Home Comforts

Over the past five weeks I've been suffering through my first teaching practice placement and I'll selfishly admit I did marvellous. Marvellous, in the sense that not once through its entirety have I squealed out some of the endless side-splitting entertaining stories I've received from these little red faced senseless children. It's called being professional, I believe. Therefore no matter how pain inducingly funny the tale was I refused to blurt it out. Go me, I'm so winning at this being a teacher ballgame.

Being on this placement meant I was home for (including the Christmas season) seven whole weeks. To put it in perspective seven whole weeks of sumo wrestling my brother for the remote control, bestowing temporary blindness through the use of lasers on my sisters who dared annoy me and pondering on a biweekly basis if you'd successfully get away with smothering your entire family in one rampage. However, this post intends to focus on the positives of being home which are equally as fabulous.

1. Food. Whilst in college budgets are restrained on a tight lead and food typically becomes one of the least important necessities. Whatever money you do grant towards food is usually broken down between the healthy nutritious stock and your basic top-of-the-notch trash. The sugar coated goodness always gets priority and thus whilst at home having the option to swipe from the fruit bowl was nice. Having the option to have a wholesome breakfast and not spend a fortnight avoiding your landlord was even nicer. My mother is no Gordon Ramsay, but this month in particular I got to truly appreciate the art of a home made Irish Mammy dinner. The shepherds gathered most Tuesday evenings to tackle into their pie and there was a flavoursome tae-kwon-do battle between the bacon and the cabbage on the majority of Thursdays.

2. Heating. My college room is so cold that before diving into slumber land your softest, fluffiest hoodie is required in hood up format to challenge the severe dampness generated on my pillow. The windows are smeared in condensation and when it's not raining outside it tends to rain inside due to multiple leaks arising. Being home meant the open fires were always in full swing, oil had better uses than battering your chicken goujons and frostbite hadn't seized your remaining toes.

Here's an image of my college house, live from Google earth.

3. Conversation. I don't exactly like the people I live with down in college (apart from one or two of them) and I'm pretty certain the feeling is mutual. It's not even that I hate them. It is just all dialogue is awkward, small talk becomes a way of life and bed time commences alarmingly early most nights. Whereas in comparison at home I get on really well with everyone. We are a close family. I'm talking regular close, not all-six-of-us-sleep-in-the-same-bed close. We get on and we know each other well enough to try our best to avoid confrontation. That's not to say we don't fight seventy percent of the time because we do, but anything is better than my current living circumstances.

4. Decent Showers. We possess this magical shower at home. It was most likely crafted by an angel or Cara Delevingne, which is basically the same thing. It scalds your skin while at the same time taking you to this special place where all WiFi connections have no password, Cilla Black is kept in a cage and assignments have no deadlines i.e. heaven. I miss it more than any human being while away.

5. Cleanliness. I don't consider myself a neat freak and my home house is no palace. Nonetheless we do behold some pride in ourselves to not let the rats ring up (in desperation) Aggie and Kim from Channel 4's How Clean Is Your House? appealing for some better kept living conditions. The same cannot be said for the majority of my third level house-mates who confuse the floor for the fridge and the sink for the toilet.