by I’ve got three lessons scheduled for tomorrow. That’s exciting. If they all materalise, that’ll be a new record. (That sentence uses the first conditional.) If I had three lessons every day, five days a week (or even six – heck, I enjoy it), things wouldn’t be far off perfect. (That sentence uses the second conditional. See, I’m getting good at this grammar stuff now.) I’m enjoying the lifestyle, but the more work I get the more I’ll feel I’m somebody here, and the less I’ll have to worry about money.
My second lesson with Matei (the young boy) went pretty well yesterday. We played Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? as a warm-up. I wrote out each question and the four possible answers on a small whiteboard. He was quite excited by the vast sums of fake money he could win. He started very well but came a cropper on the £8000 question. I asked him who Bart’s father was in the Simpsons (which I knew he’d probably be too young for): was it Homer, Harry, Hugo or Horia? He said Harry, but I convinced him to use a lifeline. He phoned a friend (me) who gave him the correct answer. But he didn’t trust his friend and still went for Harry, so he ended up with just a thousand fake pounds. After the lesson I spoke to Matei’s dad (who was in Bucharest) on the phone. He said he’ll invite me over for a barbecue and a whisky (!) some time. He also texted me on the morning of the lesson to say that Matei was excited to be seeing me again. If so, that’s great. I was worried for a minute that he was just being pushed into extra English lessons by his parents.
I saw the ENT specialist on Monday. He spoke good English and after about 30 seconds, that was the language we spoke. He took a good look in and around my nose. My septum is out of joint but not enough to cause the amount of blockage I get in my left nostril. He said that the cause of the blockage is likely to be swollen turbinates, air passages that until Monday I didn’t know I had. He then looked at my ears which were chock-full of wax. My left ear in particular was packed with dark brown wax, verging on black, and the extraction – it was past the point where you could use a syringe – was really quite painful. He’s given me some spray and a lozenge which I expect will provide a temporary solution but I need something far more longer-lasting.
I’ll be seeing Matei again tomorrow. I’ve found a way of reducing a whole bunch of photos all at once, so I’ll post some next time.
