The big desk move

At the end of the school year the teachers also move years like the students, so the teachers who were looking after the first years become second year teachers and so on. This in itself is fairly sensible as they get to know the students fairly well. In the staffroom, first year teachers sit at one end, the third years at the other and the second years in the middle. When the first year teachers become second years, they move from the wall end to the centre. This again is not so strange...maybe a little troublesome because everyone has to move their stuff, but not totally illogical. The real commotion occurs because people don't just move desks, they take their desk, chair and filing cabinet with them. This is supposedly because the teachers who have been here longest have nicer desks, but recently they injected a bit of cash into the school and everyone has the same desk and chair anyway. Still, we boxed up all our belongings, hauled all the desks into the corridor, one teacher ran around with a little broom whisking all the dust into the air while another tried to trip up as many people as possible with the hoover wire and the men pulled desks and bookshelves all over the place. After about 20 minutes the dust settled and people stopped moving and there was my desk on the other side of the office waiting for me to put all my books back in it.

I said everyone in the office had the same desk and chair now. That wasn't entirely true a few days ago. I used to have a very nice squeaky old chair which I was quite attached to, but along with the desk move it has been replaced with a new ergonomic blue monstrosity. To be fair it is very comfortable and I`m sure in time I will come to love it, but not at the moment. The problem is it tips...and swivels...and bends...and the arms are much lower. So I try to put my elbow on the arm rest only to find it not there. To counteract my arm hurtling through empty space, I quickly shift my body weight to the other side creating a violent tipping motion. Jerking backwards to prevent the tipping, I find myself spinning round at a frightening speed and suddenly facing the teacher behind me. I give it a week before I fall off.