They are usually quite good fun, the children get to see Father Christmas, eat loads of sweets and generally get very excited. Teachers get to man the stalls and count the money at the end and question whether at £25 profit for 1/2 an hour of tombola there might be an easier way to make a living. One year I won the raffle, with a beautiful Christmas hamper and this year a colleague won 5 bottles of wine and a bottle of Baileys on the bottle tombola. The school choir opens the bazaar and every year this becomes more of a challenge. Trying to fit 112 children on the stage is fun, getting 112 children to look at me (standing on a vault at the back of the hall waving my arms like an idiot) is even more fun and trying to get them to sing loud enough to drown out all the parents who are pushing, shoving, shouting about what they are doing for Christmas and complaining that there's not enough room in the hall is the most fun ever. I hope everyone there was as proud of those children as I was, they kept going and performed beautifully, with enthusiasm and even the youngest ones were not put off by the lack of attention given to their singing.
It was generally a bizarre day all round that started with my choice of clothes for the day. It was cold so I wore a black polo neck jumper with black trousers. That was all a bit serious looking so a red cardigan brightened the outfit up a bit. Then, as it was raining I couldn't wear my flat black boots because they have holes in so I put on my 'going out' high heeled boots. My hair needed a wash and I didn't have time so I scraped it up into a pony tail. When I arrived at school I was accused of looking like a 'proper music teacher'
A 10 year old boy told me I looked beautiful and another said, 'Is it me, or have you grown?' It was impossible to resist the reply, 'No, you've shrunk!' Another child pointed out my heels and someone else disagreed and suggested I looked taller because the polo neck made my neck look longer.
At the bizarre bazaar parents kept complaining at me about things. "What are you going to do when all the classes are on this site? How will you fit everyone in the hall then?" "You need to organise this better in future." Then a parent finally asked, "Are you not the head-teacher?" I really must apologise to him because I think I sprayed him with the chocolate I had just popped in my mouth.
Orchestra rehearsal was also bizarre. We have an outdoor gig tomorrow to 'Make Maldon Magical' where we will be performing, standing up on a non-moving truck. So, we made the children practice standing up in a small space. After morning band practice at 8am, assembly, practice for the Christmas play, forgetting to eat lunch, the bazaar and standing to rehearse I was beginning to feel a migraine coming on.
The day still wasn't over though. We still had to go to my parents house to eat Chinese to celebrate my sister's birthday. She was hoping to forget it but my aunt had been insistent at the family wedding. Food is wonderful. I came back to life and we looked through the old photo box with my cousins from New Zealand, who are staying here at the moment. Photos bring back so many memories. I picked up one of a garden and suddenly remembered that there was a ditch at the bottom. I remembered my rabbit escaping and my dad grabbing it's back legs and being dragged into the ditch.
This is my favourite bizarre photo. I remember our dog, Tess having puppies in that coal shed. I just wonder why I have binoculars around my neck? Maybe it was the winter of discontent and even our shed was short of coal.
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