Thursday 13 December 2018

4 Years On


It's been nearly 4 years since I posted anything on here.....


.....So I'm going to write a short resume of what happened today, in December 2018, to give a kind of day-in-a-life.

Night slowly turned to day.

I opened my eyes to Leia by my side. She told me she had had a nightmare; a dog bit her on her back, reminicent of Herlock. That was at about 5 am. I comforted her and we were soon snoozing.

Suddenly, we were re-awoken to the sound of a motorbike revving harder and faster. Wroom WROom WROOM! I bolted awake, searched for my Iphone and quickly hit the Snooze button, careful to avoid the Off button.

Another 8 minutes passed until another round of deja-vu took place and so this went on several times.

Finally, we managed to rise from our deep sleep to the beautiful, sunny day that had been gifted to us (by God presumably).

Incentively, I put on Leia's music playlist on Spotify to awaken her. Let it go, Miraculous, Despacito were the mornings first orders. Inspired, Leia was soon dancing on the bed dancing and kicking the air like a kung-fu Ladybug fighter.

Soon reality struck and we were off to school, Nutella sandwich in one hand, and hairband in the other, ready for Gaby, who works an assistant for Ingles Superior and whom is fair more capable of making Leia's hair look good in the morning.

Being the good Dad, I dropped her off at school just on Peruvian time and returned to my school AKA Inglés Superior.

I set to work updating a course book and designing a Summer Kids class poster on photoshop. Routine stuff.

Then came Leia's mother, and tensions seem to be high at this moment. I won't go into details, but we had a tif over something mundane, like what intense means. Well it turned out to be an intense clash of characters, as always. Not good for business mind you and teacher David had to remind us to stay professional. Stay calm people.

So I decided to continue with my day, despite the added drama and I got my books and posters printed, and even popped over to the notary, getting home around midday to eat some juicy pineapple. As always I hoped on the pineapple express line as usual, vice or virtue, what do you think?

Ice creams at the ready, I picked up Leia from nursery.


"What did you do today Leia?" I ask.

"Nothing" replies Leia in her cute British/Peruvian accent.

Hence goes a typical coversation between a 30 and 5 year old.

Opposite the local park, in Marsical Gamarra, Cusco, Leia's 'jardin' is literally within eye sight distance of where we live, as well as Inglés Superior. They are all connected by newly concreted alleys that work at non-perpendicular angles, and situate family-sized houses with mediteranian-stlyed tiled roofs, and it's all very convenient.

By some coinsidence, Alex, Leia, Me and Juliane, a teacher from Liverpool, all met at Inglés Superior.

Julianne and I took the opportunity to meet about the kids course happening in January while Leia and Alex went to cook lunch.

After we had finished, I found 15 minutes to eat what was a Tuna Saltado, a Peruvian play on a stir-fry, before finding myself back in the office, fresh with Quillabamba coffee in-hand. I continued to work on Teflcusco.com while catching ciggy breaks with the teachers. Routine stuff.

Luckily (and gratefully because they are a rowdy bunch) my boys afternoon class was cancelled, thus I could pick up the books I printed earlier, ealier. Unfortunately, they were a bit of a dissapointment because the page numbers were inverted, all facing the inside of the book. Doh! I tried my best but if you don't set up your Word document properly and early on, you gonna fail boi.

Well, back in office. Students enter, greet them,  sip coffe, banter with teachers, sip of coffee, say goodbye to students, skynews in background, breshit on the news again, what a xitxow. More students. Hello. Goodbye. Yadada.

And soon, around 6pm, I call it a day. I go home. At home I decide to, rather spontaneously, go to a pub quiz. It's a Wednesday night and I hadn't been in ages, well, years, just like this blog. I had neglected it a little. And well it' was't quite the same, but was is, everything changes, and despite coming second (out of two teams), we did get best name and free Cusqueñian beer for our creativity. Cheers to: when everyone is a winner.

On my way home, I grabbed some street food. Chicken soup, complete with noodles, oregano and le piece de resistance, a chickens neck. You can't beat Cusco.

Content with the day, I strolled home to find myself home alone, and soon it's Christmas. And I love my life here. It is so very interesting, everyday, but I also miss my friends and family, and look forward to being with them. Especially at Christmas, it's important to reflect a little, and writing is a great way to process information. Recalling your day is a technique I discovered through Yoga and Meditation and has often aided me to become a happier person.

Still though, a sunny Christmas just doesnt quite settle sometimes.