Mark's Blog: Back to School

Although I apparently only ever talk about the weather and coffee, I feel I am justified in writing about the former given what's been going on here the last few weeks. There's been the devastating floods in Victoria and Queensland (if you haven't seen it, the flash flood in Toowoomba gives an idea of how ferocious and terrifying it was) and in the last few days Cyclone Yaris in north Queensland, the largest to hit Australia in 200 years. The coverage of both has been extensive here, and the government are now trying to bring in a tax to pay for the massive rebuilding effort needed. The Premier of NSW said that Sydneysiders shouldn't have to pay for it given the high cost of living here - indeed, whilst Queenslanders are homeless and seeing their worldly possessions float away, they should spare a thought for the extortionate price of a latte in Glebe or Mosman). The Premier is the head of a Labor state government about to be booted from office, and whose resemblance to the last days of the Roman Empire has often been made and is more true than you might think (stories of massive corruption, prostitutes and drugs are so often in the news that nobody bats an eyelid and politicians don't even bother resigning - last week the husband of the Education Minister and MP for Balmain was caught in a police sting last week attempting to buy ecstasy; which is remarkable given that one might have expected the police to have been bribed by government officials not to do that sort of thing).

This week Sydney is experiencing an 'extreme weather event' of a different kind - it's very, very hot. Temperatures here have been in the 40s (and hotter out west); today being possibly the worst so far. It's too hot to go outside (too hot to do anything), so we're waiting it out, at least till the temperature drops by a few degrees later. Fortunately we have air-con at school, but getting between buildings and up stairs has been trying. The PRS classrooms, office and my office (I get my own now I am a Housemaster!) are each on the second floor of three seperate buildings. I burst out laughing yesterday when I saw Jeremy, my Head of Department, at the top of a flight of stairs - he looked like he had just stepped out of a swimming pool.

So it's the end of the first week of term - and it's gone very well. It's a very different experience from a year ago - I have 7 classes (not 11) and teach 140 boys a week, not 300. And I'm enjoying the new responsibilty. There are 60 boys in my House in the senior school whom I oversee, including 25 House Prefects. My uni course restarts soon - I have to double my study load this year, which could be hard going, especially when the rugby season starts.

Anyway, I need to stop typing because the heat coming off this laptop really isn't helping. And I have a lot more sweating to do. I'm not sure I'm going to get much else done today.

Finally, a few photos from Paul and Vix stay in Sydney....