It’s hard to believe this is post 150 at The Boar’s Head.
Google ‘150’ and the images aren’t especially inspiring, unless you are Canadian, it seems. This one – representing the 150 million horny spiders invading the homes we warm up as autumn approaches (according to Metro.co.uk) – is only here because I’m an arachnophobe.
But 150 is an important number for me …
Ideas? Check. Enthusiasm? Check. Stickability? Dreadful when I was young, but getting better, I think, as I grow older. The Ponytail Shakespeare was partly an attempt to instil some self-discipline, and buck a perceived flaky tendency. So far, it seems to be working …
150 is a significant number of posts for a blog project: for one created by me, certainly.
Let’s go off on one my usual detours. A couple of weeks ago, I can’t even remember when, a lad was in front of me in the queue at Costa, where I end up doing tuition 2-3 times a week (I prefer the independents, but for teenagers, Costa is the place to go: even the ones who don’t want to be seen having extra tuition, funnily enough). This young lad, who I didn’t know, was a measly 5p short of paying for his order. He looked so crestfallen. I paid it. I mean, absolutely no big deal whatsoever, right? 5p!
At tonight’s Parents’ Evening I was approached by a nice lady, who I vaguely know, who asked me about the incident. And it turns out it was her younger son. We laughed about whether she ought to repay me, and I suggested she ‘pay it forward’.
My friend and I convened to our local after Parents’ Evening. I’d spotted another parent in the hall earlier, and he was now sitting at the bar. We exchanged some banter about the legendary short hours teachers work as I waited my turn to order. (Not that I told him, but today was a full day of lessons, two meetings at lunchtime and then Parents’ Evening: a good 11 hours with no food and only 4 cups of tea/coffee inside me.) When I came to order, a few minutes later, he’d stood a drink in for my friend and I, and he wouldn’t take one in return when the one he’d bought me was finished. It’s not been the best of fortnights, and I found that gesture quite hard to deal with, when I am generally feeling a bit unloved and underappreciated. I don’t teach his kids, or even know who they are in the school. He’s a regular at a pub that I go to once or twice a week, that’s all.
How can I pay that forward?
Maybe I should just recommend another blogger, for the first time in ages.
Please go and visit Dwayne at The Original Shakespeare Blog. Don’t tell him I sent you 🙂 He’s a lesson in perseverance in blogging, and in following his passion. He’s not an English teacher, but he’s a good blogger. I’d like my blog to be more like his when it grows up.
Thanks!
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