By a First Hand Observer
Encrusted and barnacled with accretions from millions of purple stencils, it stands as a monument to its own design and construction, somehow enduring massive piles of solid paper and miscovered folders. It rises out of the mists of the staff room ,an object that causes those nearby to shudder with apprehension, lest one of the massive structures tumble and precipitate disaster. Were there an earthquake to occur in the Kogarah area, its epicentre would be the Social Science Staffroom for the object in question sometimes shifts and settles under its own weight and seismologists would know where to look –at MISS FIELD’S DESK , of course!
Topographically speaking, this desk is youthful. It has not suffered weathering and mass wasting to the extent of producing mature U-shaped valleys, for its deep canyons and decided V- shape assist quick disastrous book –falls, slumping , and sliding . Seldom is there slow book –creep. Not infrequently however, washaways occasioned by the spillage of half- drunk cups of cold coffee coat the surface with yet another layer of milk and dissolved sugar, blending with purple dye, lipstick, gestetner ink, and small scattered pimples of liquid paper. The result is a pock -marked contrast of rough and smooth, meandering scratches, twisted paper debris, pencil shavings scree slopes, rubber band vines and creepers, all presided over by the heights of a notice board with cumulus billowing masses of flapping sheets.
(It stands in abject contrast to the ordered calm of neighbouring desks, but its one benefit is to act as a navigation aid to weary teachers blearily wending their way back’ home “ after classroom rigours.)
It is not merely a desk however. It is a filing system that gives no suggestion of rhyme or reason but from whose deepest recesses any sheet can be retrieved in a burrowing of flailing arms and flying paper. Rumour has it that cries for help have been heard at odd times from the ghastly interior regions, but these rumours are unverified as no –one has journeyed to these parts. Theorists suggest that the interior is likely a paper mill, and some go so far as to suggest a forest plantation too ( for pulp of course).Whatever the case, the answer cannot be discerned from the surface.
Tip #1: Look at the Price and have no competition. order cheap cialis But it is! The improper and incomplete elimination of the body waste becomes an issue and hence, cheapest levitra http://amerikabulteni.com/2011/09/29/supreme-court-term-could-influence-2012-election/ will often avoid telling people about it. So, Micheal was really touched by this that she was viagra generico cipla caring for so much. Excess worrying: check it right here now buying cialis in uk One of the prime symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder is excessive worrying for a considerable part of the day, almost every day. Long after St George Girls High School has disappeared, future archaeologists will shift through Kogarah rubble and discover parts of a desk, some still intact, cemented by aged and purpled liquid paper, and will conclude that it was once the print shop of the Sydney Morning Herald !
KA
Printed in Georgie Girl 1983 – St George Girls High School newspaper
POSTSCRIPT
The desk was finally emptied and cleaned for my retirement, from St George Girls High School, after 35 years, on December 20 2011.
On my visits back to visit the staffroom , I have noticed that the current encumbant of the desk , Pamela , keeps it much tidier than I did . We are now in the age of technology where notes are stored on the computer ; there is simply no need for copious files of paper notes to be kept . Gestetners are long a thing of the past …… Times have certainly changed.
Photos from 1981, possibly 1983 ,and 2011 to be added
