4G 2023 05 01

How are you feeling now?

I hope that you have been able to enjoy a better day, a holiday!

Here I have been using my new coat that you have not seen, I will send a picture, Uncle Crip and Aunty Flora got it for me.

20230428 Card on table one

20230428 Card on table too

Here are pictures of the fabulous card you made for me in the apartment. Thank you.

In betwen the rain and hail that we have had I went to drink coffee out yesterday.

20230430 Cumin coffee girl

The girl in the picture makes an excellent coffee with cumin added. Cumin is a spice and she is the only one I have come across doing this. It does come with a warning for you though, do not try this at home!

Today I spent some time with some students for the final time before their exam. Tomorrow while we are all getting started with a new school term they will be sitting down to their first paper.

Tomorrow I doubt that we will see the

20230501 Birds on field

birds in the picture on our football field. I wonder if you can find out what they are? Some sort of Ibis or Stork I think.

Be well and enjoy school :-)

4G 2023 04 26

 4G 2023 04 21

Friday comes around again, how are you?

If you have been fasting for Ramadan then now you can celebrate for Eid al Fitr.

I hope your week has been a good one, happy at home and fun at school?

It was super, special, splendid to see you, great fun and thank you for the card. I will send you a picture of it in my apartment when I get back there.

2023 04 14 Waiting to depart, Bole

Here I am going to put a small selction of pictures of some of the things your mom and I got up to this week, we missed having you here.

2023 04 15 01 D2 A4 M61

2023 04 15 02 Teddy & Grandpa Kev meet

2023 04 15 03 Family garden time

2023 04 15 04 Balances with Aunty Cora

2023 04 17 Bathing children, grandchildren

2023 04 18 02 Adam & Kiaya & Teddy,
Buttermere (Sykes)

2023 04 18 03 Adam & Kiaya & Teddy,
Buttermere

2023 04 18 04 Kiaya & Dad, Buttermere

2023 04 18 05 Relaxing with Aunty Kerry

2023 04 18 06 Playing with Aunty Kerry

2023 04 18 07 Best sausage & mash eveeeerrrr!

2023 04 18 08 Bathtime with mummy

2023 04 19 01 Lunch for Cora

2023 04 19 02 Tableau

2023 04 19 03 One for Georgie

2023 04 19 04 Raven Crag base camp

2023 04 19 05 Two for Georgie

2023 04 19 06 I was 'ere

2023 04 19 07 Family time

2023 04 19 08 Family time too

2023 04 19 09 Flora & Teddy

2023 04 19 10 At home with Flora

2023 04 19 11 Not so at home Chris

2023 04 20 01 Keswick Town Car Park

2023 04 20 02 Old KE offices

2023 04 20 03 Lake Road Brunch Bunch

2023 04 20 04 1 Wood Cottages

2023 04 20 05 Wood Cottage memories

2023 04 20 06 At home with the Buxtons

2023 04 20 07 Night on the town jitters

2023 04 20 08 What was daddy doing

2023 04 20 09 The stagger home

2023 04 21 01 Nana visits

2023 04 21 02 Waiting for the bus
with Earl of Mayo

2023 04 22 01 At nanny's

2023 04 23

Leaving day and no time to adjust.

2023 04 22 01 At nanny's

One of the things that was clear this last week was that I must make sure you have the opportunity to ask questions and get answers.

A day with nanny and half a day with Aunty Cora, Stuart, and Lilly before this train ride to the airport.

2023 04 23 02 My classroom 2005

I fly this evening, arrive tomorrow morning, and work on Tuesday. This last week has been my best this year so far. See you soon :-) x

2023 04 23 03 Shakin' all over

2023 04 23 04 Cora & Lilly

2023 04 23 05 The plane leaving at gate A6 . . .

2023 04 24

Back at work, nearly. How was your school day? I start mine tomorrow, special lessons for students who take their international exams next week.

I am doing all of the boring jobs today; collecting my dry-cleaning, buying fresh food for breakfast, doing my washing, and putting away the things I was carrying in my bags last week.

A nice thing that happened today was the driver who bought me from the airport was very nice.

2023 04 26

Silly Grandpa Kev has taken this long to get all of the photos together in your folder. Then when I uploaded them into this post they placed themselves exactly in the wrong order. So, I have uploaded them one by one! Enjoy the week as I saw it.

4G 2023 04 14

 Today here is Good Friday, you will have had yours.

Did you get Easter Eggs? Any other activities, did you have a hunt for them?

Tonight I go to the airport and in the morning aunty meets me.

I am looking forward to being back for a week.

This week has been a little chaotic.

Again there are people in the areas north who are unhappy with the way things are.

It makes some of the folks here in town nervous.

Last weekend we had lessons on Saturday which were fun and then we all went to the Creative Arts Exhibition opening at the gym.

