Doctor's visit

Had to venture into town this afternoon for my routine check up with my psychiatrist. He got his patients to all wait in our cars rather than in the reception. It was a shorter wait than normal. When I was called inside we both had masks on and I sat away from him and all the doors and windows were open. Need to have blood tests done to check on my lithium levels but will have to wait until flights resume to South Africa as the blood samples have to be flown to Joburg. The good news was that I have lost quite a bit of weight since I last saw him. On the way home, I drove past Parirenyatwa, which is one of our major hospitals. There was only one person standing by the entrance dispensing hand sanitizer to those driving in. The person was clad in flimsy blue plastic and it didn't present a great frontline to Corona.

It looks like I will be teaching two Chinese five year olds who usually go to the French School here, but who are back home in China. I need to prepare for the French lessons tomorrow. Will be doing it over WeChat. Zoom lessons continue with my class. They have discovered how to use the chat setting and how to also post on my shared screen. It is a bit irritating that I can't tell who has posted stuff on the screen. We soldier on with fractions and the like. My students keep asking when we are going back to school, but I don't know. ED said exam classes should go back but he hasn't said when or under what conditions, and until he does there isn't much we can do. In the meantime, I get introductions to all my students' pets and they like to keep changing their Zoom backgrounds.

Had a chat with my best friend Nina, last weekend and we exchanged notes on teaching online and then trying to do NILD educational therapy online too and I got to see her delightful three year old, Emmy. This week I was able to chat to my good friends Heather and Delfina, both in the UK, which was lovely too. My sister is keen for us as a family, to try play some online board games. I've been doing her Pilates and Zumba classes still too. Doesn't really feel like Friday but hope you all have a good weekend :)

And it's Monday

Made it through another Monday of virtual learning. One of my class decided to put on a scary mask halfway through my Zoom session this morning and I had to ask them to remove it. He then some how managed to shut himself out of the meeting and I had my phone on silent so wasn't aware his mum was trying to call me to add him back on - arrrgh! We semi got through division of fractions. Not all of my class had done the work from last week. Government has said exam classes can go back but they haven't given an indication of when or how yet. Bit tricky if only my grade 7's and I have to keep up with virtual for my grade 6's but am not going to stress over it and just keep plodding on.

Hit quite a dip this weekend. I think it was partly after Mrs Toovey's funeral and partly other things. Just felt really low and struggled.

Joining my sister's Pilates just now. Need to do some exercise. Will try do some training in the garden tomorrow as I don't need to go into school then.

My heart is heavy today

Today my heart goes out to my good friend Heather and family as we all paid tribute to her dear mum, who sadly lost her fight against cancer. Due to lock down, poor Heather was not able to go and see her mum which must have been unbelievably hard. It feels like a light has gone out and there is a hole where Mrs Toovey should be. We have all lost a very special person and I wish we were all closer and able to pop meals to Heather and give her a big hug. She organised a beautiful service for her mum which was live streamed to friends and family around the world who couldn't be there in person. The song above was played as an instrumental and like Mrs Toovey, it is one of my favourites.

Trying to carry on with everything else. Have finished marking the work that was handed in to me today. Not all of it has been done and we were supposed to go over a past paper tomorrow, but there is no point as not all of my students have done it yet.

Day 1 of remote teaching, how many more?

We screeched into school just after 7 this morning and quickly set up books to be collected under the tree by the entrance. I ended up doing some marking (yes, it has begun already) while waiting. All my parents did collect the work and I then had my first Zoom session with my class. Not sure that it is that effective for teaching some of mine, as I had the feeling I was leaving some way behind. One student doesn't have internet at home so I will have to email her dad at work to get work and instructions to her and then another student didn't manage to get online for the session today. I also need to plan my maths sessions a bit more carefully as I found it hard to get some concepts across today. I also may have to plan more maths during the week as one session today and then on Thursday might not be enough. I am supposed to have two other slots to go over past entrance exam papers with my grade 7s. We're waiting again to hear what dear old ED has to say on Sunday about schools going back and if he will allow grade 7s and then form 4s and upper sixes to come back at least as they are exam classes. One friend said an actuary down south said they are predicting that Corona will only reach its peak in Southern Africa in September. Who knows!

