Welcome to Sunday. A day of rest. The leaves are turning and looking a deep bronze colour in the autumnal sun. All is quiet in my world. Enjoy the peace while it lasts.
I woke a little early again. There was a mere hint of anxiety for a fleeting moment that another wakening takes me a day closer to chaos. I do not like chaos and the older I get the more difficult it is to live with uncertainty. And uncertainty will inevitably be a big part of the coming term. The international students are arriving this weekend. I often feel for them coming so far into such a strange world to pursue a dream in a land they little understand. I recall a few years ago a young man who had come from Pakistan saying that he expected the UK to be like the American Pie films, loads of girls, loads of sex and loads of partying. It is an image some cultivate. The reality for many is very different. The home students arrive next week.
As the sun shines down outside I have a pork joint in the oven with some seasoning and sage. I have listened to Handel's Saul and read most of the time. Much to my surprise I managed to re-pressurise the boiler at the flat. It has caused me no end of trouble since I moved here but I have my fingers crossed that all will work out when the cold comes.
According to the paper we could well be in for more than our share of storms in the next few months. No doubt we will blame global warming. I have not seen coherent evidence that that is the cause but I know it is an issue many worry about. But today storms are nowhere to be seen.
Dad has been visiting Miriam this weekend. Despite the rain they had a good time. He indulged in rare roast beef at The White Pheasant a country pub out in the fens. I guess he will be catching the train home this afternoon.
Last night I came across an advert for an Oxbridge mental health ball. All sounds great but I have probably more knowledge of the charities they have chosen to support which makes me quite wary. I have long felt that some of the mental health charities had caved in to funders and thus let down those like me who they were set up to support. Mind did a great deal for me but I know some in their dedicated staff paid quite a price for that. I would certainly never go back to Rethink my former employer. Yes they gave me a start and I learned a lot but they betrayed their core people and exploited the passions of those of us who felt it was important. Now years later those we supported back then are still adrift and unlikely to get the support they need.
For too long the agenda has been hijacked by the money men leaving the real purpose lost. My old tutor Christine from my PGCE days surprised me a great deal last year when she left Cambridge to take up a job with a consortium of academies. Yet she still feels strongly it is people that matter not systems. Oh that others followed that mantra. I certainly try to but sometimes fate conspires against me.
That is all from my address today. Have a good week.
I Heard a Voice.
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