May 2006 And All That

Oooh I'm quite pissed off.
Today has been filled with alternately Good and Bad Things.

My day began with a swim, which was a Good Thing, but I was tired and couldn't be arsed to do as much as usual and that was obviously the shape of things to come.

In fact, no, my day didn't begin with a swim. That came after getting up with LG, getting her ready for school and shoving her out of the door without saying goodbye encouraging her to go all the way to school by herself for the first time. After my earlier musings on this subject, I've decided she really does need to be more independent in the very safe and familiar context of the 5 minute walk to school - to be confident and know that she can do it; she got into a real panic at the weekend at the suggestion that she might go to the corner shop for us by herself, although she's done so before.

It is such a cliche, but I genuinely felt like the mother-bird pushing the fledgling out of the nest to learn to fly. No, I didn't shove her out and of course I did say goodbye (though this doesn't entirely cohere with her account of things - she did milk it a bit) but I had to suppress twinges of conscience, concern, remorse whilst swimming my (not so many as usual) lengths.

Out of the swimming pool - Trac couldn't meet me for coffee, ptb - into my favourite charity shop. PTB - they are closing down! Will I manage to keep the swimming up without the incentive of the CS afterwards? They hope to be moving into premises around the corner, but don't yet know for sure. This is a Very Bad Thing.

Could things get any worse?

Actually, then things got better. I sashayed (is that how its spelt? wasn't in my dictionary, but I'm sure it can't be sacheted) into our local Clarks factory shop, and came away with 4 pairs of summer shoes for £45. Not bad eh? Actually, no, a Good Thing.


More shopping for LG (more black clothing, black trousers, black pajamas - but all in Primark, so for next to nothing) (which can't be ethical shopping, so then I felt very guilty, cheap clothes, a bit like cheap flights = A Bad Thing) and then back home.

Chatted on MSN with Lucy, which was a Good Thing and Cheered Me Up.

Marked some essays. Bad, Bad, Bad.
A student who plagiarised not only once but twice for me last year - and a third year student, no less - has obviously been given a 3rd chance to retrieve/complete the course this year. She has submitted another essay, and this is also plagiarised. Taken mostly verbatim from an article on the web which I found in about 5 seconds with Google's help. Either she thinks I am very stupid, or else she herself clearly doesn't have the intellectual capacity to merit any kind of degree. I was well pissed off, you can be sure! (if you weren't already sure)

Almost all our courses now have to have an exam included in the assessment, specifically to try and prevent plagiarism. However students will, instead, hide notes in the toilet, try to listen to concealed tapes, even write notes on their leg - not in my personal experience, but this has all happened recently in our own department in the university. Maybe we should be strip-searching them all before exams? But I don't think that would be a Good Thing.

We're also currently involved in industrial action and formally boycotting assessment procedures. This means that I didn't invigilate an exam I would have been in this morning. This meant that I forgot all about a meeting I should have been at in the afternoon. Ptb. Its a routine committee (yawn) so might be considered A Good Thing to have missed it, but I've missed the last couple and will miss the next one because its during half-term. Which makes this a Bad Thing. Feeling guilty again.

The assessment boycott means that we aren't participating in any assessment procedures. Any marking I might be doing in the privacy of my own home, to avoid a back-log building up, is purely a theoretical possibility - though if I were involved in such an exercise, I wouldn't, of course, be giving grades to students or to the university.

I hope to goodness the dispute is over in time for exam boards etc. etc. so that students aren't prevented from receiving their results or graduating. That would be a Very Very Bad Thing. Worried and guilty again.

There is, however, a good case for the action. Salaries have scarcely - and not always - kept up with inflation over the last 10-15 years, despite very significant increases in workload. And the management who have been refusing to talk with the unions recently gave themselves a 25% raise. Don't put your daughter into education, Mrs. Worthington.

2 of the other 3 essays I marked were pretty crappy too.

LG came home from school in reasonably good spirits. But her teacher is putting lots of pressure on about next weeks SATS, expects everyone on her table to get level 5s, tells them all the time how important these tests are to them, to us (parents) to everyone. Despite us telling her that this is all bollocks, she does worry. So he pisses me off a good deal too. She should have had gym today, but has missed it for weeks because of practising for tests.
Cross, cross, cross.

We were relaxing in the garden in the sunshine, me with the final crappy essay of the day, her with an Asterix omnibus I got in the charity shop (A Good Thing) when M. came home. And gave us a hard time for not having our mobile phones in the garden, so that LG hadn't seen the text message he sent her. Pissed off again. He did apologise later, but thats not the bloody point.


I then discovered that slugs have decimated the helenium which was part of a birthday gift from my parents last year, which I love, and which should be looking like this in September.

but which probably wont now.


I hate them (slugs, obviously, not helenium, birthday gifts or parents).

Here are some I found earlier.
They were at least 2 inches long (each) and utterly loathesome.

But - there are some lovely lovely things in my garden at the moment, and I shall put some pictures of them here, to try and inject a cheery note into this post at the last minute, lest you never darken the towel door of my blog again. I hope its not too late.

The apple blossom smells absolutely exquisitely delicious.