Life Choices

Sonata :
Dutch schools don't do two weeks at Easter , being closed for a week to ten days at the end of April for a series of public holidays .
So get to work this morning after Easter weekend , to discover that the boiler (ancient and temperamental ) was cold and the electricity was also out .
It was about 50 Farenheit inside . Wimpy me doesn't take coat off , hardy Dutch colleagues waver and then put scarves back on ..... then coats . None of the parents can be contacted .... no phone , of course . Wait for parent/child combos . Parents appear , desperate to be free of hyper , chocolate-filled pre-schoolers for a while , and wrestle with consciences before deciding that little Whatsisname's contracting pneumonia might be a bit more wearing than a morning of his staging the Decathlon in the sittingroom might be .
Finally get the green card to close . Last parent trails in and is sent home .
All staff cycle off to cafe in town to have coffee and ginger cake and thaw out .
Think , again , how nice retirement sounds . Think that if I'd become Civil Servant as Mother advised , would now be retired .
Cycle home for lunch past an enormous bronze cow , buy olives from Turkish shop , trip over double bass and visiting banjo in hall . Wonder how good I'd have been at "Yes , Minister".
Buy Lottery ticket and go back for the afternoon session .
Boiler dies again .