Thursday, December 28, 2006

Post Script

I got to work today to see that the teachers office was being cleaned out for another tennant. Seems the Nik wants was to squeeze 9 people into an office of 4... Lets do the math...

No one spoke to me at the office today - I am already nemo - which is latin for no one, I felt like i was outside in the snow it was that cold.

The teachers office was 2 floors below the school and a good space to read learn research... now... it is gone.

All my classes for the week have been cancelled and my last class has come and gone...

What next - Caviar + Champagne and NEW YEAR!!

Obi gutted and filleted but still laughing....

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Poland

Well it has been decided - actually a week ago - that I will be going to work in Poland.
I had a few job offers, Serbia, Romania and here in Moscow but I.. Just... Think the Polish job was best out of the lot. ...'Sides, I hear Polish chicks are cute!
Christmas came and went and made no sound. I worked all Christmas day and had a nice lunch with Delboy, a somber occasion as we both knew we were missing out on all the good things such as sunshine and familiar faces, but we had a nice meal and then back to work.
My hours this week are down to 12 because classes are winding up for the year and students have better things to do that go to English classes, shopping for gifts and saving cash etc... I feel useless and hopeless at work. Seems that place is going the the dogs. Since the 'Nik' came back to town. Ginger I hear through the grapevine is pregnant - congrats 6 months married and happier now than ever - she has yet to tell anyone at all, I know by accident. Also Maryanne is leaving too, she will put her great sales skills and huge cleavage into action selling houses and real estate. Good luck to her. Seems that she and her man broke up tho, he left class tonight alone and she looked rather gray and maudlin. Life is full of ups and downs, as we all know, I am sure she will bounce back, with a new richer man to dote on her (that isn't married)
So the cast on this Gilligans Island will be either axed leaving or taking up other career options. So the staff will be slashed by a third... But I am waiting with bated breath to see WHEN the Nik's sister in law will quit as well and find another job. It has been rumored... Frequently.
What can I say, I am gutted that I was expelled because the Nik wanted to make some rapid changes. She fired, insulted, obliterated process and procedure, commanded the impossible to be done and done in double time... and now she pays the price. I KNOW the school is losing money, I know that I was holding my own and earning my pay - BUT things have a habit of being swept under the carpet in jolly old Russia...
doesn't matter really. I have 2 weeks to rest relax and ponder and then I am off to Germany to see some long missed friends for a week, then on to northern Poland...
Will the last person to leave the English School please turn off the lights - Obi

Friday, December 15, 2006

...the lovely Tamara...

I was asked today for the address of my blog site from one of the newer admin staff. She is an angel and after all the crap I have had to put up with, it is people like her and her husband that make it all worthwhile. In fact I teach her english and she is a joy to teach.
She is at an elementary level of english but she she consumes language and vocabulary like a hungry child. It is great to hear a student putting all the vocabulary and grammar together at the end of a class, it means you have done a good job.
Today I had to rush across the city in rush hour to an interview with a nice Kiwi ADOS and a amiable Englishman principal. I have 3 job offers now and I don't know which one to pick, they all have positive attributes and a good reason to go, but I dunno which to choose.
Serbia with its nice quiet northern town supporting a family run business and learning how to express grammar better.
Poland, a job that is EU funded and teaching business to Poles, hungry to get ahead in the business world. A great wage, living alone and close to Germany...
Russia, The job i was offered today and seems okay, but more like a backpackers with legs that anything else, Baba Yaga would not be pleased with the competition.
So I dunno what to do...
Abandon my new found solidly reliable friends like the Skipper and Delboy for newer greener and unknown pastures, or stick it out and use the 8 months on my visa that I have left... Mind you, I was offered private lessons for a TV celebrity today and I am expected to charged a fortune, in fact my whole wage for the month under the salary I have now... But would the new moscow job allow me time to teach privately?? Unlikely...
So there it is...
Obi is in a fix.... Wanna know something funny?? The bitch that fired me never spoke to me until after the deed she had others do, and with a smile on her face this week she said actually spoke to me for the first time and said, are you coming to the christmas party??? - Yeah bitch I am gonna drink all your beer and eat your food and then vommit on your table...
Up yours bitch! I am employable regardless of what you made me think...
Obi - able to leap tall aspersions in a single bound.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

The long dark tea time of the soul

The long dark tea time of the soul - a phrased coined by Douglas Adams, famed British writer. Well this is exactly the phrase I feel.
Since being fired due to the company's owner returning from maternity leave I have seen the company shaken to its foundations and another teacher - Andrew abandon ship leaving only a skeleton crew. Management have gracefully given me tile Christmas day to leave and finish my classes and get the hell out of the apartment they provide.
I have been madly searching for jobs and come up with an eclectic variety of cities and countries willing to hire me in the new year.
I am rather disillusioned and amazed about what has happened but not surprised. In my career I have been fucked over by many people and circumstances again and again AND again, so by now if I cannot anticipate the punches I can at least roll with them.
Got a great offer to work in Kiev with a good mate, but if I do go I will be worried that I will lose my hard won knowledge of grammar and teaching will be lost. Then again - why not...
Heard from a friend today - it sounds like her life is settling down and life is finding it's centre for her. She is extremely odd is some of her views, but it is never the destination in life that is important (because we all die) it is the style and the way in which we achieve the final breath that counts, for some that is young and others ancient, but either way always the right time.
I have Cold Chisel's 'Cheap Wine' song spinning in my already spinning head - 7 pints is a nice number in anyone's language... But I am numbly philosophical...
Obi hascCheap wine and a 3 day growth... Ah the conciliatory sentiment - pass the cask!!

Friday, December 01, 2006

Broccoli is waiting

It has been a long time since an old friend of mine invited and unvited me to the biggest day of his life. The rejection at the time was insurmountable and unexplained to any degree or satisfaction. The world turns and lives change... but I am still waiting.
The promise of something to ease this huge gaping hole is as yet not forthcoming. I am almost embarrassed to say that it still means something to me and that I hold out for some answer beyond the obvious evidence. I still wait. Can't say I am happy about the waiting but for some reason beyond my understanding still do. This old friend doesn't seem to realise that the longer he takes the harder it gets to bridge the gap. I sometimes wonder if he even cares that it the gap is bridged.
Back to Moscow and it seems that I may not be evicted on Christmas Day. I think management worked out a deal with Attilla The Landlady and maybe, just maybe I may be able to stay. I doubt it and I, being the most interested party, was not told of the result even after I saw the land lady leave.
A new teacher arrived today and I met the jocular American. Quite the relaxed fellow and a relief as the last American was a complete and utter far kwit. I just hope that they dont replace me with the next teacher that comes along.
I cannot say my life has any even keel or soilid foundation none in fact, I could be cast adrift tomorrow, but something in it makes me stronger and more focused.
Obi is missing his support at home, the one that started into the whole - "Oh, he is flailing and failing again" routine, which I hoped that person could see past and actually believe in me. But no, not gonna happen, incapable of that. So I leave the world of the closed mind and lack of empathy to the solitude and 'salvation' of Jesus books.
Obi gutted but not out.
<BGSOUND SRC="http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/sounds/farting.mp3" LOOP=0> <BGSOUND SRC="http://stormii.com/Wavs/3yrsold.vav" LOOP=0> <BGSOUND SRC="http://www.ibiblio.org/samneill/sounds/reilly/7-Gambit/moscow.vav" LOOP=0>
I - Obi...