St. George’s College (Week #101) – Day #462

Date for Entry: (Thursday 13 March 2025)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 01 August 2025)

[T2, W:10 – WD:46, (Td:1)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning I was lightly late. It was Day 1 today, so I had some time for class with 3F. As soon as I got into the staffroom, I went directly into my teaching bag to find the Form 2 coursework that I had made last term to give to the children, as I did with 3 M.

    Sadly, I could not find the original still, so I used the remainder that I had for the Form 4s and some extras. Three of the boys were on the basketball court when I went to check. Some of the children were given the paper in class, and the others came after I completed question one. These children were given the example of example for the first time. The rest of the class went well. We did not get to the second side of the paper as 3 M. I went to collect the pies afterwards.

    At the end of recess was my time working in the office. More test papers were done during that time of day. Another late day happened. During the later parts of the seventh and eighth periods, the printer had crashed. Patty came out of her office and saw me there on the floor, saying, "Mr Ali? What are you doing there on the ground?" I told her that the printer had crashed, and then she said to leave the machine alone if it crashed.

    Just some moments before, Mrs Santana came to speak with me about an English exam that was printed from the email yesterday. She said that she had given it to Indera earlier. This was happening while I was sitting on the floor. At the same time, too, Miss Sookhan had come by to let me know that her handout I scanned for her yesterday evening was correct and good enough to print. Later that evening, Patty was by the computer, and when she came to print something, I told her that the machine was sending me to the finisher conveyor for the paper jam.

    This was the first time I had encountered this kind of jam. I didn't even remember to ask who fixed the same jam that occurred yesterday evening, or what the issue was. Luckily, she opened the tower to the finished conveyor and took a look. The issue was around D1. When she opened that particular area, we didn't see any paper that was jammed. We opened the D1 and saw that no paper was there as yesterday.

    When she looked, she showed me that the paper was stuck in the place where the paper would roll out. She ended up putting her hands deep into the D1 and passed them there to get the paper out. She also had to pull out the A1 to get another sheet out. When the A1 was pushed in and the machine was closed up, the machine sounded of starting back up. When it stopped, another regular jam happened. She was tired and had me fix the regular jam. When that was done, the machine began to run fine. I ended up finishing by force when I ran out of paper.

    In the evening, I decided to work on a Dean's form instead of working on the rest of lesson 3. The tiredness and all of the music notation looked like I needed the weekend to complete all of that. The night came to a sudden end afterwards.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:17 am – 4:53 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #101) – Day #461

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 12 March 2025)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 01 August 2025)

[T2, W:10 – WD:45, (Td:6)*].

Dear Diary,

    Today, the arrival at school was slightly late. Surprisingly, as I came down the road to the savannah, a lot of students were there in lines. Maybe it had a big field trip today? I knew I saw field trip forms registered for this week. As I got to the gate of the savannah, it looked like all of the teachers were in the field with the students and MTS workers, along with the security guards were standing on the pavement outside of the school's gate.

    When I got into the savanna, I heard "Hana" saying that there was a gas leak in the school. I met Mel by the pavilion with 3L, and we sat on the bench. The sun was very hot. Mel at some point showed me a text message the Indera had sent to the MMT chat about me to handle the exam papers on her behalf, and that she was in a District meeting. Mel showed me the message too, and I saw my name, but sitting down and thinking about it, I realised what she meant.

    In the meantime, Kalid shealtered some of us with his umbrella, and he kept on poking me with it, lol. While waiting, I gave Miss the exam template for her to do up the VAPA exam timetable. She and I had a good laugh about her name in the pencil writing. The wait was longer than expected, and then people were allowed to enter the school. Mel commented this morning, being a parents' day, and the leak occurred. I forgot about that.

    Only when "Patty" called the staff to give some feedback did I hear Dr Blandin speaking to Miss Garcia about it. The students were lined up according to their Form classes and walked back into the compound in a line. Some the the classes were sent to other parts of the school and away from the leak area. As soon as we got to the office, there was a hustle and overcrowding of parents and children. Some of the parents were being told that school was dismissed, which was not the case. Exit forms had to be made in bulk.

    "Hana" told me that she was the Acting Vice Principal. That means that she was helping out as "Pretend Vice Principal" for the day, probably? I knew in Valsayn she might have made that joke with me. She had asked me to make more copies of the Exit Form for them. It was amazing to see all those forms finished. I made thirty sheets and then cut them to put in the box. On a day like this, I was the only one again (in practical but also in reality) to hold down the office. There was no Candice or Miss Ali there.

    While that was going on, I went to assist Dr Jogie with some exam papers he came to check on. It looked like someone moved the maths papers from the upper drawer in the filing cabinet this morning. I needed to correctly explain a few times that those papers were the incomplete number of scripts completed before the machine crashed yesterday evening.

    He needed 112 copies of that Form 5 Maths exam, and only sixty-two were done. Dr Jogie signed for the other papers that were completed already in the same logbook and took them with him. The papers were stapled, and then I did the counting to find the total. Miss Chote's stapler was used. I did the subtraction and sent the paper back through the machine to get the remainder done.

    As the machine began and the original was placed back in its folder, I went to inform Dr Jogie about what happened. When he called "Kimmy: she said that the remainder wasn't needed, so the remainder was printed, and he came to sign for the rest. When those were completed, I went back to give him the papers. These were not stapled.

    I noticed Mr Charles being very observant those two times when I came to consult with Dr. Jogie. He eventually came, and there were two more papers to complete his batch of exam papers. One of the MOB papers was able to be printed. The other was giving a lot ot trouble. When I asked, he didn't prefer to give me the papers just yet.

