Casa Rosales

Casa Rosales

Friday 7 September 2012

Suggestive September

I've noticed some changes in the past week. Some subtle, some suggestive, some significant little changes.

It's September and from the very first day, the temperature here in Alcala la Real changed - the day remaining as hot as ever but the night time feeling cool. By the third night, we were reaching for an extra layer on our beds - the single sheet that had felt so stifling over the months of July and August now suddenly inadequate. We woke up shivering and disbelieving. The children suggested I dig out their quilts from their summer storage. Please.




On Monday, Ruy and Romy return to school - Ruy to his last year of primary and a feeling of growing up. Mateo has another week to go before he starts in yet another new school. There is one school here that has made leaps and bounds of improvement recently and has a young and enthusiastic teaching staff and we feel it will be better for Mateo than the more plodding style of his current school. Unlike the U.K. there's a steady shuffling around of students between the secondary schools here and Mateo will move with at least one of his friends. It's also slightly nearer to where we live and Ruy will go there next year. We hope and have been assured that he will do at least some of his science subjects in a science lab. in the new school. He hasn't been in one since he arrived in Spain...I suggest this is not a good thing.

We have noticed this last week that the park in front of our house is quiet from about 9 o'clock instead of ringing with the sound of children playing often til midnight. Romy has spent many a late night with her friends, on the swings, playing football, hide and seek or carrying smaller children around in her arms. The silence in the streets now contains the suggestion of earlier bedtimes. Quite rightly too!

I received an email from the head of the Academy where I will be working again from October with my new timetable. A few more hours but spread out over four days and a new examining board's syllabus to get to grips with. Maria has shown great confidence in my abilities and I'm so grateful to her - I will now be sharing the teaching with Toni, the other teacher there  - not just providing a spoken English class. I will be doing about 40% of all the teaching but 100% with the final year group. I'm so looking forward to starting again though there's just the suggestion of nerves in my excitement as I take on something a bit different. Up to now, my classes have been full of games, singing and just talking. Soon, I'll be teaching more grammar and supporting the students in reading, writing and listening too. Like a proper teacher.


FR has just returned from 5 days in Budapest as part of an international conference relating to the work of Edward Bond. He's had an absolutely wonderful, inspiring and engaging time. International is stretching it a bit - it's been a European group with representatives from the UK, France, Budapest and Spain. This was the first meeting of a project group looking at taking the work of Bond into schools within the individual countries but also bringing a larger group of students from all four countries together at some point in the future. We were looking forward to one of the 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' breaks. Since we arrived in Spain we have lived in much closer proximity to each other than we'd been used to and sometimes we have felt that a little more space would be appreciated - I have chosen my words very carefully! It was so lovely to have him call me several times a day to share his enthusiasm about his experiences in Budapest and to know that it didn't feel right that I wasn't there with him. And five days seemed such a long time - he seemed to be away for ages. I suggest there is so very much truth in the adage, 'Absence make the heart grow fonder'. And now he's back, there is so much to do that we are going to work together on the Spanish part of the project - so maybe next time there's a conference, we will go together!

If there is a suggestion that the holidays are over, there is the equal suggestion that here, in our house, we are ready to get our teeth into some work, to buckle down and start the new term with renewed enthusiasm. However....






To combat the sense that the holidays are over and it's time to get back to work, tomorrow we will head off to the seaside for one last day on the beach. Well, wouldn't you?




15 comments:

  1. Hello Annie:
    Yes, we do agree that September always brings with it a completely different feel even if nothing has, on the surface, changed. Here too the nights are cooler, the mornings have a nip in the air, but the daytime temperatures are still very close to 30C with much in the way of sun.

    We think that your new teaching commitment will be most interesting and very rewarding. Certainly something in the way of a challenge, but one that we are certain you will rapidly rise to. As you will know only too well, preparation is the key to it all.

    We are so pleased that the conference here in Budapest went well and also how lovely that you both missed each other in the way in which you did.

