Eight more teaching days until the September break - the kids are counting and the teachers are, too. Getting up in the dark is now getting up in a half-grey light that etches the tv antenna through the bathroom skylight. The great wave of flu seems to have broken and I hope I don't speak too soon. Driving home late is now driving into a genuine sunset that I know lights up the western suburbs just the same as the leafy east and which the housing commission tower block catches to the very last.