more hospital...

as if it wasn't enough that my grandmother spent 6 months in hospital before dying, her sister, whom i love ever so dearly, was apparently admitted on Friday, after a routine operation last week ended in a huge infection. just great. she's 92, couldn't they have been a little more careful than usual? i've been told she should be out tomorrow, but will she be fine when they let her go or will it end up in more hospital time in a month? cos that's what happend to my grandmother and we know how that ended...

working conditions

on Monday, i got to tell my boss i was leaving. he wasn't overjoyed, but didn't make a huge fuss either. he did keep saying i could have come and talked to him about the lack of work, etc, but what was i supposed to say? we've discussed it several times since January, nothing's really happened, and there are less and less lessons to go around. i said i'd be grateful if he could let me leave as soon as possible, knowing how little work there was anyway, although i didn't want to leave the school and the lurch and would of course help out as much as possible while some of my colleagues were on holiday. he agreed with me and that was that. or so i thought.

on Wednesday, when i checked my schedule for next week, i had no lessons left. that was interesting. on Thursday, i found out i'd been deleted from the system altogether. all right then. it seemed incredibly silly to me, but if that was how he wanted to play it... in the meantime, my direct supervisor came back from her holidays, and she was very unhappy about my leaving. she couldn't understand the boss hadn't even tried to keep me. who was going to train the new teachers, etc? she certainly couldn't do it as well as i did, she said. i was touched. it's nice to know people think you're doing a good job. i pointed out noone was irreplaceable, and that they'd find someone else to do it, but she didn't seem convinced.

anyway, when i went to talk to the boss once more, to find out whether or not i was teaching next week, he gave me a bizarre reason for having taken me off the schedule, but assured me i would indeed be teaching. he also suggested i might still be teaching the following week, at which point i told him that, in view of the aforementioned events, i'd told my new employer i'd be completely available that week. ah, well, we would see...

WALL-E

a must-see! i was a bit dubious, when i heard what the story was about, but it's one of the best Pixar movies around (in the league of the Incredibles and Monsters Inc). so my advice for the day is: if you haven't seen it, go now!

the gorges 2

another gorgeous view. we're standing there, at the bottom, admiring the beauty...

the gorges

a view of the amazing place we spent the weekend!

32km by arm-strength

i just had a really amazing weekend. Mr. J. organised a two-day canoeing trip down a river in southern France. what a trip!

eight of us left at 7am on Saturday morning, drove 5 hours to the canoeing place, packed up (that was fun) and started paddling. it was a bit tricky at first, especially the rapids, but it was so gorgeous that it completely made up for the pain in our arms. we passed some truly magnificent scenery (and geology), entered the gorges and after one really big rapid, got out of the water to camp. huge amounts of food later, some wine and we finally got to rest!

got up early, ready (or not) for the next 2/3s of our trip (over 20kms). more pain, but also more amazing beauty, lots of sunshine and basically lots of fun. we were, however, more than ready to cross that finish line! unfortunately, once we got back to our cars, we discovered two of our party had been robbed, so we had to spend some more time in town than expected. French police... and by the time we got on the road, it was already late, so five hours later, is was 1am... it was a bit hard to wake up this morning, but what the hell: it was so worth it!

new job

all right then, it's done! i've signed the papers and will officially be working for a new school from the 1st of Sept. it's not exactly what i was looking for, but at least it's a job with prospects, and that's better than a lot of things. now the only thing to do is talk to my current boss, who has apparently gone off on holidays or something until Monday. typical. so in the meantime i've changed my availabilities in the schedule and i've sent in my letter of resignation. tomorrow i'll set up an appointment for Monday and hopefully, he'll let me go quickly.

domestic violence

i went to see a friend of mine yesterday, and was overjoyed when she told me she was getting a divorce - her husband always seemed a bit flaky to me,t heir relationship was often on the rocks and their marriage certainly didn't start very well. i did not, however, expect the tale of what had really happened over the past five years. a tale of domestic violence, including a 2-day stay at the hospital and two formal complaints at the police station. i had tears in my eyes when she was telling me. and the thing that made me angrier than anything was when she recounted a recent episode when he'd threatened to kill her, to make her 'another statistic'. and she doesn't want to make domestic violence the grounds for the divorce because that would mean instant jail-time for him and she doesn't think he deserves that. and she didn't tell anyone any of this because if things got better, like he kept promising they would, she didn't want anyone remembering the bad times and thinking less of her husband. she's one of the most considerate people i know, but this is taking it way too far in my book. and it is scary to think that she, as a highly-intelligent and educated woman, would have let things go so far... just writing this makes my blood boil and makes me want to hit someone (preferably him), and i'm just so sad that she went through all this alone.

panic!

last night was a nightmare. i woke up at 2am, completely panicked about my future. having decided that, unless tomorrow's interview goes incredibly well, i'll go for the job i was offered on Friday, i thought that would be it. no more worrying about it. that was without taking into account my twisted mind. millions of 'what if's whizzed through like there was no tomorrow. what if my boss really holds me to the two-month notice? what if he basically makes it impossible for me to start working for the other school and thus i'll end up with very few hours when i get there? what if everything falls through and i end up without a job? at night, these questions seem absolutely terrifying, and that's without thinking about the 'should i just give up trying to get out of language education as it obvsiouly isn't giving me up'?

