Back to work

Thank you for all the welcomes back.  It’s really nice to see that old OD friends are still here 🙂 and even nicer that they still remember me!

It’s all properly back to work now and I’m glad.  I fly in the face of general opinion and still love my job – although the pay freeze which is now in its fourth or fifth year isn’t so good.

Despite that and despite the "streamlining" of the council, despite the national austerity measures, there is still money around if you pick and choose your priorities.  We have just got funding to run a pre-apprenticeship programme for care leavers – because – surprise, surprise – care leavers have poorer outcomes than average.  I’m quite excited about this, because my boss has asked me to organise and co-ordinate the whole thing.  It’ll be a challenge because I haven’t really worked with children or young people in care, but hey, they’re still human beings and will doubtless know exactly the same swear words as my old Alternative Education students.

I’m sending a shoebox to my daughter today, full of things which I should have taken over to her when I visited, but which hadn’t arrived or been given to me in time.  There is a baby outfit from Dubai, where my friend is a kindergarten teacher, a knitted outfit (in bright purple, orange, green and red) which is made by another friend following a pattern which is being used to knit jumpers for babies in Africa and a babygro with a picture of an iPod on it and the legend, "iPood."  That just appealed to me.  There’s other stuff in there too, including Walkers cheese and onion crisps, packets of which make a good alternative to bubble wrap.

Later, I’m going to steal some time out of my working day and get son to help me prise an old china cabinet out from my shed.  It’s one that was given to my mum and dad when they got married (in 1952) and was secondhand then, so it’s definitely more than 60 years old.  Living in the shed isn’t going to do the wood any good, I have no room for it in my little house, so I think it’s time to find it a new home.  EBay, here I come….

But now, coffee time.