The story of where you came from

Bit of Kings of Leon for you this Monday – well, what’s left of it. I got caught up in a mire of exam papers and dog measuring!

Tomorrow, I shall mostly be sitting inside and staying out of the ridiculous heat. 38°C today and 40°C tomorrow. Silly hot. It was just lovely last week for about 5 days, where it was sub-30°C and  gentle breezes. Saturday morning was just perfect. Now we’re already all too hot and it’s hit ridiculous by 10am. I did a mad errand dash at nine to get shopping in and sort out the post and Tobby’s been panting like a crazy dog since 8.30 when it was already 24°C.

It is a good day to stay inside. Today, all set allocations for exam marking are finished and the rest of the unmarked papers are in a collective pot, so it’s a bit of a free-for-all. They tend to go very quickly and you’ve got to be on the ball to get many. I’ve been trying my best to get through some, but my stamina has gone and it’s too hot everywhere in my house.

I’m going to get a cold drink and try and plough on. I will be glad when there are no papers left and I don’t feel the pressure to keep marking! My fourth lot of kittens are at the vet tomorrow for their vaccinations and microchips – we’re at the point in the year where there just aren’t enough adoptions of kittens and too many coming in. I can’t even begin to tell you the sadness of the little one-day-olds found in a plastic bag. Only a few have survived. But they’re coming in thick and fast now – barely a day without arrivals. The dogs are too hot and kennel cough has hit epidemic proportions, meaning no adoptions unless the dogs are healthy enough to leave. No dogs going off to Germany, no dogs leaving… too hot for walks. Tough times indeed.

Roll on next Monday, that’s all I can say!

All the nightmares came today

Bit of David Bowie for you this Monday morning

Last week got away from me, what with the Brexit vote and the exam marking. Ironically, this year’s question asking pupils what they think the future of education should be is revealing I’d rather put my trust in the Foundation tier candidates than in the politicians. Reading them is making me very sad, but also very hopeful. If a hundred thousand foundation tier kids know what they need to help them in the future, I don’t know why we’re spending all our time avoiding listening to them.

Truth be told, I’m not sure what’s going on in the universe, but it feels like all hell has broken loose, globally speaking. Time to batten down the hatches, I think. I can’t remember the last time things felt so very uncertain. For those of us living in Europe, we’re living in a time of speculation and hesitation – nobody knows what will happen, if anything will happen, or when it will happen. Our fate for the largest part rests in politicians that we did not vote for and hold immense power over our future. No wonder I’ve got indigestion. It’s all gone a bit Shakespearean tragedy from my point of view.

The internet seems rife with petty spats and disputes, people feeling like it’s a great time to spew nonsense and generally air their grievances. I can’t count the number of fall-outs that have happened recently, the number of head-to-heads. I’m just staying indoors and playing with kittens. Seems the best thing to do. Tobby’s obviously feeling the global disturbance and has a wanderlust spirit because he’s got his wandering head on again. It’s been months since he toddled off out of one of his escape routes in the garden, yet he’s done a bunk twice in the last week. He’s obviously very sensitive to global unrest! That or he’s sick of me marking and spending very little time outside. Plus, I’ve been running backwards and forwards hither and thither for days – something that doesn’t seem like ending any time soon.

Well, short but sweet. No love at all for the most part this Monday morning, so feel free to send me a little of your leftovers. Here’s to friends who take a few hours out of their weekend for pop-up picnics, who bring new meaning to ‘re-education’, who make you laugh til your cheeks hurt and who bring you little boxes of joy. Most love to Game of Thrones which ended on a particularly dramatic finish, lost in the mire of all the politics. I think Boris Johnson did a more spectacular job of bringing down the ruling classes than all of Cersei’s wildfire.

Enjoy your Monday, you pretty things. I predict a long and stagnant summer ahead. Let’s have some sunshine, please. I’m tired of storm-clouds and grey skies.