by Today is the last day of a very hot summer and the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death, which Mum and I heard about over the PA on a Malaysia Airlines flight just before we landed in Kuala Lumpur. We were on the way home to England after spending four weeks in New Zealand. For the next week at least – Diana Week – it was as if nothing else mattered; millions must have descended on London on the day of the funeral. I also remember the black humour. What’s the difference between a Skoda and a Mercedes? Diana wouldn’t be seen dead in a Skoda.
I’ve now started the process of zhoozhing up (“zhoozh” is one of those not-really-spellable words) my teaching room. I put the primer on today, and tomorrow I’ll lather on the first coat of yellow, with the second following on Friday. It might end up being a dayglo disaster, for all I know. At least the huge mirror, that takes up almost an entire wall, will break up the block of colour somewhat, and then there will be bookshelves and eventually all kinds of maps and posters covering the walls. My current paucity of face-to-face lessons enables me to do this. I have picked up some new students, but others have dropped off. Tomorrow I do have four lessons scheduled, but three of them are online with the other in Dumbrăvița.
I had a good poker session at the weekend, cashing in all three tournaments I played, giving me a $43 profit. Easily my biggest score came in single draw where I was lucky enough to win a couple of flips against a player who went all in constantly, knocking him out in third place, and I then came through a long heads-up session to win the tournament. The WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) is coming up, and I hope to play at least three events in that. When that is done and dusted, maybe I’ll knock the whole thing on the head like I did ten years ago.
One of the 15-year-old boys I teach has just got back from his family trip to Zanzibar. It’s part of Tanzania, which is extremely poor. His mother has sent me some of the more incredible holiday photos I’ve ever seen, with such beauty and poverty at the same time. She managed to somehow get inside a dirt-floored classroom, which accommodates nearly 100 pupils at a time; she sent me a picture of the blackboard from this class filled with all the types of the English conditional.
I was glad that the Artemis 1 launch got postponed because I’d lost track of time and would have missed it. It’s now scheduled for 9:17 pm (my time) on Saturday.
I don’t do Wordle very much now, but this was my stripy attempt at yesterday’s:
