Lunch Break

Having a fairly relaxed day here at work - especially compared to yesterday when I was run off my feet. I was filling in for my friend Judith, who had lost her voice, and had to make sure that her class got their questionnaires done so that they can survey other students at the school today. Probably doesn't sound particularly stressful, but most students have no idea what they're doing when it comes to designing a questionnaire and some of the class were still arguing about what their hypothesis was, which was supposed to have been sorted out on Monday.

After class I had computer room supervision, so I didn't get home until after 6. Managed to find the energy to make some dinner then sat in front of the TV for an hour and watched a doco on the ban on religious symbols (ie the veil) in public schools in France. I remember talking about this issue with Philip last year as the Belgian government was considering introducing a similar law. Basically I don't see what difference it makes if someone wears a veil to class - it doesn't stop them from learning, which is the main aim of education. Forcing female students to remove their veil just causes even deeper divisions and forces them to make a choice between their religious beliefs and their education.

Am going to see another film tonight - a film from New Zealand called 'In My Father's Den'. It was on at the Sydney Film Festival earlier this year and was well received, so I'm looking forward to it. There are a lot of interesting films on at the moment - noticed in yesterday's newspaper that Gus van Sant's film 'Gerry' is finally getting a release here.

On Monday evening I ended up spending hours in front of my computer. Burned my first CD (naughty boy!) and discovered that there's a programme on my computer that allows me to create the CD inserts. Unfortunately I don't have a printer at the moment and I'm not sure that I'd be able to print it out at work. Still it was fun playing with my new toy. Spoke to Philip and he said he was having a few troubles with their new i-mac - poor boy was about to take the scanner they'd bought back to the shop as they discovered scratches on it.

OK - time for lunch. Chickpea curry - yum!