From: Ceels
Subject: another day another nosebleed (‘j’ for jumping Jim).
Once more I am knackered and once more I am sick. I was planning an early night last night. I was horrible last night and put all the girls to bed five minutes early because I was so tired. I planned to go down stairs and watch ‘Wives and Daughters’ (new costume drama from the makers of P&P) with Jenny in the B’s common room then go to bed.
At two minutes to nine, as I argued with the last of the A1s about whether it was fair that I was turning out the lights, someone started wailing. I went to investigate and found the new matron in Charlotte Rottenberg’s dorm panicking. Just as she had panicked the night before during the fire alarm. Admittedly there was blood pouring down Rotter’s face and she was in some considerable pain. The long and the short of it is that the Head of Boarding and I got to go to the Dorset county hospital in Dorchester. I sat in the back and cradled Rotter’s head in my lap and Eleanor (the head of boarding) and I kept her talking. The story is that she bent down to pick up the curtain sash and whacked her head on the sharp edge of the radiator. And there was certainly blood all over the radiator. Anyway, Rotter is now covered in stitches and is the centre of attention and I am knackered.
Yesterday there was a roller disco and I was coaxed into strapping on a pair of roller skates. Mmmmm. I didn’t fall over. I also got to watch some of the BBC Pride and Prejudice (oh Lizzie, how unfortunate we all seem to be). It would have been very relaxing and all except that the girls insisted on watching it with us. And, no matter how well intentioned they are, you just can’t make twenty pre-adolescent girls sit quietly.
Oh, and today at lunch (I know I keep going on about the stuff, but it is such a part of my life) Molly has a cold and one stage she coughed and coughed and coughed. She went bright pink and tears poured down her face. I asked her if she was okay and she said yes. A minute later she said, ‘My nose feels all a bit gluey.’ I replied ‘Oh yes, do you want to blow it?’ and she said, ‘Yes, phhhhttghhh’ and blew a bucket load of snot straight down her chin. What could I do but cry ‘Molly’ and go and get a tissue? You will be pleased to hear that Jack M ate all his shepherd’s pie.
I was in the nursery today because Yasmin is sick. The nursery is not a good place to be when you are so tired you can’t see straight. You definitely need to be on the ball if you want to stay a step ahead of these kiddies. they were all doing poos today. And telling me. They take extraordinary pride in doing poos, and what can I say to them but ‘well done’.
Jen has joined me in the computer room. Us Aussies need our email to keep us sane. We are both being terribly wicked using the internet during the day, but I think I speak for both of us when I say ‘asparagus’.
It may surprise everybody to hear that it is raining. Dull November dark and nippy, making roads and pavements slippy.
The weather has been unseasonably mild this past week, but all that has changed. Hey, the nineties are nearly over. Sorry, only just realised. With all the rant about the end of the millennium I’d forgotten that the nineties are ending too. Goodbye nineties. Most of the kids at this school were born in the nineties. Scary thought. Scary Spice, a lasting icon of the nineties. One of the girls last night started singing ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ and I threatened to send her to bed early for a week if she didn’t stop. She stopped singing, but she didn’t think I was serious.
You can turn out the younger kids lights early because they can’t tell the time. All you need in a dorm is one irritating little kid with a watch and the ability to read it. ‘But we’ve got seven minutes’. The easiest way with little kids is to not answer, if you allow yourself to be drawn into a response you’ll be there for hours. I am going to miss them. Last night Aggie was telling me how she had sneezed seven times in a row. I raised an eyebrow and said ‘Serious?’ she said ‘Yeah... isn’t it funny how you go tingly all over when you sneeze lots of times’ and people, that was nearly the end of me.
I have a nasty suspicion that I have tonsillitis.
I have a nasty suspicion that I haven’t got the job at the national theatre, but I am too tired to care.
But I am off now to do break duty.
love you lots,
ceels ____________________________________________________________
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