Safety Check

Urgh! I've just recovered from yet another cold! Actually, a rather nasty flu in this case. When it was at its worst, I couldn't even hold a book, the joints in my wrist hurt so badly that it couldn't handle the weight. I'm better now but left with a very husky voice.

Yesterday, Adrianne and I were leaving work, in the remaining light there is at 5pm this time of year and were greeted with little yellow tags on our bikes. Some of the other bikes had them on too.

On the tag was a list with boxes beside each line. The top box on mine had been checked. I was being informed that my brakes didn't fully work. Well, I could have already told you that, I mean, after all, I am the one who rides it everyday!

Someone, had come and done a safety inspection on all the bikes! Who does this!?! Was it the school? Adrianne's boyfriend thinks it was the police. The police come into the school and do safety checks on our bikes, while they are parked on school property without our permission!

We were curious about what things other teachers were getting in trouble about on their bikes. There were a few bikes with the second box ticked. After struggling, we managed to work out that it was something to do with the bell. Guessing that their bell didn't work, we tested the theory, Adrianne tried one bell and sure enough, no sound. I went to try another and realised, they didn't have a bell. I mean really, does someone without a bell on their bike really need to be told that their bell doesn't work?

One of the teachers, we haven't figured out who yet, rides a bike that looks like it was made during the second world war, was left in a creek since then and has only recently been fished out, hosed down and now ridden. It had no tag.

Today, my junior high school students went hiking, so I only had one high school class to teach all day. I thought the free day was a great time to clean my desk.

I have to say, in a country that prides itself on aesthetics, many workplaces are terrible. The furniture in our staffroom should be in a museum as relics from early last century. There is sticky tape on the walls left yellowed with time and has long forgotten what it held there, the walls are marked, large dust bunnies reside under desks. I got some funny looks when I had discovered a vacuum cleaner and put it to good use. I then stunk out the place with Eucalyptus Oil trying to rid my desk of 20 years of grime from teachers past. In the end I gave up and bought myself a new desk mat. To finish off the look, I added a plant, the only piece of greenery in our dungeon-like room. It's so much nicer now, as long as I ignore the rusted desk I sit at and awful chair I sit on, piled up with cushions to make it usable.

Adrianne gazed over at the end result and announced that she had "desk envy".