Life, an update.
I did post to say that Sarah had got her first choice in degree course and university. She has now got just a few weeks before she finishes her first year. She seems to be enjoying it and her mid-year marks were good so I suppose things are going well - if they're not she's not telling me about it. OK, that would be normal teenage behaviour but Sarah seems to be firmly of the opinion that I want to know absolutely everything that she is doing so I'm fairly sure that she would tell me if she had a problem. I am so glad she went away to university (the norm here is to stay at home and go to a local university) as it's done her a lot of good to manage on her own. It is a vast improvement on school for all concerned. I don't know about Sarah, but I was totally fed up of school by the end of last year!
I am still tutoring school children. Originally, I was just teaching primary school children (up to 12 years old) but I have 4 high school students now - they all started with me whilst at primary school and are still coming. The difference is that now I m teaching them at my own home (so I get all the money) rather than through a coaching college (albeit a small one). Unfortunately, my boss died last year (almost to the day). The last few months were a bit difficult for all concerned. He had discovered that his cancer had returned in March and was very obviously deteriorating but he still insisted that his younger daughter (late 20s and living with him) went on her extended working holiday to Thailand. One day in August, I got a phone call from him saying that he had gone into hospital for tests and that they were keeping him in. When I went round for my lessons that afternoon, I found that the place was even grubbier and messier than usual (with his daughter away things had rather gone to pot) and that the dog had had the run of the house and had had diarrhoea in the classroom! I couldn't find any rubber gloves and didn't have time to go home for some, so shut the room up and the dog out and taught in another room. After I had finished teaching, I went home and got cleaning materials and Sarah, so that she could take the dog for a walk and feed him whilst I cleaned. I continued to look after the pets and washed his bed clothes (which I don't think had been washed since his daughter had left) and chucked out mouldy food. I didn't want to interfere and do too much but I didn't want him to come home to the place in quite the squalid shape he had left it! Roy did come home after a few days but he was back in hospital the following month. Unfortunately, this was September and the HSC was starting in October. All his final year students (he tutored English) were now without a tutor for the last few weeks before their English HSC exams (including Sarah!). One of the other tutors (a 4th year law student) was wonderful and took on the lot in addition to his own. He was very stressed during those last few weeks but fortunately he knew his stuff and was a natural teacher. I hope Roy's daughters appreciated how much he did to keep the business going. Rachel came home from Thailand just in time to see her father before he died and she and her sister attempted to keep the coaching college going. Unfortunately, they had to sell the house to pay for their father's medical bills, so they wrapped up the coaching college at Easter. So now I am teaching from my own home. It was a difficult couple of months for us all and I've been thinking about the two girls with it being the anniversary of his death this weekend. We haven't kept in touch now the house has been sold.
In other news, I am still teaching pattern-drafting, now doing it on Fridays in a community hall close to where I live, as well as on Saturdays. I teach some sewing as well.
So what is everyone else up to?