job interview

just had my first job interview in a long, long time... despite it being them who contacted me, i was quite nervous - if only because if nothing else happens, then they are the people i want a job with. it all sounds good and they're keen to have me. not only that, but they're more than willing to see me grow within the school and take on responsilibities, even managerial ones. so from that point of view, it's all great. the one thing i'm slightly wary about is the way they control the holidays: i've become so used to taking them whenever i liked (as long as i gave a month's notice), and in the quantity i liked (within reason) that it's going to be weird only being able to go at certain times of the year.

and then there are two problems: first, the guy wants to know on Monday whether i'll take the job or not. on Monday, i have the job interview for an interesting position in the corporate world, something i'd really like to do. i don't think i'll get it, but if it goes really well, then i'll only have a couple of hours to make some seriously dicey decisions. then, if i say yes, i have to give two months notice at work, and the school would like me to start working full-time from September - in barely 2 weeks. and they're not too keen on me working for both schools at the same time. so it could become a little tricky.

and now i'd better get started on a letter of resignation. no matter what i decide, then that will at least be something less to worry about...

cake!

picture courtesy of JK, although he doesn't know it!

A. makes great desserts, and when we're at the summerhouse, she goes all out like a pro. she puts much more effort into it than i would. well, maybe not, but anyway, this time, she made this great ice-cake. it was frozen solid, but once we got to eat it, it was really good!

dinner in the rain

on the first evening of our long weekend at the summerhouse, the weather threatened with rain, but it was quite mild, so when N., alone among three girls, asked if we could sit outside, we eventually all gave up: that smile of his will get him pretty much anywhere!

he got a round table out onto the lawn, placed a parasol over it, and we were ready to go. nearly as soon as we sat down, it started raining. softly, at first, but in greater quantities as the evening wore on. after about an hour, he came out with rain-gear and i thankfully slipped on his winter coat. the sound was amazing, especially at those times when the rain was the hardest, the kind of rain you should stand in if you want to forget about everything else. eventually, i too, relented, and stood there, getting drenched, just long enough for a couple of pictures, singing the only song you can in those moments: Singing in the Rain!

rainy holidays

after a week of mostly sunshine and heat, it was a bit strange to find myself in Scandinavia with clouds, rain and a lot of wind. the humidity made the lower temps bareable. i was lucky, however, to have an afternoon of sunshine while being driven around southern Sweden, which i'd never seen. and the rest of the time, the weather didn't really affect anything, although it would of course have been nice to see some sun. still, i had a good time, so i really can't complain. i do wish the weather back here was better, though - i'd been expecting to come back to summer weather, but apparently, we're expecting over 45mm of rain today, so i'm guessing not...

unsual short-term employment

i was waiting to check-in at the airport yesterday, when a man and a teenager came up to me. the man started explaining about having bought a plane ticket for his son to fly to Geneva. at first, i couldn't quite see what he was getting at, but it soon became obvious: apparently, with Easyjet, you can't fly by yourself before you're 14, but you're only entitled to having staff take care of a child until the age of 12. so what do you do when the child is 13? that was the question.

they seemed nice, the teenager certainly acted very proper, so i couldn't see the harm in accepting to take care of him. but once at the check-in counter, they said we needed to get a paper from the police, so we went to see them, and they said it was none of their business, but that perhaps the main counter could help us. the woman there also looked at me strangely for having accepted to take responsibility for a boy i didn't know half an hour earlier, but eventually gave us the required information. the relevant statement was signed, the boy was finally allowed to check-in, and off we went.

apart from us being delayed over 2 hours (some of which once seated in the plane), it was fine. well, we did have to find out which side of Geneva airport he needed to get out at. very few people know there is a French side, but his relatives being French, i thought he might have to get out there. we called his father, who called the relatives, who relayed the information that the woman (me) didn't know what she was talking about, as there was no French side. well, this at least answered the question of where to take him to.

we landed, were taken to the French side by bus (this was supposed to be an inland flight), had to show our ID to get into Switzerland, then show it again at immigration to get our luggage. he had none, which was good, cos he was getting a little impatient with it all - perfectly understandable when it's only your third time on a plane, that the journey so far has already taken 6 hours and that you should have been 'home' by now.

it was nice though, taking care of him. and i can only imagine how i would have felt if i'd been in the same situation.

Somaliland

i'd never heard of it until yesterday, when there was an article about it in the Herald Tribune. it's a small state in the north-eastern part of Somalia, which has its own, freely-elected government, headed by a president, has its own economy and currency and which, against all odds, seems to be a peaceful and politically stable place, despite being the 'neighbour' of Somalia, which as we know, is nothing like stable.

the problem is, as far as i understand the situation from one day's worth of knowing about it, that it is recognised by no government, except sometimes Ethiopia, which uses its main port for commerce. and the problem, when you're not recognised by others, is that you're not entitled to anything, like funds, aid, etc. it appears that Somaliland is getting a little money from the main Somali government, but will soon collapse if nothing else is done. and nothing will ever be done if people don't even know it exists. so here's my contribution to informing people about it.