Leaky House Syndrome
Leaky House Syndrome, originally uploaded by Jonny Hanlon.
Well, it has been quite a while since I wrote anything. This time it is especially different because I am using a German computer and the keys are all in odd places. Odd.
Much has happened in the last few weeks… I have moved in to a flat in Easton, which is pretty central as far as Bristol goes. About a 20 minute walk into town or five or so minutes on the bike. I havent got any photos of the place yet but all you need to do is imagine Coronation Street style houses, make them smaller, fill them with Jamaicans, Indians, Arabs,and maybe even an Englishman or two and there you have it. Very very high density housing indeed. We are priviledged to have a garden, it certainly doesn’t warrant being called a back yard as it is only 4 x 4 metres. The 1/20th acre dream.
The photo above is the ruins of an old abbey in Oxford… With my friends Min and Alan posing for dramatic effect. The abbey gained notoriety in the 16th century for the special services the nuns provided to the local monks… As you can see there is no roof, which must have allowed a fair amount of rain to come in. Perhaps the architect lived in a dry part of England.
I have been working a fair bit, getting work all over town. This week coming is SATs week… standardised national testing of all year six students. The results of the tests get published in the papers so schools are ultra aware of the the implications of poor results. As a result, the schools spend the best part of half a year grooming the kids for the exams, running them through countless practice tests… One day last week I was relieving at a school, looking after a class of year six kids. Their day consisted of three practice exams, each more than an hour long. By the end of the day they were exhausted and cranky… The teachers all agree that grooming the kids to achieve well in the tests is not the best means of creating well rounded kids, but their reputations and the reputation of the school lies on their students achieving well in the exams. Catch 22.
jonnyhanlon
Hi Jonny
Back from a busy few days in Auckland cleaning and painting the apartment. It’s pretty shipshape and spotless so all that remains is to get a good tenant in and paying rent.Auckland is certainly a lot warmer than Christchurch and in fact we didn’t even need a heater the whole time we were there.Pleased to hear you are getting work and interesting comments re the testing- I had heard that it was like that in UK. Wonder how long it will be before that happens here. What are your flatmates like?
Ross is getting remarried this Saturday; Nina is going to be a flower girl and Jeremy, a groomsman, complete with tails etc. Must stop now and go and do some more sewing on Nina’s dress.It’s cold here.