So it is four days before Christmas and I decided to check my results from UNISA. After a long and anxious wait I finally got all my results. Not only did I pass all my subjects for the year but I also got a distinction for one subject and another for my practicals. So officially unofficially I consider myself a qualified teacher now, just waiting for the documentation from UNISA to make it all official. Thanks to my family and all my friends  for all their support...and a special thanks to my loving wife, Susan, for all her support and 'pressure'. I love you my kitten.

So this would be my first time doing end of the year marking and I have to just say once again...I have a new found respect for the teaching profession. A person does not realise just how much work it is to be a teacher until one is there. A person thinks that just because we get school holidays off and only 'work' until 14:00 that does not mean our 'working' day ends. There is so much admin and marking and so much happening behind the scenes that people are just not aware of.

But, even though, it is an incredible amount of work I have never been happier.

An Ode to a Different Kind of War

The silence is deafening.
You can cut the tension with a knife.
Young men and women are pensive,
the battle approaches.
Commanders and drill-instructors
march up and down between the battle lines.
The troops are straining with anxious apprehension.
The moment they dread draws near,
it is now or never.
They prepare their weapons...and themselves.
Th Commander-in-Chief checks his watch one.last.time.
He commands...
"You may begin. You have two hours."
They tackle the impossible task at hand.
This is no ordinary battle.
It is not fought for money or greed.
There are no borders to be won or lost.
The only casualties are the ones to be written.
No, this is no ordinary battle,
it is more important than that.
More dreadful,
more life changing.
This is a battle for their future
and they understand that failure is not an option.
The school bell rings
and signifies the end of yet another exam.
They have all survived yet another exam.

The Journey of the Moon, the Battle of the Sun,

As the moon sails across its never-ending journey
through sea of black velvet,
schools of stars follow in her wake.
She steers an uneerily path
through unnavigatable oceans of blackness.
Siren song of stillness eggs her on
through jagged rocks and piercing coral reef
                       of emptiness.
She knows her voyage draws to a close
as she approaches the edge of the world.
And slowly, crashing on the sharp rim
she sinks beneath the inky blackness of nights's end.

The sun rises victoriously as mighty Leonides.
He screams battle cries of glorious brightness
as he battles through armies of cloud-filled skies.
He streaks across the sky
like the mighty Spartan of old.
He requires no chariot of Helios
for his courage carries him onward.
His cries chase away the night with blood-filled morning.
Until, finally, he succumbs,
falls to arrows of stars
and his blood soaks the empty sky.
Everyday he falls, only to rise again.

And so is the journey of the moon,
and the battle of the sun.
Every day and every night,
reminding us of eternity...