On Wednesday I had Gym class with the baby preschoolers. Now think of gym class that we had in school and then completely erase all such memories as the concept of gym class in my school is in a class of its own. I was told that I had to let the students ( aged 4) listen to classical music and the let them draw pictures based on what they were listening to. What? Cos that’ll get their blood pumping. I thought that was the kind of thing that was done with slightly deranged people. Anyway seeing as it was 930 am I was in no form to cause a fuss, so set about finding some classical music cd’s. I found one that claimed to be “Perfect For Romantic Situations”, so figured that would do. Went to class, put on said CD and got treated to European Nineties style dance and not something in A Minor by some geezer that had one ball, was deaf and blind, an arthritic sufferer and all round musical genius that no one realized until he was dead. That was not on, but the kids seemed to like it, as they all hopped up and started gyrating to the oomph oomph oomph beat. Rather amusing to watch a bunch of Korean 4 year olds shakin’ their thang to a German nightclub institution. So back I went to the office to find something more suitable for the awakening of a young mind. I failed to anything even resembling classical music, but instead in the middle of Korea found a Northern Ireland Tourist Board issued, battered tape of Phil Coulter and James Galway, featuring such gems as “Danny Boy”, “Raglan Road” and the “Thornbirds” theme.

Didn’t go down too well with the kids, but I treated them to my own personal rendition of Danny Boy. A moment they will forever treasure