Hey, Teacher! Leave Them Kids Alone

No this is not a post about Pink Floyd.

It was my daughter's parent's evening at school last night. I hate these nights but my wife always insists we go and listen to the teachers. Working as she has done for years in HR, she is a big believer in feedback and coaching etc. As for me I say every time that they are going to say she is a lively girl, participates well in class but lets herself down by rushing her work and not planning it out properly. And what did the teachers say last night? Exactly that. My daughter is in Year 12 (lower Sixth to us oldies)so the game has been upped a bit from GCSEs and she is expected to provide analysis and comment in her work not just regurgitate facts. Neither me or my wife are convinced that she can do proper analysis.I'm not saying she is stupid, it's just that she accepts everything more or less on face value.

I feel sorry for these teachers mind you. They are arranged like cowboys in the Wild West in a circle of wagons whilst the parents, like the Red Indians (not very PC , I know) roam around the circle picking them off on by one. There is an appointment system but some parents (this is a private school with highly, highly motivated parents)dive in and take your slot unless you are very firm with them. If you are very unlucky your appointments coincide with the parents who like to spend their ten minutes berating the teacher for their offspring's lack of achievement. I remember one year a parent- a father- bellowing at a poor teacher " You were useless when you taught me and you are even worse, now!" Our son did confirm that the said teacher was in fact useless but if I had been him I would have chinned the father. As it was the teacher just sat there and looked as if he didn't give a fuck. He did retire that year, mind. Who'd be a teacher? Not me.

Our daughter is a very good dancer and has innate rhythm and musical ability. Already our thoughts are turning to post AS and A levels and,perhaps, University, dance schools, performing arts academies. It won't be long before she is gone.

I had a quick conversation with our son- who has already gone- yesterday. It went something like this

ME " How are you?"
SON "OK- can't talk I am late for a lecture"
ME " OK, ring us in the next couple of days for a chat, then"
SON " OK. Bye , Dad!

I'm not complaining but he doesn't even post updates on Facebook.How is a parent supposed to know what their children are doing.Ha Ha!

My wife has calmed down a bit. Her last day will be Monday. The next few months will be tough and it is a bad time of year to be off work and on your own in the house. I will have to rearrange my work to make sure I spend more time with her.

This song is a repost but It is appropriate for the mood I am in.

It's the veteran German punk band Die Toten Hosen and their anthem "Steh auf, venn du am boden bist" , loosely translated as "stand up proud when you have been knocked down, or I suppose even more loosely and borrowing from Chumbawamba, "I get knocked down but I get up again". Get up, stand up Julie!! Illegitimi non carborundum

Steh auf wenn du am boden bist

A view from the edge

My wife's redundancy is pending, she will be going next week having chosen not to work her notice period. She is in a bit of an overexcited mood. Me, the reality has just sunk in. We are looking over the edge of a very high cliff and there is no way to go over except to jump. Hope we have a soft landing.

Down and Out

My wife is being made redundant.Despite the title of this entry , I think that this is a good thing. Her unwarranted demotion and the way she has been treated didn't really leave her much choice. She didn't realise until yesterday when her new boss started and asked for reports on things she could read herself that my wife realised she was definitely out of the senior management structure for good.

Fingers crossed it will all work out OK. I am sure that it will.

From Despair To Where?

Another defeat for Posh at Sheffield United. I'm glad I didn't go. Mark Cooper he enjoyed himself he says, Posh played well apparently. George missed a penalty.So no "new manager bounce". 11 points and at the bottom of the Championship. We are going down.

Have spent a lot of time listening to Editors new Cd " In This Light And On This Evening". It's not bad. The single Papillon is the stand out track for me. I do really want to love this band but so far they haven't made a classic album. They have achieved moments of supreme art (if you can call rock music art) , but have to yet make a great CD.

Below is a Live track recorded by Bradley of Bradley's Almanac fame from 22nd January 2006 from a club called Great Scott in Allston MA.

