Jo T Goodbye Bash (?) - June 22

With the amalgamation of Ramsey Abbey School with Ailwyn School there are going to be a lot of changes when Abbey College, Ramsey opens up September 1st. Jo is the fourth on the left and she was the head science tech at our school. (I went to her mom's birthday party the other weekend...it was held at the Ramsey Museum.) Unfortunately, the desire to do other stuff combined with the politics of the school (probably) she left us for an outside lab job June 23rd. Keith - or second in charge for the labs is also leaving and his last day is July 7th. Again, a lot to do with the politics of the school. With the departure of these two there aren't any lab techs for Abbey College - which also means I have to prep my own experiments for the final two weeks of school. (Whats 2M NaOH mean again? Does the M stand for million or might be?)

The rest of the science department is going through tough times, too. I don't think I'm amiss by suggesting that there is a lot of stress and unhappiness with the upcoming union of schools for both staffs. Because of this, I wouldn't be completely surprised if more change happens before, and a few weeks into, the new school year. It's too bad since the staff in our department seem to get along very well.

Well, Zela is coming back for more. The ICT teacher from New Zealand is coming back to teach next year at Abbey College. (She left before her contract ended for some unstated reasons.) She'll be here on Monday, I believe, and she's going to stay with me. I don't really know why she's coming back so early - her school year is almost 12 weeks away - but whatever. The school has raised the rent on the flats again. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It's now £350 and they want two weeks in advance. Zela can't afford it so she'll stay with me for 4 weeks, then she leaves for South Africa before coming back for September. I assume she'll look for alternative accommodations for her return in September. I just hope that she won't mind that I take 80 minute showers in the mornings...and that I don't like to clean things...nor throw things away. She can't complain, though. She's staying for free.