Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Crepes in this petty pace from day to day

[CointreauVersial]

Anything but the C-word!

CV that's brilliant about DS. We must hang on to these proud mum moments.

It'll come Tilly DD just has to get used to a different way of working. I feel for the year 12 kids…we had such a dossy, fun year in the lower sixth. Maybe focus on the trip for a bit of a mood booster!

Cautious confidence Stropps ….also curious about the carrot i'm anyone's for a nice scone and a pot of tea but I double that would work with a teen

Crem your description of your supper made me laugh. If yours was a cry for help, ours must have been a plea bargain. Sadly the stodgy fish and mash was happily consumed without a comment. I mean, why bother? Today I will try to remember to bring home the sushi I promised for yesterday….

NU sounds idyllic there, you lucky things!

Get well BD. DD has gone off to school with a stinking cold and Ds is coughing. I will move out, I think.
Difficult one, re your DS. Is it good natured ribbing, or verging on bullying? If it's the latter the school needs to know. Break times are usually the most difficult. My DS2 (a very sensitive boy…) got over that by always going to some sort of club or activity during break. In the end he was some sort of "library officer" and it seemed to deal with the problem as he was never in an unstructured situation, iyswim. Dunno if that's any help…

doubt, not double

I think it is good natured but I think he feels a bit 'ganged up on' if that makes sense. I am sure he does just the same to them.... I think a lot of it is to do with jockeying for position and trying to establish their places in the group and that isn't always easy...

Herbs, ho yes, better to have someone who can say all the right things at interview, rather than someone who can actually teach. I feel your pain and I hope she is crap. (I have actually seen this happen with at least two jobs I didn't get, and the "marvellously strong" candidate lasted three months in the job. Yoof triumphs over age, every time.)

We went out last night so tonight's groundnut stew is in the slow cooker (we are out tonight too) and I have also cooked a curry for tomorrow night. But sod getting up to cook at 0630 every morning, I am ready for a nice nap now, not a day's work.

Glad to see you back, NU.

Blimey, MrsS, you get up early to cook the supper? I was short on time last night, so my lot had some frankly slightly odd chicken I found at the back of the freezer with rice and mixed veg. It was a balanced but deeply uninspiring meal. However, they were so hungry that they ate it. Job done.

BD, sorry to hear ds is feeling 'got at'. Is this maybe to do with a reorganisation of the pecking order at the start of a new year?

Rose, sorry to hear the dcs are going down with The Cold. I am finding that it is one of those that hangs around for ages, although miraculously dh has completely avoided it, but the rest of us have all had it and it is dragging on and on.

Re: carrot - well, I discussed this on Monday when dd was having one of her intermittent moments of lucidity and actually inhabiting the real world rather than the social networking one. She has been having driving lessons since the end of August (b-day present from my dm) and is constantly whining about needing to practise. Our car is not really suitable, being an ancient Citroen Picasso in which it is a matter of experience and guesswork to tell where the car begins and ends.
We can't afford to buy her a car, nor as things currently stand does she in any way deserve one. I feel that someone who is not grown-up enough to take responsibility for their learning, is certainly not grown-up enough to have a car. However, regular readers may remember that dd will inherit her dad's money (not a vast sum, but certainly enough to make most 18 year olds eyes boggle) on her 18th. I have said that if she gets herself together this term and breaks the cycle of doing cack-all and messing up, I will speak to the other trustee of the fund about accessing money to get her an old banger. She also has to agree to having dh involved in the buying of said vehicle and will have to have him sit with her when she is doing her driving practice. None of this will even get close to happening unless she works consistently and I see the proof.

Obviously, she may choose the option of continuing to behave as she did last year, then will inevitably stuff up and will still be able to do whatever she likes with her money come next July. However, she will hopefully understand the notion of getting her academic act together and getting a car sooner as a better deal. She certainly looked as though she did when I put the deal to her. But only time will tell. I suspect that either way it will take her ages to pass her test as she is, like her mother, a very nervous driver.

That sounds like a highly motivating carrot, Stropps.

In coat news, I have sold my Michael Kors Parka, so am now down five coats, up one. So nah.

Still in blue funk about yesterday. Mrs S is correct in her summing up - ability to teach trumped by ability to say the right things. However, I may have been a teensy bit arrogant in thinking that as a HTLA is one step down from a 'proper' teacher, it didn't occur to me that it was an actual official 'thing' with actual official standards that I actually should have looked up before I went in. That said, I could have done the job standing on my head.

Maybe the bureaucratic world of education isn't for me...

I've got another application pending, in adult education this time, but am not holding my breath.

I feel for your Herbs. I know I was probably the best candidate on paper but I didn't do what I needed to in interview. Unfortunately that's the bonkers way the world works. It is a game that has to be played...

Yes with ds I am sure it's now we are Y8 and not the bottom of the heap we can start to build hierarchies. This is not helped by the fact one boy and ds butt heads a fair bit (neither will back down)... ho hum - he'll have to work through it I guess.

School bureacracy... I am having to fill out a 7-page form for volunteering at the school and give them a full employment history and 2 references. I had to pay for a DBS enhanced wossname cert last year for my course, but I have to give them that one and then they insist on me getting another one.

What a palaver Stropps. The car does indeed sound a good carrot. Maybe we will have to think about that next year, though there doesn't seem much need for a car, living where we do. Whereas it could mean less taxiing and drunken incidents for you

BD growing up is hard - join the mum of teens club

Stropps - when we were living in UK, DH had to have two CRB checks, one for being a school governor (where he essentially had no contact with the children) and one for helping at cubs. There was no problem with the cubs one, but his school governor one was refused as he had been living overseas and they were unable to carry out the checks. (They suggested we do it, at vast expense to ourselves.) Both letters came from the same place, signed by the same person...

