It has been a while since I have written anything here - mainly because I have been coming to grips with a new role as a secondary school teacher. It is certainly a demanding job, but despite having an 8.10am start, I am finding it easier to get out of bed in the morning than when I had an office job.

Meanwhile, the political situation here gets more absurd. I wonder how many people who marched against the war over the weekend were actually marching against the executive decision making process that has brought us this brink? We could have Australian troops actually in combat and Our Esteemed Leader could still conceivably say that 'A decision hasn't been made.'

In my letter box came a booklet that I think was meant to reassure me that the spooks were looking after me and that I should start calling in anyone who looks like one of them damn reds, erm, I mean terrorists. Apparently one of the tell tale signs is a 'lifestyle that doesn't add up'....

My students meanwhile are both worried about and distant from the prospect of war. I was talking with another teacher who pointed out that the kids who started high school this year were born the year of the first Gulf War: 1990 - 91. Feeling old?