Day 70 - Storm coming!

Since lockdown started, we have had the most lovely weather. We’ve been able to sit out in the garden, in the sun, almost every day, and it’s been such a help at these times. There’s a storm on the way this evening though, that’s due to last for the next forty eight hours or so. In the early evening, I was chatting on Zoom, and Damo came in to say that he’d had to move our coloured chairs because they were blowing around the patio. By the time I’d gotten off the Zoom call, Peter had moved all my plants to under the pergola for shelter. He seemed to be particularly concerned about the sunflowers, which are quite tall at this stage, and I just about convinced him not to bring them indoors!

As usual, Thursdays are my busy days, in terms of Zoom classes. Today was my second last day of classes though before the exams start. The chemistry exam paper has been redesigned so that it can be taken online, and I think it looks really hard. So I spent today showing students questions that are almost identical to what will be on the exam. I’m glad I did, because they were all exclaiming how unfamiliar the format of these questions was to them! I probably laid it on a bit thick, but sure, as I keep telling myself, we are in extraordinary circumstances. I pretty much as good as told them what’s coming up on the exam. I don’t know how many, if any, of them will have picked up on that, but I guess we’ll find out!

The weather was nice this morning, so I managed to get out for a walk and chat with Mum. It was good to get some fresh air between classes, instead of doing the usual housework that I often fit in at this time!

In the morning class, one of the nerdy Vietnamese students started trying to point out a mistake in the question that I was trying to teach (which he quite often does!). At the time, I kind of dismissed his query, as it wasn’t really relevant to what we were doing. However, by the time the afternoon came, I was looking for something to do, so decided to email him to ask him about the question, in the hope that I would “win” and that he would be wrong! Haha! Me and Peter spent a few hours trying to research an answer to his question, in the hope that we might be able to prove him wrong - this appears to be the stage in lockdown that we are at now! Thankfully, after Peter spent a bit of time searching the literature, it all worked out in our favour and I was able to email the student to point out his mistake (for which he actually seemed to be grateful!). Me and Peter had a great laugh through all of this, and by the time evening came, I was looking through my class lists saying, “right, which other students can I start emailing to take down a few notches?!” Haha!

Unfortunately, there were images on this evening’s news of crowds at Sutton beach and Dart station. The Gardaí even had to clear the beach at one point, because of the crowds. It’s difficult not to feel angry, when you’re doing your best, even though it’s hard, and you see other people not trying at all. Hopefully these type of scenes don’t see the relaxation phases being delayed this Summer!Read more