Her job is now one of a pure English teacher, as opposed to the humanities role she had before. Effectively, this has doubled the number of students she sees, and more than doubled the number of classes, although they are shorter. She has noticed a major difference in her ability to get bits and pieces of grading done at work (she now can't) and her workload at home has exploded. The parent teacher days were just unbelievable, with her day starting at 8 and ending at 4, while trying to juggle the needs of this massive number of parents. Apparently, the Maths and Science teachers have been doing it for years, but it was a big learning curve for Cass.
Unfortunately, and adding to her woes, she started to develop a sore throat on the eve of the second day, and had to dope herself up to survive the last day. She has been just recovering slowly all weekend, as it has been a great drain on her physical resources.
We took it really easy, but did manage an afternoon tea at Dunkin' Donuts ( me with "green tea" doughnut!) and a viewing of a surprisingly well made movie, "Warrior". I'm a massive fan of the UFC and martial arts in general, as you know, but I only took Cass after reading this review from a source which we trust. It certainly has Oscar performances written all over it, both the leads (including Aussie, Joel Edgerton) and supporting cast including Nick Nolte, were superb. The fight film genre, however, just doesn't seem able to totally escape a formulaic approach, even a Rockyesque homage (or blatant copy). This film, along with one we saw earlier this year, "The Fighter". did a better job than most in avoiding the inevitable, downbeat loser makes good, redemption for the troubled characters on the periphery etc. but didn't quite make it. Cass gives it a B+ and I give it an A.
We had a relaxing dinner out at "The Spice Shop" and I went crazy and elected to go total non-meat, partly in deference to my ailing darling! A lentil curry, curried vegetables, saffron rice, plain nan and some vegetarian samosas were delicious, but I must admit my favourite dish were the Tempura style battered fish "morsels"! While there we saw an amazing number of families, groups of tiny kiddies with accompanying adults and other groups roaming the streets "trick-or-treating". This American tradition is totally embraced here: the kids looked very cute and seemed to be enjoying themselves, but, really? I just don't get it.....please don't tell me people in Australia are doing this too....please!
We watched UFC 137 this morning live, and I think Cass was just too weak to offer an alternative suggestion... Oh well, we certainly had our mixed martial arts fix this weekend! I ventured back over to the track and did a series of sprints, or what could be very loosely labelled sprints. Conscious of doing a hammy, or worse, it was a slow build. I know I shouldn't be amazed, but I still kinda was: my fast twitch muscle fibres appear to have completely atrophied away to nothing and I was jelly legged after 7 or 8, 100 metre sprints. I combined these with a few other exercises at the end of the straight each time, so I didn't feel too useless when I scootered back on home.
Cass is cuddled up on the lounge having an afternoon nap as I write this: she really is sick for this to happen, it's very unusual. She looked up at me and said through droopy slits of eyes, "I think I might just have a little sleep". I think she was out before I even made my way into the study to type this.
Photos: A weird Halloween pic of me and Gurecki, the pig gets bigger, doughnuts, a clever movie promotion in the theatre toilet, Cass at the Spice Shop, trick-or-treaters, a surprising number plate, and photos of two of my classes on Friday with the intelligent, refreshingly candid and talented visiting author, Ralph Fletcher.
I am reading the eye-opening biography of one of my favourite artists, Caravaggio...it is called, "A life sacred and profane" and Cass is reading "The Best American Mystery Stories"
