Running out of weekends

Suddenly realised I basically only have one weekend left in Harare before I go to England for Christmas. I will be going to Nyanga again the weekend of the 30th and then I leave on the 9th. Need to do Christmas shopping and get my winter kit sorted (I am a little out of practice with really cold weather and I need to see if my winter coat from Switzerland still fits me - fingers crossed). Regarding fitting into clothes, my personal trainer was discussing my diet with me on Thursday. She did say it's that staff tea of mine on Fridays 😝 But teachers need something to look forward to and have sugar on a Friday 😁 We really really do! Well, it was also the occasional Danish from Veldemeers - I told her about their new ones with cherries and she sat there and just said, "Yuuuuuuuum!" Yes, they are, they really are. But yes, they have to go too.

Finish my current short stint of house sitting today in Ballantyne Park. The five dogs were not in my good books this morning. The dogs next door seemed to be charging up and down the fence barking late last night (I don't know if Umhlanga the black cat had gone next door). My lot decided to tear up and down the corridor outside my room barking in response. When they finally settled they managed to get into the playroom of the little girl of the house and chewed a whole lot of her toys. To add insult to injury I was also greeted with lots of mounds of poo this morning. They are sweet dogs otherwise but five dogs is quite full on I am finding. Especially when trying to feed them.

Has been musical sitting in my school work crate with the dogs I'm looking after. They each want a turn.

Had a success story with one parent consultation yesterday, as their son's behaviour has drastically improved since last term. I really am pleased with him and it is rewarding that he has come such a long way and is really trying. I did have to say that I think he needs his self confidence built up and I said I was concerned that when he gets to high school next year he may give up too easily if he doesn't get things right the first time round. Another interesting thing from this week was that I gave my students as an argumentative essay topic "Should children have free access to the internet?" I was really surprised that the majority of my class felt they shouldn't and they gave good reasons such as that it kills their creativity as they don't have to think of ideas themselves, it uses up time that they could be doing other things and it exposes them to things they maybe shouldn't see. This even came from my one student who had said she didn't like tv as it didn't give you things as quickly as YouTube and you had to wait for programs to come on. I really wasn't expecting the response my kids gave and we had a debate on it after they wrote their essays and they felt very strongly about it.