    At the same time, Shiva came to see if "Patty" was available. He resorted to hurtful 'joke' comments to me. It was painful to take it all after what I experienced with Dr Blandin. It was already a very difficult thing handling Dr Blandin when she came with the desk labels for teachers. Mr Charles left soon after that was done. He took his papers back to the staffroom. Shiva wanted copies using the executive-sized paper. We didn't have any, and he said Candice mentioned having some in the office. He went back to the Technical Drawing Room to get some sheets. We got the prints done, and then he left.

    The room was free and calm at last. It was awful having the 'Pester Twins' around, too. It was good to see that the machine was working again. I remember earlier that when "Choo Choo" met me outside with my tray this morning, going to the office the second time, she said that I should make sure to brace myself because of the way it was. I knew the entire day would pass by, and I would go hungry again with no breakfast or lunch.

    Late into the evening, near the end of school, Miss Lewis had asked me if I could print her test paper. She even gave me the folder to do the copies, but wants to get the writing enlarged. "Patty" didn't come back to the office during the day to show me how to zoom the print. I was busy and forgot. She came by after school to see if I had done the copies, and I gave her back the folder from Indera's office.

    Only when I was finished with the exam printing did I decide to work on the copies for her. I gave her a call and asked if it was a picture of the paper. She said yes. So I asked her to email the softcopy, and I can try to work on it manually from the computer. Miss Sookhan had also asked for copies earlier via email. I told her to call me back when the email went through.

    In the meantime, I went to work on copies for Miss Sookhan. It was a lot of pages, and we were short on letter paper. I also had to call her and ask if she had a PDF of the document to see if I could get four pages of it onto one sheet of paper. She said she will search and see if she has it. Miss Lewis also hadn't sent the email yet.

    Miss Sookhan called back, and when I checked what she had sent and the document left in the office, they were two different kinds. She mentioned it was from a book that she didn't have. I told her that I could try to scan the document on the printer. That was the first time I tried to scan. I used a flashdrive in the office since I didn't have my one. The scan looked alright. I sent it off to Miss Sookhan by email to check for me.

    Miss Lewis then called me some short minutes after to let me know that the email was sent. I was already into the document. She had some tables, and I was asking if she wanted them to come off. The corrections in Word were used twice on each paper. She said that it was okay to take them out if I was able to. The images were stretched and reformatted. It looked better on screen and the same on the prints. Sadly, I was out of paper again and was not able to print Miss Sookhan's documents.

    The copies for Miss Lewis and the other remaining teachers were tucked neatly into my tray below and sent off to the staffroom. I locked up the office and turned off the lights first. Donna was still there, and she was on her laptop late. She was surprised that I was still there. I had the copies for the teachers delivered first before packing up my bags and walking out. That evening I only got the first two pages for the third Workbook lesson fone as suspected. I couldn't do much. I stopped to watch the new episode of "Summer House" before bed.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:11 am – 5:48 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #101) – Day #459

Date for Entry: (Monday 10 March 2025)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 01 August 2025)

[T2, W:10 – WD:43, (Td:4)*].

Dear Diary,

    Today I took a while to wake up. I didn't bother to go to the 2L class that we had. Jess sent a message saying that she was not coming today. I went to pay for the pies. When I came back, I sat at my desk. Jess had asked me to do some work with the Form 3s on scales and the arpeggios. I didn't find that was enough, so I recycled the exam for "Mr Lalman" 2F exam and worked it out with them as if it were a CXC past paper.

    Sadly, I did not find the computerised version, but the handwritten version for the students. We discovered that this handwritten one was incomplete on the reverse side. I could not keep the children in there with pans all over the room when it was open. That was Jess's job to get the children to clean up. There was a Form 6 girl for music, and she told me that there was going to be a class in there and that Roberts was not coming today. Even Shiva came by to let me know that he was coming to fix the projector in the music room. The student shared with him the time for the class.

    I had the class locked back up and then went with her to give Mel the keys for safekeeping. The two, if then, planned out what could happen, but I went off to find the Form 3s. I returned my eating dish first. On my way past the hall, I saw "Vannah" and Seth. They said that they were going to the music room. We turned around and then went to their Homeroom. I handed out the worksheets, and then we got started.

    Had to run to the office first to get tissue paper to erase the board. The students were taught by example with "EG". Seth and "Vannah" were surprised to see it this way. The rest of the students were coming in late because we were not in the music room. The next question was on intervals. They forgot everything from Form 1 when I did the topic. Some of them looked confused, but some of them also understood the work. Recess time came by. Two students had asked me to correct their papers for them.

    I went to get the pies and went over to the staffroom. I needed some more time after recess to finish up. I went to ask Mel about the students and their session in the music room. She said that the Form 6s session was still going on. There was no sign of the Form 4s around, so I left and went to the office. Teachers came in and out and got copies.

    At some time in the evening, Roberts came to school and asked for her copies to be made. It was only late in the evening that she came back and had to get a sheet made over. The form was created on paper wider than a legal-sized sheet. The evening finished late for me, alone in the office, doing copies and printing test paper. I had the regular copies batched up and delivered to the teachers' desks.

    I travelled up and met Daddy. Nadara had sent me a nice cheesecake that evening, too. I will wait until the other cake is over. When it was time to do project work at night, I realised that I did not have my folder or my pencil case. They were left in school. Instead, I decided to do more typing for the workbook.

    The first lesson was completed after a long time. The idea of using a crossword generator was nice, but they gave you work limits for all the clues to each word, and/or made you have to pay for them. I decided to get the programme to arrange the layout of the words, print them out and recreate the graph in Word. It was harder work to do, but much better. The long way's idea worked out.

