Tuesday 7th Feb

Spent most of the day working at home. I am wading through the messages our students have posted online, looking for examples of arguments or times when someone has changed their mind- the Eureka moments I suppose. I will then analyse these in a bit more detail to try and figure what is going on. There are some great quotes, but confidentiality forbids me from posting them... although my favourite so far is... no, I really can't. It's more than my job's worth!

Received a letter from my Mum, along with loads of things she had cut out from the weekend paper (after my Dad had finished with it I presume, or esle it would have been like trying to read a cobweb). Mums are great, aren't they? Lots of intersting things including a London school where they have banned putting your hand up if you konw the answer to a question- because it is making kids too competitive and is too unkind on the kids who don't know the answer!

It reminded me that when I was 5 or 6, we used to get a drink of water in these cups made out of a kind of gold material (I don't think they were really gold- this was Newton Primary, not the Firs School!) Anyway, for everydozen or so gold cups there were also these ones in a kind of metallic red! I can remember how desperate we all were to get one of the red cups. I can still see the colour now. r r r e e e e e d d d d d d d d . But it was purely the luck of the draw when the teacher handed them out. You know, looking back, I'm sure I didn't get a fair crack at the whip. Oh, how the eyes of the other kids would burn into your soul with pure envy if you were lucky enough to sup your cupful of water from one of the holy red chalices!!! I wonder whether kids are just naturally competitive like that. I mean, who would have thought it mattered? I wonder which kid was the first to think, "Those cups are rarer and ergo of more value"? Or to put it another way, "GIMME!" It must have happened anew every year, and been the cause of many a dust-up. Of course I was above all that. Although I distinctly remember that the water tasted different from the red cups. Better somehow. Sweeter... S s s s w w w w e e e e e e e e t t t t t e e e e r r r r r r r r r r r . . .

I did pop out in the afternoon to the post office on the Ave to post my Mum's birthday card. I have yet to find a lightweight present for her though. Perhaps they sell red cups in Seattle. There's an idea! What could be finer than a red cup for your birthday? That way, you don't have to rely on chance, you can win. Every single day.

My mate Adam from Sheffield has asked me to give his website a plug- it is for Centralians cricket team. So if any of you fancy a game, or have Australian cousins coming over for the summer who happen to be hotshot cricketers, have a look here. Thankfully the cricket team is a bit better than the football team...

Still getting to know the lodgers. They have been gettingin from their TEFL at 6, then working solidly till past midnight! Tough schedule, nearly as tough as mine! Actually, it has been helping me to concentrate, as I am not allowed to watch "Pop Idol" while people are trying to work in the living room. I would like to know how the "Biggest Losers" are getting on, and how many jeans sizes they have collectively dropped.

Bush is going to fund nuclear power research and development. Not sure how I feel about that really. He is also getting some heat for the phone-tapping thing- he (or his office) have authorized all sorts of phone taps for security measures, but they are on ordinary citizens as far as I can tell. I don't think it is going to be enough to bring him down, unless there are some further revelations, or if the people who have been tapped turn out to be a) really really upset and b) powerful. Funny how Clinton was impeached for what seemed to me a matter of personal morality, and one which (perhaps rightfully) he will pay a heavy price for for the rest of his life, whilst Bush can stomp over many many people's civil liberties and he doesn't get so much as a slapped wrist. I suppose it is partly to do with what captures the public imagination as an immoral act.

My book is entering a crucial phase. There is a cannibal on the loose, and war-crazed Russians are closing in on the Siberian village. It doesn't look good. And that is something of an understatement.