The main conference day was probably the most boring thing I had ever sat through, 2000 teachers in one hall talking about their problems in the classroom. This year it was being held in Bournemouth in the beautiful county of Dorset, Southern England. I spent so many holidays in Dorset when I was a child with my parents. That was the main reason I decided to come to this conference, to revisit some of my childhood memories.
The fondest of which were hunting for fossils with my father, he is dead now but walking down on Bournemouth beach squishing the sand through my toes bought so many memories of him flooding back. I sat alone in the crowded conference hall drifting off and daydreaming imagining that I was eight years old again, kicking and flicking stones over with my toes to see if they had the telltale markings under them, just how my father had taught me.
I would run to him so excited with an old brick or rock for him to crack open. It was only years later that I found out that he had bought fossils from local shops and pretended that I had found them. Tears formed in the corners of my eyes as I remembered him, he was a wonderful man.
Children were down in the sea, running back and forth laughing and shouting trying to avoid the crashing waves. The dream took me right back to being with my little sister as mum shouted for us to be careful. I had wonderful times here, times I had hoped to share with my own children. Unfortunately my life took other directions, my career took off and I just never seemed to get around to a having my own family. In my line of work to be honest, it didn't have space for children. That brought me back to reality and these boring, speeches, thank god we were due lunch in ten minutes.
The set-up for lunch was very good, the conference hall has been the venue for many political parties catering for tens of thousands, so this would be child's play for them.
Arthur, my co-lecturer and colleague from the Uni accompanied me down here went up to the bar to get the drinks while I sorted us a table. He was a nice bloke, a bloke's bloke I think the saying goes. He worked out three nights a week, was the rugby coach at school and was built like the proverbial shithouse. A good looking man and a great sense of humour, he had everything going for him and I was surprised to find that he was single although I did find out later that he had been married twice. I was not looking for a long term partner, so even with all of his fine attributes he didn't tick all my long term boxes, but he would be ok for an occasional fuck or two though, if the chance arose.
I took the liberty of ordering for us both from the waitress because he looked like he might be a while, the bar queue was five deep. I give him his due though because even with his immense size he didn't push to the front which he could quite have easily done. He waited patiently for his turn, I didn't mind the long wait because it was just nice to be away from those boring speeches.
He came back with a large red wine for me and a larger for himself.
"I have ordered two more to be brought over in half an hour ok Abi."
I smiled, he was a thoughtful man and it would save another 20 minutes queueing up.
"We have two chicken curries on the way, I hope you like curry?" I said.
"I love a curry, and it's nice to have a lady take charge for a change." He said, "I usually have to take the lead."
Again I smiled, 'little did he know' I thought.
The curry was actually superb, probably one of the best I ever had.
"Damn that was good," he said, wiping his lips with a napkin. "I should let you take charge more often."
Again it caused a little smile to cross my lips, he smirked too. My spidey-sense prickled.
He picked up the afternoon brochure and briefly glanced through it, passing a flyer inside to me.
"Oh god," he said with a hint of sarcasm.
"Just what we need, another bloody psychiatrist this afternoon!"
I saw his eyes slowly appear from over the top of his booklet, it was obvious just from the way his eyes were creased that he had a huge grin on his face. I tilted my head, slightly raising a brow giving him a stern look.
He dropped the brochure and laughed, "Sorry, I couldn't resist it." he said. "But to be honest, I might blow the afternoon out. You might like it but it's not really my cup of tea."
I read, 'a change to the afternoon program, Professor Helen Harper from 3-5pm on a talk about students after lockdown.'
"Helen Harper." I said under my breath.
"Yes, she is the mother of one of my players, she's one of you lot." he said, pointing the rolled up brochure in my direction, "A trick-cyclist, her son Graham told me she was asked to do a talk here last week."
I made my way into the hall half hour early to find the best seat for a close up, unrestricted view of her. The room was empty other than a few cleaners and two young teachers that nodded hello as I took my seat. I picked front and centre, my seat was eye level with the stage podium. Placing my bags under the seat I made myself comfy and waited.
It didn't take long for the hall to start filling but to my surprise only the front six or seven rows were taken up. I should've guessed really, I mean who but geeks like myself would want to hear a talk on psychiatry and the psyche of the student population.
She came out carrying a small bundle of papers to great applause from the assembly. My first impressions were that she looked absolutely stunning, she was far prettier and much, much sexier than I ever thought she would be. She didn't look old enough to have a son of twenty years old, she must have had him when she was twelve!
"Hello," she said, as she leant in tapping the mic.
"My name is Helen, nice to meet you all. I am here to talk about our students and the problems they face after two years of the pandemic, with special emphasis on the year of lockdown."
She shuffled a couple of the papers and picked one.
"I have insider knowledge of the problem because I was on both sides of the fence and saw it first hand, my own son spent time locked and unlocked throughout the year."
The thought of it tickled me, 'yes I have first-hand experience of that too' I thought. hmmmm, locking him up had thoughts running around my mind.
"We spent time together at home, and now sometimes at school." She continued, and he changed quite dramatically throughout the time of the pandemic, as did we all."
The audience muttered and the various nods and comments were audible.
"I see a few of you out there have experience of this too."
She had a real presence on the stage and commanded it for the next two hours, the time flew by far too quickly and I could've quite easily sat there listening to her for another two hours. I took her eye a few times and nodded and clapped in all the right places. She was magnificent up there and surpassed all of my expectations of her. I felt like a starstruck teenager seeing their pop idol live for the first time.
After the presentation I met Arthur in the bar, he had the drinks ready and asked,
"Well, how did she come across, did you learn anything you didn't already know?"
"She was incredible." I gushed. "Quite incredible."
"Sexy too eh." He said winking, nudging me in the ribs.
"Fuck off Art, men!" I replied with a grin. "Ok, yes, if I was a man, I would." I said laughing.
"If I was a woman I would too!" he said, laughing a little too loudly at his own joke.
Most of the people at the bar turned to look in our direction, one of those was Helen Harper. She was standing at the end of the bar with what looked like one of the organisers. He was thanking her for breaking into her schedule and giving them a talk.
