The Staffroom has an unfamiliar look about it. It has been painted over the summer months, new furniture is installed and a microwave oven now sits where Tom the grouch usually holds forth. The changes are not to his liking.
"Where did the boss get all this money for that yoke when I couldn't get an overhead projector out of him all last year?"
Bit early for the rest to get drawn in to criticising the boss after he being so generous with half-days all the first week and a drink after the first staff meeting.
The first staff meeting was a dull affair. After the ritual praise for all those who achieved such brilliant results in the Leaving Certificate, he droned on to lay down very definite markers as to a code of discipline for the coming year.
As the room got warmer and the sun started beaming in relentlessly through the open windows, the feeling of deja vu permeated the back-benchers who wished they were out toning up the tan achieved at great expense and much exposure to the Ibiza sun.
It is not only the kids who look well on their return to school. It was obvious, for example, that Mary had worked on an overall tan that wouldn't get much of an exposure in a majority-male staffroom.
Pat hates to be taken for granted. He was furious when Tom McGrath phoned him the night before the Leaving Certificate scripts were on view to ask him if he would meet him at the school at 11 a.m. on the Saturday to help him view the scripts.
"The same bucko phoned me in late May, having been out of school for a week, to ask would I mind dropping round to his house any notes I gave out in class when he was absent." Titters all round the staffroom.
"Did you go, Tom?" asks Mary innocently.
"Did I have an option? That fella would blacken my name in the area if I refused."
Jane, the guidance counsellor, is trying to muster up enough students to spend a day at the Higher Options Conference in the RDS next week. She announces that there are only tickets left for the Friday, much to the disappointment of those who have senior classes on the Wednesday and Thursday. She moves quickly up the popularity stakes when she announces that she will be able to manage the group on her own.
The Galway folk on the staff are looking forward to winning the All-Ireland football final, the first-year intake seems to be a decent bunch and the Leaving Certificate class looks to have potential.
Whisper it - there are only a few weeks left to the mid-term break! Who said it was only the students who looked forward to time off from school?
