Dawn til Dusk

If I manage to post today (Wednesday) it'll be a miracle. I haven't had internet access until gone 22.30 and then blogger was down.

I was up at 6.30 this morning, just like the old days, and standing outside Austen and Sue's house by 7.15. I was feeling all enthusiastic about the morning light and said to Austen that there is a special quality to the light at that time.
'Sure, if you want to put a positive spin on it,' he said. Yep, different story when you have to get up that early every day.

I had decided to go into school to see my former students in their last German lesson. Actually there was a bit of a misunderstanding because I thought it was their exam. I had loads of hugs. Very spontaneous, just wonderful to be welcomed so warmly by so many pupils and ex-colleagues. I have to admit that one of my favourites was from Josh (he of the pink bewigged Archangel Gabriel) who ran up to me and flung his arms round me,
'Have you been keeping up with Desperate Housewives?' he asked. I love that kid.

It was great to see my German girls again, and be able to wish them well in their exam tomorrow. We sprinkled imaginary pixie dust for good luck. It'll work. I saw Lorin, which made me feel guilty as all hell about being so paranoid about collecting my passport tomorrow. Lorin is still in the position of being allowed to stay in the country for two years and then not knowing whether her family will be sent back or not. She didn't have a passport when she arrived and certainly can't expect a British one anytime soon. She just kept hugging me and saying 'I've missed you so much.'

The head of ICT made me go into his room to show me proudly that he still had the Canadian flag I'd given him up in the room.

Gerry, British eccentric extraordinaire, was wearing a tie with a clock on it and living his life backwards or something. Each day until his retirement represented a year in teaching. He explained all this to me in '1973' and then I saw him later and he looked at his watch and he said it was just coming up to Christmas 1974.

I walked back to Austen and Sue's, a goodly trot of about three and a half miles. At one point I was following a young woman in a motorised wheelchair with two England flags on the back. Now THAT was cool. Nice one.

Alex and I went to get Fish and Chips for Sue, Holly and the two of us. There seemed to be some kind of freak mushy pea crisis in the chippie but eventually the lad serving got out a new catering can of...the exact same peas you buy in the supermarket. In fact, the ones that say 'chip shop mushy peas' on them.

Sue had received a card from my friend Julian. On the front was a cartoon of the scene from Dicken's 'oliver Twist' where the boy asks for more and the person giving out the food says, 'More!'. On this card though, the food server is saying, 'More coriander!' and underneath the caption reads, 'Jamie Oliver Twist'.

It was hard, very hard, saying goodbye to Austen, Sue, Holly and Eddie. Alex and I snook out while Holly was having her nap. My eyes were leaking somewhat.

Arriving in Surrey, I was a bit put out to discover there was an internet crisis which had been going on for two days without anyone phoning the isp. I phoned the isp. They claimed not to be able to fix it without sending an 'engineer' round, and that couldn't happen until Saturday morning. Strangely, everyone I spoke to had an Indian accent. Used to be they all had Welsh accents. I wandered around the house trying to find an open network, when suddenly, the one here came back on. Astonishing.

Anyway, I'm pleased to be able to get something online. It has been a long, full emotional day, as will tomorrow be.
I apologise for not answering individual e-mails and comments or phoning people or for taking your phone recharger. I'm knackered and I'll try and sort some of it tomorrow.