It is always great to see students you know, teach, doing other activities.

On Sunday there was an Easter activity for local orphans organised by the group I go to the local school with. That sounds complicated!

The group is a part of the Interact project and the ones I work with are year 12's and above. The part of the project for years 10 and 11 were the ones who organised this Easter activity.

The rest of this week has been a turmoil of attempting to get work finished and having Sports Day and tests and end of term stuff like the girls playing the female staff at football. You will be very pleased to hear students won very easily, we have a very good girl's football team here.

Now it is all over for the holiday. Before I left yesterday I re-arranged my classroom for the next term.

Seventeen years ago I had a job with a similarly large classroom to the one I have now, though with a better view! 

How I have arranged my desks for the next term is the same design I used then.

Everything changes, and yet it stays the same!?

See you soon :-) x

4G 2023 04 06

 Thursday today so one more day of school (for us both), oh, oh,

You have holiday ayeeeee I am the only one still at school!

Plus + I have lesson on Saturday anyway!

Saturday, one week before landing at Manchester,

Meeting your aunt and driving north.

A week to meet

Up with you,

And mommy, and Teddy.

And nanny and aunty and uncle and who knows who else.

Will the weather be good, do you think?

Walking in the rain sounds fun

Until the water runs

Down your neck and into your shoes.

Here Ihave an exciting day tomorrow,

I move house! Well . . .

Sort of!

I have got a new apartment.

It is directly above my apartment now.

It is the same size and has the same things in it.

But . . . instead of a dark and dismal wall

It has a large and light window.

My view is the school building to the left

A new apartment building to the right

And somewhere down the middle a vista of buildings and green and hills.

From where I will sit (beside the window)

They look like hills, but if they were outside of your window they would be

Mountains!

If you put Scafell Pike on top of Ben Nevis,

These mountains would be higher.

The other day I went to a big hotel (Ghiom)

area in town and enjoyed the gardens, and then yesterday I went with some students from my school to a nearby local school to help teach English.

Does those classrooms look like yours? No? Nor mine!

We are lucky :-)

4G 2023 04 01

 One feels duty bound,

To write to you today.

How can I let the first

Go by.

Not just any first,

The first of April!

I would indeed a fool

Be

To miss the day.

I told you of dates and times

That were different

To the ones you use.

Now in 1582 the French

Changed their calendar.

From Julius to Gregor.

New Year was no longer

The onset of Spring.

Julius liked to welcome the buds and growth

While Gregor has a Midwinter

Party.

If you had a party for Spring,

Say, on April 1^st?

Instead of yeehar, your friends

Said eeyor, eeyor to know better.

You were apparently a Fool.

Party poopers all!

I say, like Bill and Ted, (and Julius),

"Party on dudes."

4G 2023 03 29

 When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

To make a good lemonade you should have plenty of sweetness.

In fact, roughly equal parts in volume of water, lemon juice, and sugar.

That is alot of sugar, more than I have in a month of coffees.

Now you may wonder why I give you a recipe for lemonade?

I think I just got given a sack of lemons.

At this time I have no idea how it will end.

My neighbours where I stay have left. Left work at school,

Left the building, left the country.

Firstly, there was a mix-up. The person in charge made some bad words and people thought it was me who had left.

Secondly, their place next door has become a building site.

Working on the shared wall in the evening yesterday.

Today in my flat much dust and noise and less space because of their building.

Yep, a sack of lemons for sure.

While they finish their noise for the day, ha, ha, I write and wait away. Looking for the sweetness to smile and make some lemonade.

I hope your day has been a lemonade day and not a lemon day?!

4G 2023 03 26

 
Sunday morning, cloudy, humid, sticky,

A storm impending.

Out to walk and finding many people

Walking slowly. Out of respect.

Two important men of the church,

Popes have passed.

I watched as their funeral passed,

Heading to Holy Trinity Church by Arat Kilo.

I will picture the church for you in the week,

Many famous or important people are remembered there.

Today I am happy to be here

In many ways.

I am out in the cafe with people

Writing to you.

Instead of a day travelling, which with the weather

The way it is may have been a problem,

I can decide for myself what to do.

Those are good days aren't they?

When you choose what you will do,

Where you will go, what you will eat,

Et cetera . . .

Yesterday was odd because it seemed

That other people had taken over

My time and decisions. Today

I reclaim me.

It is important that when you have

Many things to do you can feel that

You are deciding how to do them at least.

Being told and decided for are not

What we do best.

When people who want to make other people

Do stuff want to write books

About how clever they are, they call this process

"Buy in". Capitalism eh?

I am not sure I my free will should be for sale.

I hope that you will learn to live

Consciously and without the dependence

That our last few generations have developed.

Deep and meaningful and caffeinated and

Many words there for your mom to explain!

Tee hee :-)