The Hornets' Nest II

I am on holiday again, back on Thursday night

 

You get more holiday than a school teacher!

 

probably about the same, at the end of June I have 4 weeks off

 

I'm happily retired now, but the last twenty years of my working life, I had not one single holiday, I even worked every Christmas day and every New Year!

 

what did you do

 

Self-employed taxi driver, earned lots of money, but most of it went on the car for maintenance, licencing, plating and never-ending little problems like tax and insurance, in the end you had to work every day just to make ends meet!

 

You're Santa Claus and I claim my £5.

It's a fallacy about teacher holidays by the way - if you study our employment contracts, you'll find that we get no more than most other occupations, and certainly less than politicians.

 

BB, I realise that they probably get less leisure time than most occupations, I used it as a well-worn cliche, and to have a little dig at Maestro

 

A lot of money to be made doing that, but only if you do it illegally

 

As I said, the cash turnover was impressive, but most of it that flowed in, flowed straight out again, but I loved it, meeting people, going places I'd never been before, using your guile to ward off potential trouble and imparting your wisdom on to others, it has been said that it's a shame that all the best people for running the country are too busy driving a taxi!

 

did you ever have anybody throw up in your cab, that must be a nightmare

 

I once had someone throw up in a brand new car on it's maiden voyage!

Honestly, if it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have ANY!

 

thats sick

 

Morning all - just waiting for the bus to pick me up and then en route to The Vic, but have to stop off in bandit central to drop off a washing machine. My mates daughter has brought a flat in down-town Baghdad and we are delivery boys! Should be interesting as he has Watford branded number plates, so we may make the local news again

COYH - 3 points on a bright sunny afternoon

 

Only three - oh, sorry, I thought you said pints.

Enjoy the game.

 

BB - you are joking of course. Perhaps you may come close to other public sector workers but teacher holidays are immense. My brother and sister in law were both teachers and even they admitted it was the one good part of the job. Pay not great but holidays were. I never got more than 5 weeks holiday - not 13 as teachers have. Yes I know some go on and on about preparation but hello - do they think no other worker has preparation? I frequently started work at about 7 and worked any time up till midnight when required. Weekends could get snatched without any official set off and if you had to work away from home - which I did frequently you got paid no extras.

 

I didn't realise you were a clown professionally!

 

Leo - you fall into the trap that many others do I'm afraid.

Yes, schools (up here) are closed to pupils for 12 weeks a year, but that does not mean that we, the teachers, automatically get that all as 'time off'. The leave provisions of every teacher on a permanent contract up here quite clearly stipulate how much leave entitlement each has, with the balance of that 12 weeks being classified as 'school closure'. We are contractually obligated to work during that time, both in school and at home - and the latter is a point that many seem not to understand, that the work can be done from home, without the presence of pupils.

And the word 'preparation' means one heck of a lot more than simply preparing for a lesson - or to be more precise, five lessons a day every day - that is just part of the normal daily workload. No, preparation includes such delightful jobs as having to write the whole curriculum every year, thanks to the system in place here. Not something you can easily manage over the odd weekend or two.