Blood- Editors

Thursday's View

This week has been frankly tedious. I have done precious little at work so far as I have cleared up any backlog that existed last week. This week has been mostly about chasing up other people to find out why they haven't done what they said they were going to do and interviewing /telephoning tenants who haven't paid their rent. It's always the same question " why are you trying to evict me". I have honed my response down over the years to the simple "Because you are not paying your rent". slightly insulting maybe but quite effective against the usual surly attitude of our "customers".

Thierry Henry has gone down in my estimation after last night's handball incident against Ireland in the Play offs for the 2010 World Cup.Clear handball. Having said that the Irish should have put it beyond such cheating and there was no guarantee they would have beaten France on penalties (where it was heading.It is a funny old game. It is now surely time for video technology. Platini will be chuffed.

Just Like That

So, Darragh Macanthony (our millionaire overseas property magnate Chairman) has appointed Kettering Boss Mark Cooper to the job at Posh. Mr Cooper has management experience (so one up on Darren Ferguson at the time of his appointment) but, (and this is a BIG but) only at Conference level. Now this would have been fine by me if we were still in League Two and I would not have been too bothered if we had been in League One. However,bottom of the Championship we may be, but it is STILL the Championship and a much different League - as we have already found out.Darren's managerial shortcomings have been - if only sightly-exposed and now we are asking a lower league manager to sort it out. Big long ball, anyone?

Darragh is a very successful businessman. He is a millionaire.I know this because he and other have repeatedly told us so. So one part of me says "We can trust his judgement, he knows success and business and what works". He has appointed another "young and hungry manager"- younger than Darren was three years ago. But I just wonder. His letting go of Darren without much fuss. His quick appointment of an inexperienced (at this level) new guy has a tinge of either desperation or "couldn't care that much" about it. I hope I am wrong.

Good luck Mark Cooper I am behind you as I get behind any manager of my team. I don't hold out much hope for our chances of survival in the second tier unless we get some decent defenders in, whoever is the Gafffer.

Posh We Are

The ongoing manager saga at Posh has left me perplexed. Was he sacked or was it- as they are now saying by "mutual consent" that he left. Is Bazza right, has Darren been tapped up by a bigger club? The performance of both Bazza and the Chairman at the Press Conference earlier this week was less than convincing.Darragh was constrained, Bazza was not but their game plan to try and move on beyond Darren's exit did not work.

Anyway it's only a game.

It's a funny old game

It seems that Posh have sacked the manager Darren Ferguson following the slip to the bottom of the Championship after the comprehensive defeat at Newcastle. There is nothing on the Club's website but it has been widely reported across the media.

Now I firmly believe no one manager or player (or for that matter Chairman) is bigger than the Club so I view this sacking as yet another indication of the weird business that is football. To sack a man who has taken the team to the Championship from mid to low table League 2 in two seasons beggars my belief but I don't own the club.

This is the first mistake Darragh Macanthony has made and I fear it will cost him a lot more than the compensation owed to Darren who only signed a new 4 year contract in the Summer. It is a funny old game as Jimmy Greaves says, but it is only a game.
Good luck to Darren who has shown he is at the very least competent as a manager.

Newcastle Supporters Trust has launched their "Yes We Can" campaign to raise enough capital to buy out Mike Ashley. Good luck to them. I can't see them doing it and they have overlooked the fact that Mike Ashley will only sell at the right price and even then doesn't have to sell to anyone if he doesn't want to, but good luck to them all the same.

Music today is another track from Hope and Social. I hope you have at least checked out their website.

Hope And Social

Monday, Monday.

A good weekend. went to see Posh play Newcastle at

www.yourenotfamousanymore.com@StJamesPark.

We were down and out after 20 minutes and two early goals from the Toon.Posh were pitiful and it took 56 minutes for us to have a shot on goal.The players seemed a bit overawed by the occasion andfor most of the match we made Newcastle look good which, believe me, is not easy.The 40 thousand odd Toon army seemed to have paid their money with the sole intention of having a go at the big fat Cockney wanker(TM), which as regular readers will know endears the muppets even less than usual to me.Now why pay a minimum of £15 just to shout abuse at someone who obviously couldn't give a monkeys. Surely if you really did want him out you wouldn't pay money into his businesses?

