Back to School and Sleeping Arrangements

It is less than three weeks since the builders departed and slowly but surely our life returns to 'normal'.  I resumed teaching on Monday and after my first day jitters, with the promise of a large G&T when I got home, everything has fallen alarmingly quickly back into place and it almost feels like the summer never was.  I will have a little bit of extra work for the first couple of weeks it is true, a) because books have not yet been allocated and b) because I am still organizing my classroom. 

Last year I started halfway through the year and was sharing a classroom with Rose.  This year I am 'full time' and have my own room so I get to decorate it as and how I wish and stock it with crayons and scissors arranged the way I think best.  Not that there was anything wrong with the way Rose had the room organized, far from it, I think that Rose is a wonderful teacher and wonderfully organized, it is just that everybody has their own individual style and it is important to find that style and use it in your class and in your teaching.

In spite of coping with the new term my life feels deliciously unstressful at present.  Possibly as it is simply calmer now without the dreaded builders cramping my style. 

Of course the doggies do have to get used to our new schedule:

I am here every morning, bar the odd foray out to buy food or stationary supplies.  We rise and go for our walk and on return have our yoghurt.  Then I am pottering around the house, upstairs and downstairs with a fleet of hounds trailing in my wake wherever I go.  When I sit at my desk they arrange themselves somewhere beneath me or around me, depending on their mood, and their gentle snoring fills the air, unless a cat yowls or a child shrieks outside, then it is up and barking like lunatics for a couple of minutes, until they tire of that game and arrange themselves once more and start dreaming peacefully again.

Gentle snoring fills the air,  but where will I put my feet?

This continues throughout the morning and in fact until a quarter to three when I depart the house for school.  Then they give me those long sad faces and slink away into dark places under cupboards or behind wardrobes.  So even though we have been together all day so far and I have stopped my work many times to give them cuddles and tummy rubs on demand, I leave feeling like a complete shit!

Upon my return however, they simply go berserk with happiness.  Looki is by far the best jumper.  In fact he is the only one who actually jumps up and down.  Alarmingly he springs higher and ever higher.  I'm sure one day he will succeed in kissing my face from a standing jump.  Kerry stands right up on her little back legs.  She looks so like a performing dog that all she needs is one black eye and a little ruff around her neck.  Her fat tummy is stuck out proudly in front, her nipples arranged like brass buttons down her waistcoat.  Candy is a total love thug who just scrambles over everybody and everything in order to get to me.  She never waits her turn or cares whose back, head or face she steps on in the process.  In this fashion I push my way back into the house again. 

The evening is usually quiet and sedate with the little fluffy whitenesses never straying far from my ankles, anxious that I should not be temped to leave them all alone again.  We watch a bit of rubbish TV, for Candy of course.  We might write an email or two or at times I have to do a bit of work preparation for the next day's teaching.  However, as the evening draws to a close there is a visible sense of excitement and every time I have to go to the loo or refresh my drink or make a cup of tea or any task that takes me closer to the stairs they swell like a wave and you can almost hear them holding their little Westie breaths.  "Will she, won't she?"  They whisper inaudibly.

A little bit of TV for Candy

Finally they get their reward and I say the magic words "Ok guys, it's time for bed!"

Ah bed!  The minute those words are out of my mouth twelve tippy little feet jump into gear and are up the stairs in a flash.  When I arrive in the bedroom they are already slotting themselves into their early nighttime positions.  Looki is under my mother's old chest of drawers, Candy on the green cushion, which was bought originally for Looki when he was an only-child and Kerry takes a stroll out onto the balcony to survey the demesne for cats. 

I prepare myself for bed.  I go into the ensuite to brush my teeth.  It always makes me smile when I think of when the house was just finished for the first time and Victor saying to me, "I've never had a bathroom in my bedroom before" and I replied "neither have I."  This is the time of night for those very sweet reminiscences.

Candy follows me in and lies down under the wash hand basin while I brush.  I sit on the toilet.  She comes over to me and pokes my leg with her nose.  "Love me" she says.  So I do.  Candy is very needy, but so am I, so we fit together pretty well.  Then I get undressed, turn out the light and pop into bed.  Exhausted, I stretch my legs diagonally across the bed, while I have it to myself.  The room is bright enough with street lights and house lights across the way to see, albeit dimly.  I can easily make out three white forms.  One is on the green cushion, another half in and half out of the chest of drawers, a third lies with her head resting on the door frame of the balcony door.  We all drift into unconsciousness.

They sleep anywhere they fit

I don’t sleep as heavily as I used to and dogs, not ours, wake me an hour or so later.  There has been a change of position.  Now Kerry is magically curled up in my arms like a spoon and Candy is on the throw on the foot of the bed and wedged between my two feet.  The boy is out on the balcony.  I can hear him snoring.  I rub Kerry's tummy and we drift off again.  Those blessed dogs!  I awake once more!  This time it is the same dogs to the back of us barking frantically and there are men shouting too.  Kerry is now lying behind me and Looki is on the green cushion.  Candy is nowhere to be seen, but I suspect she is not far.

Some locations are temporary

Once more we fall back to sleep only to be woken a short time later by a loud bang!  Damnation!  Kerry jumps up alarmed and dives under the bed.  Looki walks briskly across the room and dips under the chest of drawers and Candy starts barking her head off and running around in circles.  I tell her to stop it and come to me for a cuddle.  She jumps onto the bed and I try to put my arms around her but instead she jumps on top of my head and then tries to burrow right into my hair.  Eventually she starts to settle and wants to lick my face.  She firmly sits on my head.  I sigh and she jumps down again, chases her tail a couple of times and then curls up on the green cushion.  Peace reigns again.

Candy does like cushions

I awake to perfect peace.  Kerry is once again in my arms, this time with her bottom in my face, I rub her tummy. "Good morning" I whisper.  Candy is stretched down the back of me and as I roll over and say "good morning" to her Looki pokes his head in through the balcony curtain and smiles at me.  He jumps up onto the bed and creeps toward me with his bottom high in the air.  We have great cuddles and then he starts going bonkers and starts burrowing into the side of my body and burrowing up and down the bed making a right dog's dinner of the bedding.  Egged on by him Kerry starts the same tactic until I have to get up out of bed.  The love is great, but they have very hard heads and the sheets are a mess. 

On my way to the bathroom I tousle Candy's head.  Being the perpetual teenager she is still zonked with sleep, it will take her at least another three minutes to start running around desperately looking for cats.  

A Westie made bed