Sunday 26 August 2007

Life without Triple J (I’m a Barbie girl)

Date: Thu, 30 Sept 1999 22:24:11 +0100 (BST)
From: Ceels
Subject: Life without Triple J (I’m a Barbie girl).

Well, it’s Thursday and I seem to have five minutes to my self. Today has been a SHOCKER. To start with I have a fever and all the achy muscles and things that go along with it. Plus I have mucked out seven or eight stables today. And I also have an enormous bruise on my shin and thigh, a wrenched shoulder and a bung knee.

You see I went climbing trees. Yes, great galumphing super-klutz of the century ceels went climbing trees with the little girls. But they dared me, so I did. But any way.

Today. I worked from 7:10am this morning till 5:30pm, with no break, not even a little one. As usual at seven I went down to the main house to wake the girls and chivvy them down to breakfast, followed by breakfast duty and taking Matilda up to pre-prep. Matilda is a very bright little girl in the equivalent of grade one whose mother drops her off every morning at quarter to eight. We played snap with her new animal snap cards until eight thirty then I went off to ‘toe by toe’ the remedial reading.

Today is one of the days that the nursery is understaffed so I went straight there from toe by toe. I didn’t have to supervise morning break because they needed someone for swimming so I did that instead and missed my own break as well, getting back just in time to be late up to nursery.

After another hour in nursery (some of which time was actually spent watching Paddington bear) it was time for pre-prep lunch. Lunch was pretty good (for a boarding house) but none of my pre-preps wanted to eat it, so we had a little battle about that. This was followed by lunch duty for the main school, then straight down to the horses and mucking out.

I THOUGHT I had an hour break at four thirty and I collapsed into the staff room with some cake and biscuits, but I should have found somewhere better to hide. The brownies teacher is not coming in any more and they needed some one to supervise brownies for an hour.... mmmmm. We played ‘pip squeak Wilfred’, ‘heads down thumbs up’, ‘duck duck goose’ and other fun games.

Finally I made my way to sick bay and watched neighbours with Jen (the other aussie) and matron. Supper was lovely and I ate loads of bread, pasta and apple crumble. I had been quite reluctant to haul myself in to supervise supper, but supper turned out to be quite funny. To quote matron: "they’re little buggers, but you’ve got to laugh". Even supervising break wasn’t so bad, it is getting dark at around 7 now and next week they will only be allowed out until quarter past, but I did a couple of laps of the school then played 40-40 with Gregs Charlie Jess and Millie.

THEN!!! I went to the pub with Yasmin and drank badger ale and played pool. I am now feeling quite relaxed (if a little tipsy).

If you think a morning in nursery is not such hard work let me tell you otherwise. I haven’t stepped on anyone yet, but imagine eleven very small children all going in different directions at once. They never do what you say, and they are grotty and unhygienic. I constantly have nursery rhymes stuck in my head, and not even the good ones. Things like ‘head and shoulders and knees and toes’ or ‘1234567, 8, 9, 10’.

‘Take your hands out of your pants please Harry’.... ‘Harry I told you to take your hands out of your pants’.... ‘Serena leave your knickers alone’.... ‘Haydn, if you need a tissue ask for one, don’t just let it dribble’.... ‘Harry if you do that one more time, you’ll have to go and wash your hands’.... AAAITCHOO.... ‘Quick Celia get a tissue, no Haydn, not in your mouth’... 'Serena if you don’t get your hands out of your knickers I’ll be very cross’.... ‘Jordan, Jordan, take your fingers out of your mouth Jordan’.... ‘What’s the matter Molly, do you need to do a wee?’ and that is how it goes on, the entire time.

So, yes, it might sound pretty cushy, sitting around watching Paddington with a bunch of two year olds, but do not be fooled for a second. And with that long angsty whinge about my day, I’ll be off; if I don’t go to bed soon then I will be shirty ceels with the girls tomorrow. So I am sorry if I have not promptly replied to your email, but I am sure to have more time on the weekend to write to every body.
love you lots
ceels ____________________________________________________________

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