This and That

So yesterday was the end-of-term faculty day out, and this year's trip was a day out at the Brighton Races. Windy and cold, but interesting. I'd never been to the races before, so the people watching was fascinating, as was seeing how one actually goes about placing a bet. Turns out that I do not have an eye for a winner - placed two £2 bets (last of the big spenders) and lost both times. It was fun though. Unlike today, which was an inset day at work, so we had a three-hour session on child protection. Nothing we didn't already know, and the person delivering the session really grated on my nerves. One of my pet peeves is when people refer to "Africa" as though it's one homogeneous place. It's a continent, for fuck's sake, a fifth of the world's land, with fifty-odd countries. Each country has its own characteristics, and within each country there's a huge range of diversity. Different levels of education. Different amounts of privilege. Different religions. Different races. So when the child-protection speaker seemed to feel that describing a child as being "from Africa" told us a lot about her, well, frankly, that told me more about her preconceptions and prejudices than it did about the child. Anyhow, I endured the three hours, so it's done, ticked the box, and I'm up-to-date in that field for the next year.

I got home a bit early, and it was lucky I did, because Emily was feeling really awful - hot and cold and sore-throaty and achy. I phoned the doctor at 4.30, hoping for an appointment tomorrow, and was amazed to get an appointment for 5.10! The doctor we saw - not our usual - was very nice. Prescribed rest and paracetamol, and gave us a script for antibiotics to fill if she's not feeling better by tomorrow evening. Thank you, NHS!

Just one more week till the summer holidays, so I need to figure out how to get the most out of my six weeks of blissful leisure. Can't wait...