Sunday 14 June 2020

Project 366 : Photo Diary week 24

This week was a busy week at work. Not only did the older kids come back, we also had the announcement that we had to fill in all the end of term school reports - not an easy task when we haven't seen the pupils since March ! - and the end of year skills assessments for the end of the week. You can tell how busy I was as I didn't even get a chance to blog all week ! The oldest pupils will now come in all week, rather than in two half classes - I hope they've thought about it as I'm not entirely sure they'll fit in the classrooms that have been set up with widely-spaced desks. Oh well, only three weeks to go until the end of term !


Sunday 7th June - It was Mother's Day in France and I wasn't really expecting anything. The kids had been super organised in secret though. Sophie had ordered a gift online, Juliette had wrapped and hidden it and Pierre made a card. I was very impressed with their organisational skills, not to mention the present itself. Awww !


Monday - Back to work with an earlier start at 8.30am, rather than my usual 10am start on a Monday. That would have been fine but from 9.30 until 11am, I was kicking around in the staff room with nothing to do - pffff ! I decided to head into town after work to try to find out what is going on with our summer holiday. Our planned holiday to the Dominican Republic is doubtless cancelled, but I'd like to know what to do to get the money back ! Unfortunately, the recently re-opened travel agent's was shut early, so I'll have to try later in the week. They had an email in the window though so I might give that a try.


Tuesday - Another day at work. Only half an hour for lunch, then I discovered that there were big computer issues in my next classroom. Aaaggghh ! This happens every time I have class in this room. Time to make up another lesson at the last minute :-/ Got home and made a sausage casserole, throwing in a tin of red kidney beans that the kids wouldn't notice !


Wednesday - A day off - phew ! I decided to take a minute to email the travel agent's. They got back to me and said they'd contacted their partners and would get back to me as soon as they heard from them. Nobody really knows what is going on. Sophie is keeping an eye on Eurostar and the ferries too, as she wants to come back to France as soon as she can, now that she's finished her studies until September. I can't remember what I did for the rest of the day to be honest - oh, I know, I filled in all my school reports. I went to grab some shopping and took a picture of this angry-looking seagull on the way !


Thursday - For the first time in about three months, I met up with my friend Isabelle during my lunch break and we went to a restaurant. It felt weird as it's a big place and they've removed half of the tables. You have to wear a mask to walk into and out of the restaurant but you can take it off once you're sitting down. There are no menus, except one on the wall (luckily we know the menu !) and there's no salt and pepper on the tables. Apart from that, it was about the same as usual. Lovely to catch up, although it seems weird being out now ! On my way back to work, I took a picture of the clouds in the sky. There were long horizontal ones at the bottom and mackerel spot clouds cutting across the sky diagonally, which looked pretty cool.


Friday - A weird day at work. I had the morning off so I only had two hours of lessons with a half hour break in the middle. (Timetables have been set up with staggered starts and different breaktimes, so that there's only ever one class in the playground and toilets at a time.) For my first hour, the librarian asked if she could come in and talk to the kids for a while ... which ended up being the whole lesson. After waiting around for the second hour, I headed into the classroom, set up the mouse and keyboard (we all have our own now, to avoid sharing equipment), did the register then saw a message telling me that due to the new timetable kicking off, I had to let the kids go half an hour earlier than planned. This meant I only had about 20 minutes of actual lesson time with them - agggghhh !


Saturday - Juliette had an appointment at the orthodontist's ... at 8.40am. Aaagghhh ! It made us get up and make the most of the day though. This is the first time that Juliette has set foot outside of the house in about three months, so I dragged her to the beach for a walk then we headed into town for a quick look around. She had leg ache afterwards - tee hee hee !

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28 comments:

  1. It does sound a bit silly filling in school reports when you haven't seen the kids. It does sound like a busy week.
    Well done to the kids for organising a Mother's day surprise!
    It sounds like you had a lovely catch up with your friend. x

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    1. It was nice to see her. Slowly getting back to normal, I guess !

