Saaga

The toilet at our favourite coffee shop has a strange door in the men’s room.

A close up view reveals:

The giant metal door has a peep-hole.
What the hell do they need that for?

It is strange being back in the classroom again after a two year absence. I have 21 kids from 8 nations (France, USA, Germany, Korea, Japan, Sweden, India and Greece) and they are a bunch of dedicated learners.
My previous post was as a learning support teacher and with my two prep periods a day, I got everything done on time and could usually leave shortly after the kids and only rarely had to do work on the weekend. Now I am starting to get used to the long hours and weekend work of a regular teacher and it feels kind of like I am wishing my life away.* There aren’t enough hours in the day and I never seem to get even half of what I wanted done. I am sure a lot of people can relate to that. I just had to get used to it again after a two year cruise and it was a shock.

Every whim of our students is catered for. There is (of all things) a of hip hop dance class in the cafeteria on Thursdays. I never thought that this was something you taught to people, unless they were about to gyrate in the back of a video clip.

Speaking of the whims of our students; the D&D club started up again this week and there was a shock for us all…a girl has joined. It is funny (and sad) to see the way the nerdy boys react to her presence. There is a lot more chest puffing out and knuckle dragging. I am sure she is impressed.

*Without so much of the wishing.

The words they’re drowin’ in amber again.

Miranda bloody Devine actually wrote something sensible!

I was standing at the tram stop near school with two of my colleagues today, when a woman walked by with a Boston terrier and stopped not far from us. It was so ugly it went all the way around the attractiveness cycle and wound up back at ‘cute’ again. We made a few comments to each other about its appearance, but unbeknownst to me the owner could understand us and was getting annoyed by the comments and so when I declared that it was the perfect cross between a bat and a dog, she declared that the three of us were all perfectly crossed between monkeys and humans.
At first I didn’t register what she said, but Michelle ‘Darth’ Chan did and was working on using her Jedi mind tricks to push the woman into traffic. Is it normal to be so defensive about a pet? Was she right to have a go at us? Was it wrong of Darth to want to eat her soul?

Yesterday we were in our favourite chain coffee house (Woyton) and I jokingly suggested that I would have a muffin, but using the German ‘u’ sound and arriving at the word ‘moofin’ (the ‘oo’ pronounced like it is in hoof*) which made the guy behind the counter grin and reach for the plate of brownies. Holding them up in front of me he asked if I would prefer a brovnie (saying the ‘ov’ like the word ‘of’ in English) instead. I was impressed that he got the joke despite my crappy German and then responded in kind. This further dispels the idea that the Germans have no sense of humor.

School starts properly on Wednesday. I have been back at work since Thursday, but we have a few days in which to prepare for the onslaught of hungry minds. Being back in the classroom is an exciting idea and the days are flying by. However there is some trepidation over the amount of extra work I am going to have do over the next few months as I settle into a routine.
On the plus side though, I have worked with this crop of kids for two years as a support teacher and so I know most of them very well already. They are the nicest bunch of children I have ever met, let alone worked with, so I don’t anticipate any stress coming from them…unfortunately though there may be a few crazy parents in the mix.

*I had to think hard for a minute there to avoid writing poof.

I’ve just read this unbelievable but true exchange of letters on the SMH website. Angus & Robertson bookstores have made a ridiculous demand of small publishing companies which can only lead to the stores stocking a smaller range of books. Don’t let them push small Australian publishers around. Boycott Angus and Robertson - support your small independent bookshop instead - at least they genuinely care about books and their customers.

I just got back from the first Fortuna home game of the season and while the atmosphere was great with more than 27000 people in the stadium, I was a little disappointed with the quality of the football. Last season there were some great games and there were some crap games. I was hoping that this season we would see a little bit more consistency, but tonight wasn’t a good start.
I wonder how it will compare to Sydney FC. I’ve heard things that make me think it will be a good team to come back to. Most of what struck me as negative were things revolving around the nerdy patheticness of Ultra fans; but we have that here as well so it won’t be a shock.

Drink to the devil and death to the doctors

To celebrate our wedding anniversary (that we missed in July) we went to Pegasos for dinner. While we are not super regulars at Pegasos, we do go there often because the food is always good, which hasn’t been the case at other Greek restaurants we have tried. When I think about it, we haven’t found good Chinese or Indian either. The exception to this last point is an Indian Schnell Imbiss (take away) which is good, but to go there for a wedding anniversary requires a fully developed mullet and a denim suit.
Last night I DM’d an Iron Kingdoms game, which is the first game I have run for adults (I do run Dungeons and Dragons for the High School nerds) in almost a year. The game was great and the players were successful and enjoyed themselves as much as I did. I am very glad I finally got around to doing it. I have been planning to play for a long time, but it took Derek to mention that he hasn’t played in ages (and wanted to play before he goes back to the US and A) to get my lazy arse into gear.
Today we go to the Bier Böurse in Benrath, which is touted as having more than a thousand beers from around the world. If I didn’t already have a good insight into the German psyche, I would think that it was just an excuse for them to stand around in the nice weather drinking. One of our local pubs has setup their external bar, which is like a bier stall just in front of the pub itself. The locals love it and flock to the seats that have been put in the market place around the bier bar, so they can drink outside while the weather is nice.

Learning to cry for fun and prophet.

I ask this question as we have just been to see the Simpsons movie. While it was entertaining enough, Steve and Derek found it much funnier than I did. The reason I don’t find it that funny, is I basically see how close to real-life it is. Steve says that’s why it’s funny. But for me it’s kind of depressing.

In so many TV shows, most episodes are based on the idea of the main male character doing something stupid (e.g. The Simpsons, Family Guy, Everybody Loves Raymond, Home Improvement, Faulty Towers) and then someone else (normally the wife) having to fix it. Is this meant to reflect reality? If that’s true, I should become a lesbian. Are men actually stupid? I guess this is why they laugh at themselves being ridiculed… feel free to defend yourselves guys.