This is the weekend.

They wrote my paper on Friday and so this is the weekend for marking. So far I have two complete failures and two kids who got 78 out of 80... lets hope there is a lot more of the latter and not so much of the former hidden in the rest of my pile of papers, or it is going to be a very grumpy weekend indeed.

Almost over

Tomorrow is my second last class, ever, with my Grade 8's. After spending the year with them and seeing them grow up a little, and finally figuring each one of them out I am feeling stupendously sad. Most of them are really great kids and even those that aren't have still taught me something this year.

sniff sniff.

Talk to you again when I grade their papers and have to polish off a bottle of wine cos the little b's didn't study.

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. Mark Twain

When we moved here, I was invited to join Mom's bookclub. One of their ladies was going to be away for almost exactly the months that I am here and so I took her place. The way that it works is that the ladies each contribute $$ each month for the person who is hosting the next month. That person then uses those $$ to buy as many books as she can afford, prepares a simple meal and sends out an email with directions to her house. I didn't think I would get to host as the lady I was replacing had already hosted, but they didn't have anyone for October so I got given a wad of cash and instructions to buy what I liked.

This turned out to be a very stressful job. Let me first explain the ladies that belong to this bookclub. These are all ladies who are my Mom's age and older. They have already been through children and careers and all that nonsense and are at the peak of their wisdom and experience. They are almost all involved in some sort of job where they are contributing to society, through lifeline, USAID etc. Their thoughts are well developed, they can tap smartness at the blink of an eye. In short, they are mature in a way I can only hope to be when I get there.

The books they choose are about child soldiers in Rwanda, women in Turkey, slavery, Autism, male dementia and so on. The books I typically choose to read are fantasy, historical novels, murder mystery and the occasional Jane Austen.

Sooooo, when I took my $$ into the bookstore, I ended up on their couch with piles and piles of books, trying to eradicate some of my choices. I was torn between what I thought the ladies would choose to read and what I would use to while away my brain. In the end I settled on a fluffy dan Brown meets Phillipa Gregory, a Jon Ronson, which is sort of like an immature Bill Bryson. The latest bill Bryson joined the group as I thoroughly enjoyed it and as I had never read out of Africa but had cried for the movie about 100 times I added that one too.

Then I took two unknowns. The first was called 'McCarthy's Bar' in which Pete McCarthy travels around Ireland going into every single pub he sees and commenting on Ireland and himself as he goes along. A book that I would call highly entertaining and an excellent read for when you are traveling too. The second is by James Chatto, love, life and loss in Corfu. It's beautiful. The most of the book is a rambling tale of how they are enchanted and adopted by the island. You get so involved in their lives and in their characters without even realising it, then suddenly the 'loss' part hits. I was left sobbing into my pillow, but so glad that I had read the book.

I made an excellent chickpea curry and fruit salad with icecrteam for desert and told the ladies about my books. Luckily October is everyone's busy month, so they all felt like and had time for easy reading and my books got snapped up.