Ooops. Watching paint dry is quite exciting compared to exam invigilation.

At least the majority of exams at A level aren't as long as they used to be. One invigilator on Tuesday started to read her book, I haven't noticed them do that before...

Ahem. Excuse me, there are few things more fascinating than watching paint dry.

For a start, we have numerous drying and curing mechanisms, from simple 'lacquer drying' (which is reversible), to oxidation with atmospheric oxygen, free radical polymerisation in polyesters and cross linking polyols with aliphatic isocyanates in polyurethanes (all of which are irreversible).

Then there are numerous ways of stimulating the drying and cross linking processes, from simple heating to the addition of metal soaps, or in the case of epoxies, by using low molecular weight amines to encourage cross linking at lower temperatures; albeit with an associated risk of amine sweating in cold and damp conditions.

However, sometimes paint doesn't dry at all, and that is when it gets really interesting.............

SB

We have to be very careful to turn our phones off - in fact, I usually leave mine at home so that I don't forget. There is an enormous yellow booklet issued by the Joint Council for Qualifications which lays down (among other things) everything expected of an invigilator - no books allowed in exams, so your Tuesday invigilator was in breach of the rules!


I do love the way that on this forum the most innocuous remark can get up someone's nose!! Actually, I find invigilation quite interesting compared to watching paint dry, because it's fascinating to see how people behave under stress. When I was younger I used to think it would be really boring to invigilate, but now I'm in my dotage I value the time to stand and stare, and to think my own thoughts.

Personally, I'd compare invigilating to watching a cricket match, except that there one would be sitting down - you stand for ages watching intently as nothing happens, and then the minute your attention wanders someone is caught out/you've missed the one child this half hour who wants an extra piece of paper! Anyway, there are few jobs where you get paid for doing nothing, and I'm making the most of this one.

A while back the place where I give blood was being refurbished, so another hall in town was used. It was a lot smaller and the beds were a lot closer together. I ended up on a bed with a bed next to it, occupied by a man who it turned out was a teacher at my old secondary school!
I found this out because we were discussing the ceiling we were both looking at and I mentioned that at school when exams were over, you'd find people leaning backwards trying to count to dots on the ceiling. The ceiling in our school hall was tiles, and each tile had dots (holes?) in a square. But they were just too far away to be clearly countable, though just close enough that you always thought you might be able to count how many there were on a row this time!
From which you could calculate how many dots on one tile, and then work out how many tiles in the hall, and how many dots in total, and so on.
Once I described this procedure from a student's point of view, the teacher said that the invigilating teachers did exactly the same thing!

I love this reply SB

Being an artist I frequently watch paint dry, particularly if I am using watercolour and need to get on to the next 'bit'. Oil takes longer so I tend to go and do something else. Some watercolour painters use a hairdryer but I worry about damaging the surface integrity of the (very expensive and fairly fragile) paper I use but also I like the sort of 'zen' state of contemplation and meditation that arises from waiting for that perfect moment to drop in some more pigment.

After one A-level exam (it was something like 2 hours for a multiple choice paper, I forget which) we had so much time left over that I began to fold origami cranes from one of the sheets of scratch paper. It was A4 to begin with, so I was able to fold and tear smaller and smaller squares nicely (A4 paper = golden ratio, etc). I can't remember how many I got to.

It wasn't that I was so smart I finished in 5 minutes, pretty much everyone else in the hall had finished in about the same amount of time as I did. But I think I had the best time-killing solution...

I had the frustrating experience a couple of weeks ago of invigilating a GCSE maths exam being taken by three students in a poor inner-city school who did not wish to be there and did not make the connection between education and a brighter future. They claimed to have finished it in 20 minutes (although they hardly answered any of the questions) and then started begging to leave. We are obliged to keep them for the first hour of every exam, regardless of whether they have finished. They could not be persuaded to "check their answers" etc (not that they really had any to check...) - they just sat and talked across the room in Polish (rather disconcerting for me when I didn't know what they were saying) and causing microscopic but intense damage with their compasses. One was disqualified. It was all quite saddening really - these people have obviously led tough lives, leading to them behaving in a way that will only make their prospects bleaker.

Today....well the week has been a great one...I've had my full time work over the summer confirmed...and then got my first call in to a school on Thursday, which was brilliant and I loved it....then son's exam result today, a new violin pupil starting next week and a good gig tonight with the band. Oh and being told today how much my new family I'm teaching love me lessons...

I'm going to go to bed now and pinch myself in the morning to check its all real

I've been paid!!!!!!!!!!

my happy, seeing how excited little sis is about their first camping trip as a family

More excited than me?

Being paid is definitely a good thing!

I'm happy because we had a church event last night that went really well, and now I'm free to start on some new music - had a bash through one bit earlier, was good fun if not very good playing

oh no, your enthusiasm shone through despite the lengths you went to to hide it

I hid it well : particularly at 3am...

I quite like the Victorian vicar's description of cricket as "organised loafing"

No more A-levels!! It's just hit me

I enjoyed it when that time came in my life. All you have to do now is wait for results.

