...Camelia keeps tellin' me....

Another grueller at work today.

After being in "solitary" yesterday with the recalcitrant 16 year olds, today was a day of catching up.

First lesson, no class, but it took an hour to re-plan all this weeks lessons due to not teaching yesterday. Only three interruptions!

Lesson 2, my lovely, intelligent year 10's and a lesson on the Solar System, had them eating out of the palm of my hand as I ran them through the stories of Copernicus, Galileo Galilei and Sir Isaac Newton, the discovery of Pluto and the recent downgrading of same, comets, asteroids, meteors. meteorites, stars, galaxies, super novae, black holes and constellations. I even got the Star Trek joke in....you know the one.....How many ears does Mr.Spock have.......three....a left ear, a right ear and a final frontier!

Lesson three and a cover for an absent colleague, tried to do some report writing, but they wanted so much help with the task they'd been set, I had to give up.

Lesson four and I managed to finish off my 16 Form Tutor reports.

Lesson 5 and my hormonal 14 year olds, teaching them how to use the Internet for researching topics.

Registration and the usual daily tasks.

Just as I was about to leave got a text from my sister, her operation is booked for next Wednesday.

Got home, emptied the dishwasher, got dinner ready for the Boss, the Daughter and I and then looked at the pile of coursework still waiting to be marked................and thought.................Sod it!..........I've used every spare minute today marking the work from yesterday, I'm knacklered and the medication is still making me drowsy....they'll wait until tomorrow.

Sis phoned and had a long chat with the Boss who then had a long chat with me. The chemo has done its work, the tumour has shrunk by 66%, the operation is booked for next Wednesday, and it's going to be a lumpectomy not a full mastectomy, her hair is growing back, the scan is clear and there's only one dose of radio therapy booked. At last some good news.

I don't know why but just after I got home I felt the urge to blip this camelia, it isn't even ours but hangs over the fence from next door, I don't normally do flowers and stuff like that, but I just wanted to.

Now it seems so appropriate to say "This is for my Sis" and to drink to a full recovery, in best Russian vodka of course.

Za va-shih zdarovye (To your health!) and das vidanya moy padruga.