Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.

-T.S. Elliot... "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

I know that I am old enough to truly retire.

I suppose I could sleep late, read, recline on the couch and watch TV, putter in the garden, play golf, and travel.

But I think it still makes sense to work a bit and remain a purposeful member of the community.

And as everyone knows, Kimberly is extremely high maintenance, so there may never be enough dollars to satisfy her tremendous needs.

I'm old, she's young. She needs dough, and plenty of it.

All that being said, I have spent quite a bit of time as a reliever at Nelson Boy's College. That has been pretty sweet and easy. Plus, the pay is re-god damn-diculous compared to the States.

In the USA, all substitute teachers will earn the exact same amount, about $90 a day. A pedophile gets the same as a PhD. Actually, the pedophile might get a little more, if you know what I mean.

Here, they compensate relievers based on their experience. Believe it or not, I am near the top of the pay scale.

Now I wish I went for that Master's degree.

However, Boy's College is populated with young lads who can be rowdy, noisy, sloppy, lazy and smelly. Don't get me wrong..still very fun and easy and I am pretty popular over there. In fact, if I wanted, I could work every day.

But there is also a Girl's College here. It is much cleaner, and quieter. They take education more seriously and it is filled with about 1000 high school age girls.

http://www.ncg.school.nz/

After a year with the boys, I felt like a change, so I went over and signed up with the Girls College.

This must be heaven 'cause here's where the rainbow ends. And at last it's the real thing, or close enough to pretend.

Instantly, I began getting called to work and I suppose the other relief teachers were mean old biddies because I got a positive reputation after 2 days. The students are really great and fun. They behave lots better than boys and actually do the work.

The only problem is that they are a little chatty, but so am I.

Some history of the school is that Courtney Love attended here but did not do well and got tossed out. Here is the info from her biography:

The daughter of Grateful Dead manager and publisher Hank Harrison and therapist Linda Carroll (nee Risi), Love spent her childhood with her mother as she wandered through five husbands and as many hippie communes in Oregon and at boarding school in Nelson New Zealand.

I heard she returned later as a speaker and completely dissed the place.

So the school is 2 minutes from our house, extremely clean and very well administered. The teachers leave excellent plans, the classes are small and I again can work all I want for good pay. Wouldn't you work there if you were me?

We will be completely off the grid for a week. It is Kimberly's birthday today and we are going to the Cook Islands for some holiday time.

Happy Birthday also to Rick, who turns 50 in a few days. I am certain some stripper will be giving him a special birthday lap dance in Las Vegas.

Happy birthday and happy endings.