Murphy's Law?

 Warning! This is a rant. I'll forgive you if you don't read the rest of this post. 

Stress out mama by biting the smallest? Me?

I think this phase began in early January.

The car lets me down in an underground car park at the shopping centre, spilling diesel.

It's an inconvenience, but it's quickly towed  and fixed.

Headaches during the long Carnival weekend put paid to any outings or gardening.

The car lets me down on the way to lunch with a friend.

It's towed and fixed, taking more than a month's salary! Yikes! My insurance gets me a replacement car.

The builder finally finishes the new roof on the back patio. Took him 2 months! He might have to wait another 2 until I have enough money to pay him...

I discover my blood pressure is high. I feel exhausted and headachy all the time.

The car lets me down, again. That doesn't help my blood pressure, plus I get a bad cough from standing in the sun waiting for the tow truck.

I miss 2 lessons and go home to take a sedative. 

An hour later they tell me the car is "fixed".

I drive out for the last lesson of the same day and guess what? When I try to drive home, it won't start! I call the mechanic, he comes out, fiddles around a bit, takes me home and then gets the car to the garage. Next day he tells me the car is fixed. I don't really believe him. I'm scared to drive it away. I tell him to test it for another day while I go on strike.

At the weekend, I don't take the dogs to dog school because I'm scared the car will break down in the sticks.

I can't get enough sleep because my coughing keeps me awake.

My big dog bites my small dog, again! I also get a tiny hole in my arm separating them. Both bites seem to be heeling.

It's time to do my Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day post, I take some pictures of my neglected garden, but cannot write the post.

I have tons of work to do and the boss (Ministry of Education) decides I need 2 days of training plus a placement test (Yes, I have to do a placement test!) to give the students the PET test. I feel insulted! Along with all my colleagues who have to do this.

I will have to give up my free day (free to keep up with school paperwork, that is) plus a day of lessons in which I had important things to do with the students to go to this training session. Oh, and I need to take earphones for my listening test! But I'm allergic to earphones!

April and May will be great fun, running around to other schools when the kids have to do the oral part of the exam and then correcting their written tests. What fun! I'll get to meet so many different colleagues and students! I wonder if my car will get me around the Algarve. All this while teaching my own classes and keeping up with my paperwork. Oh, and we don't get paid for the extra hours we'll be putting in.

I sure hope this phase ends soon!

The car has worked OK for 3 days now. I don't know if this will continue.

The good, the bad, and the ugly!

The Good

It seems the state school system has reconsidered and decided to take me off the list of teachers for whom there would be no timetable next year. I should feel very lucky, but somehow I don't, because I was made to apply for a transfer and that application was ignored.

The Bad

It's a pity that I and over ten thousand other teachers had to go through uncertainty and anxiety until the lists were published yesterday. We were all forced to apply for transfers, knowing they were few and far between. July was stressful and August should have been a relaxing holiday but the worry about possible unemployment was always there in the back of our minds.

The Ugly

The state decided that teachers will all work more (have another two periods with students on the timetable) and have more students per class (30 students), I have no idea how it is that they found a timetable for many of us, all of a sudden. For all I know, I could be teaching subjects other than English at several different schools (with no transport allowance).

The new decisions have horrific consequences for teacher unemployment. Over 50 thousand teachers applied for teaching posts - nearly 40 thousand will be visiting the job centres around the country next week. Such is the life of a teacher in Portugal.

Related post: Time Out 

Work

On a Sunday, how do I come up with a post about Work, which is the theme for the Sunday post challenge set by Jake this week? 

Well, my still small photo collection has come to the rescue.

While exploring the town of Alcácer do Sal, I came upon a panel of ceramic tiles along one of the main roads, Avenida José Saramago. It is a very long panel depicting some traditional features, animals and activities from this area of the Alentejo. 

Today I am just going to focus on the images of people at work. 

Many people used to work on the production of salt, extracting it from sea water, as the name of the town suggests - Alcácer do Sal (do Sal = of the salt).

Working on the production of salt.

Fishing was and still is a very important activity.

Fisherman at work.

The fish was traditionally sold by the women, who carried a basket on their head and went around the town selling door-to-door.

Traditional fish seller.

The Alentejo is well-known for its cork oak trees. The cork (outer bark) must be removed every 9 years and regenerates itself. Cork is used to make cork stoppers among other things.

Removing the bark from the cork oak tree.

The Alentejo is also known as the "breadbasket of Portugal" due to its cereal production.

No combine-harvesters in the not-too-distant past - just hard labour.

  

Looking at these people at work makes me appreciate just how nearly every job has been made lighter by machines. And yet, we still look forward to the weekend...