Thursday 27^th August 2020

School rules describing school uniforms state that black closed sturdy shoes must be worn. Our children, as two of few, wore elegant leather shoes last year that we bought in the UK. This year I hoped, that they would have beautiful leather shoes again and  the children will be able to polish them proudly every day, not wearing trainers or pumps as they originally wanted. Clark’s school shoes imported from the UK cost about £ 70 here (high tax on imported shoes) so I waited until the end of the holidays because the children’s feet are growing very fast, especially Misa’s.  Locally produced shoes are taxed much less and I remembered the famous Czech shoemaker Bat’a (Pronounced “Batya” but now re-branded Bata as most of their market is international) has huge production in Asia – including a factory in Sri Lanka.  I sent Steve and Misa shopping and they returned not with school shoes but very smart business shows as Misa – at age 13 – now has size 42 feet the same as his father and so needs to shop in the men’s section!  Well, he is taller than me already and Steve will be next in line.

The first day at school was PE, so he had to wear a PE kit wearing trainers, but for the second day he wore his smart shoes but come home with a big blister on his right foot despite having a plaster; the shoes fit perfectly, but having spent all the time since mid-March being schooled remotely at home in bare feet or wearing flip flops or soft shoes when going out, he’s unaccustomed to breaking in a new pair of leather shoes. 

Little did the prospective customer know it, but since Steve and Misa share the same size feet (for now at least!) Steve wore his son’s new school shoes to a business meeting to help break them in and found them very comfy.  I bet fathers wearing their son’s school shoes to work doesn’t happen very often!

Emilka and I were buying shoes the day before the start of school. She is much easier to shop for. We had two shops in mind and lucked-in not only by finding an elegant pair of imported leather shoes in the first shop but because they were marked down to 25% of the original price.

Steve and I are very happy that both of our children go to school in smart shoes, unlike the majority turning up in branded trainers in contravention to the school dress code.

And how is their first week of year 9 going?

Apart from Misa’s belt breaking just before the first day (and we can’t find the missing piece), the first two days at school were ok. They were happy to see their friends and teachers, managing to get up at 6 o’clock without any problems, which pleasantly surprised me. Walking and sitting in masks all the time was apparently awful, but they had to follow the rules. Some teachers are difficult to understand with their masks in, so this will have to be addressed. Next came three days of home schooling followed by another week of this 2+3.  Tomorrow though, they return full time to school.

The principal from the school, the headteacher and the deputy headteacher are in the UK and cannot return, so they get up at 2.30 BST and work from home via internet.  Also, a few new teachers began to teach from the UK as they had not reached Sri Lanka when the airport closed.  We will see when they will be able to arrive as we have heard that Sri Lankan airlines will be selling tickets from 1^st of October but also again this week that the airport won’t open until January at the earliest; the authorities are paranoid about becoming overwhelmed and undoing the highly restrictive but fantastic work to keep this island all but Covid-free.  In particular, next door is a rather large country with the tragedy that is a rather large Covid problem.

Rennie