Laudable as this is, I'd rather they used the cash raised to buy back the French teacher who was sent packing last year ('Sooooo, you've raised the fees and cut French lessons! Splendid idea!'), or bring back the extra PE lessons, music lessons, art lessons, I could go on... Not sure how my suggestion might be received though, I'm just a paying parent after all.
Still, it is a day where they don't need to wear a school uniform, something which always sends my pulse racing. Whoever made the statement that 'school uniforms are so much easier for parent's' don't actually have any children or have a full time maid. Having to ensure that the same items are clean every day is NOT easy in any way, shape or form, particularly if you have more than one child.
And no, I'm not one of those parents that greet the children at the door as they arrive in from school and insist they go and change into play-clothes (I've tried but it usually results in them just stripping off everything and then wandering around naked until I provide them an alternative, something which may or may not happen) so usually by 7pm their uniforms are covered in their breakfast, lunch and dinner (their eating habits leave a lot to be desired -- am working on it -- check out sister blog).
It effectively means that every morning, as I stumble out of bed, contact lenses hitting the back of my eyeballs (I know, I should have taken them out the night before), I have to go upstairs to the laundry-room to iron the uniforms which have been drying overnight (we don't have a drier...there really is no need) before I've even had a cup of coffee!
It is without doubt the worst part of my day, not least because the school in their wisdom have chosen a cotton-based uniform, not a teflon school dress or airtex top in sight, meaning ironing is an absolute requirement if I want to avoid them showing up to school looking like 'Stig of the dump' (which they do regularly anyway when I've forgotten to wash them).
If they weren't obliged to wear a uniform I could throw anything on them without having to give it a second thought; a Spiderman costume perhaps, or Toy Story pyjamas, whatever, it wouldn't matter (although to be honest, I have been known to take liberties with the uniform -- like the countless times they've rocked up to school wearing a uniform from a previous school (still blue! AND a uniform!) or wearing a fetching combo of PE kit and uniform (couldn't find proper shorts/top) and there was the time my friend fell about laughing at the sight of six-year-old boy wearing one blue and white striped sock and one white sock with a large lace frill around the edge (it was my daughters...couldn't find the matching striped one).
Luckily my children don't make too much of a fuss and accept that we wear what we can find. In my youth I've been known to wear a nightdress out to the pub when nothing else was clean.
Saint Patrick's Day, RAK style!
But tomorrow night we're going to the Sailing club here in RAK to celebrate Paddy's day: It should be a good night, bacon and cabbage is promised (although apparently Spinneys forgot to reserve the bacon so it may just be cabbage) along with music and booze. It can't be worse than last year which we spent in the 'Village pub' in Al Hamra.
The 'authentic Oirish' band spent the night singing good old traditional Irish tunes such as 'I'm Henry the VIII I am' and 'My old man's a dustman'. I think they were Canadian and were confusing the Irish with the English -- sort of how we confuse Americans and Canadians, or Australians and Kiwis -- they all sort of sound the same but get hugely insulted should you confuse them.
Anyway, Irish, Canadian, Romanian, it matters not, the band were dreadful and to make matters worse DH spent the entire evening panicking that the children would fall in the pool beside where we were sitting. I tried to reason that if they did fall in, we'd hear the splash and there would be plenty of time to fish them out. He gave me that look that he sometimes give me; unsure of whether I was joking or not (I wasn't).
Trouble in the Middle East
The 'Where to next' question still rages. I had been heard some months back urging DH to apply for a job in Libya, with the brilliant idea that the children and I would languish on the island of Malta, a mere hours flight away, where DH would visit us at weekends. Luckily, for once he downright refused, although my urging to apply for a job in Bahrain was met with less resistance -- luckily his CV was largely ignored by that particular application.
Egypt weren't hugely interested in him either although Saudi Arabia actively were -- I was certainly actively disinterested in it. Interested governments might want to check out any outgoing traffic from DH's email account bearing the subject title 'CV attached' should they be mildly curious as to what's next for the Middle East. They might want to keep an eye on Qatar....
Beannacht La Fheile Padraig!
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| Happy Saint Patrick's Day! |
