| lesley153
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I was idly googling my old school today, when I came across a mention of one of my old English teachers. Poor man taught me in the two years to O level, and I was a dreadful pupil. I can't imagine how much strength and patience it takes to get up every morning, knowing that you are going to spend your day faced with a crowd of mid-teens.
What I hadn't realised was that he was a pioneer who wrote books about teaching English, and that he changed the way English was taught. Talking to other people over the last few years, I've begun to get an idea of just how different he was.
There's an internet article by a professor in Canada, who says that he worked with my old teacher, they became good friends, and they stayed in touch. I emailed him and asked if I could send him a message of affection and respect - and he's already replied! My old English master is in his mid-eighties and living in north London, and he has forwarded my message.
I don't know why but I'm quite excited. |
Reply #4222. Dec 04 11, 8:25 PM
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redwaldo 
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You seem to be gathering English teachers on the web!
Reply #4223. Dec 06 11, 4:49 AM
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| lesley153
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| Just this one, Mark, unless I've been talking to other people I didn't realise were English teachers! Puzzled, now. :-/ |
Reply #4224. Dec 06 11, 6:26 AM
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Jazmee27
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We've all done that
Reply #4225. Dec 06 11, 11:25 AM
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bloodandsand
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You gathered me :)
Reply #4226. Dec 06 11, 1:54 PM
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| lesley153
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| Ooh so I did! (((((()))))) I think I remembered you saying you were head of year, but not that you were primarily a teacher of English ... OR ... my brain is going! |
Reply #4227. Dec 06 11, 2:22 PM
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redwaldo
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Yeah, I've been an English teacher at High school.
Reply #4228. Dec 06 11, 3:56 PM
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MarchHare007
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Just shows how small the world is becoming. Surprising who knows who!
Reply #4229. Dec 06 11, 4:21 PM
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| lesley153
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This is starting to get scary!
About thirty years ago, we (husband and me) were eating in a Chinese restaurant in Paris. They asked us where we were from.
"You're from London? Do you know our friends in Birmingham?"
We thought it was very silly at the time. I wonder if it's becoming less silly, thirty years on. |
Reply #4230. Dec 06 11, 5:45 PM
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MarchHare007
|
Several times I've had someone on line introduce me to another Aussie. Some I had already been talking to, some I knew people They knew face to face.
Yes - it's a little scary.
Reply #4231. Dec 06 11, 7:04 PM
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| lesley153
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That's happened to me a few times in Real Life. People can't grasp that people they know may know each other too.
And you can go round in circles on Facebook, finding friends of friends who are your friends. Don't you have to be careful! |
Reply #4232. Dec 07 11, 7:21 AM
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Jazmee27
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I can't go anywhere anymore without running into someone who knows Mom
Reply #4233. Dec 07 11, 10:23 AM
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MarchHare007
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I remember my Mum telling me that no matter where I went there was always some one who knew Her so whatever I did would always come back.
Her friends that I was friends with were more circumspect than that - though I was a very good girl.....:D
My sprogs and nieces are constantly surprised by Who I know around Their circles.
Reply #4234. Dec 07 11, 3:19 PM
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| lesley153
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| My mother didn't say anything like that, thank goodness. It's one step away from from professing omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience. Or perhaps she just didn't know enough people to be convincing. |
Reply #4235. Dec 08 11, 8:18 AM
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| lesley153
|
When I was about twenty, a palm-reader told me I wouldn't marry the boy I was with. Too right. His mother had died a few years earlier, and he was behaving like a three-year-old searching for a New Mummy, to think and make his decisions for him. With the best will and sympathy in the world... a twenty-year-old mummy to someone six or seven years older than me? that wasn't going to be me!
I have normal cross-palm lines on my left hand, and a "simian crease" on my right. She told me your left hand is your potential, and your right is what you've made of it. She told me the crease showed a long struggle to get - er - wherever it was I was going to get. Other palmists have different explanations. A woman we met on holiday - me with a husband who wasn't the first one I mentioned - said she was a fortune-teller, I asked her about the crease, and she said it was bad luck to read fortunes on a Sunday. OK!
But I digress. Even now, all I know about Simian Creases is that Tony Blair has one on both hands. And then she looked at a few more lines, and told me that I would have two children when I was at a Comparatively Advanced Age.
When I got pregnant at a Very Advanced Age, I was convinced I was going to have twins, because of what she'd said. Surely I can't be going through this twice? But I let it go, and didn't bother with twins insurance either. As I told my mother, it's not as though twins run in the family. As my mother told me: "You wanna bet?" There are quite a few sets of twins, mostly two or three generations away, but thank goodness she didn't tell me till after sprog was born!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The girl with no money and no bed has sent me the number of her new mobile phone, a facebook friendship request, which I accidentally deleted, not being au fait with all this interweb stuff, and a chain text ("to be sent to ten people you love"), which I've accidentally pretended I didn't see.
I thought she was older but I've just realised she's a few weeks younger than sprog. Could this be the twin I was warned about? I'm changing my phone number! and my name!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Last week, I grumbled about the music in the supermarket. Given a reasonable alternative, I will walk out of shops where loud music is being played, partly because it tells me I'm not their target customer, and partly because it stops me thinking straight. Christmas in three weeks was the reason for the music, but not the reason I grumbled. I grumbled about the music. It's noise pollution!
On Saturday, a local friend braved it on a Saturday morning. He said they were playing music outside, but not inside. What a good, and clever, compromise!
On Tuesday, I went again, and there was no music. Perhaps they'll start playing some again nearer the date, and that's OK, but for now it's a great relief. I can walk, shop and think, all at the same time. |
Reply #4236. Dec 08 11, 9:01 AM
|
Professer
|
Well seems you been busy as have I, My mum hated going up town with meyears ago when i was trying to become a councillor as i knew so many people or rather thye thought they knew me. Could not walk 200 yards without at least 3 people talking to me.
The cowboys did not show i was expecting due to the high winds but no one came to say they would not be here, surprise surprise, someone came today to say they would not be with me because of the winds and weather they been given wrong day.
I still do not understand a person turning down a bed in hope of a double bed. A bed is a bed, when i first moved in my flat i made do with a single.
Hope all ok for you Lesley
Reply #4237. Dec 08 11, 9:30 AM
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Jazmee27
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Some people are very particular. It's like my pen pal. He'll go without a tape recorder if his is broken, because he *must* have "top-of-the-line" equipment.
Reply #4238. Dec 08 11, 10:18 AM
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| lesley153
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| We all like to have good things. *sigh* But I can understand her preference for a bed she won't fall out of! |
Reply #4239. Dec 08 11, 11:47 AM
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Jazmee27
|
Me, too.
I've been known to get tangled in the covers when I have nightmares, and not even know it until I wake up.
I probably would have fallen out of bed when I was younger had Mom not been lying beside me (poor Mom probably got kicked more than once)
Reply #4240. Dec 08 11, 1:36 PM
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