greg hall

see, i have this high school teacher i've kept in contact with after i graduated. his name's greg hall.
for four years, i was his 'cover girl'. say you're a teacher and tomorrow you've got a maths class in the morning and an english class in the arvo. but come tomorrow, you awake totally crook and unavailable to go to work. so you send your lesson plans in, and this mr. hall will organise a 'cover' for you, meaning that some teacher will haveta sit during the class and mind the kids.
now i handed out these cover slips for four years, meaning everyday @ 8:15am i'd knock on his staffroom door, take the slips then run around the school, knocking on doors then calling, "cover for you, sir. cover for you, ma'am." obviously, the teachers HATED me! :P there they were, about to enjoy a free period, when along comes this annoying student to ruin your free period with a lesson for you to cover! the more polite teachers would sigh, frown and politely say 'thank-you, emily," but there was this particular teacher, lisa emu (she had a dash above the 'e'e, 'twas pronounced 'aye-mu') who would go bananas @ me! "take that away!" she'd screech behind her closed door. "i don't want one!" i'd laugh, and stick the cover slip between the door. "righteo, ma'am," i cheerily call, "just leaving the cover in the door. remember to get it!" then i'd just continue my rounds. :P but it was poor mr. hall's turn to cop some flak from her, when i did this job for him on the very last day of school! "shame on you, greg!" she cried, "emily's graduating today, and you're still forcing her to do this for you?!" :P
mr. hall was also my maths teacher in grade ten! tell you the truth, he scared the crap outta me! :P but he'd explain some new maths principle, then @ the end, go, "right, who doesn't understand?' my hand was always the first up, followed by about 95% of the class. but, because mine was the first up, he'd give a great big sigh. "emily, you WRETCHED child ..." i'd squawk in protest, "but sir, that's not fair! what about everyone else who put their hands up?! why don't you call them wretched children too?!" he'd smirk @ me. 'easy. coz you put your hand up first." huh. ><" :P
actually, that man almost gave me a heart attack, @ the end of the year! you know how in year ten, you get a junior certificate with all the subjects you study and a ranking? like, very high achievement, high achievement, etc. well, all year, i'd been sitting on a high high achievement. but, for the final term four exam, i managed to score well enough on the test to just drag my score up to a very high achievment! mr. hall was so happy for me, he rang my home! can you imagine? me, just home and hearing the phone ring, picking it up. 'hello?" a gruff voice answering, "hello, this is greg hall from canterbury college. can i please speak to emily chan?" my heart PLUMMETED, and i was thinking, "oh, S-H-I-T, what have i DONE?!" in a quavery voice, i answered, 'speaking, sir. what's up?" he told me the good news, and @ first, i was ecstatic! then i got grumpy. "for goodness sakes, sir, couldn't you have left that news and told me tomorrow?! you've just taken ten years off my life!" :P
anyways, when i first fell sick with the blasted brain tumour, mother rang the school and let him know what had happened to me.
later, when i was in the rehab ward, he came visiting bearing gifts! he'd just taken a school history trip to turkey, see, and when he'd taken the kids out shopping, he'd called back two girls. "i have a former student who's in hospital right now, he explained to them, 'and i wanna buy her sth. here's some money, please buy her sth girly." and they came back with a really pretty bracelet and necklace for me. :)
he also gets me tees from all the places that he visits! but lol, poor man has zero fashion sense. :P the first time he bought me a tee, it was so BIG that even my dad couldn't fit into it! but then, the second time he bought me a tee, 'twas so SMALL even my mum couldn't fit into it! :P
anyways, i last saw him around the beginning of this year, when he was dropping off souvenirs he'd bought me from his last trip to morroco! he said i could contact him again around my birthday and we'd go and have lunch together. so i e-mailed him @ the beginning of march. he didn't reply, but rang mother, explaining to her that he was too busy right now to celebrate but that he'd contact us during term break one hols and we'd go out to celebrate then.
sure enough, last sunday, he suddenly pops over! i'm just having some fun with my SHINE guests, michael and kathy. when i hear his voice, i quickly whisper the quadratic formula to them, unless the scary man meets them and demands they answer that question. but he doesn't, just asks me where i wanna go to celebrate my belated birthday, and after i leave, kathy says to me, "he seems quite nice, em.' lol! :p
anyways, we decide on toscani's @ garden city! mother just says i'm not allowed an omelette again, can't remember why, but oh well. but this time, she lets me have malt in my chocolate milkjshake! i've never tried that before, yummy! anyways, i browse the menu, then order a club sandwich. mother tries battered fish and chips (we trade one slice of chicken for one wee chunk of chicken, and mr. hall has chicken "stuffed with some stuff." hey, he said that, not me! :P
and wow! mr. hall bought me john howard's autobiography, lazarus rising, as my birthday present! i must've told him that i wanted that book sometime!
and he even shouted us lunch. :) we both hugged him before he left.
last point of mention; i'm so proud of mother, who didn't diss anyone today! usually i cop brickloads of flak from her, as can random others. >< but mother was very nice today. :)
anyways, drawing this post to an abrupt end coz i do believe that mother's gleefully forcing me off to bed in three minutes. :P
next post here ... maybe toms! think i'm seeing the dentist ... my poor teeth are already chattering in fear. :S i'm a bit of a dental disaster, see. :P but will explain toms!
cheers,
em. ^^