Red Wine and Taxing Questions

It has certainly been a weekend for the finer things in life, mainly red wine. I absolutely love the stuff, but rarely am able to enjoy it - the focus on our nights out tends to be that of beer beer and more beer. As a consequence I found myself in wonderful company on Friday evening when I joined a wine tasting. Whilst the selection that was bought wasn't the most amazing in the world, the ability to sit back and slurp was, and as a consequence my cheque book now has one less entry, and I'm looking forward to half a case of bordeaux arriving reasonably soon, plus two bottles of a fantastic port. I'm no port expert, but this was very smooth and I hope a nice drink for the christmas period.

Saturday evening found me at a quiz night in aid of one child's World Challenge expedition fund raising. Two of my friends are taking a group of students to India next year, and each student has to raise £3000 in order to go. This lad held a quiz night at Tealby tennis club, and whilst the evening was pleasant (we completely lost) I would rather offer my money to another child's fund raising efforts next time. His mother did everything, and whilst parental help is a great thing and required to organise an event like this, the lad in question did very little all night and simply reaped the reward at the end of the night. In total each person only forwarded £5.50, but there are children going on this trip that will work their arses off for that.

I did a little teaching at my old school last week, and am doing so this week too. It was quite entertaining, but the school has really gone down hill since I left (no, it wasn't me...). Uniform is appalling and discipline in the corridors and at break is non-existent. I've had plenty of conversations with my friends who work there and we agree that a concerted effort of deploying staff all over the school every break, instead of the pathetic number of staff that are on duty would make a huge difference. I believe that there is an inherent idleness in teachers (I had this when I was there) whereby you always feel that it is someone elses problem. The children rule at my old school at the moment, and it's a sad thing to see.