Friday 27 July 2012

Malt vinegar and kindness

Tonight, I could blog about the Olympics, about the opening ceremony more precisely, or about Mitt Romney's blunder(s) about the Olympics, which gave me a strong feeling of Schadenfreude when I read about it this week (I cannot stand this imbecile). I will blog about neither. Because today is Friday, and for some reason it remembered the Fridays of my former job in a school, three years ago already. I quickly hated this job, the pettiness of many members of the staff, the clicquee attitude of said staff, well pretty much everything really. It put me off teaching, at this level at least. I felt overworked, underpaid, underappreciated and I hate the arrogance of those people.

But there were a few colleagues I actually appreciated. One of them was a grandmother who was a teaching assistant (I mentioned her before, when I posted about my religious lesson). At every Friday, there was fish and chips for lunch. We had the choice between beans or green peas to go on the side. Of course the fish was not great, but it was good enough as a treat, after a long week.But there was no condiment, no tartar sauce or malt vinegar. I love fish and chips with an unhealthy dose of malt vinegar. I mentioned it once, while I was queing for my meal, that it would be perfect, if only there was a nice pint of ale and some malt vinegar to go with it. The very next week, she had brought a little vial of malt vinegar, which she gave to me. She said she always brought some for herself. This was a gratuitious act of kindness and I never forgotten it. I forgot her name, sadly and I feel somewhat ashamed about it. I really disliked my time there, I disliked many people there, however I will never forget that there were good people in this school that made my time there bearable. I will never forget the malt vinegar.

7 comments:

The Artful Gypsy aka Wendy the Very Good Witch said...

I LOVE Malt Vinegar...especially on Fish and French Fries! I actually like lots of vinegar...it's one of my very favorite things. When my cousin and I were little girls (this is going to sound gross)...we used to get up at night and sneak into the kitchen and get uncooked rice and pour some vinegar over it and eat it...ha! We thought we making a 'concoction' and that rice was HARD, but we ate it anyway. I've loved vinegar ever since...ha! ;o)

The Artful Gypsy aka Wendy the Very Good Witch said...

Hey Guillaume...one more thing...I'm just letting you know that you are one of my 5 award recipients because iDig your blog! You can get all the details on my page. But please don't feel obligated if you are busy and can't do it. It took me a year to post this, so I completely understand! :o)

Mantan Calaveras said...

Ah yes, the sweet and the sour, altogether.

Guillaume said...

@Wendy-Thank you so much for the award! I will do it asap. And it sounds eccentric, but not gross.
@Mantan Calaveras-The sweet was the sour, in this instance.

tao.owl said...

Ooh, I love fish and chips, especially with malt and vinegar; it's just not the same without it.

I was a teacher for one school year and had the same experience. The staff was horrible, unprofessional and lacked empathy. I was really disappointed by the whole experience. What a shame.

Anonymous said...

I taught for a year too, and I am afraid that it wasn't a happy experience. It seems that you are in good company. I strongly feel that education attracts many people that should never work with children. There are many excellent teachers, but some who should never be let near a classroom!

Guillaume said...

@tao.owl and Anonymous-I hated teaching in this school not for the students, however difficult they may have been, but because of the staff. Most of it was so nasty.