Chemystery and the Colin crisis

A couple of things today, one from my Chemistry lesson (again! Though on my part, not that of my teachers) and one from life in general.
I had a classic "what the-?" moment in Chemistry today. We were doing a practical today - reactions with acids, so acid-base, acid-carbonate, acid-metal oxide reactions and the like. When it came to the acid-metal oxide part, I had to add hydrochloric acid to copper (II) oxide. The data sheet tells me that "when the black solid is added to the colourless solution, the solid dissolves and the solution turns blue". But did this happen? Nooooo.
What actually happened was that the copper oxide was rusty red (suspect some contamination here), and a chalky grey-white precipitate formed, settling under a *green* solution. That's right, a green one. What?
I took it up to my teacher to ask what the hell was going on, and she had a look, gave it a shake, agitated the precipitate, gave it back to me and, by the time I'd walked back to my bench, the solution had turned blue like it was meant to. Whaaat?
This was a complete chemystery. I suspect there was some contamination of the copper oxide with iron oxide (that's rusty red and produces a green solution), but I have no idea what caused the precipitation reaction. My teacher suspects it is the lab techs taking the piss...
I'll keep you posted if I find out what was going on!

The second thing is that there will be a teacher strike on Thursday morning. From 8.30 to 11.30, most, if not all, of the teachers at the school (and at every other state school, I think) are going on strike to protest about the cuts that are being made to the education department by His Nibs the Premier, the titular Colin (of course, my paranoia prevents me from saying his last name, though you probably could work it out). Honestly, His Nibs is so damn tight that I reckon if you stuck a piece of coal up his backside, in a matter of weeks, if not days, you'd get a diamond. He is also an arrogant, condescending pig of a man with a face the colour of raspberry ripple icecream and tiny little teeth that are the wrong size for his face.
Ahem.
But the strike is going ahead and, as such, we all get the morning off, huzzah huzzah. We can go to school if we must, but there won't be any classes and we'll just have private study in the library. I think I'll stay home and privately study there, to be honest. Unfortunately, my Lit essay isn't compromised by the strike - it's in the period from 11.25 to 12.45, of course. Oh well. I know what I'll be spending my Thursday morning doing!

That's all for tonight, fair readers. Au revoir!