My mum seemed to have a good birthday yesterday and we organised a surprise Zoom friends and family toast for her, with my sister, aunt and cousins and good friends. We're still eating the fabulous chocolate cake that my friend Chiara from Sorella's Pizzeria and Cafe made and my parmesan chicken turned out fairly well, although with my mum being on Zoom lunch got delayed a little and the chicken maybe shouldn't have been in the oven for quite as long.

I'm pretty tired after today. So far not too much marking, but it's going to come and I need to get back into the rhythm. Did most of my photocopying today for next week.

Back to reviewing

Thankfully prep for online school and work packs is pretty much done and dusted, as I have to re-review the wetland paper for the journal. Reviewing has kept me busy for a fair bit of today. Otherwise did some much needed watering of the garden (it is missing Given our gardner who is at home with his family in Epworth for the lock down). I also did a work out that my personal trainer Demi had sent me. This evening I joined in my sister's online Zumba Zoom class. I still don't feel that coordinated trying to follow at times.

Otherwise have been planning lunch for Sunday for my mum's 70th. I am going to have a go at trying to make lemon, Parmesan and garlic chicken. If I can't find Parmesan cheese I may have to resort to Kefalotiri. Have ordered a chocolate cake from Sorellas. Will have to do a bigger celebration with other friends when we are out of lock down and can meet in bigger groups.

I have also been going through old family photographs. My mum was born in Cromer, in England and lived there til she was 8 and then moved to Kenya. My grandparents moved back to England briefly when my mum was 11, before then sailing out to Cape Town and driving up to what was then Rhodesia. My mum has lived in Africa ever since.

Sunflowers, wood hoopoes and pretty much set for online school

A friend very kindly gave me a spare mask to use and it is making a big difference in that I can breathe better. Also limiting how much I am wearing it as am certain Monday's awful migraine was brought on by wearing a stuffy mask for too long. The police are out and about though on the roads and if you are caught without a mask on it's a hefty ZWL $500 fine. If you break other lock down rules it is a ZWL $35 000 fine.

Have printed out what is needed for my class' work pack. One student has already told me they don't have access to internet at home so I will have to email her dad at work and he will have to download stuff I'm putting online. One student at the school's parents work for the American Embassy and we had to have our pick up and drop off of work plan revised to fit with US protocol for the embassy. This involves passing books through car windows and disinfecting books when they come back. Saw a flock of wood hoopoes at school when I was printing stuff out. Am now pretty much ready for next week. Just have my Zoom meeting with parents and then my students on Friday and need to finish working out how Padlets works.

Passed the communal pavement food garden on Piers Road and I hopped out to take some photos of the beautiful sunflowers. They had quite a lot of veggies growing and it is a help yourself scheme for the less fortunate. A lovely idea that I would like to try too.

Communal veggie garden on roadside on Piers Rd

Of birds and post-migraine work

Got home yesterday and found I had a splitting headache and only eased the nausea when lying horizontally. I think it was my first ever proper full blown migraine. It lasted through til 3 am this morning when I finally felt better. I'm thinking the anomaly is that I wore my face mask more than usual yesterday. I really do struggle to breath in it. In any event, I'm not too keen on wearing my face mask for a long time any time again soon, but I do need to go into school tomorrow to print material for my students' work packs for Monday.

We had two new types of birds in the garden. The first, I thought being a goshawk, but actually is more likely to be a lizard buzzard. The second struck me as being a large type of bee eater, but I couldn't find it in the bird book. Someone on the Monavale Nature whatsapp group though has suggested it is a type of bushshrike, the chunky beak, size and colouring do fit. So two new species in the garden.

Not my photo

I have spent most of today preparing my work plan for next week and sorting out what I'm going to need to print. Have also set up a Zoom meeting with all the parents on Friday morning, to be followed by a chat with my students to touch base. It was quite hard trying to pin parents to a day and time. It is also going to be tricky where students have multiple siblings and they are all going to have to share a laptop or tablet to learn from. All going to be a trial and error learning curve me thinks. Will have to be prepared to go over the work we do in lock down again when we get back to normality as I'm sure there will be some who just don't get it. At least my plan of action for work next week is in place now and I sort of know what I am going to be doing. The days I pick up work submitted are going to be heavy marking days.

Did a bit more on my cosmos picture, experimenting a bit with oil pastel and turpentine. Since I am now prepared except for printing stuff I might try do an oil painting before school starts.