Sorry for the long absence

Some of you hypothetical viewers out there may have wondered where I went to last month.

I went to "I-don't-give-a shit-land"

I had had a particularly stressful Term, with Ringo completely f*cking things up as usual, some of the kids being exceptionally fractious (No, this is a fancy euphemism. What I mean to say is that they were complete and utter bastards, behaving with such sadistic intent that they caused a reliever of many, many years experience to resign and not come back), reports, faculty issues, staff issues and poor little me still suffering from the tail end of a very bad cold and putting up with a surly son and nauseous Beloved.

I just couldn't be bothered to blog.

Being of (I hope) a fair minded nature, that meant (to me) that I shouldn't read other blogs and definitely not leave any comments.  I always seem to feel that you have to give to get.  It gave me an insight into the many viewers of my (and other) blogs, who like to browse the blogworld and don't leave any trace of their passing.

If any of you are browsing this, please feel free to leave a comment, and I always try to leave some sort of answer.  There are quite a few viewers who don't have operational (or up-to-date) blogs, and leave really good comments, so I hope you don't feel inhibited.

One positive note from the non-blogging period was the change in numbers of viewers.  It definitely dropped substantially during the non-blogging period, demonstrating perhaps that it is the actual posts that are attracting attention.  Strange.

Maybe a career in writing lies in my future, or maybe not.  It's all just for fun.

Speaking of fun, back at Nuova Lazio High, we just finished a marathon two week binge called the RWC®, where all the staff were divided into groups, arbitrarily allocated to one of the national teams competing in the RWC ®, and rather than suffering the sickening thud of a well executed tackle into the breadbasket, we suffered under an absolute barrage of food.  This is more dangerous than it sounds, and many staff were reeling from the onslaught of the never ending avalanche of carbohydrates and fats.  Dishes that come to mind were:
Mini star burgers
Chapatis and chick pea curry
Steak sandwiches
Wildebeest rolls
Tuna bread rolls
Sushi (This is memorable because I hate the bloody stuff.  Raw fish has never been my favourite, especially since I discovered during my Microbiology studies  that vibrio cholrea can survive in sea water levels of salinity and pH.  You eat raw fish if you want to.  Do you really want the most ferocious dose of diarrhea on the planet?  I thought not.
Tattie Scones
Biltong
Vodka laced jelly shots (not during school teaching hours I might add)
Poutine (From Canada; chips, gravy and cheese (Must be in the contest for the most dangerous anti-cardiac food on the planet)
And so many multi-coloured cup cakes that the tartrazine levels in our blood was close to reaching toxic levels.
Lemon flan (like a lemon flavoured cooked cheesecake)
Miniature savouries.  For all you non-kiwis out there this is something you're really missing.  I discovered these soon after arriving in NZ.  They are small, about ¼ scale of a normal pie, and are mostly mini-quiches, mini-mince pies,mini-potato topped pies, mini-steak pies.  Fresh out of the oven, they're great.

The whole RWC® shtick came to it's grand final after school today, with all of the teams (or at least those members who:

1. weren't completely pissed
2. didn't really give a shit but staggered in at the right time
3. remembered
4. were actually trying to get some school work done
5. arranging the bloody relief for the next f*cking week

Our staffroom on a Friday after teaching is finished

sang the national anthems of each team.

I ended up in the toilets, being physically sick after hearing Team Scotland's rendition of "Flower of Scotland"

I heard the original being sung by the Corries in the Glasgow City Halls in the 70s, and the"version" being sung by the Kiwi team just wasn't right.

Anyway, I resolve to keep the posts regular and as amusing as I can make them according to my mental state (Fragile, going onto completely doo-lally) at the time.

According to Google, this is  doolaly

Have a nice weekend.