There were lots of chants of Stand ups for St James Park and Ashley Out particularly from the top tier of the Leazes Corner.I was in the middle tier Sir John Hall stand with the wife (£20 a seat) and sitting with the home fans.

The one thing that struck me about the crowd (as it always does at www.yourenotfamousanymore.com@StJamesPark) is how pissed most of the fans appeared to be.It particularly made an impression on my wife who hasn't been to a match for a number of years. The stench of beer was overwhelming and the constant up and down to the bogs was as irritating as ever.Now I know that football fans everywhere like a drink and I 've been to a few grounds and sat with the home fans, but here it is always noticeable how pissed most of the support is.Even worse than Ibrox.The season ticket holder sat next to the wife was so pissed when he turned up 10 minutes late that he was unable to speak. He disappeared 10 minutes before half time and didn't come back, although he didn't leave the ground as we saw him as we left the stadium, past the mob chanting for Ashley to get out.

After the match (which Posh lost luckily only 3-1), we went to a fireworks party at a colleague of my wife's home in Whickham. A pleasant evening with lots of food and beer, party games and , of course, fireworks. Very little expense had been spared to entertain us and the fireworks were pretty spectacular(well, she did inherit a thriving funeral business last year from her uncle). We weren't in bed until after 1am and spent Sunday hungover and slightly jaded!! Our daughter was babysitting for the second time this week (she's earned £50 for it!)but had gone onto a friend's house locally after.

Our son is in Germany for the wall celebrations, he hasn't contacted us so we are assuming he is having a good time.

Here is another video of The Wedding Present from the Yorkshire TV documentary of 2004. This is one of my favourite songs

Blue Eyes -The Wedding Present

Alone again or... (part whatever)

Wife is out , daughter is at her dance school. It's me and the dog again.He is curled up at my feet waiting for the post tea walk.My tea was some cod in parsley sauce over quinoa.
Now I can't quite get to grips with quinoa.I was a proper vegetarian for almost twenty years so I don't have a problem trying different things. I use cous cous and Bulgar wheat but there is something about the little grains from Peru that I just am not sure about. The wife won't have it, even though it fits well with a low GI diet.

Talking of the wife, she seems OK, a bit down but she has come to accept the situation so is starting very tentatively to move on.

I have just found out that The Rakes have split up. I liked them,but not enough to go and see them. They weren't outstanding but they were more than competent as this clip shows.

The Rakes -We Danced Together

Back to the Future

After a week off my wife is back in work and being told that she is being made redundant and getting her 90 day notice letter.She has been offered another job in the 5th tier of management (after being 2nd tier for 10 years). The pay is frozen for 5 years and then drops to the new level which is currently £15 k below what she earns now.

Now, what to do? My advice all long has been for her to leave , take her redundancy and get another job using the redundancy to subsidise any lower salary and paying off some debt along the way.She is torn between staying and going. She has lost all confidence going through this process and doesn't think she could get another job at the same level anywhere else.
I just want her to be happy and I can't see her being happy staying and watching erstwhile "close" colleagues who have done nothing to support her, continuing to operate at a higher level than her and knowing their salaries are still increasing due to their progression through the grades whilst hers gets effectively less and less.
God knows I have had to come to terms with second raters going past me in the promotion race and I know it would really do my wife no good at all to have to come to terms with it as I have had to. I want her to take some control back and say No to her boss and leave on her own terms rather than be airbrushed out of the management structure. Life isn't all about money, it's about dignity and self respect as well. It would mean big changes but I am ready for that. Not sure she is though. My brother-in-law's experiences since being made unexpectedly redundant a year ago haven't helped, only hindered her taking the right decision. Both him and my wife want, as we all do ,security. Sometimes there is security in trusting your own judgement and making that hard decision.

My brother-in-law has prevaricated about taking a job with an hour and half daily commute each way but finally has decided to take it. I think it's another mistake but I wish him success.

I suppose that this is just another part of getting older. Your parents get more doddery and then die, your kids leave and you don't get that promotion you have been looking for.