More ramblings of Jane Ayre - Reading Class 6th Dec 2017

My mind is full of what went on earlier during the day. And then I have snippets of the past. Like photo slides on a projector that have been muddled in to the order. Causing this disorder. A hiccup.

I walk to the SDA. Crossing the zebra-crossing, a car actually waited in advance for me. That is rare for London. Usually, they can't wait for you to get to the other side. That happened at the second zebra-crossing.

I get there early, 12:30pm and was greeted by the receptionist guy -

Tu'Shea. I pop to the loo. A loo that I had never used before and there are instructions for carers on how to assist people with walking sticks and the like. The instructions used the masculine terms though, I'm sure ladies use that loo too, hmmm...

I walk up the stairs, press the button that is used for disabled users to open the door. Diana and Ali are at the upstairs reception and say hi. And so does Ali. I see Adele and we have a chit-chat.

I let Diana know how stupid I've been on Monday (about ending up at the wrong place to go swimming)...

Pat arrives. She tells me she's just come from church. She had to wait 40 minutes for the doors to open. She went to church today as it was the feast of St. Nicholas. Pat comes from Greece. She has a white plastic bag full of bread with her. I ask her if she is going to feed the birds with it. She says 'no', she got it from church and asked if I would like some. I thank her and say 'maybe next time'.

Angela lets us know our classroom is ready. Sita isn't around yet so Angela asks me to give her a hand with the sandwiches. (We get freebies from Pret-a-Manger). I help her out. Several more Classmates arrive.

And Tony our teacher arrives. He's a retired insurance man who taught before. He has that old school teacher demeanor about him. I show him the book I am reading. The German novel. Twenty Lines of Love or something is the translation. I tell him I'm off to Germany for Christmas and have to brush up my German. I'll be going to Brussels first to sort out Brexit and the Catalan crisis (in my dreams!) and then off to Wiesbaden. Thats near Frankfurt I say.

The class begins with some of us reading Jane Ayre. Eventually I read out an extract from Jane Ayre. We can fen feel her presence in the room. Its cold outside. The wind is howling, its St. Nicholas Day, there hare hardly any leaves left on the trees...I digress.

Then we have our ritualised spelling test. Bah humbug! A few of us in the class need improvement with our spelling. Tony goes around the class asking for the results of everyones test. Its all about the fun of participation. We have a tea break after spelling.

Anyhoo, (not a spelling mistake) we are served a wonderful pink cake someone bought in from Sainsbury's. Far too calorific, but I have a slice anyway. A white mini-meringue from the cake has rolled onto the floor and David, who has the job of cutting the cake...well, he has no problems of picking it up off the floor and eating it. Thats a total no-no when it comes to food hygiene. I marvel at this. Its a wonderful thing. And so is this class.