The apple harvest has just begun

It's going to be a huge crop and since I stew and freeze most of it - which is very time consuuming - I'm grateful that our atrocious spring delayed it by three weeks. I would not have been abe to cope with it during the CELTA course nor during this first week of teaching.

Very many thanks, kind people, for the warm supportive comments I've had over the last 4+1 weeks. There's more of my diary below but it's mostly a record for me, so one day I can look back and shake my head at myself. Please don't feel a need to say anything about it.

Today was better. I'm beginning to work out the difference between focused teaching CELTA-style and a summer school full of teenagers. So I trusted myself to be spontaneous without the need for annotated teacher's and student's books in front of me at every moment.

Many of the youngsters are a delight and I was sorry today to say goodbye to some of those who are going home this weekend. But there are one or two - well, four, specifically - I shall be glad not to see again. Almost certainly sent here by their parents against their will. It's probably a form of neglect and I should feel sorry for them but their surly arrogance dries up any kind feelings I might have had.

I could have chosen to teach classes next week at the same level as this week but I have volunteered to teach at whatever level there is a gap, so I might have complete beginners or I might be teaching poetry to the fluent. And I won't know until Sunday! Just in case one day of relative success was going to make me complacent...