    The day’s tiredness began to come in, and that was all that I could have done. It was nice being the only Music Teacher today. I thank God this day was a nice one in some way, even though it was exhausting. It did not turn out to be a broken and over-emotional one as it does.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:44 am – 4:55 pm) 

St. George’s College (Week #94) – Day #436

Date for Entry: (Friday 24 January 2025)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 02 May 2025)

[T2, W:03 – WD:15, (Td:3)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning was not easy to wake up. I jumped in the shower and prepared myself quickly. Since I wore the Mitchelle House T-shirt on Tuesday, another blue shirt was chosen. I had almost forgotten my cross chain before walking down the stairs. The ride was quick, and the Anglican school had their morning singing and drumming as I was crossing the road. The school was quiet. I saw "Choo Choo" on my way in with Mrs Santana and "Celia". The Guard saw my blue and asked if I was in the Blue house also. I told her yes.

    The pies were purchased for, and Mr Richard asked if I wanted them then. It was my mistake doing this because it burned my tongue for the remainder of the day. The religious session took some time to finish, so I had enough time to eat and get to class with Jess. She decided to take the students outside of the classroom today and said that I could take some Air Conditioning.

    I stayed in the classroom and got lesson twenty completed there. At first, the question stopped at seventy points, but it came up to a full hundred. The time was getting close to recess, so I returned to the staffroom. I could recall that at some point Candice passed in the corridor giggling and saying, "Daryl yuh rell look like a student dey, boy."

    I went to see Mel in the back. She was still painting banners for the panorama students. There was a crazy message from Jeanice. She and Miss were planning out the display for the cultural icons in school. She said that since I mentioned Pat Bishop that I should do a presentation on her. However, she began to regret it because it had some easy things that I could have done for the presentation.

    Recess time was over sooner than I thought. I had to get a copy of the timesheet. I was hoping to work on it over the weekend in time for next week's submission. Candice was by the computer and using the same sheet that I had written up the transcript numbers for her yesterday. She had a grading sheet that was used by the school, and substituted the numbers with a grade in an Excel document. I offered to call out the numbers for her, and it helped to speed things up. When she was done, I called her back out to verify if she had done every subject. The remainder of the document was the CSEC, CAPE 1, AND CAPE 2 results before the Principal can sign off on the document.

    It looked like a document that I could probably create as a stencil for them to recycle. When she tried to centre the text, they were scrambled. When she asked for assistance, I noticed that the text had a lot of spacing in it. She backspaced two columns, and it came out as needed. I also mentioned the transcript numbers sheet that was created, and she and Afisha gave me a laugh. Afisha told her about me, mentioning me on Wednesday, saying that I could make a better attendance register than what the PMO Officer had given us.

    All this time, the houses were in their meeting getting ready for their Chantwell competition for the Sports. Lunchtime even came and met us, and I did not remember about the Form 4 class that was supposed to happen in the fifth period. I spoke with Artee for a while, and she mentioned how sick she was feeling with the saw throat. It seems like a lot of the teachers are getting sick first, before the children, this time around. She did mention that this kind of sickness makes you want to lie down and makes it difficult to get up and function. It was nice to see Isekel come back to the office. Miss Chote was mentioning to Candice that they got permission to give him a stipend to come back and help out. He was also supposed to have a teaching session for some of us.

    The Chantwell competition began soon in the seventh period. I got there late but in time for the first performance. The order of presentations was Leacock, Mitchelle, Gift and Farrell. Leacock had a good drumming, but their people were just in the cluster. They had nicer flags than the other houses.

    Mitchelle was after, and they entered from two sides of the left side of the quadrangle with a call and response march. The singing had rap, formation, costuming, smoke makers and the full works. It was nice to see Justin sing and dance. This was the best performance without being biased.

    The next was Gift, and they had Miss Jones' grandson on moko jumbie stilts. However, it was a very poor performance. They also remained in one cluster, like Leacock, but moved around as a cluster. It was nice to see that they had dancers in their performance, which other houses did not have.

    The last house to present was Farrell, and I enjoyed their entrance to the 'stage'. However, when everyone got onto the field, they spoiled it one time, and it was like What on earth am I watching. Everyone had a bad remark to give that which echoed in the whole school. There was a chant off against the house three times. The third time was when everyone took off into the quadrangle and chanted off against each other. They were getting too noisy, so I went back into the office.

    A lady came to drop off a document, so I could not remember everything. Instead of letting fear take me over, I gave a piece of paper to write it down on a piece of the same scrap paper that I used from yesterday and then had it put on Miss Chote's VP desk. I also remember earlier during lunchtime, a man came to collect his son. The boy did not ask for a leave form earlier that morning, and when I gave him the form to be filled out by his Form Teacher, he came back saying that the teacher was eating lunch. The three of us had a long laugh about that.

    Then I did remember when making over that form, "Mr Marlon," that sometimes a dean can sign on behalf of a Form Teacher, so that was my next recommendation. Thankfully, Javid helped us out. I got the form to sign from Miss Chote, and the boy and his father were able to leave. At 2:10, I left the office for the staffroom. I had a copy of the timesheet form that I made. Candice copied it after seeing the form, and she seemed to like it. I got the same George's grading system page borrowed for when I go to update this new invention over the weekend.

    I had to see Miss Daniel first to confirm the difference between Home Economics and Family Management. She said that Family Management is called Family and Resource Management. As I made the corner, I heard Donna saying, "What! Like ah see yuh was out dey dancin', Mr Ali!" I responded, "Like yuh see right, then," and she laughed out.

    Everyone cleared out of there like vacuum sucked everybody up. Miss Harris' bigmouth was going on and on about the results and performances. She was also commenting in frustration, somehow, about Farrell always losing and coming last in everything. "GG" started laughing aloud when I told her the joke about Farrell. Miss Carthy couldn't take the noise. She was singing the "take it easy" song again, but she needed people to help her do the work. It would surely not be an appropriate anthem for her.

