baratron | Dec. 29th, 2005

Oh yeah, I did think of something interesting to post :)

On Christmas Day, my mum told me a story about when I was young that I hadn't heard before. When I was 7, my dad went on a business trip in October. (I remember this, because I made my Brownie Promise on October 20th 1983, and we had to hire a video camera and video it because I was so upset that he'd miss it - and then I was so nervous I messed up the wording and had to start again.) He was also away for his birthday.

Apparently, I was upset that he was going to be away for his birthday, and insisted that my mum & I went out for a meal anyway, like we would have if he was there. Then I insisted on ordering three desserts - because we needed to have one each, plus the dessert my dad would have had if he'd been there. And I ate them all, as well.

Some things never change :)

Oooh, I'm in a bad mood.

Reason #1: Extremely rude mothers of students.
I had a student who didn't show up for her lesson on Saturday 17th December. Today (Thursday 29th December) her mother rang me to arrange another lesson. Here is a brief lesson in how to wind up the h-l:

1) Ring me up, and pretend that nothing has happened, you're just trying to arrange a lesson for your darling daughter. Do not apologise for the missed lesson.
2) When questioned about the missed lesson, cite "There was a death in the family" is a get out of jail free card. Continue to not apologise.
3) When I point out that it highly inconvenienced me to not know that the student wasn't coming, continue to cite "We had some family problems" and still continue to not apologise.
4) Fail to appreciate that getting the h-l out of bed 2 hours earlier than she needed to is a criminal offence. Also, fail to appreciate that cancelling without notice meant that the cancelled lesson occupied a slot that another student could have taken. Very grudgingly apologise.
5) Fail to appreciate that I actually lost money as a result of your no-show. Do not offer to pay for the missed lesson.
6) Fail to appreciate that it would have taken 30 seconds to send me a quick text message to say "Sorry, can't come, will explain later." ( Read more... )

Reason #2: Teachers of English who don't understand basic points of English grammar.
I'm pretty busy at the moment doing holiday tuition at a college for Asian students, where they go for extra lessons to help with English. Today at work I saw a set of "Essay rules" written on a whiteboard for students to copy down. These rules included the following sentence:
"ALWAYS check you're sentences carefully before writing them down."

I need to cry. That was written by a trained teacher of English, in advance of the lesson. And no, it wasn't a "spot the deliberate mistake" thing. The place isn't very well soundproofed, and I could hear the lesson as it progressed, mainly because the woman has an even higher-pitched, squeakier, more annoying voice than I do ;) ( Read more... )

Reason #3: Impractical female footwear.
Gah. Shopping for boots. It sucks.

I have been trying to find boots that fulfill the following 4 criteria:
1) Are warm - insulated or fur-lined.
2) Are waterproof.
3) Have sensible, flat soles with good grip.
4) Are non-animal.

Do you think I could find boots like this? Hell, no.

I went all over bloody Kingston trying to find boots. I'm not joking - I went into every shop that sells female footwear, bar 2 or 3. I found lots of warm, insulated boots, and even plenty that were cheap enough to be made from fake rather than real leather. But what do you think the soles were like?

Less grip than my goddamned carpet slippers!( Read more... )