I was expecting it to be very stressful but they were very good. It was just a shame we found out when they were coming less than 24 hours before, because all our junk has gone too and I’ll have to sort it out when we get there. I’m fairly sure a box of bubble wrap has been shipped over – not really a household essential!

The day before we had driven up to ikea in a van to buy sofas – and had the most successful ikea trip ever. We ended up with the black sofas we wanted and red cushions that have turned out to be pink (cerise). Do you think black and bright pink is going to make a comeback? After that we had to do a quick Sainsbury’s trip to stock up on Taste the difference Earl Grey among other things (600 tea bags might last me till Christmas?). The cashier thought we were mad!

So now we’re doing the last of the goodbyes and are off on Monday. I feel a little bit guilty that I don’t actually feel very sad to be going. So many of my friends are so scattered that I don’t really feel that we’re that much further away. We’ve had such a glut of family visits too that it will be nice to have some time alone to make our life in la Suisse. I’m just hoping now that the renovations are substantial enough and that the place is clean!! Then all we need is a nice gentle ease into the term…

It’s only now that I’m beginning to get a little nervous. A man from Credit Suisse called me yesterday to reply about an email I sent to them re: getting some form of loan for a car. He spoke to me in English but mentioned that I had written in French. I didn’t know what to do in the situation as he didn’t break into French and all I could think about afterwards was that I should have spoken to him in French and what was going to happen if I was this crap. Apparently I can’t get a loan for 12 months anyway which is a bugger – and something they don’t mention when you’re looking on the car websites!

You have to be insured for everything. Our canton requires us to have helicopter insurance in case we have to be rescued off the side of a mountain.

For the last couple of weeks I have been attempting to learn vocab. in order to be able to understand the assurance maladie (not covered in my degree) only to realise that the one English company who gave me a quote were by far the better option (JBI). Now, I’m in the home contents insurance plus personal liability (assurance ménage et responsabilité civile) part of things. I think I’ve found one which seems reasonable but, having normally designated insurance to my other half, I’m not sure we’re insured for enough. Short of sitting down on a very muggy afternoon and making a list of what it would cost to buy everything we own new (not an inviting prospect!), I’m not sure how one goes about this. Is CHF 90’000 enough for 2 people, where most of the furniture etc. they use will be someone else’s?

Right, now to Rega for that helicopter insurance… at least I get a free desktop picture!

What a lot we have to do still. Although, apparently, my organisation borders on neurotic. “You think of things that no one else would think of.” Words of comfort from my other half on pestering him about his teacher’s pension and making him fill in tax forms.

So far the list is only one postit long (but only because I’ve written really small!). How exciting!

Wedding one this weekend was on the south coast of England. Beautiful weather. Strange little church but had connections with the family, nice jokey ceremony. Lovely hotel for the reception with delicious champagne but no opportunity to take pictures of the couple – they had ‘journalistic’ photos. Speeches before the meal (?). So much food! and there was a barbecue straight afterwards. Started at 1pm and we ended up leaving around 10:30 (the other half doesn’t dance!) as we were getting up early to catch a flight for wedding number two. Overall feel: nice, didn’t know anyone, far too much food, got a bit bored, couldn’t talk to friends who were getting married.

Wedding two was on an island. Beautiful, beautiful weather. Stunning church, stunning bride. Very serious service – had to keep nudging other half and friends who were in the groom’s eyeline. Missed throwing the expensive confetti. Were filmed – eek! Drinks at the local castle – free-flowing Pimms. We lost the bride and groom – apparently her dress split while she was getting out of the car. They turned up and the bulk of us had sunk a fair few Pimms without any real food since breakfast. We kept being piped by a piper! Buses took us to the reception. Reception venue was another church – there was some discussion over feeling right drinking in a church, then we stopped caring. Reception was stunning with a ‘starry sky’ ceiling. Speeches before dinner (sic). Heckling in the speeches – bottles of champagne on the table. All of this filmed – eek eek. Dinner! (8 hours with only alcohol for the majority of the guests). I don’t remember much about dinner, except that the lamb was like this:

and I just couldn’t work out how to eat it so it didn’t. Somebody started playing drinking games and then came the cèilidh (pronounced kā’lē) which was enormous fun but I only remember laughing, crying, dancing, laughing (repeat ad infinitum). The next morning there was some question as to whether the large group of the groom’s friends had behaved ok (apparently someone was sick under a table, more made it more discretely to the loos). I’m still debating this. There was no bar. All the alcohol was supplied by the hosts and no food was provided before about 18h00. The large group of friends had all flown out and booked central hotels at great cost and were very good friends with each other and the groom, they also all play sport together (that notorious combination). While I am sure that the vomiting in the main room was way out of order, is the drunkenness? Especially, as I remember it, the cèilidh would have be disastrous without our enthusiasm!