    Mel and GG were waiting for Mr Raymond to pick them up. I packed up and went out. Candice and Isekel were still in the office. I went to clarify with him the layout for the transcript document when mentioning that I wanted to make a document to have the information easily inserted and printed. They were able to clarify that the document had to be on letter-sized paper and portrait.

    I left to meet Daddy in Curepe. The ride was long and tiring. He had gotten me my first-ever receipt book. We ended up going for Fai's. There wasn't anywhere to get cake. It was nice of Miss Soodeen to help me look over the listing of subjects for the form earlier this afternoon. There were a few for Form Six that were not included in the original George's form. It took me over two and a half hours to get this far in the entry after reaching home. I'm looking forward to cataloguing the library books tomorrow.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:53 am – 3:19 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #91) – Day 421

Date for Entry: (Thursday, 12 December 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 02 May 2025)

[T1, W:15 – WD:,*].

Dear Diary,

    I forgot to write the entries for Wednesday and today. Those events are gone from my mind. Yesterday, a nice rain fell, and it was the section leaders' practice for the day. A new one was added. Zipporah was busy talking and on her phone. So I worked with Seth and "Miss Henry". They were both very tired from the early morning. There was a lot for them to get. There was a chat with me, Sir, Seth and "Vannah" after about a possible site visit to a panyard for the finals. It sounded exciting, but I wonder if there will be late, late-night practice and how long that will go on once Prelims have been successful.

    That night, I was hoping to get church work and some arranging done. Instead, with disappointment, I ended up flat on the couch since Daddy left for Midnight. I was not able to do anything at all. I never like it when my human body is ready to get tired. It was good to be able to pay Isa for the Borrowing Card Pocket's label. I asked him to have them made for tomorrow evening after his mosque visit in the afternoon.

    On Wednesday (Day #417) afternoon, after practice, I went to the ISA to get my copy of the Panorama Tune bound. I know that Mr Marcelle mentioned he would get his spiral bound, but I thought even though it gave a better page turning, that staple binding with Bristol board fronting and backing would be better for me. I was now able to appreciate the page turning with the 'flip on the long side'.

    The holding of it during today's practice was much better. I will just have to find out the version number of Sir to write it on the front cover along with my name and the name of the song "Out and Bad". Tomorrow's practice will be the last for this week. Then the children will gather back in the hall for the Panorama Fundraiser concert. Not many adults would be around while the children come in. There will be a section practice tomorrow before the band comes back together.

 

LINK(S):

• "Out & Bad" Arrangement - [Permission not Granted.]

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(9:40 am – 3:18 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #91) – Day #420

Date for Entry: (Monday 09 December 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 02 May 2025)

[T1, W:15 – WD:*].

Dear Diary,

    This weekend's talent show was cancelled because of no requests for community police. This request needed to be submitted a week before and was not approved. The call from Dr Soodeo was swift on the night before. All of the decorations would have to be returned. It was nice of Mel to visit too, on the same day, to get her comments in. This morning, the rain kept me at home. I had a very good awakening at 7:30. Daddy was telling me that if I didn't want to go that I could stay home, but I still decided to go.

    The main road at that time was just like the weekend. I kept my umbrella in my hand just in case. The Curepe pie was stuck in my bag as soon as I got on the bus. The driver was kind enough to stop for me to get in. Two of the nice songs that he played were "She's Still Loving Me" and "Don't Diss the Man". Not sure if I would be successful in turning them into steelpan arrangements. The pie ladies on Sixth Avenue were playing nice calypso music. I got two lines to rhyme in the end about the "big ass fool". Lolz, that was a good laugh.

    As soon as I got into the compound, I went to the staffroom to have my ham and cheese pie first under the air conditioning to cool off before going into the hall. I used the washroom one time, as it might be a long while since I was in there. Mr Marcelle greeted me at the entrance of the hall, shook my hand and walked me in.

    From afar, we were looking at the band practising a part of the verse on loop, and he was telling me that everyone was playing something wrong in it. He sat by the keyboard that was used from the Christmas Programme last Wednesday, and the 3 Cello Section Leader was beating the toc-toc. Seth had asked me for wipes, and I joked, telling him, "Manny" and Kalid that they were for six dollars a sheet. The children were given recess from 10:39 to 10:55. Mr Marcelle shared some strange accounts of Friday evening after I had been long gone from the compound.

    The practice went on for the rest of the day. It was nice of Mr Marcelle to have two copies of the score printed. I got two bulldog clips from inside for me and him. The printing was done by flipping on the long side instead of flipping on the short side. So we had to put the bulldog clip on the long side. I got to sit in the staffroom during lunchtime for a few moments. It was short because Sir decided to take back his time.

    The frontline people were only making noise at one time before lunch when he had asked me to distribute music for the cellos and guitars. The 3 Cello Section Leader was good. "Vannah" was getting confused all the time. I had to call Sir over to help with the last page of that section. After lunch, we continued in the same part, and I ended up teaching Miss "Williams-George" since she wasn't being taught. I was able to teach her three pages of that section. The last page for it will be difficult.

    I got an incredible tiredness that just dropped on me sometimes before practice was over. I think everyone was feeling it too. "Manny" ended up breaking the broken drumstick. He finally decided to listen to me by turning it the other way. He could not hit it anymore. Thankfully, there was a broken piece of either a mop or a broom that I took and hit the toc-toc instead. Everyone's eyes were opened to see the huge stick in my hand, beating the toc-toc.

    There was one more run-through of the song, which was counted by me at 'a tempo', and the music was over 5 minutes. "Patty" and I spoke this evening when she came to pick up Vade. It was nice to see "Vara too. We will have to see about the pan practices another time. That night, I got the song "Hit and Run" fully transcribed with chords. I don't think I will want to work on the steelpan arrangement for it. I started working on "Be Without You", but it didn't work out for the introduction, as I thought so I stopped that.

