First week of May 2011

So my birthday week has arrived and looking ahead it's going to be a fun week.

Today isn't actually the best start as I've got a bit of a cold, you know that type of cold that isn't full blown feeling crap, rather it's the type of cold that means you can't actually taste anything, you have to blow your nose every 2 minutes, the air conditioning makes you feel cold, but the minute you turn it off you sweat buckets and basically you can think of a thousand places you'd rather be than at work.....ah well, some panadol capsules and writing myself a memo to say "man up and get on with it" should do the trick...

It's currently 11.25 on Monday morning the 2nd of May and I'm waiting for a group of parents to turn up to talk about their children's next steps. This is a class of kids who've completed our Trailblazer levels but are a little to young (in maturity stakes as well as physical years) to move to the Real English levels. The meeting was supposed to start at 11.00 and the complete lack of respect it shows to arrange a meeting and then to not turn up, to not even bother calling is remarkable.

I have an illness issue this week in other terms too. Two of my Indonesian teachers are off with Chicken Pox. It's actually a curious form of Chicken Pox as both called me after the initial diagnosis to say that they'd be off for two days. Having personally been unfortunate enough to have had Chicken Pox as an adult I feel huge sympathy for both Inge and Haryo but what doctor worth a medical degree can suggest two days rest as a cure for the Pox?? The incubation period alone is 12 days and it only stops being infectious after the scabs from the spots heal over. Anyway, Inge will be off for at least another week and Haryo thinks he'll be back next monday......we'll see. I guess it's one of the perils of working in a school that you expose yourself to all manner of bugs and diseases.

The upshot of this is that with Jacob, one of our native English speaking teachers having to return home due to epilepsy and Widi, one of our non-native teachers taking a new job as a translator, we're pretty short on teachers. Paul Hutchens is also on holiday this week and I'll be going to Singapore on Thursday with Emma Winfield, another of our teachers to do a "visa run". With this being the situation, we've actually had to borrow two non-native teachers from other schools so I'm waiting to welcome Angel and Puput.

In a small side note, I've just noticed the death of Osama Bin Laden on the BBC website.

Looking forward to the rest of the week, on Thursday i'll be flying to Singapore. Usually our visas are extended within the country once we have them, but recent issues in the Indonesian government have seen some problems with this process. Anyway, owing to other Indonesian govenment problems over the taxing of International movies, no new movies are currently being released anywhere in the country! This means that impending blockbusters such as Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern and X Men - First Class (to name just the superhero blockbusters) won't be seen. On Thursday, on landing in Singapore, I'll take the MRT to Orchard Road and go and see Thor and I'm as excited as a kid at Christmas!

Thursday 5th is also Emma's birthday so I guess a couple of beers may be consumed as well!

Bringing us swiftly to Saturday the 7th and my own birthday. With Emma's and mine being so close together we decided to host a joint party and invite just about everyone we know. The Singapore trip before it gives us the chance to get some spirits as well.

So what with all of the teaching issues this week, I'm going to use the more relaxed times to recover.......

til next time.........