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    1. Thank you Jane and Lance - I feel closer to Budapest as it's been on my lips so often this last week, so knowing we share similar weather is rather nice. My husband said it was more humid than here and parts of it reminded him of Milan, where he lived for about 5 years many moons ago.

      Preparation! Yes, I've started that already but you can't do too much and you must always be prepared for what you haven't prepared... if you know what I mean!

      Axxx

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  2. The teaching sounds good Annie, as does the absence making the heart grow fonder bit. I really became aware of missing Mark when I was in France , alone, for a month. I actually surprised me, thinking that we were good together, but were fine apart....we're not. As for autumn....it is so clever isn't it ? 1st September....weather changes....how does it know ? I hope all goes well with the children's back to school rituals. Our 2 grandsons started proper school for the first time this week....Shepley First and Ashbrow, 2 very different little boys, going to 2 very different schools. Lots of love J.

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    1. A month is a long time to be alone and I think I only joke when I say I envy you. Nice to be missed and nicer to be together.
      And you are so right - how does autumn know exactly when to start? Well, with school is a good time. Hope the grandsons enjoy their new schools - as you say, very different!
      Love,
      Axxx

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  3. It sounds as if you have busy times ahead :D So yes, one last day at the beach first, why not?

    I have been with the Mr. since I was 19 (!) and personally we hate to be apart, but I don't disagree that sometimes it's good to be without each other for a few days. And it's lovely to know one is missed isn't it :)

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    1. Right on all counts, Annie. We've had such a lazy, crazy summer and we are a family of lie-a-beds, I'm dreading 7.30 on Monday - except of course, this is Spain and the first day doesn't start until 10! Eldest son has another week off and then, doesn't need to go until 12...what's the point?? Still, more chance of a few of the them turning up at that time I guess.

      And after all that time with Mr K. I guess you've got things pretty well worked out. (And I mean you started early together, not that you're old...!)

      Axxx

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  4. I perversely felt a bit sad when I stepped out this morning and felt my first blast of cool air. Having been too hot in August, I'm slightly sad that summer is saying goodbye ( Bonkers really because the good weather will be here for another 3 months)

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    1. I know we don't have another three months but yes, summer is not over (as our burnt bits demonstrate after the day on the beach!) - just grateful for cooler evenings and a subtle but more flattering increase in the amount of clothing I can wear to move around the town in!

      Axxx

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  5. No change of weather for us yet...hot sunny mornings followed by a downpour in the afternoons, so something for everyone.

    Good to be appreciated for your work.
    I miss working, though I stopped a long while back...we were in court this morning and although a very different procedure it was enjoyable to have the buzz again even if I was only the client.

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  6. Very different weather where you are, I suspect, Fly. Hope all went OK in court - not just for the buzz but for a desired outcome! I hadn't expected to buzz quite as much as I do when I took early retirement...
    Axxx

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  7. So autumn's arriving for you too, is it, Annie? Here we're enjoying some beautifully warm, sunny days, but the mornings are much fresher and the evenings cooler and oh, how much earlier the sun is now setting!

    Congratulations on the new teaching timetable. You'll be great.:-) I know all about second careers after taking early retirement and I thoroughly enjoyed mine. I also know all about the absence making the heart grow fonder bit. DH and I are together 24/7 and wouldn't change that, but just occasionally it's lovely to have the house to oneself and live to one's own inner clock......

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  8. Thank you Perpetua! Yes, I'm sitting by the open window thinking, if my mother-in-law were here, she'd be so anxious that I was sitting in a draught..but I'm enjoying the cool breeze.
    And how the nights draw in now. So glad you are getting warm sunny days though, after the dreadful start to summer.
    Yes, there is a big change in the air and at least when the children go back to school, I shall be glad to have my mornings back to something like peaceful.
    Axx

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  9. Such a "September" post Annie. So much in it for this reader to nod her head in agreement with..............

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    1. Thank you MPM, I like to think of you nodding your head in agreement - it's most reassuring! Axxx

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