Our boy's off school today

with a kind of general malaise - a cold, fatigue, generally under the weather.

He's had a hard week, a couple of bad grades in school (though his maths was OK thankfully).

It is hard for these ex-pat kids. The school day is longer. There's more homework. The language is still not your own. And the bugs still do the rounds. Catrin's school was ravaged by a "gastro", a tummy bug, earlier this week. Maybe Gwilym's coming down with that.

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Alan said…
I met the mother of one of Gwilym's chums on the tram last night. He's a really nice lad and we were very sad when he switched to a rather more respected school a tram ride into town in Talence. Anyway, they live within 1/2 mile of us so the lads see each other occasionally.

She said "Hi, how's Gwilym ? Is he going into the 4th next year ?"

I thought - funny opening question - I wonder how her lad's doing, then.. I said "Oh nothing's been decided yet" - which is true. In our school they don't decide that till much later in the year.

She said "Oh yes - nothing's been decided yet"

I said "But Gwilym's off school today. Nothing serious. A cold, tiredness, unwell generally."

Her: "Oh yes. F was off on Monday with a temperature. It's a really hard term for them at the moment and they get so tired"

Me: "And the sky is grey and the day is long and everyone's a bit depressed. In the UK it was February but here it's January that's the low spot..."

Her: "yes, and it's not a physical fatigue. It's a mental fatigue."

Me: "yes, they need to burn off energy."

Her (getting off at her stop) "Love to all"

There we are. It's the time of year, the weather, the general state of affairs at present. I was thankful for this conversation that reassured me that this low is not unusual.
1:28 pm
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