Another day at work
These days - this week - has turned out to be
the most boring time I have ever spent at work. I
work with kids (this is becoming a
recurring sentence, much like "
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam". Not that I wish to obtain anything in particular by saying
this, but still... Oh never mind).
The situation is that there aren't a lot of kids to work with, these days. They are on vacation with parents, visiting grandparents, or doing other stuff in places that are not here, where I am. It's all good, of course, for kids to be with their parents, hopefully having a blast of a time. But it kinda leaves me here, being utterly, utterly bored.
In addition to this, the rest of the staff is on vacation too, leaving me and one substitute in the house. Three to five children, and two grown ups. Damn, that's boring.
So I get a lot of time to myself. To scout around here, on E2, and to chat with friends. Surf the net. Do my nails. Rearrange the binders. Drink coffee. Walk around in the almost empty house, listening to the echoes of my footsteps, and the faint sound of children somewhere down the hall. As Terry Pratchett has stated, it is very joyful to listen to the sound of children playing, provided you're not close enough to hear what they're actually saying... I know they're in the computer room, wrecking the playstations while playing "Ratchet and Clank" or something along those lines.
I sometimes watch them, the kids, when they play. They sit, two or three - sometimes more - in front of the tv sets, joypads in their sweaty little hands. With a look of intens concentration on their grubby faces they sway slowly, this way and that, joypad held up in front of them. When their screen character runs, they lean forward; when he fights they hunch up and strike out with the joypad; they look like small zombies. And they get half annoyed, half embarrassed if I point it out to them... They are only allowed in the computer room for 90 minutes a day, 10 times a month. Sometimes I almost think it's too long. Some of them would spend forever in there, and still not be satisfied.
These last few, very hot, days I have let them spend the entire day in the computer room. Not even the big tubs with cool water outside have been able to lure them away from the play stations and computers for any great amount of time. It's okay, though; soon everything will return to normal. The house will be filled with kids, and all rules will be reinstated. But for now, we do what we feel like: I feel like doing this (whilst complaining about being bored), and the kids feel like playing and eating icecream (something they are not allowed to do, normally). What the heck... It's summer.