Words of Wisdom

Youth is wasted on the young.

Friday 14 December 2007

Feeling Childish and Churlish

Well, that's it. Done and dusted. Another academic year in the bag. I am exhausted and its my birthday tomorrow!! :-)

We finished off the term in a very civilised fashion indeed after Presentation Night on Thursday. This morning at 9 am we attended a Staff Breakfast at the Stamford Grand in Glenelg. It is one of my 'before I die' dreams to walk down the magnificent staircase in the foyer, wearing a ball gown, as a crowd of people wait for me at the foot of the stairs. Applauding. (That's the 'childish' bit....)

But I digress. We had a sumptuous buffet breakfast followed by 'bonding' games. The first saw each table being given a topic and 15 minutes to write a song about it. Extra points would be awarded for performance including innovative use of tableware, and anything else lying around, as props. Our topic was The Leadership Team. It should have been a great deal of fun. (Here comes the 'churlish' part....)

At our table however, were an eclectic assortment of persons. One, the wife-to-be of a quietly spoken gentleman employee of the school, was an ex-pupil and had some experience in music and a singing background. Now as anyone will tell you, this is the last thing you need for a staff bonding session where you are going to be asked to perform silly songs. Rather you would need an intimate knowledge of the day to day working life of the employees of the school, a good knowledge of all 'running jokes' and some small degree of wit. Unfortunately no-one had told her this and she very quickly hijacked the proceedings.

After floundering on the idea of a tune we could rewrite, some bright spark suggested 'Yesterday' by the Beatles and our intrepid leader was off! She virtually single handedly rewrote this dirge into the most lame excuse for a humorous song that you could imagine and even when helpfully given salient bits of information and advice from table participants she blithely ignored them and continued to cavalierly write out multiple copies of this abomination for us all to perform.

I would rather have stuck pins in my eyes.

As expected, the other tables came up with hilarious and relevant items such as

(to the tune of the 12 Days of Christmas)

On the first day of Ter-erm,
My Principal said to me
"You're late for devotions again."
On the second day of ter-erm,
My Principal said to me
"Ten minutes for recess and you're late for devotions again."
On the third day of Ter-erm
My Principal said to me
"Twice weekly staff meetings, ten minutes for recess and you're late for devotions again."
(classic comedy)

or

(To the tune of My Favourite Things)

Queues at the canteen and Year 9 for PE
Jams in the copier and a double lunch du-ty
MP3 players in Christian Living ( note:a subject area)
These are a few of my least favourite things.....
(side splitting)

OR
(To the Tune of The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy)
(on the subject of our new underground carpark)

The wisemen built de carpark and de cars go down (there were actions to this one too)
The wisemen built de carpark and de cars go down
The wisemen built de carpark and de cars go down
And de fumes go up in de morning ( a small design flaw...utterly hilarious in context however...really!!...)

etc etc etc you get the picture.

Ours wittily went

"yesterday, all their troubles seemed so far away
Now they need a place to hide away
Oh we believe in *insert name of Principal*

snooooorrrrrrre

Predictably we did not get very far on the clap-o-meter and did not make the final cut :-)

Do not ask me why this has stuck in my craw the way it has! I am aware of how petty it is! Of course I must let go and get over it. It is only a song for goodness sakes!!! It was only a team building exercise. A bit of fun! A laugh! hahahaha.

Gggrrrrr. It would have been ok but she wasn't even on our staff!! Any one of us there could have come up with something mildly relevant and a little bit funny, given half a chance, but there was no stopping this juggernaut and we were all too polite to say anything.

So, now I've got that off my chest :-) I can go back to being professional, genial, grown up and Christlike in my tolerance and acceptance of others. Please forgive me dear readers. I am only human.

Since it is now my birthday I suppose I am grown up and must let such trifles wash over me.
Chizz chizz chizz >:-(

Post Script
I was lying in bed composing the song I would have written given a chance when Himself came in, gave me a cuddle and said "Let it go dear, let it go."

5 comments:

A Free Man said...

Letting things go is the HARDEST and most rewarding thing I do on a daily basis. I feel your pain ;)

You threw a line in there about your birthday. Is it today? If so - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Jeff Keith said...

I think I like the Favorite Things song the best!!! Congratulations on the end of the year!

Maggie said...

It is so weird to think about a school year ending in December! But then again, I guess that makes a lot more sense than ending in the middle of the year, when you stop to think about it...

Anonymous said...

Isn't it funny the things that can really bug you? Maybe your family can write you a nice funny birthday song to ease the pain! Happy Birthday!

Blueberry said...

i would have been mighty annoyed too! :)

congratulations on finishing up the school year!!