Smash it up.
2002-10-12 || 9:55 a.m.

I just read through what I wrote yesterday and I think I should maybe change the subject for a while.

Ok. Its official - I have a NASTY chest and sinus infection. Damn bastard sinuses. The ache is unbearable. It makes my eyes heavy and my face hurts and the stuff coming off my chest is fucking yuk.

It's the cold and the damp in my house that causes this. I have a very large damp patch in my bedroom and no wallpaper which probably does not help. So every night I am breathing in a mixture of damp and crumbling plaster. Nice!

My children had a thrilling day yesterday. I have this window in my classroom with a dodgy catch. The glass is about 5' x 3' approx. I'm feeling very fucking hostile towards this window. After all, I have a bad chest, schools are notoriously cold, the wind keeps blowing my window open, the work flies around, I get pissed off. So I take my window pole, hold it up like a prize javelin thrower, hook it onto the catch and shove as hard as I can.

Fuck me!

The whole pane of glass shatters.

My class just sat there aghast.

There was the intake of 30 breaths and then a giant stereo, 'uuuuummmm, you broke the window'.

During numeracy a guy came to fix it. He's outside on a ladder. My class were so overexcited. Suddenly I knew exactly how to calm them down. Very softly I said ...

'If you sit extremely quietly, you will hear if he falls off his ladder.'

Silence descended.

He failed to oblige.