Maybe I could become a cleaner?
2012-10-09, 8:18 p.m.
I don�t have much to say, but I�m updating anyway � if nothing else it will get rid of the Fish Finger Bake entry, which makes me cringe a little every time I see it there.Stuff that�s happened since the last time I was here:
One of my colleagues (female, mid 20s) got punched in the face by a student, whilst trying to rescue another student who had been trying to break up a fight. She has a nice purple bruise on her face which she isn�t allowed to talk about. I think that�s dumb, as the kids will make up a story if they don�t know the truth, and wouldn�t it be easier to say �I got punched in the face trying to rescue Anne, when she was breaking up the fight between Bess and Kay.�? Also, she�s stressing out about having to fill out a �physical contact� report as she �put her hands on the shoulders of both girls� and as eny fule kno, you aren�t allowed to touch the students AT ALL. EVER. Even when they are trading punches and smashing up a classroom.
*shakes head at sheer stupidity of it all*
I did a gig last Friday even though I was still sick. Due to administrative errors, some of which can be blamed on rush-hour traffic and some of which can be blamed on stupidity (ie L not leaving our house til 4.56 to go pick up Jooj, who needed picking up from school in the next town at 5.00.) there wasn�t enough time for a warm-up and I had to just hope for the best. As usual, there was a song I hadn�t done before (I think the band likes to scare me!) and L begged me not to do it, saying it �didn�t suit my voice� and that it was �asking too much�, but the band seemed confident so I just went for it.
VERY satisfying INDEED to see L at the side of the stage, open-mouthed with wonder as I not only NAILED it but got the biggest cheers of the night. Yeh, Nutbush City Limits. Kiss my arse.
Here�s a picture of me, in the middle bit of �Out of Time� (the Chris Farlowe version)
Jealousy is an ugly emotion, boys and girls, which is why I�m trying not to make too much of the holiday my Sis and BiL have just embarked upon. Bearing in mind that I know where some of you live (that sounds sinister � I don�t mean it like that at all!), how could I not be jealous of a trip that runs thus:
9 � 16 October: Austin TX (including Austin City limits Festival � VIP tickets)
16 October: fly to LA, pick up camper van
17 � 19 October: drive to San Diego, pausing to look at interesting things on the way
19 � 22 October: Hang out in San Diego area
22 - 25 October � drive slowly back to LA
25 October � fly back to Austin
30 October � fly home to UK
Seriously. There�s no need for such and EPIC holiday, is there? No, hang on, I mean �there�s no need for such an epic holiday that DOESN�T INCLUDE ME�.I think.
I�m so jealous I cant even bring myself to be excited for her. I am a bad person. I sent an email that just said �have a lovely hol� and just one x at the bottom.
Meh.
More Meh. My oven broke. This might not seem to tragic to some of you, particularly bearing in mind I have one of those giant range-type cookers with 3 separate ovens and enough burners to make the kitchen look like something Red Adair might have to come and deal with, but it was my FAVOURITE oven and the one in which I cook my most spectacular cakeys and all manner of gorgeous comestibles. Oh, and fish finger bake.
I�ve been limping along with the other big oven but its rubbish for baking and I�ve been utterly bereft � at times NOT EVEN BOTHERING TO COOK as I felt so despondent. I was pretty sure I couldn�t afford to fix it, but a bit of searching online found me a spare part (I think the element�s broken) for about �50 so I was kind of chuffed. Even more chuffed when I spoke to my dad and he told me how easy it is to fit a new element to an oven and to try a local store for the spare part. Did exactly as my daddy said (always a good move, girls!) and the store has the element in stock for only �29!! Have taken out the old element (yep, it was easy) and L will fit the new one tomorrow evening for me. I could do it myself but he likes to feel useful. HUZZAH! I feel the need to make souffl� in honour of having an (almost) fixed oven. Perhaps I will make one at the weekend.
Especially as, while I have been oven-deficient, I have taken the unusual steps of getting around to cleaning the oven door glass. This may not seem like a big step for y�all, who are not Slutty McSlattern when it comes to housework and probably ALL have oven doors that have pristine glass panels that you can look through and see your food cooking and everything. But my family is far too fond of roast goose and pork belly rashers and crispy duck and all kinds of other things which build up an instant rock-hard deposit of baked on fat and cinders onto the door which REFUSES to come off, no matter how many times you half-heartedly wave a green scourer at it. So my oven door has been pretty much impenetrable to light for some considerable time and I have had to rely on my skill as a chef to know when it�s OK to open the oven door to avoid the deflated Yorkshire Pudding, cracked Pavlova and depressed Souffle.
But no more! I have coated the glass in noxious goo and armed only with industrial rubber gloves, a wallpaper scraper, a whole bag of scouring pads, some elbow grease and the most impressive swearing vocabulary this side of a dockside whorehouse, I have scraped, chipped, cajoled and rived until�..until��.OMIGOODNESS I CAN SEE RIGHT THROUUUUUUUUUUGH!!!!
Truly it is a wonder to behold. Hell, I have even replaced the little light inside (no point in doing it before � if you cant see through the door, you sure as hell don�t need to light up the inside!).
This gives me hope for all the many and several other things we have in this house which don�t work and are just waiting for spare parts and/or love and attention: Tumble dryer, VCR, husband, several clocks, at least two standard lamps etc etc.
In other scintillating news�.what?....you didn�t find �Stepfie cleans the oven door� scintillating?.....Shame on you! It was a literary masterpiece!
Anyway. Sometime this week, I need to go and have a Big Talk with the Headmistress at school. I can�t do my job any more. I don�t mean �I have become incompetent�, I mean that having a job which pays so little is no longer an option for me. It�s an indulgence to be earning so little when I could be doing something else and earning so much more.
I need to talk to the Headmistress and see if there is some other job she could suggest for me, that will make me a bit more money. I love working in the school, I really do. It is the best job I have ever had, but the money isn�t enough for one proper grown-up to live on, let alone a proper grown up (with a mortgage the same size as the national debit of a small African country) and a self-employed husband and two quite large children.
If there is no other job that I could do within the school that I am at (or at the other school that she controls) then I am steeling myself to go back out into the corporate world and to start looking for a job that I will hate but that will doubtless give me a 200% salary increase. Yes, I will lose my 13 weeks holiday per year but I will have enough money to actually take a holiday for the first time in three years. Yes, I will have to drive to work, but I will also be able to afford petrol. I may also be too tired to cook when I get in from work, but at least I will be able to afford a takeaway.
I had just about come to terms with that decision when I got an email from a teacher in a department I had covered yesterday, saying �I heard your lesson ( I was in the next room) and it was really impressive. We always know the cover will be superb if you are doing it.� Then I had to go in the loo and have a little cry.
I don�t know what to do. I don�t want to leave, but I can�t afford to stay.
Sometimes I hate being me.
*sad face*
I�ve depressed myself now.