Monday, September 16, 2024

St. George’s College (Week #79) – Day #360

Date for Entry: (Monday 16 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 10 October 2024)

[T1, W:03 – WD:10, (Td:2)*].

**pic of fudge

Dear Diary,

    This morning I had a challenge to fall asleep and then wake up. The getting up part of the morning and getting ready was fast. Only in the car, did I realise I did not have my cellphone with me. I knew that something was feeling different. I had to put the Terramycin on my eyelids. They were swollen by the time I got up.

    The roads were surprisingly empty. Even walking down Sixth Avenue, the way to George’s was empty. I saw many Form 1 and 2 children coming in as I was always on the pavement. I had taught all of them in the previous academic year. 

    Still, not many teachers were there on my way to the staffroom. I went to get breakfast out of the way first. Jess walked in quickly. Instead of waiting and not knowing the time, I went to sit on a bench outside of her 2F form class. The children were having their breakfast during homeroom time until 8:40. We got the 2F to come down and help put the pan stands up but a lot of the double pan stands were not found and a lot of them were also mismatched.

    By the start of the second period, they had to return to class. Miss Carthy was not there when I got back to the staffroom. I went outside with the Form 4s and took over the ‘pule keeping’ for Jess as she picked them up with their scales. The heat was a lot. The students seriously needed a lot more study with their scales. I recalled playing the D Major scale for two octaves on Naimea’s tenor pan. I thought it made her play out the rest of the scales without error and fast. We laughed about that.

    Jess told me that we had no class until after lunch. I gave her the list of issues in the music room since I didn’t have my phone to take a picture of it. I went to use the washroom and then “Choo Choo” reminded everyone about the fudge sale.

    I went to the library. Miss Alexander was standing by a shelf putting up the books and a lady was sitting by her side and handing the books to her. She said that she began with the 910s and the 920s. I was allowed to sort the 930s and the 940s by the time. I also got to sort the 940s by the time. 950s and 960s were sorted on a shelf by the time and then handed over to Miss.

    I learned at some point that the lady was Miss Alexander’s mother. Several times or mostly throughout recess and lunchtime, “Vanna’s” big mouth was heard. I did not like her heavy use of obscene language at all and her uncontrolled hyperactive behaviour. I got back to the staffroom finally at 1:07 and that flew away like 10 seconds.

    During our class with the Form 2s, Jess asked me to go and check out the air conditioning unit in the music room with two remotes. One was from the music room and the other was from Miss Gittens. Only one remote turned on the two in the pan room. I was not sure if the units were cooling or just turning on slowly. The one Miss Gittens gave us was not turning on the other two in the classroom. She got back her remote before returning to the 2L classroom.

    She was correcting the last two questions from their exam paper. Seems as if no one was studying at all. I wondered how many of them still had the Mr. Ali Textbook that he went and painfully made for them. I sat on the same bench this morning. There was a light breeze there. Once this was done we were taken to the music room for the students to help clean and pack around. She tried the remote but the units did not turn on.

    As soon as Mr Raymond was ready to go that evening, we all got in the car. Daddy called back on Miss’ phone and he couldn’t hear properly. Maybe the rain was causing a poor signal. I told him that I was getting a ride home. We went to USC that evening for a ride. The place was beautiful and the cloudy sky made us all in the car fall asleep when ‘GG’ left to come back.

    I had been fighting this sleep since the middle of the 7th period. By the time we passed the Gate office by Gordon Street, the rain came down. I got soaked running across the road with the umbrella in my hands. It had to remain close to get in the pedestrian gate. While getting to my gate, Aunty Vangy was outside parked up. She had brought some cake from the party they had for Aunty Ruth's birthday yesterday. It was nice to see her again.

    I had planned to do my journal archival work that evening. Sadly, I didn’t have the right materials to do it. I was led back to Musescore right away. Instead of working on “Take a Bow”, I worked on transcribing “Jireh”. The full YouTube video was 9 minutes and 40 seconds in duration. I will do two minutes an evening to get it completed. The rhythmic patterns seemed to be quite tricky and difficult to interpret.

    Not many lead sheets were available online. There was a piano and vocal arrangement of the song that provided a preview of two pages and then to purchase. I still liked what I used. Only the first minute and 21 seconds were scored. Hopefully tomorrow I can return home early and then continue working on the rest.

    Whisper was empty as usual. I had Stingray Spa music on and the experience was better. Praise God I fell asleep on time. I appreciated the nice chat with ‘Jan’ sitting outside of 2L on the beach. We spoke about the difference between being back at Barataria and being up at Valsayn. I did mention the Form 6s being a part of our timetable no. I love teaching the older students but the business part of their music ‘SBA’ was messed up in a way. I shared how excited I was for the Form 4s part since that would finally mark the beginning of my OJT training.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:49 am – 3:25 pm)

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