Finally! Let's party!!!
What subjects were they in?

My cold seems to be disappearing

it was a short lived one (only had it since wednesday evening)

seeing the sun peeping through the clouds

Listening to a concert I took part in last week, repeated today on local radio.

Is it on iPlayer or similar?

Probably not, since it's local radio....but I'm not absolutely sure how these things work! Will try and find out.

The second half of the concert is on at the moment, and that wasn't so good for me. It's Mozart's Requiem. OH is singing bass, and I was supposed to be playing first violin.....except that I am still unable to play. Looks like surgery could be on the agenda later this year.

Cheers



Oh dear

I'm trying not to think about that



biology, chemistry, maths and RE for me-but no more!! How about you?

The waiting for results was fine, it was the what to do with myself now I have done my A levels. I did not want to go to university.

In the end I did a 6 month IT training course and a couple of months later I got my first IT job.

A long day of singing and some lovely music. Plus some nice teamwork.

Took my mum out for some retail therapy at John Lewis and M&S (other retail outlets are available!) - she had an op last week and has a leg that's bandaged so that it looks like it's from a prep room for mummification

We had both lunch and afternoon tea and cake whilst we were out.

I have a new light-weight summer jacket. My mum decided I needed a new short-sleeved shirt

I also bought really exciting things like new pedastal mats...

That is what you get for shopping with your mum. I avoid shopping full stop.

One of the members of my favourite (and very successful) Korean Pop girlband 2NE1 LIKED my comment on Facebook!!

managing to play our concert yesterday without getting soaked or chasing music everywhere

My very nice new-ish GP. Very encouraging about trying something, but equally not to worry if it doesn't work - basically, it's all up to me to decide what I want to do and decide what works best, but how about we try this, and here is a contingency plan so you don't have to wait to see me if it turns out not to be good.
But all phrased in a way that doesn't make it a demand from her side

By new-ish - new-to-me. They are very clear that you register with the surgery, and not a specific GP, but they are happy for you to book to see the same GP each time in case of ongoing conditions. The GP I've been seeing for years and years went off work just over a year ago and I'm not sure he'll be coming back. This is only my second visit to the new person I chose (she's younger than me, or certainly not older than me, so now I feel Very Old) so it was a bit scary but then I remembered how nice she is once she said "hello" <- rolling eyes at myself, what was I expecting, thumbscrews or something?!

Watching Sue Barker and John McEnroe flirting with each other on the telly. Very funny!

Hearing that I no longer have to give evidence at a rather high Court in London; (the parties concerned having settled their dispute).

I may be perverse but I was almost looking forward to it, but I am also rather relieved now that I don't have to.

SB

Oh, I can fully understand the sentiment! Yes, it's great not to have to go to court, but wow, how interesting to be involved and nose at how these things work

Reminds me of one of my ( rare ) visits to Harrods; came out with just a packet of worm tablets for the cat.

Not just any worm tablets mind..................




I must say I find the whole thing quite fascinating. I was lucky enough to be called for Jury Service when I was 18, and very nearly persued a career in Law as a result. The three cases that I sat in on were real eye openers, and I have promised to take our children to the Crown Court at point when an interesting case is being heard just to experience the theatre of a real court room.

However, being of a technical mind I didn't fancy spending my entire life surrounded by paper, but my work does take me to court once in a while for expert witness duties. This also means writing very long and detailed reports on the most mundane of matters (like paint not drying properly ), exploring every possible point of view, so the the thing often ends up looking more like a PhD thesis!

SB

Saving over ?160 on my car insurance!

Tadge tricky when you live on your own



Apparently I had a narrow escape on Saturday. I was singing Tallis etc in south Cheshire. My colleagues in the saturday orchestra were playing at a school fete. Unbelievably, the headmaster insisted on the orchestra performing outdoors, despite the very inclement weather (I was about 15 miles away and there were regular, very heavy downpours).

The orchestra got wet and I think the string players got close to organising a lynching party . I would certainly have kicked off if I'd been there

I also live on my own. I avoid it where possible and where I can't I attempt e-shopping instead.

The migraine that has bugged me for the last day and a half has just about gone

I'm not a Newbie any more.

Just been given the violin solo part for the tattoo version of the Gael....possibly to play in London at Gibraltar Day!! Better get practising...

headache free

Quote from my partner: "It's no good speaking French in a Spanish class, that's like going to Venus and speaking Martian."

Being a nerd I immediately went looking for the languages of Mars and Venus. After wading through a load of rubbish about men being from Mars and women being from Venus I came across the Venusian (or Amtorian) language as used by Edgar Rice Burrows in his Venus Series of science fiction novels and found a page with a script and some vocabulary. Apparantly Martian is the nickname for a sort of Chinese l33t which appeared on the Taiwanese national college entrance exam in 2006, which a lot of people got very annoyed about so they said they wouldn't do it again (as reported in the Taiwan Headlines).

Well, yesterday, actually.....

An 11-year-old came in for her lesson proudly bearing a trophy awarded that day as the school music prize, and thanked me for all my hard work.

How lovely is that!