPA coverage. First I had a year four class and got to take them down to mass for Ash Wednesday (my mother will be so pleased). Second I had the other year four class who I taught about the Hindu gods and set them on writing summaries of one of the big three. Third, after lunch, I had a year one class who just would. not. listen. It was like they actually put effort into being naughty. Was almost enough to turn me off ever having children, they were THAT bad.

Thursday: VALENTINE'S DAY! Chatted with consultant in AM; he said it was beyond dead in the office so he didn't want me waiting at the tube station for nothing. A couple of hours later, I was called by another consultant and ended up getting a half day doing reception with a delightful bunch of kids at a school not even two miles away. Heck, it took less than ten minutes by tube to get there, just one stop away and then a short walk through a small park and presto! I was arrived. The kids were great; we made Valentine's Day cards together for their moms, went outside for a bit, watched some short videos about the Chinese New Year and then read Dr Seuss before their parents arrived to take them home. It was awesome. And easy. Afterwards, I went looking for a Chinese restaurant. They tend to be pretty popular - like casse-croûtes at home - so I figured there was a good chance there would be one somewhere among the shops lining either side of the street. I was right. Got some take out (beef in black bean sauce, chicken fried rice, chicken and vegetables and, of course, won ton soup) and then came back to the house for a night of vampire movies - Breaking Dawn: Part II and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. You know, in keeping with the spirit of the holiday and all that, LOL.

Friday: Had the day off. Small surprise; tends to be the case when the break weeks come up. Opted to go to a movie and ended up seeing A Good Day to Die Hard. I blame my dad for this. I have seen the movies of the Die Hard so many times I can recite them line by line better than Sheldon Cooper can run through the periodic table. Barring the second that is because that movie sucked and I refuse to admit it even exists, thank you very much. A Good Day to Die Hard wasn't a bad movie but it didn't exactly live up to its predecessors Die Hard with a Vengeance set the standard pretty high, after all, and had some great cast chemistry going on. What's more, Jeremy Irons was a fantastic villain as Simon. Which was essentially what was wrong with A Good Day to Die Hard - a crappy villain. Even his villainous plan was moronic. Afterwards, I called Christa and we opted to meet up at London Bridge for supper. Walked down along the Thames hunting for a restaurant until we came to the Globe Theatre. We ended up eating at Nando's right near there; it was delicious. Did more walking along the Thames afterwards up to Westminster and Big Ben where we caught the Tube again.

Today: It's been a veg day, just hanging about the house. I've been writing - blog posts mostly but some e-mails and editing on my book too. I've been reading, alternating between Austen's Mansfield Park and Doyle's The Extraordinary Cases of Sherlock Holmes. I've been watching Murder, She Wrote while trying to find something else to watch...maybe I'll circle back to Diagnosis Murder, I don't know. Plan for tomorrow is to check out the National Gallery. As for the rest of the break, there's certainly a wealth of possibilities to fill the time. So far, I already know that Tuesday I'll be meeting up with a visiting friend for lunch and Wednesday...well, I'll tell you about Wednesday on Thursday (or sometime after Wednesday at any rate) provided the plan pans out. ^^

Until next time, mes amies!