9°C, Showers, quite heavy too

---

Appetite- Constantly hungry today, all those trips to the canteen, raiding my locker (it was full of food). But still hungry. Am I pregnant? Can't be! But Matt suggested a possible- it's the colder weather. Has my metabolism increased to create more warmth?

Douglass Adams: in the book "Last Chance To See"... this guy has a very powerful way of writing that combines wit, human vulnerability and above all- protest.
Concerning the slaughter of a goat for the sake of filming Komodo dragons:
There is stuff like this throughout the book. He can't resist anthropomorphising animals and situations with sensitivity but not with excessive sentimentality. I have only read his fiction stuff before, this is so fresh.

11°C, rain.Orange leaves clinging to wet things

---

Autumn colds are an occupational hazard in our business. It's only been two weeks since the last one and I have another cold rising today. Damned awkward when a week's holiday is approaching.
Loonies: I am one, I have sent myself over 50 emails today is says here. The spammers are just as bonkers today too, then have send hundreds! I was only getting about 20 unwanted posts daily over the last few months, but now it's over a hundred a day.
Just as well they automatically drop in the Deleted folder.

20°C, sun & showers

---

Only a short slot in which to write. Hope the tent dries out in this half-hour. After, I shoot out for a meal organised by QM. Still trembling with tiredness, all credit to noisy kids talking all night on the camp-site. Why girls, all the loud conversation, it's only rain? The solution was obvious but not to hand- ear-plugs.
We did feel a certain moral superiority on the hiking trips; we staff hiked. Other schools' staff manned checkpoints sitting in their cars having driven up onto the plateau. Our kids had expected us to do just that when they asked about this; the answer shut them up. We packed our rucksacks and hiked up the climbs too. In fact, on the second day, we'd worked out that we could give them an hour's head-start and get to the checkpoints before them. That depended on the extreme slowness of our kids of course, and that is the way it turned out to be.

Rosie quickly became the trip's mascot. On leaving yesterday the girls gathered by the gate as we drove out, all waving and cheering. When close enough I could hear "bye Rosie" etc. hey, what about me? It's me that marks your coursework!
that dog impressed everyone, she changed quite a few minds about the virtue of the poodle breed. She also did a fine job of pre-washing the girls' saucepans- Rosie likes beef stew, noodles and spaghetti hoops.

20°C, drizzle then light and warmth

---

A day for conflict, borrowing, exasperation, reconciliation; a day for an early night.

...night.

20°C, showers with rumbles

---

This storm is getting further away...

Even the kids are tired at work; they feel like us. I caught two fast asleep in the computer room; they woke lost and surprised, staggering with pins & needles.I feel for them.

32°C, less humidity, more sun. I like it this way.

---

Swine flu has arrived at work. 4 kids diagnosed, more are absent through illness and contagious-hypochondria. Now, if I could just contract man-flu, then I stand a chance of some time off.
This weather is a good arrangement, keep at it weather-spirits.
This car tax disc (on the desk) should be in my car- right?

Passiflora: Look what I managed to grow.

21°C. Sun. C20

---

That Health & Safety meeting was just as good as I'd expected. Didn't expect the prostate bit though.

That hotel company did the honourable thing and returned my money today. So that is cleared up with no bad feelings, I'm still going to buy a tent though.

8°C, windy but mostly clear

---

I refuse to indulge in this:
I often use email as a portable way of collecting school-work. This kid was asked to send a document for review called a "Proposal" that then needs some comment from me as her teacher. Here it is:
The document was attached to the second email, but was so badly written so that I am too exasperated to continue the thread here. The first version had no punctuation, the after my response, it was filled with commas everywhere. I mean everywhere, in the middle of phrases, anywhere except the places they would have helped make the paragraph intelligible.
Further; I passed a copy of this onto the English department; who then used it to start a lesson on writing to a target audience and use of suitable language, or something like that. It went down a storm.

8°C, cold winds, rain at noon

---

Over a week to go, damn, I was convinced about Friday.

Feel like a derelict after parents' evening. Goodnight.
Soon to bed at 10pm.: is this walking into the same trap?

11°C, dry, calm

---

Film: Da Vinci Code: what frivolous sentimental bilge that was. Beautifully shot, with an extremely silly story.

Sketch: from a cover lesson yesterday, didn't take long, but then the page is small. Year 7s are bonkers.
Today has been troubled by a poor night's sleep and a disturbing phone text from a stranger.

8°C, same weather again, but wind makes it colder

---

Reviews: these student interviews are a treat. A point in my job where I can sit with the most wonderful people and ask them : how are you doing?
they are committed to answer, I listen; we eat chocolate and tick boxes.
If only it wasn't quite so tiring, if only I wasn't so totally spent this evening. I could then really relish the conversations had with these inspiring people. This whelming malaise has washed out the thoughts I would have entertained this evening.
Goodnight.

10°C, cloudy, dry and N winds- same as yesterday.

---

A strangely easy week this; perhaps in lieu of tomorrow.

Hope is lost: for the world. Four VI-form girls drove to the supermarket across the road today at lunchtime. A trip less of than 1/3 of a mile. You might be thinking "how lazy", but in practice it was not. If they were lazy they'd choose the easiest and quickest way to get there. I beat them in both directions by walking. They only had a few lunch snack packets to carry; they were, all four of them able-bodied. Yet they compressed themselves into a tiny car and probably spent most of the journey standing at the lights waiting for green.
Their real motive remains hidden. When I have some clue, I'll mention it here.

10°C, grey, calm & dry

---

Staff training day: today we learnt how to teach kids who are gifted and or talented. The baked potatoes were nice, and I had two puddings.

1°C, Morning - heavy snow. later slushy met.

---

Whiteout sky and ground is now fading towards bland slushy grey. It's blandly heading towards lake black.
Normally, the little green characters would be running about in this view, maybe they are getting tired of the snow. Maybe they aren't coming to school today.

Clear, 4°C

---

Drove, no Ice could, have ridden, pah!
Sunset- favourable, mornings- lighter and I'm charmed by a delightful tutor group. What can I do to let them know how much I appreciate them?
Chrome:it is really no problem writing a blog entry in Chrome in raw HTML, line breaks, paragraphs and style are obvious really.

9°C, still, light cloud.

---

Walk home, Why?: The rear axle of my commuting bike seems to have snapped on the way home. Not sure because it has all seized up and can't be unscrewed with the tools I carry each day. All I could do is walk. So walk I did; 7½ miles, that would be terrible but for my liking walking and the mild interval in the weather.

15°C, rain.

---

Unsettling: I rode passed a murder scene on the way to work this morning. The Police had closed the road, set up a cordon and a canvas tent stood ominously over a garden. Clearly, something dreadful had happened. Read
Later: I was subject to a road rage assault from a dustbin lorry driver. Had he some upset to recover from that drove him to verbally attack me? My "offence" was trivial, I overtook his lorry climbing to Shire Oak and which put him driving two cars behind me blasting his horn and shouting. He thought I should have stayed behind him. The rest of his thoughts were a jumble of obscenities and fist waving, all incoherently thrown as he stood at a red traffic light.
I remained calm.
Perhaps he was always like that; how unfortunate.