Floored

[wiseheart]

So, I didn't go for the price-reduced bananas after all. When I got up I felt so flattened that I knew I wouldn't leave the house today. Instead, I took down the dried washing, gave Mum her weekly shower, washed my hair and - drumroll! - made a quick and easy peanut butter traybake. It was an interesting recipe, using mineral water in the dough, but turned out very tasty, even though the consistency was a bit odd. Too thick perhaps; I could barely smooth it in the baking tin. But the end result was very soft and crumbly, which is the best thing for Mum, so it's okay.

I'm afraid I was useless for the rest of the day, though. I took two hour-long naps, one in the late morning, one in the early afternoon (we had leftovers, so no cooking was required), solved half a crossword puzzle, wrote about two lines, and that was basically it.

We allowed us our daily dosis of "Richterin Barbara Salesch" via YouTube and I talked to my friend and former colleague Erna (our art teacher) on the phone to see how they had survived the school's annual Faschingsball, which used to be the lowest point of the year for me while I still worked. Thanks to retirement, I'm now spared that ordeal, but I feel for the colleagues who still have to go through it.

Comments

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Basically, it is a carnival party where the guests (mainly the parents of our pupils) pay an entry fee for watching the entertainment, plus as much food and drink as they want. The teachers do all the decorating, the rearranging of the various spaces, serve in the bar and in the coffee room, haul the drinks up from the storage room and provide most of the entertainment. On a mandatory basis, in their free time and unpaid. I for myself was assigned to the coffee maker for hours each year while still working. Boss Woman’s pet was gallivanting around with a camera, taking photos…

The purpose of this ordeal is to raise money for bigger school projects like playground renewals and so on, since the state no longer comes up for such things.

[elwenlj.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness! It sounds like slave labour.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It basically is. Like a lot of other things teachers over here have to do without being paid for.