    The "Hallelujah Challenge" will have to remain a transcription, too. The COAG song in the 6-8 meter too will remain transcription. I left both of them as they were in case I choose to go back and work on them in the future. I started a hymn for completion tonight. Maybe tomorrow it will be accomplished, and then I plan to work on "That's My King" by CeCe Winans. The night was over, and I really couldn't make it anymore. I was feeling like my eyes were swelling again, so I had to try and make it to bed. Getting up from the couch was not easy either.

 

LINK(S):

X

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(10:34 am – 3:37 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #89) – Day #414

Date for Entry: (Sunday 01 December 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 04 December 2024)

[T1, W:13 – WD:, (Td:X)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning I ended up sleeping back. I got to church late and had a short while before the performance. We did not know when we were going to play. The other children to play with us were not called over and then Rev Baldeosingh continued. We had to take back our seats. Toward the end of the service, we were called back to play. Mr Sharma sat down by the piano for the whole service and played there. Zara was put to serve communion so we did a solo. The practice continued as usual.

    Dexter brought some book donations for the library. I took them with me since one Girl wanted to go inside. She borrowed her third book. After setting up the library and then packing the books to take home, the practice continued longer. The song of their choice for next week was "Carol of the Bells". I remember "Isaac" shaking his head no when he saw the arrangement for "Noel" that Mr Sharma did. I was surprised too. I also saw the interesting run for the introduction.

    A lot of them left. I remained in the church with Anthony, Clarence and Mr Samaroo. They were speaking about the first Christian Pan Festival held by the Anglicans and that the Presbyterian Church in the 60s did not like Steelpan being a part of their church. I thank God that it made a way after that time and served a useful purpose.

    As soon as I got home I ate and got ready to head down to George's. Two heavy showers of rain delayed me and Daddy from leaving the home. It was nice that in Curepe the sun came down. I told him that I might just need to use the same umbrella to shelter from the heated sun. We had a good laugh about that. One maxi was on the bus route and as soon as I jumped in we took off. The ride was not long and the walk was medium fast.

    When I got to the school they were running through "Carol of the Bells" with the Section Leaders' band for a while before getting into the Panorama Tune. Noon came quickly. I was using the new PDF that Mr Marcelle sent to me before leaving home. It looked like there were things that needed to be fixed again in it.

    At some point, he had asked the frontliners to go over into the classroom to run the song from the introduction to the chorus. His main concern was the verse that needed checking. We both started to notice that there were a lot of things that were not taught to them. The band did not go to recess until 3 PM or after there. Somehow practice had slowed down to an end. There was a meeting with the band before sending them home. Sir was telling me that he would cut practice short because of the weather that was there.

    We had a long wait for "Vannah" to go with her parent. Mel, Sir and I stayed back chatting in the evening. We ended up calling an Uber to fly us home. It was too expensive from Mel’s front gate to my gate in Tunapuna ($44). That was only a one-time experience for me then. I went home to have some Pelau that the aunties sent me and worked on uploading some journal entries. Only one painting was completed for the night before I fell asleep on the couch.

 

LINK(S):

• Newsday Report on George’s.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(11:10 am – 6:21 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #89) – Day #413

Date for Entry: (Saturday 30 November 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 04 December 2024)

[T1, W:13 – WD:, (Td:X)*].

Dear Diary,

    Today was the start of another weekend's practice. I got up early but delayed while shaving and determining how to edit my hair. Daddy came and while I was about to turn on the shower the pressure was low. Had to hot water in my kettle again. Not sure why that happens in the morning.

    The ride to Barataria was quick thankfully. I knew how to anticipate the view of the bus route again. There was a long wait for the light to turn red to cross the road and get onto Sixth Avenue. It looked like the rain was setting up to fall. The band was in session when I got in. I took up the toc-toc and went with the pulse.

    It was nice to see Mr Charles At 12:15 we stopped for recess and then went back into the pan room. The panorama tune was only run at the end. They were working on a medley using a Christian one that was nicknamed "one by one, two by two, three by three" and then into the Blessings song that they started working with before the Panorama tune was changed to "Out and Bad". It sounded very interesting but the timing was the problem. We were told that this new work was for the Panorama Concert.

    Jess was out and about the yard. She left us and had cake by the second recess. Miss Carthy was there for some reason. Everyone went to buy food across the road in the back of the school and it took some time to order. At the end of the practice, I walked back up the road. I continued with Mr Charles along the way and we spoke slightly on the Leave Forms that I had been worrying about for the past nine weeks. He told me not to worry about them. I hope to get to work on them with him over the holidays.

    As the driver pulled into Curepe, the rain was already pouring. I saw "Jenny" Atwell and the gentleman with her today under the same terminal. Andrew was in the car and we spoke about a few things while waiting. The wait was very long for some reason. Daddy said that the order before him was over twenty boxes of food that someone ordered.

    That night I got two weeks of journal entries set into Microsoft, edited and uploaded. I couldn't make it again after editing three more. The remainder of that week fixing and uploading work for tomorrow after practice. I did two more paintings that night and went to bed.

 

LINK(S):

• Newsday Report on George’s.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(12:31 am – 3:30 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #88) – Day #407

Date for Entry: (Sunday 24 November 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 30 November 2024)

[T1, W:12 – WD:56, (Td:X)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning I went to work in the library instead of going to the service. I did not have a steelband performance today. I decided to work on practical questions for the textbook. My time there was done until 9:30 as usual. Ria didn't come and I had forgotten to call her that night. We had steelband practice starting with my arrangement from 2022 of "Away in a Manger".

