Freckles

Today we found Freckles the male Northwestern garter snake, dead in his tank. He had been previously savaged by tankmate Annie, but seemed to have pulled through. Still, this kind of thing happens among human roommates, so what can you do? Unfortunately, it really did look as though he'd been squashed, but then maybe we all look as though we've been squashed at the end...especially if we have.
A death I wouldn't wish on anyone.

There was a short Pythonesque (sic) moment.
Some children were standing around the snake tank and told me they thought the snake was dead,
'Nope, nope, he's just resting,' I said without looking,
'But he looks dead,'
'Yep, just sleeping,' then I actually looked and he did look rather limp, so I opened the tank and poked him.
I thought a line about pining for the fjords may be inappropriate as we lifted his lifeless body out.

The film crew have been working hard making our Nature House look like someone else's Nature House all day long. Tomorrow they will shoot a scene and then that'll be it. The Aliens in the title, apparently refer to Muslims, a sort of Little Mosque on the Prairie kind of thing it seems, although I still hope it's just a working title.

August is exam result month. Second Thursday is A and AS results, following Thursday GCSEs. My son Ben slid into goal by the skin of his teeth, my nephew Jeremy gained good grades and today, Kevin received the results of his Professional Engineering exams, which he had passed.

But when you are in teaching, you suffer the results of other people. You can knock yourself out trying to get the little blighters to come to the lessons and hand in their coursework, you probably face another line of opposition in the form of their parents, you may even have other departments actively working against you, most likely the drama department, but only God and you know all this and you will be judged in any case on the grades they were given by the examining board.
If you are a Head of Department, it's even worse. You will also be judged on the results of the classes taught by other staff, whether or not they have been there, whether or not you have been unable to fill a post whose timetable has been babysat by non-specialists or even non-teachers. So results time can be pretty traumatic.

The link which Artemesia sent about Hagar, the mother of Abraham's son Ishmael, is pretty damn interesting. I think there are conclusions to be drawn, but everyone may draw their own.