Back to Work

After the pleasant sensation of waking up without an alarm, at the civilized time of 8:30, I really felt relaxed yet alert yesterday.
I went into school, not to work, I was on strike, but to get a lot of little things tidied up.

Pleasant day, meandered from one little task to another, interspersed with cups of coffee and chats to colleagues.

Had a long talk to our computer systems manager while he was upgrading the computer I use at school to IE8 and Office 2010.  We are upgrading all of our servers and switches next weekend, which should result in a much faster and more robust system.  We also discussed the insane policy  (or really non-policy) of the MoE and the government.  If they bought all of the needed computer systems centrally, they would save a fortune.  I would estimate they would save $2.2m.  Every year.

I'll be finishing off the reports today, checking all the comments have been put in, ready for printing on Friday.  I had the idea of putting the picture of the new principal of Nuova Lazio High on the back of each report, as a memento, but this concept was not well received by the few colleagues who were about.

I finished adjusting the gears on the new tricycle I had bought for my beloved for her birthday.  She has always wanted one, as she suffers from a mild form of vertigo, and she does not feel safe on a normal bicycle.  So I bought her one.  It came in a box, and I had to assemble the parts from a photocopied set of instructions, which seemed to use very bad and minimalised chinese-english translation.
It's a strange mixture of well-engineered (gears and frame), robustly engineered (frame/axle connection) badly engineered (chain guard had holes drilled in the wrong places), unique Chinese engineered(axle brake using a flexible metal band) and just plain weird (front dynamo-powered light).  Overall I was pleased with it, and after I get a bike of my own, we can go gentle bike rides along the Hutt River walk. (Or John Key's cycle track if it's ever finished.)

Back to work, teaching and relief never stops.