It is, arguably, a little bit sad that if I look back over the years that I have been churning out entries for this journal, a regular subject of the December offerings has been just how busy everything has been, how tired we are and how much we are looking forward to some quiet downtime over the Christmas break.
I didn’t actually look back to the archive of any previous December’s postings before making that statement. I didn’t have to. I just know that it is true!
The reason that it is a little bit sad is because The Girl and I are notionally retired and should thus probably have time on our hands rather than finding things a bit of a grind. Let’s face it – we are clearly not tuckered out because of our wild round of pre-Christmas socialising. The pandemic has seen to that!
Oh well!
For me the term at College has just finished, the final exam has been sat and marked, term projects have been submitted and assessed and I am just in the process of wrapping things up and recording grades and suchlike. At the point at which in days of yore I might have been enjoying a little post-term social relaxation I am instead contemplating the next term (what here in Canada is pessimistically – if realistically – called the Winter term). The course that I was scheduled to teach has – for the second year running – been heavily under-subscribed (wonderful to be so popular… not!). My Chair has offered me a different course; one which I have not taught before and which would – once again – require that I mug up afresh on another curriculum and set of practices.
Am I getting too old for this sort of thing? Feels as though I might be.
The Girl (who is of course but a youngster) is also finding work something of a grind and – though she has been able these past two years to work almost exclusively from home – there are threats from her volunteer service that everyone might be dragged back into the office for the New Year.
The Omicron variant may, of course, have a considerable say in how things actually pan out for either or for both of us. How will it all end up? In truth – nobody knows!
So my message to good and gentle readers out there is this: Take good care of yourselves, stay safe and don’t take any foolish risks (in particular not for misguided ideological reasons)…
As Bette Davis didn’t quite say in ‘All About Eve’ – “Buckle up – it’s going to be a bumpy ride“…
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