Fun At The Fair (or not)

Once a year the Statutes Fair comes to Burton on Trent and the town is cordoned off. Because of this, my daughter, (the one who I cried down the phone to on my first day) offered to take me to college and to pick me up later.

My gorgeous little granddaughters waved goodbye to Granny at the college gates (well only one did as the other was fast asleep in her baby seat, bless her little cotton socks).

The class started to fill up with the usual kiddies. The three witches flew in on their broomsticks, you could hear them cackling before they even arrived in the classroom.

Before the lesson started, our tutor said he had something to tell us. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, another of our colleagues had died during the week from an epileptic fit. The week before a chap had died from a heart attack. It sent shivers up my spine and I felt really sad and again as last week, it made me realise how life can be so precious and fragile.

The afternoon session commenced. The tutor and several students disappeared only to re-appear sometime later with their arms full of lap tops. Around twelve in all. A bit of "hands on work" ahead.

Don't be daft - only three of the lap tops worked and by the time we had managed to fire these up, half the class had disappeared.

The 3 witches were the first to arrive back, each armed with a bag of salt and vinegar crisps and a bag of skittles. They proceeded to chomp their way through the rest of the lesson.

"Cool" turned up with a bag of candy floss and passed it to "Solid" and friends under the table. "Innit" had a head-set on for his mobile and chatted away to his mate.

Not a great deal of work was done during this session.

I have got myself into a little routine now whilst I am waiting for the evening session to start. I usually head for Marks and Sparks and sit in the coffee shop and have a cup of tea and a scone.

Today was no different, accept I had to weave my way in and out of the fairground rides and dodge the bags and buckets of candy floss hanging from the stalls.

I was sitting at the table in the coffee shop enjoying a cup of tea, when a lady came past balancing a teapot, cup and saucer and a jug of milk all in one hand. She bumped into a chair and the milk spilt from the jug into my open rucksack. She looked horrified and couldn't apologise enough and I thought she was going to cry. I really felt sorry for her.

Tonight's session was particular hard for me. It involved lots of things to do with VAT. We had two papers to complete, but I am afraid I could only manage two questions on the first paper, and I got both of those wrong!

I have managed to suss out where I was going wrong, and so now have plenty of homework this week to keep me busy.

LIFE

Life is but a stopping place

A pause in what’s to be

A resting place along the road

To sweet eternity.

We all have different journeys,

Different paths along the way,

We all were meant

to learn some things,

But never meant to stay...

Our destination is a place

Far greater than we know.

For some, the journey’s quicker,

For some the journey’s slow.

And when the journey finally ends,

We’ll claim a great reward

And find an everlasting peace,

Together with the lord.

Author Unknown

For Liam and Carl