What's mildly irritating you today?

[ZenGum]

It's even better if you do it on a beach in Jamaica or Aruba.


Yeah, you know, Pilates of the Caribbean.

[Aliantha]

key lago, montego?

[ZenGum]

baby why don't we go ...

[Aliantha]

down to cocomo...

(is this getting a bit pathetic yet?)

[ZenGum]

It was awesome until you spelled Kokomo wrong

I was a teenage lad when that video clip came out. They must have spent so much on hot chicks, they had virtually nothing left for the wardrobe budget. Which was what the chicks wore.

[Aliantha]

lol...I knew I'd get that one wrong somehow.

Yeah, I remember the clip, and the movie 'cocktail' that went with it. I really loved both and still enjoy them every now and then.

Brian Brown. What a sly dog!

[Sundae]

OMG I loved that song!
It sounded like the soundtrack to a holiday I didn't have.

I am mildly irritated today by my inability to break the rules.
I got into a conversation with a lady on the street today. Asian woman with two children. Hopelessly confused, trying to follow directions. It didn't help that whoever had written them down for her had written them pretty much phonetically. In fact she may have written them herself over the phone. So she was looking for Midluck Road instead of Matlock Road.

She was trying to find the local school - my old school, the one my sis works at - and having little better to do I walked her there, answering questions along the way. She had a strong East Midlands accent as well as a Pakistani accent, but was probably a second generation immigrant. Amongst other things she was looking for an after school tutor for her 11 year old. Having heard my background she asked if I ever had time in the afternoons/ evenings. I baulked. I explained I had no certification, no experience with older children, no qualifications.

She persisted - I could tell her what books were needed of course.
And my knee-jerk reaction was still to politely refuse, with regret.

Of course it was the right thing to do.
But she admitted the last tutor she had for her daughter charged £35 a session and was also not qualified. But she was an Asian and she cheated her. She didn't even work in a school, she was just a student. (Her words)

I DID THE RIGHT THING.
Of course!

But in hindsight I wish I was more laissez faire about rules.
I'd have bent over backwards to make sure the girl benefited. Even if it meant a crash course in how they teach maths these days (offered to parents when their children change from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2 and when they change to Secondary school - 75% of parents attend it at my school).

Reminds me of the time I was invited to join a gang of plasterers/ chippies/ carpet fitters who were doing up a block of flats. I was to be their "interior designer". Because I wore large tortoiseshell glasses, talked posh and looked good in a lycra skirt. I didn't have the balls. Just as well in that skirt. I could've been the next smiley, smiley Carol Smillie.

Or the time I was invited to help run a bar in Spain. I was given an on the spot invite by a man on his way out of the country to do just that.

Or when Sir Terence Conran wanted to poach me (not literally) from the Gaucho Grill.

Damn.
I can't say I haven't had any offers I suppose.

Then again, I did turn down John the other day. Tall black man who wanted to take me back to his place to smoke weed. I'm sure he was lovely, but sometimes it does pay to be cautious.

[Trilby]

Um...honey? You DO know that man who invited you to "run a bar"
in Spain was a white slaver -right??

[Sundae]

Actually, he came in the pub more than once in his last fortnight in the country (English man hired as Bar Manager)
He wrote to me twice from Spain with photos and stuff, if'n I'd agreed my flight would have been paid too.
He'd seen me tend bar, baby. He knew I was the best.
But by then I was tied to home and work by a loser who I ditched a matter of months later.

Maybe they were ALL lucky escapes. But I know it was lack of confidence that made me turn them down. Hence regret.

I dispute the idea that you only regret the things you never did.
BOLLOCKS!
Still, there are things I wish I'd had a bit more chutzpah about.

Except John. No, that was a good choice.

[infinite monkey]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

It was awesome until you spelled Kokomo wrong

She had me at Key Lago.

[Aliantha]

Sundae, what qualifications do you need to tutor an 11 yr old child? Maybe it's different over there, but there are a lot of students who offer tutoring to younger students here.

[monster]

Here too, but I think Sundae left school at 16?

[ZenGum]

Exactly! Sundae has five years edge on that whippersnapper.

At 35 quid an hour ... ooohhh, the temptation!

[monster]

there is that.... 5 years is half that kid's life.....

[infinite monkey]

I get to work and see that my drama-ridden friend called me at 7:40 a.m. She started a new job recently so she should have been at work. They have so many cell phone numbers that have come and gone I just hit redial (I think she might have called from her husband's phone) and she answered. Then, nothing.

And she didn't call back. I called the number she usually calls from and no answer. So I'm thinking something happened (her husband has had unexplained seizures in the past) but I don't know what.

As I said, there tends to be a lot of drama there so I won't just react blindly, but I'm worried, and a little irritated that it's probably nothing but why the hell would she have called at such a strange hour, during her work hours and during my drive in to work?