Planet Mad

Things that have amused me today, in no particular order:

* The boy who came up to me at the start of the lesson to apologise for his lack of homework, grovelling profusely and blaming it on a lost homework diary. I looked at him quizzically, noticed his mate starting to giggle manically, and broke the news that there wasn't any prep due in until next week and that his mate was having him on. I've not seen someone look simultaneously annoyed and embarrassed before, but it was a sight to behold.

* I covered a GCSE Classical Civilisations lesson for a colleague, and his set were researching housing in Pompeii on the internet. Having been on a Classics trip to Pompeii this year, I felt pretty confident about it all. As I arrived at the IT room, two of the boys were looking at a website about mobile phones. I told them that the Romans didn't have mobiles so they could stop that area of research, when one of them told me that instead of mobiles they used pottery cups on the end of a long piece of string. "What," I asked, "So they can call each other and go 'Hey, are you free? Let's go and throw some Christians to the lions'?" Unfortunately the deputy head, a proper Classicist, was walking through the computer room at this moment and looked slightly aghast. Luckily she didn't hear my comments about the frequency of the giant phallus at Pompeii, or I really would have been sacked.

* Can't think of another thing. Standing on the sidelines of an inter-House hockey match has numbed my fingers and my braincell. As my nose thaws, it's beginning to run and I'm risking snot in the keyboard at this rate. Better go and find some tissues...