catch up

I know, I know: long time, no see... or no post as the case may be. But I promise I have a really good reason, or at least some semi-decent reasons which, when combined together, are very convincing.

It all started when......

[Cue chimes and a mystical flash-back fade out into the next scene...]

First, my hard drive up and died one day. I walked into my studio/office and sat down at my computer one bright, clear morning. Ok, so this is me in Shanghai and if I'm honest that last sentence should have read: I liberally sloshed coffee on the old t-shirt of Phil's I was wearing as I staggered bleary eyed into the room that contains the flotsam and jetsam of my life, at about 1pm on a polluted Shanghai day. I sat down at my laptop and thought: "Hmmm, that's weird, it's turned off. I never turn it off. Although, I really should start doing that. Oh well..." and pressed the power button.

Nothing.

So, dipping into my deep well of IT wisdom, I did the only thing I could think of: I repeatedly jabbed at the power button screaming "Nooooooooo!" at the top of my lungs.

Still nothing.

The hard drive is only a few months old, and so Phil said he'd try to fix it. After two weeks of me leaving my coffee cups on his desk he got sick of me using his computer and tried to fix mine. No luck. About two weeks after that he took it to work and asked the IT guy to look at it. About two hours after that it was fine. It turns out that the thingy-ma-bob in the C whatsit was having troubles with the whatsy-ma-call-it and the something-a-rather thingy-ma-jigged it all up.

Yeah, I wasn't listening.

The documents have all been saved but all the programs have been wiped. Once they are re-um-put-in... re-installed! That's it!- once they are re-installed it will be ready to lock and load. Given past history this could take either two hours or two minutes depending on who does it.

Ok, so that is one reason. The next reason is that I started a new job. My sensible shoes give it away. No, I'm not a lesbian, or a librarian for that matter... I'm a nursery school teacher.

I started looking for monday to friday work a few months ago as I am totally sick of working weekends (as is the nature of part time teaching). I got offered a position at an English school but the schedule was evenings and all weekend, though the money was great. I decided that money wasn't everything, and at this point I wanted some weekend time. I looked at few kindergartens that were offering Mon- Fri work, with 8am-4pm days. The money wasn't great, but it wasn't too bad either. However the thing that kept putting me off was that they were all very dingy, with tiny play areas and when I walked in to each one I felt trapped. I kept turning down jobs, thinking that the right one will eventually come along, and lo and behold I got lucky. Really lucky.

I have just started working mornings only at a great international school with enormous grounds and facilities. And the best part is that they pay the same as the very first job I was offered, but working half the hours, no evenings, and no weekends. Working the mornings means that I will have time to paint in the afternoons- once I recover from teaching 17 two year olds all morning!

I started last Friday, doing substitute teaching for a teacher who had to leave two weeks before the end of term, and will officially start again in August. Nursery Yellow here I come! During the summer I will be teaching a summer course for the English school I part-time for now, which will pay the bills.

In the meantime I am still working weekends for the rest of this month, and some afternoons, plus the mornings at the kindergarten. Yes, that is every day of the week. Just in case you were wondering: this fact alone explains why the writing in this post sounds like I am either on crack or haven't slept in a very long time.