Eish! London 29 - 31 May

Friday, 29 May

08h00: Text Jonn to find out what’s going on; he replies saying he’s still waiting to hear. I’m showered, dressed, ready and waiting.

09h00: I start walking to the station to head into Zone One. I have my independent interview to get to anyway. My phone goes at 09h02: Get to transport company’s head office by 10h00. Are they mad? Ok, one hour, I have no idea where I’m going, but it can be done! I get on the tube, make the change at Kings Cross and then when I get to the right stop I navigate my way to the head office to arrive at the stroke of 10h00. Hot and sweaty from the mini-jog, but on time; I buzz the receptionist. She lets me in and tells me that I’m in the wrong building and I have to go around to the other side of the Square. How could they give me the wrong address? No time to be frustrated, I step into the final interview room at 10h10, apologizing for the delay. Thankfully, they are a public transport company, they got it. They also allowed for the fact that they only decided to have interviews yesterday. The thought did cross my mind as to whether any companies in London are actually organised, or whether most of them carry on in this constant, unplanned, disorganised stress? My experiences thus far were drawing me towards the latter.

I was interviewed by a lady and a gentleman, and it was clear that the gentleman was the guy in charge. They had papers with questions on and spaces to write my answers. They didn’t stop writing the whole time I was there. She asked very few questions, even when he prompted her. I later found out that she was the Administrative Head and he was the Head of the Citizenship Division. They asked me whether or not I had ever planned a project from start to finish and to talk them through a project I had run. What I consider to be my greatest success? Whether I have managed to build relationships with people and so on.

I find interviews so difficult. I never know what kind of answer they want, I don’t want to appear arrogant by saying everything that I have done, and nor do I want to appear like a person without drive or experience. I have completed numerous projects from beginning to end, I have quite a list of things that I deem personal successes, and they would only have to look at the emails in my inbox to realise that I put a lot of effort into maintaining relationships. There were other questions too and I enthusiastically answered them all as honestly as I could, but I walked out feeling very unsure as to what I had just been interviewed for, and whether or not I wanted what they were offering. It was all rushed and rather strange to me; but interview experience is always a good thing, so I clocked it to that and made a dash to get to my next interview with the agency who recruits for independent schools.

Kay had told me that this agency employed for the top schools and would definitely put me somewhere good. I started trying to organise an interview with them before I left South Africa and it had taken this long to organise. They were based in a very upper class side of London in one of the tightly packed terraced houses with the wrought iron fence that runs along the road separating each bronzed door knocker and accentuating the cages of scarlet red window geraniums. I wasn’t sure what to expect as my interactions with agencies thus far had left a lot to be desired. Inside there was a male receptionist in his late forties who gave me the forms. I waited a long time for the agent to interview me. She was an American lady who didn’t understand my CV, so most of the interview involved me explaining my CV, explaining how Drama works in South Africa, how it is possible to do your PGCE part-time so that you are teaching and studying at the same time; and other details that I would have thought an experienced teaching recruitment agent would know about. It was strange. I walked out thinking: "How odd." She definitely liked me and was very enthusiastic and said she had some ideas in mind.

Unfortunately they didn’t do supply work; they only filled full-time posts, with the odd maternity cover position. I wasn’t sure that a permanent post would be a good idea just yet as I still wanted to be on stage and travel and have a flexible timetable. Nevertheless I said I was interested in any Drama posts that came up. I left wondering how on earth they made money as a company; I had always thought that posts at independent schools were hard to come by. Maybe I thought wrong. At the end of the day the agent put me down as an English teacher and has never once sent me an email for a Drama Teaching post.

Later in the afternoon my phone rang, Jonn was very excited. Of all the people interviewed that day they definitely wanted me and another of his teachers. He was very excited; could I start on Monday and do the job for 6 weeks? I would start at the place where I had been for the interview.

What? Me? Monday? This is mad, I don’t even know what the job is exactly!

Why not? A full 6 weeks of pay. Bring it on! I said yes and blindly jumped into something to do with teaching Year 6s about travelling safely on public transport; nothing like learning something new, and nothing like having a steady income.

At least now, for a little while, I could say goodbye to: The disgusting language kids use in school; their unkempt hairstyles, jewellery, clothing in disarray and make-up anyway they like... it's "Far Out" as the Kiwis　say! ... I can put a pause on having no ability to discipline any child in my classroom because I’m only in the class　for a day and won't be back to enforce rules; and I won’t be around staff who don't bother to say hello to me, because I won't be there tomorrow...　What a blessing  Thank-You!

Saturday, 30 May

"Live today fully, expressing gratitude for all you have been, all you are right now, and all you are becoming." Melody Beattie

We had a big old spit braai at our house for the Blue Bulls’ rugby game which turned into a very late celebration of the Blue Bulls’ Super 14 victory. After the game I took one of my very long walks to ASDA with a few diversions thrown in so I’d miss most of the celebratory drinking. When I arrived back I had great fun chatting to people in alcoholically induced verbal overdrive, and I ended the evening playing pool　(we have a pool table in the lounge) with a quirky British guy... none of my friends could make it to the braai (people don’t generally travel out of their postal codes in London), so I had to just get on with it and let the evening happen. At one stage I stood at the kitchen window and looked at all the people in their blue & white, I looked at the meat on the spit and the beer bottles and wine glasses everywhere, listening to Afrikaans chatter and Afrikaans music; and I thought: These people have created a home away from home. They’ve come to a foreign land and brought everything with them, or recreated it to match what they know. I didn’t want to be like that, I wanted to be experiencing something different.

Sunday, 31 May

A bit of trivia to round off the month; I found this in the South African, New Zealand & Australian Magazine TNT:

"The Pound Sterling" {the currency of England} "is the oldest currency still in use today…

A common slang term is ‘quid’, which is thought to derive from the Latin phrase, quid pro quo, which means ‘something for something.’

The Pound sign derives from the ‘L’ – an abbreviation of the Roman ‘librae’, which was the basic unit of weight.

The Bank of England was formed in 1694 followed by the Bank of Scotland a year later. Both began to issue paper money."

Obviously I don’t know if what they publish is true, but it’s a Pound for your thoughts anyway ;-)