Work politics is tricky. The South-East is tricky. Living as 'one of them' is tricky. Writing about what's on your mind, how you do or don't feel, and where you've been to is very tricky. So tricky that I'm not sure I want to try right now. So, let's start with a tricky example from my tricky day...

Why is it professionally acceptable for my head of department to publicly tear down our overall boss, during a whole-staff meeting, but not professionally acceptable for us young scamps to find it absolutely hilarious? Of course we didn't laugh out loud, just a little giggle to ourselves to accompany our disbelieving expressions, whist a terrified hush descended upon the room and grown men and women became suddenly afraid to breathe loudly.

I liken my colleagues to cartoon characters, animals or hard drugs. Those are the three main categories, and everyone falls into (at least) one. My fellow young one who teaches performing arts is Daria, our technical genius is a confused polecat with a perma-headache, and my line manager is a lethal dose of something potent and horrific, if you choose to use it.

All in all it has not been a bad day. I finally came to the end of The Tempest, on which I must pretend to be an authority tomorrow morning, and I recalled a significant event from my past for a friend who needed to hear it, whether or not I wanted to tell it. Two colleagues asked why I never eat and a kid said I look pretty. One boy asked if I'd be on his sports team and another spent the best part of an hour lesson asking if he could send me music over the phone.

The thing with this job is, you never know what's coming next. A queer foreboding unsteadies me as I approach my pigeonhole at 8:15 am each morning; a sense that anything can happen. This unnerves me every day, without fail. Tomorrow, Tuesday, is the worst because my whole day depends on whether an interactive-whiteboard-video-interaction-multi-function-device decides to wake up on time. If it wants a lie in, I must scrabble around for alternatives.

Sigh, back to work for another half hour...