Flips sake Stropps, you're not joining MI6. The bureaucracy is ridiculous. Herbs, not sure that any other line of work is any less demanding at interview. We live in the world of core competencies and real life examples. I've interviewed a few people in my Crepey time and I just want to jump on the table and insist on a proper chat over a cup of tea. I'd certainly get more out of a candidate that way rather than scribbling down answers, ticking boxes ( like career bingo btw) and staring at my jitter , instead of giving eye contact in an encouraging manner.
The whole things sucks.grr!

Stropps that sounds like a good carrot. I hope she can sustain, even at 60%, would be a dream come true. You'll have to be her 'trainer' and steer her back every time she falls of the horse. Giddy up!

I have the cold. Typical really. An hour on a plane and it's a miracle one doesn't come away with worse.sore throat is annoying me, but definitely not ill enough to be off work tonight for the lovely Don McLean.

Lol not sure what my jitter is, I obv meant jotter

I suppose when interviewing, or being interviewed, in my previous life as a journalist/editor, the main things were 'can you write' and 'are you a bearable person'. So the interviews didn't have any of the core competency crap that allows robot drones to shine, yet be shit at the actual job.

Maybe I need to be more entrepreneurial, and set up my agency teaching English to healthcare workers...

Have just lost long and no doubt boring post in defence of structured interviews, from an interviewer's perspective. Decisions that affect people's livelihoods have to be defensible, in a court of law if necessary. I personally think this has made things fairer rather than the reverse. But what would be the alternative?

Wishing I had never thought of the party for Mum's 90th

Yes, I have to say I probably agree with Auriga.

I am negotiating the morning with some trepidation and am still a bit concerned about IT.

Oh dear Auriga - is that because of SIL related stuff, or more than that?

I think you may well be right, Auriga and MI, but am still in sulk and cross that people can't magically guess my brilliance.

MI - bon chance for this afternoon!

Even 16/17 years ago when I Had A Role ticky boxes and hard structure had appeared in the recruitment process. I didn't mind playing the game (as interviewer) but I had to have a way of assessing whether, when all was said and done, the candidates could hack the NHS as a workplace. The best interviewees usually had some sort of breakdown when they were thrust out onto the coal face. Generalisation but sadly true… so how to you write a list of competencies to reflect "able to take abusive shit day in and day out, and manage an unmanageable caseload without going doolally" ?

Great carrot stropps !

auriga What's happened about the party?

MI is it the university teaching gig this afternoon?

Good luck this PM, MI. The competency thing in interviews is certainly a Thing. Good for equal opps in principle, but resembles Targets in the way it can make a nonsense of everything. I think this is because we do not yet live in an ideal world.

Don MacLean, Cremo! I heard him recently in a radio interview, and he is still very interesting. He just kept saying we live in a world of insanity. Bizarrely I once found some old cassettes of his music which we then played in the car, and the dc got addicted. (And also to Dory Previn.) Dd recently saw a billboard for MacLean's concert in Croydon and said she'd love to go...Ds said, with the dignity of one who has left home, that he would not. Anyway, I haven't bought tickets, so I shall have to do it by proxy through you, Cremo. He will banish your cold.

Stropps, the car carrot sounds a brilliant idea.

I just got this in my inbox - I'm not suggesting you shell out for a poncey conference, but the statistic is interesting:

"Migraine Insight is coming to London on Saturday 10th October 2015, at the Institute of Child Health, Great Ormond Street Hospital - do you have your ticket yet?

With those under 30 affected by migraine 6 times as likely to suffer depression, Migraine Insight London will this year focus on young people. The information and advisory event includes talks from leading healthcare professionals, and will help you to better understand and manage migraine. There will be information on diagnosis, treatment, prevention as well as emerging therapies and the chance to ask questions directly to the doctors in our Q & A session."

And....day 1 is done. I need !

Herbs: that's why interview training helps! Getting your brilliance on to the table, so to speak.

Well done MI. You've launched yourself.

Re: 90th - family all want to come at different times, stay a different number of nights, two of them want to bring dogs, some want to know exact timings (though cannot specify their ETA or ETD) etc.

I've always made a point of being flexible about entertaining, this is when I discover I've taken it Too Far.

DD's 17th birthday is immediately before Mum's and DH's 60th immediately afterwards. DH would quite like a singing celebration but only if I do the arranging.

Think I will suggest people bring food and drink as presents, ask how they'd like to help, etc.

Very well done, MI. Enjoy your

Molly, many thanks for that info. I have just been having a bit of a google based on that info and that has taken me to the NICE guidelines for the treatment of cluster headaches. I am printing these out for dd to take with her the next time she sees the GP, as they pretty much contradict a lot of what he had to say.

Dd has made inquiries today at school about going to AS biology and statistics lessons for her retakes. She has also brought home a form detailing how much the retakes will cost (aargh). Apparently, all the AS papers for the entire year group for Eng Lit were submitted for remarking, as were all the AS psychology papers, as the teachers were so convinced that they were marked unfairly. She said she was also a celebrity at school, as everyone wanted to see her deformed poorly leg (this is what passes for entertainment round here), but there was tittering from the back of the class when a teacher asked her how she had done it and she merely muttered something about falling over, failing to mention party, ingestion of cider, puddle of drink, etc.

Really liked my voluntary stint again today. It is so interesting and I really like the person I am shadowing. She is brill and very helpful. The experience so far reminds me of the things that I liked about working in a school. Unlike that interview that I had last summer, which reminded me v strongly of all the bits that I absolutely hated.

x-posts, Auriga. It will be Party Central round yours for a while, then.