Sunday, April 06, 2008

Ah, what a weekend. (Yes, I'm trying to gloss over the fact that I've been too tired to post since about 1992. Go with it.) Waking up to a lot of snow (come on, weather - it's APRIL) is, to say the least, not comfortable. I feel like I've been chucked out of a moving car and then trampled on repeatedly by a burning elephant. I only made it through today with both tramadol and codeine (I will not be able to poo tomorrow - which I'm sure you all wanted to know) and staying in bed. The Girl brought me many cups of tea, and we watched a lot of Lost and Heroes. There are entire TV posts on their way soon, but it must be said right now that Doctor Who featuring Catherine Tate - who is an actual child of the devil - is, for me, like being offered a large bar of creamy rich chocolate covered in a crispy poo-flavoured shell. OK, so I clearly have poo on the brain, and should therefore attempt to retire to bed very soon. Only one more day of work, tomorrow, and then a week and a half's holiday. I'm taking my grandmother to a spa for a day. I'm getting a deep tissue massage - and if the weather stays this cold, I am *really* going to appreciate that.

Things I Have Done Recently: acquired a new-to-me PDA (still deciding if it's the right model for me - might sell it on and get a smaller one); worked consistently far too hard at, well, work; visited the sister and brother-in-law - and niece! baby niece! completely adorable fantastically happy baby niece (who does the cutest little rocking thing if you sit her on your lap and hold her hands); had a physio assessment that's actually going to lead to treatment (I have to go to orthotics and get insert thingies for my shoes - urgh); was too tired to do anything for about a month, so played a lot of Sims.

Unrelated to anything, but I just remembered: last week's TES has an article on disabled teachers. This appealed to both the education and the disability studies geeks in me (my PGCE extended research project was about inclusive education). This is a good sign, in the sense that disabled people are finally being allowed to teach - it used to be nearly impossible for people with many impairments to enter the profession, but it's starting to become less so. Still, it's a really quite amusing article. It's full of patronising disability myths ('so-and-so is blind but compensates with spectacular hearing') and medical-model terminology ('so-and-so suffers from a degenerative disease'). More evidence, if I needed any more, that the education sector hasn't got the first clue what to do with disabled teachers. The concept messes with their tiny minds. Still, it was on the front page of the TES Magazine (along with a big, largely irrelevant wheelchair symbol). So that was nice.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Random fact which makes no point but just gives information: my mum is a bilateral amputee, who qualified as a teacher in 1975 and has had no trouble finding work in the 30-odd years since then.
There. Random fact over.

grace said...

You're back!!!!!

I missed you :-)

D Phoenix said...

Nice to see you again. I'd like to gloss over March as well. Why not? I hope the holiday does you good and I look forward to reading you whenever you feel up to posting.

yanub said...

Tagged you!

http://yanub.blogspot.com/2008/04/shucks.html

Anonymous said...

The whole snow in april thing totally weirded me out...the seasons are screwy, eh? It's being pretty spring-like now though, so I'm happy :)

Never That Easy said...

Well it was 80 here yesterday: in Massachusetts. In April. Not good, I would say, for a gentle summer outlook. Anyways, welcome back! I'm a teacher by profession (if currently unemployed due to stupid illnesses), and I was surprised to find certain prejudices & obstacles still exist towards wheelchair users teaching.
But there were many more people who were supportive than there were of the other sort, so it all worked out.

Welcome back (she says, knowing it's been a while since she posted as well. Guilt)