August 2016
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August 2016

People are leaving. It’s sad, in case you didn’t know. It’s sad because you might not see people ever again and, even if you do, they might be changed beyond recognition. Or you might be. It might turn out your friendship was ephemeral and ethereal and it crumbles when you don’t live in the same…

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The Squid

  The Englishman surprised his co-workers and the BOE by requesting a second year. Most of them had judged him a “One-r” (as they called those who couldn’t bear to be away from their homeland for more than a twelvemonth), with his illiteracy, frequent bouts of culture shock and general lack of guile. But he…

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Arbitrary

  Education is arbitrary: what we learn is arbitrary; how we learn is arbitrary; whether we learn is arbitrary. This was something I suspected as a student and have had fully confirmed for me while on the other side of the chalk board. To put forward a very obvious example, there’s the seating plan. Quite…

Nor the Other
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Nor the Other

  I’m not a student, that much is certain; but I’m also not really a teacher. I’m like Gollum– technically not part of either side, useful to both if controlled correctly, but too unpleasant to keep on long-term and liable to dance weirdly when he gets his way. The No-Man’s-Land nature of my job became…

Bad Joseph
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Bad Joseph

  She picked the worst time to tell him, when they’d just finished. They were lying, side by side but not touching, sweaty and sore but almost happy. He reached over her and grabbed his cigarettes from the mantel, pulling a lighter from under his pillow. He only smoked when he was afterglowing. Or drinking….