    The problem was smooth rolling from the tenors. He went into an exercise that was quavers for 4 bears and then semiquavers for 1 beat. Then he moved on to his "Carol of the Bells", which was the last song. The problem with this one was staying on time with everyone. The session was long and very tiring. I was hungry when I got back home.

    Decided to stay like that for the whole day. Daddy ended up misplacing the keys. I packed up some work to do. The dark clouds were already packed in the sky and he was wondering if they would cancel the practice today. I texted Miss and she was in church still. Mr Marcelle was going to be slightly late.

    I decided to go and if no one was there I would still do my. Work on the laptop at school. We had a short wait for a short shower and were then out to Curepe. I went onto a bus that was waiting.* The road was very scary just yesterday with an empty road and because of this, the arrival to Sixth Avenue was quick. I almost got hit by a car on the road.

    Entering the compound, a dog started to bark at me. The guard was wondering why they were doing that and after our chat, we were wondering if it was their mating season too with their behaviour. I went to collect my laptop and then moved down to the music room. She said that everyone here for practice was already down in the music room.

    Only four section leaders were in the room with Mr Marcelle. He was checking and making inserts. I stood with them keeping the pulse with the toc-toc. We found that 1 PM reached up on us quickly. Slowly the rest of the attendees were coming in. They worked on the section just before the verse for a long.

    At some point, Mr Marcelle sent me to the next room before the drill practice commenced to make sure they had everything alright and then to help teach three of the tenors the first portion of the verse. The new part was not added with the rest of the band.

    Maybe Sir had ideas to take the music in a new direction. There was difficulty with reading the syncopation written in cut-time. I had to transcribe the bar into crotchet beats and then use the closed-gate style of writing to understand what to tell the children. It was written in shorthand-like notation from Roberts and also opened-gate.

    Toward the last part of the practice, he had put me in charge of drilling the band while he went to speak to the persons assisting with the concert outside. The same thing was run three times and then from Da Capo. It was recorded in the regular slow tempo and made it to 6 minutes. But I was concerned about the 'a tempo'. I would admit that I did not get time to listen to the original song on YouTube as yet. It was nice of Sir to send me the updated score.

    When practice was over a lot of the children were already on their way home. The sky was worse than yesterday and the quadrangle was filled scarily. I had never seen the school as a temple of water before. Me, Jess, Mr Marcelle and Mel were kept back waiting for the rain to over along with four students. At 5:55 the rain had calmed and two boys and I walked up to the bus route. They left before me but we took the same maxi.

    Seems like the rain moved up Curepe. I was soaking wet after running for shelter under the terminal, or maybe I should say the smokers' hub of all nasty kinds. That night, I finished the painting that took me three nights to do ().

    I got three more done before going to the computer to work for the night. Jess was asking me to copy and paste something into a letter but I realised she had given me some ingredients for the letter and wanted me to write it. I messaged back admitting that I didn't know how to do it. We planned for her to do the letter tomorrow and I work the Form 4s tomorrow while they do an ABRSM Grade 3 past paper.

    I worked on journal entries too. I ended up bringing the laptop home with me to get what I had typed out last week Friday. Sadly, the entry for the Monday of that week was not saved. I will have to type it back over tomorrow. I took note of the entries to work on tomorrow. Before I ended the night, painted two more images on Facebook. I couldn't make it anymore and had to fight to make it to the bed again. Where did the weekend go?

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(11:40 am – 5:55 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #88) – Day #406

Date for Entry: (Saturday 23 November 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 30 November 2024)

[T1, W:12 – WD:55, (Td:X)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning I woke up and fell back asleep. My weekend had been taken away from me with the need to go to Panorama practice. This weekend will be both Saturday and Sunday. I did not have breakfast. Somehow I thought of "Jay-22" today. I got ready in casual clothing. I was originally planning to wear the blue Mitchell House T-shirt. I saw a green one and chose that along with my purple plaid short pants. I knew it would be a long day and the heat would make me need some air.

    After walking out of the road, I laughed about the choice with Daddy. I told him that it left like I was going to Town to play lawn tennis instead. The outfit did look that way. The bus route was scary. Only one maxi was on the road and the rest was empty. A nice lady was driving. I sat in the front row behind and I was giving a Jehovah's Witness pamphlet on the topic "Who Created the World".

    Sixth Avenue was hotter than a regular school day. I was completely wet by the time I got to the schoolyard. I saw Miss in the hall when she called me out. Surprisingly she had on the same Mitchell House shirt that I was looking for. I told her the same but then mentioned that it was good I didn't because if any hillviewers saw me in it they would have thought that I was betraying them. She told me that the staffroom was open so I went to cool out.

    It took me exactly an entire hour to start and complete the journal entry for yesterday. I got to school with the phone battery at six per cent. After falling asleep on the couch the night before, I didn't get to charge it. I even forgot the charger at home too. Miss told me that Jess was coming late. We spoke about the tickets form and said that there were over sixty tickets handed out. The children were with Mr Marcelle in the pan room practising. They were working on a new section.

    When Jess came down she handed me two empty envelopes to give Mel. I went back up to the hall. The feeling of the empty Form 2 classrooms and school was a completely different experience altogether. Miss wrote out the names of the children who paid and placed the money in the envelope, which was then sent back to Jess. "Mr Barbour" came to the hall to ask me to help him with something. The children were in the classroom so that means that they were on break.

    Jess and Mr Marcelle were trying out something. When I was finishing up one of the journal entries then joined them. As I was pulling out my pansticks, Jess liked that I had pockets for the pansticks and she had a long dress without pockets. Sir played the Double Tenor part and Jess and I were trying to figure out an insert. This that we worked on was taught to the students when returning from their recess.

