Memories of the past: My design teacher

I only did Craft, Design and Technology up until the age of 13, but I'll never forget those lessons, thanks to my design teacher.

The design workshop was based in a corner of the sports hall, for some unknown reason.

We all had to queue up outside the room and wait for an earsplitting bell to ring just above our heads.

He would then fling the door open and snarl at us to come in. We'd walk down the steps and each find a workbench.

An Irishman, he always had a Guinness screensaver, the one with the really cool music that I can't find anywhere, on his computer. He also had a backwards clock.

On the back of the door, to further highlight his contempt for students, was the "Midvale School for the gifted" cartoon from the Far Side.

He used to say "Yes, stupid question Number..." whenever any of us put or hand up.

The room had its own phone, and whenever anyone rang he used to delight in sneering about them to us afterwards.

I made some weird wooden tower as well as a car, and I also used a Computer Aided Design Program.

Once, I remember being the only person in a computer room, and all the computers froze. He came in and asked what I was doing, I said nothing, and as he turned to leave he said "If you were doing nothing, then why did you jump like a scaled cat as soon as I entered the room?"

Yes, he was a character all right. I wonder if he's still at my primary school.