Falling Apples

Today I applied for a job. I know; big deal, I hear you say. People apply for jobs all the time, and yes I agree they do; but for me it was something a bit new. It’s nice...it’s new...it’s different.

Well, to be honest, I’m not sure if it’s nice yet. The weird thing I realised however, is throughout my whole working career, I have either been in the right place at the right time, literally walked from the street into a job or have otherwise, slowly built my own teaching studio.

I know, I am very fortunate; but you can see why I might be having doubts. The position I have applied for is also beyond my experience at a private all girl’s school and although I have worked in one before; I am also very aware of the pressures. 

As Poirot observes;

‘It is like the world in miniature...a microcosm. Hopes, dreams, fears, secrets...full of the promise of youth and the future of the nation. Lonely and silent are the corridors at night...full of the daily struggles of human life—fascinating as the blood stain or the finger-print. Pardonnez moi, mademoiselle. Poirot he drifts, he digresses.’

No wonder Miss Springer got herself stabbed to death with a javelin. It might also be a slight exaggeration these days, and thank goodness I wouldn’t have to live there, forgetting the fact I couldn’t work in the first place as I’m married.

You are probably wondering what on earth I’m talking about—not for the first time I’m sure—but Agatha Christie’s Cat Among the Pigeons is on tonight. It is set in an all girl’s boarding school named Meadowbank, and Poirot is at first called in to find a suitable candidate to succeed the current principal. Oh, and spoiler alert—perhaps I should have said that earlier?

Of course, things start happening. One of the students—Julia Upton—is keen for a murder to be committed by ‘smashing in someone’s noggin with a blunt instrument.’ She is also quite a fan of the gardener Adam Goodman; ‘what a dish,’ she says. ‘Perhaps he has some forbidden fruit knocking around?’

My, my Agatha...a little saucy.

Anyway, I do believe the world moves in mysterious ways and it can be a ‘beastly thing’ when ‘the balance is all wrong.’ 

It is rather like Leunig’s law of large fruit. They are eventually going to fall and the best idea is to get out of the way and allow them to keep rolling—especially if they are full of insects and a young boy named James.

When the balance is right though, and I do get out of the way, I feel like signs appear—paths appear like fork prongs or objects fall from the sky. Fortunately, they are usually feathers, or leaves and not oversized apples or peaches and although ‘angels’ can be undercover agents and quite cunning murderers—most of them are quite nice really.

So, I have decided not to allow myself to become ‘preserved in aspic.’ For one, it sounds rather unpleasant; but I also can see it’s not the best way to evolve. Therefore, I’ve decided to follow the little signs, allow them to roll as far as they like and who knows—I might discover a tennis racket filled with rubies!