China: Day 0 Part 2

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The flight to Copenhagen went as well as could be expected, given the snowy conditions in Denmark. We arrived with a few hours to spare, and passed the time by playing games.

When the time came we made our way to the departure lounge, which was more of an expedition than a stroll. We sat and waited for a while, to then be shuffled back out into the check-in area we had previously passed on our way to the lounge. The lounge was then screened off, we lined up dutifully to check-in, then we walked through another screened off area which led back into the area we had just been ushered from. A truly fantastic bit of organising.

Our plane was delayed further due to what I thought to be technical problems with the “jet bridge”, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Whatever it was that was the cause of the problem was soon fixed, and we were allowed to board the plane. I then proceeded to the toilet to pop some morphine up my bum, to help the 9 hour flight pass by more pleasurably.

This is the first time we have flown SAS on a long haul; we’ve been suitably impressed by what’s on offer, especially the touch screen monitors placed by every seat. A variety of films, radio stations and games can be selected, and I was very chuffed to see (and play) Atari’s Centipede among the choices.

Neither the drugs, alcohol, books, films or games took my mind completely off the fact we were flying at 900km/h at a height of 10,000 metres above the comparative safety of the surface of the earth, but I became tired enough to doze through half of the journey (which was actually very smooth, with little turbulence). We arrived in Beijing at 7.30 am (14.30 local time) alive and well. Hoorah!

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China: Day 0 Part 1

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We arrived at the airport several hours earlier then we had originally planned. The heavy snowstorms in the south of Sweden and Denmark (our first stop) had caused problems, so we decided to leave nothing to luck and assure ourselves the connection to Beijing in Copenhagen.

Whilst waiting in one of the terminal’s restaurants I pulled out the DS and proceeded to play Animal Crossing to pass the time. An American family came and occupied the table next to ours, and it was during a quick glance that I noticed the son was also engrossed in playing his blue DS. A further glance revealed that he, too was in the midst of an Animal Crossing session.

Seizing the opportunity, I asked if he’d like to do a bit of DS-DS, to explore each other’s worlds. Time passed quickly as we exchanged fruit and tips, and he only stopped when his batteries were just about to give up.

I’m really glad I made the effort to talk to the guy. This is, after all, what the DS was made for.

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Åbergs Museum

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Today the family went to Åbergs Museum, about 45 minutes from our house, northwest of Stockholm.

Lasse Åberg is a well known actor, writer, director, artist and collector of all things Mickey Mouse. Part of the museum was given to this collection, whilst another part has been transformed into a jungle-themed adventure room for children (being based on one of his children’s TV programs, Trazan and Banarne.

Overall it was a nice afternoon out, and this is the first proper car adventure we’ve had since bringing our new car, a Volvo 740, back from the north at Christmas. I’m a little bit nervous about driving any distance, as it’s an old car with a dud battery; however, our (yet to be named) transport behaved itself very nicely, and I’m really looking forward to better weather, when we can start to use the car to its fullest.

Tough Love

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The last few weeks have been interesting for me. To counteract the smaller children’s egregious behaviour I have enforced an iron-fist regime, with a nol-tolerance attitude befit of my teachers in Nazi training camp my secondary school.

Any time one of the children does anything against the classroom rules s/he gets a mark; three marks means I stop the lesson, send the others back to their classroom, and ring the offending child’s parents. Breaking the rules involves anything from speaking without putting up a hand, speaking to a neighbour when a written task has been assigned, slouching or sitting in a position I deem unacceptable, getting up out of a seat without asking and other minor misdemeanours.

Whilst this seems to be rather extreme when considering my liberal views, it has been both necessary and extremely effective. I had been against the idea of imposing such a regime upon the better behaved pupils, thinking it unfair, but, since I need to be consistent with all the children, the less well behaved take advantage of it to the fullest, and a minor deviance by one child can cause a cascade of other unacceptable behaviour.

Luckily, the more respectful among the pupils rarely get more than one mark, meaning I never need to ring these pupils’ parents; the more boisterous pupils have, more or less, become manageable. There is still a lot of work, and probably a fair number of telephone conversations ahead of me, but I fell I have made headway into the problem.

The lessons with the younger pupils are more harmonious, meaning I can relax and have a lot more fun with them, which can only be good for their education. I seldom need to raise my voice, or become angry at their conduct, meaning I’m liking them more and more as individuals. This makes my job far more enjoyable, and I look forward to having lessons with them, a far cry from the Jon of a few months ago.