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  2. How lovely the kids planned Mothers day for you, hope Sophioe is able to get over soon and that you manage to sort your holiday out. The school timetable and planning sounds such a palaver, hopefully it'll settle down in time for the new school year and you've got a few weeks to suss out the problems and hopefully get the timetable sorted

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    1. To make things even more complicated, now that we have a definitive timetable until the end of term with half groups, the president has just announced that as from next week, school becomes obligatory for everyone again, so we'll have to reorganise all over again - grrrr !

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  3. What a lovely surprise for you for Mother's day! Hope you'll be able to see Sophie soon, you must miss each other so much. The school timetable sounds complicated, and a pain in the posterior. Filling in reports without seeing children for so long sounds like an exercise in bureaucracy. Glad you had a chance to meet up with a friend.

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    1. She's booked it - two trains (well, four trains in total as she has to change on each one ) plus the Eurostar ! Hope it all goes ok ! :-/

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  4. I hope the schools know what they are doing. OoOoo Its a shame you can't go to Dominican Republic; I hope you get your money back. Casserole looks delicious! The seagull looks furious. I hope Sophie returns soon. You had quite an annoying school day.

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    1. So do I ! lol. Some days seem like quite a waste of time but never mind, at least I'm still getting paid ! :)

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  5. Weird having to do school reports. I don't think we'll get ours - given the teacher hasn't seen any work since Marh.

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    1. We have to fill in reports but all the work is coefficient zero, so it doesn't count.

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  6. It must be lovely to go to a restaurant agaiin - I am looking forward to doing that again. How lovely of the children to make the effort for Mother's Day!

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    1. It is nice to catch up with people again and get back to "normal life". The kids did great - I was really surprised !

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  7. What a lovely surprise for you on Mother's day. I hope you'll be able to see Sophie soon, you must miss each other so much. I hope things calm with the back to school timetable. Glad you had a chance to meet up with a friend. xx

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    1. In theory, she's coming home on Monday - fingers crossed !

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  8. I can imagine trying to do end of term reports when you haven’t seen the children must be very difficult! Work sounds like it has been frustrating this week with computer problems and having the librarian ending up taking over the whole lesson on Friday. How lovely that the children surprised you on Mother’s Day and that you were able to meet up with your friend during your lunch break. Hope you hear back soon about your holiday refund and that Sophie will be able to come back to France very soon. #project366

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    1. Sophie is going to try coming back on Monday - Eurostar opened up ticket sales so she jumped straight in !

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  9. Wow sounds like a stressful week at work, I hope that they manage to sort it out so it runs better for you. Lovely that the kids organised all that by themselves what a great surprise.

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    1. To be fair to them, the government keeps throwing out new rules that have to be brought in. The paperwork is finally done - phew !

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  10. Awww poor Juliette, that is a horrendous time to be up on a Saturday morning, especially to visit an orthodontist, however bet the beach walk was quiet! :)

    It really sounds like you have had quite a week with school... more IT problems and having to do all the end of year assessments?! At least the librarian made one of your lessons a little easier with her talk! ;)

    That seagull does look particularly angry... maybe it's the lack of people walking around with food it can scoop up! A proper disgruntled seagull!
    Hope you get news of your holiday soon, it must be a nightmare! Hope you are having a lovely week and kudos to the kids for getting you an ace Mother's Day present! :) Sim x

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    1. Just two weeks to the holidays. I think IT problems will be with us until the end *sigh* lol

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  11. Sounds like you have had a very challenging week, I don't envy school staff right now.
    They did well with their gift to you!#project365

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    1. I can't complain - at least we had job security and full pay during confinement.

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  12. That's really thoughtful of your kids organizing something so lovely in secret! Sorry work has been so hectic, hope you managed to get everything you needed done. Fingers crossed Sophie manages to arrange coming home soon, it must be so hard not having seen her in awhile x

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    1. Luckily, with facebook and phones, she's in touch all the time. It reminds me of my year in France as a student, having to walk to the nearest phone box to call home. How the world has changed !

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  13. Blimey, bit tricky to write school reports! Good luck sorting your holiday refund, hopefully you can go next year #project366

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  14. Glad things are starting to ease up for you and your got to have lunch with your friend. Happy Mother's Day and hope your daughter gets positive news about coming home soon

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