My opinion of the show?
Lubby jubbly.
I may have mentioned this before, but
just in case I haven’t, let me start by saying that my ‘day’ job, as it were,
is that I’m a teacher in an 11-16 Secondary School in South Wales. Not an Art
teacher, no. I have no qualifications in Art at all. I do, however have a
Postgraduate Certificate in Education – a PGCE, which is one of several
qualifications, any of which enable you to teach in the UK. I also have an
honours degree in English, so that’s what I’ve spent a little over 30 years
teaching. Today (Monday) and tomorrow are the last two days of this academic
year, after which we have a break of just over 5 weeks until the new year
begins.
I know that the long summer holiday
for teachers is a bone of contention. I may come back to this before I’ve
finished this post. Still, once you get to the last couple of days, a much more
relaxed attitude sets in. For one thing, attendance takes a nosedive. My first
class today is usually one of my more ‘challenging’ classes. (translation from
teacher speak –challenging = bloody awful)There were just 4 of them in school.
On the principle that Art has charms to soothe the savage beasts, I gave them
each a piece of paper, and told them about my challenge to make at least one
sketch a day for a whole year, and showed them some of the pictures on this
very blog. I asked them if they had any suggestions for what I might do for
today’s sketch. One of them suggested a V12 Dodge Charger. Now, okay, I don’t
have anything against sketching vehicles in general, and cars in particular.
However, this just didn’t really light my candle. Then another of them
suggested Del Boy. This surprised me a little, but it does at least show the
lasting affection for the series “Only Fools and Horses”. I mean, these kids
surely weren’t around when even the last Christmas Special was broadcast.
There’s a couple of things I remember
with great affection. I remember in one episode when Del’s father turned up
from Heaven alone knows where, and Del, very much against the old rogue,
described him with the memorable phrase “He sold his soul for half an ounce of
Old Holborn!” Both my younger brother and I fell off our chairs laughing at
that one, since we had often used such a phrase to describe our own father.
Long story.
When my kids were a lot younger, the
only family holiday we could afford was taking the 26 hour bus to Calella in
Spain, and staying in a ‘2 stars and lump it’ hotel. The drivers had a deal
with a transport café somewhere in the south of France, and would stop there at
stupid o’clock in the morning on the way there, and stupid o’clock in the
evening on the way back. Well, the last time we took most of the kids must have
been about 2005. The bus happened to stop while it was halfway through showing
the 2002 Christmas Special of Only Fools and Horses. There was a mutiny.
Seriously, all the passenger refused to get off the bus until the DVD was
finished, even though these later specials weren’t really as good as the series
had been in the 80s. Just my opinion, feel free to disagree. Finally, in 1985 I
took my then girlfriend, who has been my now wife for the last 31 years, to
meet some of my extended family in Brighton. As we were walking out of the
station, who should we pass in the street? None other than David Jason. Sir
David, I hope that you appreciate the way we smiled and nodded, but didn’t ask
for autographs, or stop you to talk to us, or jump up and down shouting OMG
it’s Del Boy etc.
Hmm, I'm burbling again. I might say something about holidays tomorrow.
