Lurgy #1

Well, one week into autumn weather and I was rendered lurgy-ridden, no doubt by germy students. Having spent what feels like most of last winter battling some lurgy or other, I had meant to get a flue-jab this year but forgot. Still, this first lurgy bout is early, even by my recent winter woes. It’s a bit annoying as it knocks me for six – well either the lurgy or the lem-sip-alikes. But it appears that I go to bed one week to reappear 10 days later. I’m hoping that the early bout of it will increase my resistance for the rest of the winter.

I started teaching in the school last week. I am taking a class of year 6 primary, which would be the equivalent of year 1 secondary in the UK. There are 11 of them, mixed ability, and, given that I could hardly talk, I think the class went OK. 5 of the class were students of mine anyway so I sort of knew the level I was aiming for.

We were surprised last week by a visit from the tax man. The one upside of our limited income is that we rarely bother the tax man – and visa versa, which I guess may have been the reason why the visit was triggered. The visit was part of the process of getting an international VAT number. He wanted to see that Ian had a valid reason for applying for it, which meant Ian had to present Modmes to the tax man. Although he wasn’t prepared for this, happily the hours of me boring Ian with latest Modme snippets bore fruit and he was able to present them well, at least I read the tax man’s notes afterwards and he appeared to get the gist of them. I guess we now have to wait. It might mean a change in business classification for Ian, who is registered as a web designer currently, however both the tax man and the account seem flummoxed as to what category Modmes come into – so they may decide it is easier to leave them where they are.

Poor Bobbins went into the vet for her sterilization operation only to come home again because Ian mentioned that she was passing blood in her poo, and the vet didn’t want to operate until this was cleared. We guess she has some sort of parasite.