    I went back to typing up the rest of of journal entries for the rest of week eighty-five. The typing was a lot and my hand was hurting from holding the cell phone in my hand all the time. Daddy called me from the phone at 1:30 to ask what time I would be coming up. I told him at 2 PM. Jess and her mother left early from their ride. She did not see the keys for the room to lock up. Mr Marcelle packed up and left the room. The guard probably didn't know that they had to lock back.

    Mel, Sir and I waited back because of the heavy rain that broke out. I knew there was bright light but when the door in the music room opened, there was a very dark sky. We ended up waiting for the rain to ease up. Three boys travelled out and we still had to wait for "Mr Haynes" father to pick him up. The three of us left the compound at 4:20.

    Mr Marcelle hurried to his home before the rain wet his electronic devices. Miss and I saw Jessie and we gave him a wave. I was going to invite him to come to practice. Miss went to the grocery before the bus route. I almost fell crossing the wet road. An impatient driver almost bounced us over. Thankfully there was a bus to take us. Had to wake her up at her stop.

    There were only a few minutes when I had settled at home before our meeting to fix the Form 2 paper. Some of the images were changed for the Christmas season. We had some issues with English when it came to rows and columns in one of the questions. I ended the meeting after sending the final product. I did some uploading on the Blogger for a week of school that was typed up today. Tomorrow I hope to complete the typing of another week.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(10:05 am – 4:32 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #86) – Day #393

Date for Entry: (Monday 04 November 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 29 November 2024)

[T1, W:10 – WD:42, (Td:3)*].

Dear Diary,

    Late last night I got Jess's message saying she was not coming in today. She asked me to give the Form 4s the same note on Parang that was given to 2L on Friday. Surprisingly, I got to school early after waking up late. The attendance did not look good and teachers were now coming in late. I spoke with “GG” immediately as I sat down about contributions to the library. She gave me some good pointers to share with Clarence.

    Mel came late so I was not not the only one from VAPA. Late into the first period, we were told that the staff meeting would be moved from today to tomorrow. I went to purchase the pies. Mr Richard made sure to write the brown paper with red ink. I saw Roberts come in. Seth came to ask for a block of ice by the staffroom door but there were two huge bags of ice in the freezer. “Jan” laughed at me after saying “nah” twice and closing the fridge door.

    I was taken to the hall and was asked to supervise the students taking the pans back to the pan room. I went to check with security first to see if the keys were taken and it was confirmed. It was better to check if the room was opened first. She had her Upper 6 class going on and asked that the children don’t make any noise. Instead, the children were all kicked out and sent back with all the pans and stands to the hall.

    “Mr Warner” and I neatly tucked the pans to the walls and out of the way before children ran into them. By the time I got back to my desk, it was nice to see Mr Charles wearing glasses. The second period had gone quickly after all of those activities. I saw Javid coming back so the children were free. “Jan” got to the class before me so I sat and waited on a bench for her to over.

    The children were taking too long to finish writing the notes from the previous class. At three minutes past the hour, I erased the board and began the parang note. I ended up making one girl hate me for making her out in front of the whole class. It did the trick. Toward the second period, we had some bass clefs drawn in the rest book (page eight). When the time for period four came, Roberts said she left the key with a student and the room was left open unattended.

    I locked the door once it was time for Form 4s to secure their belongings while we were in the pan room. While going through the scales it appeared that they were never introduced to the Circle of Fifths and Fourths. Kayla was good. Only one bar to fix and she was able to make it to Rehearsal Letter B in “Fur Elise”. Gabriel had no Oboe, and Joshua had rhythmic and pulse issues.

    Naiema was struggling with her syncopation. It looks like she may have to ask Miss to change the piece. There is always the possibility to score out the full solo piece and listen and put it together but the work required, I doubt that will happen. There were some semesters in UWI where this became the method when some rhythmic patterns would become my challenge. Praise God for liking to score music that I have been able to master some of them.

    Punctuality and Regularity for May, June and July of 2024 were still pending in the staffroom. Seems as if Mr Richard and the others had forgotten me with the pies again. He didn’t refund me but insisted that I take one of the lunches. I gave it to Mel instead. I spent the rest of the evening with my Table Tennis tournament while the rain was so busy soaking the place. My first game was with “Jenny” Atwell and she won 11-7. The second-round game I played was against Kerensia Bharath and she won 11-4. That left me in sixth position out of six before I had to go cool off. Mel stayed back with “Patty” and Waveney.

    I had Sunday lunch for dinner. After sitting on the couch I could feel the tiredness. The letters for George’s PTSA were formatted. I worked on the ‘full’ transcription for “Jireh”. Praise God this long song (duration 9:15) was completed after two years. Not sure if I will want to do the arrangement when I see it going over sixteen pages. For the very least the chords can be attempted.

    I was grateful for the bus stopping for me this morning. Five buses chased off as soon as the light turned green. When the sixth bus came, it had nice worship songs playing. There was “In Control” that I worked on already playing before I got out. The driver had stopped on the side I would walk down on. Thank you Jesus for your assistance this afternoon. A lot of stranded people remain on the road by Barataria. An empty bus came to pick me up along with all the people by Sixth Avenue. Thank you, Lord.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:39 am – 4:52 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #85) – Day #392

Date for Entry: (Friday 01 November 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 21 November 2024)

[T1, W:09 – WD:41, (Td:2)*].

**

Dear Diary,

    I took a slow walk down Sixth Avenue today. The students were being called to line up for their morning assembly while I went to pay for the two pies after recess. I stayed with the students for their prayer, pledge and national anthem. Some of the teachers were now coming in for the morning. I got to finish off Wednesday's entry. Donna's mouth was heard troubling Mr Raymond while she sat by "Mr Marlon" at his desk. She commented on Jess's blue outfit. Mrs Santana commented on Mr Bain's blue shirt and he said that he was just supporting the people in blue today before exiting the room.

