Feeling Badgered

Thursday 25.2.10

A day at school. Tomorrow too. Maths. I spent a pretty quiet day.

Try to answer briefly. None of us want a diatribe.

What’s a diet tribe?......

On the wall, in this room, is a new slogan ‘RUCKSAC’, it’s an aid to answering questions in exams. I wish I’d thought of it.  R ead, U nderstand; you can think up the rest yourself and post me your ideas.

AT HOME

Bella Belly came over with mum and dad. 

Dad needed to work on his CV ready for a job interview that had been brought forward by about a week. Bit of a scramble. He also had to take his birth certificate which was at his mums and she’s away.  There was nothing he could do about that, except explain when he gets there.

We ate all this cake between us.

Then, still hungry, we decided we needed a takeaway. So, that’s 2 Indian meals plus naan and 2 Chinese, plus prawn crackers.  This time we couldn’t manage it all even though we gave it our best shot.

Then Bella was so stuffed 

she went out like alight

The CV looked great and the company was excellent.  Even though we were tired, we needed a bit of social time.

Friday 26.2.10

Yet another day at school and my phone’s run out of credit, again. Makes me feel like a kid.

As I walked into the school building the fire alarm sounded. I hadn’t put on a coat this morning, because they can be a bit of a pain. Moving from room to room, I sometimes leave them behind, which means I have to retrace my steps. Such a waste of time. So, there I was, standing in the cold wind, register in hand, freezing. Once dismissed, we had to hang about outside the classroom, waiting for a key, also outside. When we got into the room, the heater was disabled and it was perishing.

 Talking to another teacher:

You should know about this as you’re a scientist.

I’m not a scientist, I’m a science teacher.

What’s the difference?

If I was a scientist I wouldn’t be here.

One of the students was in her socks. After the usual phew, what’s that pong? comments, it turned out she’d been caught wearing trainers: a bad mistake, and had been given a very smart pair of black leather shoes. She hated them. As a way for her to, sort of, hide them under the hems of her trouser legs, I said (please forgive me), Try pulling down your trousers a bit.  After the noise had died down.....

One of the lads had a cartoon of a maths teacher on the My Maths web site. He called me over and said, Look Miss, it’s you!  I wish I could have disagreed with him, but it really did bear a striking resemblance to me. Her hair was red (mine’s not at the moment, though sometimes it is), and it flicked out around the bottom, just like mine today. I’m not too sure about the purple dress, a bit too lavender for someone as young as me.

I put the file of lesson plans down on the desk. The students all said, Look, look. I followed their gaze and pointy, pointy fingers and said, feigning a combination of fear and shock, I thought I was having a fit!!! The monitor screen was bouncing and flickering like crazy and I wobbled and woozed as I said it. It went down really well with the class. Amdram; can’t beat it.

 BACK AT HOME

Got a call to say that the CV had paid off and Dad now has a new job...with expenses. He'll make a great MP!?

 When I got home I went outside to feed the badgers.To do this I always slip out of my slippers and into a pair of gardening clogs.

I flipped the clogs upright. they're upside down to keep the rain out of them, only to find a mouse had nibbled the insole.Ruddy rodent. 

When the Badger visited recently and I 'posted' (ooooo, get me and that bit of jargon) its' piccy I didn’t explain to you uninitiateds’ that we feed these muddy critters every night.

Here’s the system: small pile of nuts, and as from tonight, Go Cat.

 We place a tin dish over the top of them – so we hear the clatter as the badgers push it out of the way. A stone on top of the tin dish to prevent the mice/mouse/vole from lifting (yes, lifting, as in Mighty Mouse) the tin dish and nicking the food, piece by piece, from underneath, and stashing it in amongst the dry stone walling that they call home. 

We used to use plastic flower pots rather than tin dishes, but the mice lifted them with ease, hence the stone on top. So those ever cunning mice simply chewed a decent sized hole through the pot and walked in and helped themselves to as many nuts as they fancied, which was always all of them.

It was our brilliant neighbour Joyce who suggested tin dishes because they were noisy. For years she has served up dog food in them, for the badgers and foxes that visit her garden. The racket generated as they lick the dish, and inadvertently push it across the patio slabs, means she is always able to watch as they visit for food.  The same goes for us.

Tonight was different, not just because we’ve supplemented their feed, but also because a huge male came in. He was very nervous, didn’t know about the food under the dishes and had a 3 inch diameter abscess (we think) on his clavicle, as well as a limp. It’s possible he’d had  fight with another badger, or more likely, a dog. These guys often wander into the local streets and into some less than hospitable gardens where dogs can pose a threat. We’ll watch this guy as we may need to involve the RSPCA if he doesn’t show signs of recovery soon.