March 27, 2007

In response to a query

One of my readers asks, "So what do you do with yourself now?"

Let me give you an account of my day so far;

08:03 - Arrive at work and discover my desk covered with random papers and a large wall hanging, assume everyone believes I have left the country already and wonder if it's possible I can just sneak back out of the staffroom and escape on the misconception.
08:04 - Too late I've been spotted by the vice-principal.
08:05 - Stamp my name in the attendance book. Note the 3 remaining empty places before I get to never see the thing again. Smile.
08:05 - 09:18 - Sit at my desk and stare at various objects. Possibly I am trying to levitate them, even I am not sure what I am doing at this point.
09:19 - 10:10 - Recover what's left of my senses, pull out a book and switch to staring at that for a while, at least this way it appears I am actually doing something besides practicing for a gig as the I Fell in a Paint Can Statue Busker in Rundle Mall.
10:11 - Am interacted with for a few moments by the head teacher who asks me to hang the pile of crap that was on my desk earlier and is now lying on the ground by the coffee maker in the English room. I nod eagerly in reply. The picture was filed under my desk where it will be about as appreciated as if it were hanging in the English room.
10:12 - I tire of pretending to read and decide to pull a laptop out of the cupboard, put it on my desk and make a start of translating the English Curriculum book into English.
10:17 - I tire of translating and instead look up "solipsism" on the internet. Wikipedia is a great time waster cos it has all those little blue links everywhere and in no time at all I am off on the biggest tangent since year 10 maths.
10:34 - Receive e-mail from a CIR at another school asking me to check if my school has an MD player capable of recording MD to MD. It does. He says he'll come by at 11:30ish and use it. I say OK.
11:14 - I am pulled out of my digestion of Sarte's biography by the arrival of my co-worker looking for the MD player. Thangod cos reading computer screens really hurts my eyes and my butt is getting pretty numb despite at least standing and walking around aimlessly every 30 minutes.
11:15 - 12:05 - We watch the MD player copy music and dance to the Hokey Pokey and Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes songs while our Japanese co-workers' fingers hover over the Mental Hospital button in their quick dial.
12:06 - I ask for permission to go to the bank and a granted it by my very distracted vice principal who is pulling bits and bobs out of the photocopier that I really don't think it's wise to touch. Off I go, how excitement, an excursion off school grounds!
12:17 - At the bank, brandishing my inkan and this time I am allowed to empty my bank account finally. The woman at the desk and I exchange glances, we had words yesterday about the necessity of a stamp with my name on it for accessing my money, a stamp I might add, that ANYONE can simply take out of my drawer and march around using. A stamp that anyone can have a likeness of made at any stamp shop. Yes, it's a foolproof identity verifier alright. She's still pissed at me for questioning her system.
12:20 - I start the walk back to school laden with a stack of banknotes about as thick as your average novel. I ponder just jumping on the train to Okayama and spending up a storm but then remember that I can't fit into any of the clothes or shoes they sell here and there are only so many books one can buy before the necessity of owning a car becomes apparent. I continue back to school.
12:21 - It starts raining.
12:25 - It starts REALLY raining.
12:38 - I am back at school with wet hair and a more than strong desire for the return of yesterdays clear blue skies and brilliant sunshine. I discover my co-workers all slurping 2 minute noodles and watching the baseball on a 20 year old TV hung from the ceiling at the back of the room.
12:45 - I finish off my sandwich and yoghurt and wonder for the millionth time how people who really are not eating any better than me can manage to stay so thin.
12:46 - I resume my Wikipedia digestion because there is simply nothing else to do.

And the end of the day is still 4 hours away...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are right about Wiki, I can easily find myself reading about all sorts of stuff because of those little blue links.

Anonymous said...

that reminds me of the last week of school - i always loved the last week of school - no more work to do, just get ready for christmas, stuff around with friends, go for a swim - they were good days.