I went into school yesterday, planning to stay only for the morning when I had classes and leave in the afternoon, and as a result of the ‘kindness’ of the cover officer have decided to stay off today – gathering force for tomorrow! She can be such a bitch! There I am, red-nosed and croaky, and she just looks pissed off and tells me to fill in a form.

I’m at the stuffed nose, sore throat turning into cough stage but am hoping to be better by the end of the week as we have two weddings to go to. As for arrangements for the move, I have been frantically emailing people in la Suisse for information on our residence permit. Neither of us had realised, or even considered, that we would need this for our things to clear customs! But the local commune has just emailed me telling me that the HR person at our new school will be in touch today. So fingers-crossed it is all ok!

At the moment I’m panicking about a very busy week next week and my ability to make friends when we move. Not one of my friends has replied about our leaving party, my two best friends have but the ones I am waiting to hear from are ones that I see less frequently but who I try to keep in touch with. I always go out of  my way to visit them and to go to their parties. Maybe they’ve all gone on holiday together.

I really want to make some good friends in Switzerland and some francophones at that. When we visited, the locals were reluctant to speak to us in French and I’ve always considered myself quite fluent. I might have to find a tutor – perhaps one of my students! I guess I will just have to persevere and be uncharacteristically outgoing.

We spent a fair amount of time gossiping and I felt a little bit guilty. One of the accusations being slung at the fish in charge of me almost certainly originates from me. I thought about saying something and I thought about whether I should take back my complaint. But I stand by my accusation that I was not given enough support when I started and that now it is better but this is in part because I’m leaving. It doesn’t matter that we now get on alright. If I am ever asked to ‘préciser’ then I will, but I haven’t and now je m’en fiche. I will forever fight my battle of professional vs personal. I can’t be the only person in the world who thinks that you can have both a professional relationship with someone and a personal one. How you relate to them professionally can be considered differently providing both parties understand the boundaries. Professionally I find this fish lacking in support because she is very much a perfectionist and slightly obsessive in it. Personally, she is lovely and friendly and even fun at times.

So, inactivity was rife in the pond today. And the activities planned by the year 10s ended earlier than expected which left me with 30 students in the gym for half an hour having been told that I was a teacher and could think of something to entertain them. So, I told them that as soon as I could reasonably get away with letting them out they could go. They entertained themselves and I tried to ignore my total lack of control over them!

It seems that being observed is one of the most stressful activities that a teacher can undergo. Someone else in my department, a head of subject was being observed yesterday and she was nervous. It was only a performance review observation and done by such an easy going teacher that it seemed weird to me that she was stressed. She was going to pass regardless of the lesson she taught and new objectives would be written down for next time and forgotten about until then.

Observations, and more specifically casual observations, have been a big issue in the language pond recently. The Grouper, who is a recent addition and not really in tune with the rest of the pond, is in charge of all the languages. She likes to flex her gills as well as sidle up beside all the other fish and be their best buddy. She had the great idea of casual observations, collating evidence etc. etc. And I gave it my backing, little plankton that I am. I tried to convert the older teachers to the idea that we could all learn so much from each other, and I’d like to think that they were coming round to the idea. But the casualness dropped away and stern emails were sent about the standards of teaching and learning, and now everyone smiles when the Grouper swims by but no one wants her as their boss, nevermind their buddy.

The truth is, the department is excellent, excelling in teaching and learning. It just sometimes suffers from being a little old fashioned, something that it is very well aware of and working on improving. Inter-departmental observations are something that do occasionally happen, but mainly old teachers watching young (in relative teaching years, not age) wondering how they could do everything they currently do and add the innovations.

I love observing other teachers, particularly within languages. Sometimes I’ll admit to getting bored and doodling but most of the time I’m constantly stimulated with new ideas. I don’t often use something I’ve seen just as I’ve seen it but tend to adapt it for my own. But today it was me being watched.

Yes, I was nervous. But it wasn’t because I was being marked or assessed; it wasn’t because I’d planned the world’s most ingenious lesson and I was worried it would go wrong. It was because I knew that I had given myself a reputation and that now I had to live up to it. When I first started in the pond, I really struggled. I was driving too much, working too much and knew I had to keep this job. I foundered and did not do myself justice. Then, I got a new job; one I will excitedly start in September. I set my union on the head and I told myself it didn’t matter now anyway and I suddenly refound my feet. My lessons reflected it and my reputation is now that of a good teacher, who has an amazing classroom atmosphere and engages her students with challenging and fun activities.

The person watching me had already teased me about living up to this, which I actively shy away from, and I was definitely nervous. But today was a good day. My year 7s were as charming as ever, as inquisitive and intelligent as ever and I think we managed to fool her. Yet, I can’t help reflecting on it. Throughout the lesson I felt her eyes on me and, although I did nothing different, I felt as if I were acting ‘me’, the me I should be and I enjoyed it so much more!