    There was a red alert from "Celia" that a student* was caught trying to run out of the school compound this morning. I saw Mel's friend Joshua again. She was busy in and out of the hall. I saw a printed programme on my desk. The front design was truly lovely. Jess came to mention that I could do the Parang session with the Form 2s in class. Praise God she said that She had data to play samples of the music. The students were given the note while she played the music.

    Toward the end of the period, she saw the homework and didn't want to correct it. She asked if I wanted to correct it and I took responsibility for it. The assignment was then made a coursework assignment. I thought that we had Form 1 now but that was after recess. I wished that I could be at the APC Library working or at home scoring music. Was feeling hungry so I  went for my pies. The pepper was excellent and it made tears march out of my eyes. I spent five dollars on some bobbys. They weren't that sweet enough but they did digest the pies well.*

    A lot of people I heard came to school just to take bank time at the end of the sixth period. We heard that there would be a staffroom at the same sixth period while the children go to lunch. "GG" was now mentioning that the punctuality and regularity were out for the teachers to sign. They did not say which months. Only after an outburst during the announcement of special rooms to remain locked when it was not used and signing the keys register, did we learn the forms to sign for May, June and July were handed over to Mr Charles and done by him.

    We did not have ice for the drinks and then as I looked out the windows, I could have screamed out in happiness when I saw Mr Sawh and Mrs Sawh coming into the compound. They brought with them cakes for the function. The short heated conversation happened between Mel and me. I went to sit by a bench from recess to 1:00 from that situation.

    The parade of the bands in the quadrangle was about to start also. The children in costumes wet and others in the corridors with bottles of water. The midnight robber got beaten up for it by other students in the same grassy area for soaking us with water. At least that was the best part of the 'entertainment'. I could see Sadie and her friend enjoying themselves dressing up like Dame Lorraines. They were soaking wet walking down the corridor.

    Everyone was taken into the hall for the rest of the show. Roberts finally made an appearance. She had her children play "Runaway" with Abigail Spring, "Jeremy", Aidan B., and another girl soloing on Tenor Pan. Just before the Form 4 performance, Jess asked if I wanted to play and she was disappointed when I said no twice. Went to the staffroom for the score of “That’s what Friends are For” for Mr Marcelle to play the bass.

    I went back to get him two of my clothes clips when the breeze continued to blow the paper down and he smiled receiving them. When the performance was over, he mentioned the oboe was not in concert pitch, alongside many of things. We had discussed. The Panorama band was the last to close off the show, after Miss Jones-Peters' speech and comments. The hall was packed to the capacity.

    As the band began to play everyone left the hall. I too stuffed my bag and rushed up the road in a hurry. They had left a cupcake and an Apple J on my desk. The events of today were too much pain to take in. I got home and while making up time to call Clarence about the library, I fell asleep on the couch.

 

LINK(S):

• Retirement Function for Helen Jones – Printed Programme.**

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:56 am – 3:30 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #83) – Day #379

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 16 October 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 10 November 2024)

[T1, W:07 – WD:29, (Td:4)*].

Dear Diary,

    Another morning was it to awake. I got dressed casually for the first day of Table Tennis classes if it happens. I was lucky to make it to school early. People were around my desk. Finally, they all moved away. I gave “Mel” her birthday gift in a plastic bag. It was a crossword puzzle book. Only when I finished my Curepe pie, I signed the inside of the front cover.

    Jess and I had a class with 2L. The children went to change for their presentations. They had to research the history of a parang person to present, a single one of their songs and the others in the group would dress as backup singers. I liked the song done by Ameer's group, which would be nice to be a steelpan arrangement (“Papa Chucks”). The second group did “Education”. Some of the groups did not have their history so the mark will have to remain until they upload it to the Google Classroom.

    While 3M was coming down, I went to buy the pies for after lunch. I asked Mr Richard to keep the pepper out until when I go to collect them. Not many of the students had their work for presentation or tracks selected, which also was the reason no one chose a genre. Recess came and I spent the time with the Form 4s. Jess went to get her duster while I corrected the scales, triads and beaming in their Grade 3 past paper done in class previously.

    There was an early review of time signatures and the note tree. They spoke about the history topics and distributed it from now to the first term of their Form 5 experiences. Water soaked the corridors. Mrs Solomon was working with two girls and said she might be ready by 12:45. I didn’t bother going back again. Instead, I went to eat the two pies I paid for earlier. I remained by my desk to complete Exodus Eleven. I began chapter Twelve right after.

    At the end of school, “Mel” was surprised at my first day of Table Tennis. Spoke with the teacher about the fee and also the possibility of training for tournaments. My first attempt was “Mr Dass”. Just before “Miss Gumbs” was showing me how to hold the paddles. I also got to play “Jenny” Atwell a few times and some games with Vade.

    I also had a few with Jahiem and he was trying to show me how to serve and how to swing the paddle (out front; NOT sidewards). I was swinging the paddle too high. The first try was very difficult for me. I left school a few minutes after 4 as discussed with the coach. He mentioned that his surname was Ali as well. Have not been feeling to do any music writing these few days.

    Tonight I took some time trying to find the documents for Isa and remaking some to single sheets instead of supplicates on one page. Just like the children’s package having a letter, I decided to go and make one for the adults as a welcome letter one time.

    This creation took me three hours to compose the vocabulary for the dull document, which was half a letter-sized page on both sides. A separate and yet independent border was also selected for it. I will have to see if Clarence can come up with the two paragraphs for the introduction and welcoming. The lower part and all of the second side were done by me for tips on the registration.

    Later that night, after 10:45, my time for gaming was taken to try and tally the receipts for reimbursement. After 5 attempts the final number kept on varying. I will have to give it another try tomorrow evening.

 

LINK(S):

• Papa Chunks.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:51 am – 4:25 pm)