Christmas Tree Light Day
2005-12-22 @ 9:49 p.m.

We no longer have Stand By Bed, which has passed into history as one of the more sadistic archaisms of our island life. (You know all those horror stories about how your lockers have to be precisely organised? Now they just have to be tidy.) Instead, we have Stand By Area. Unfortunately, we learnt that this can be easily tweaked to reach its own level of sadism. Without delving into the not-so-gory-as-much-as-dusty details, suffice to say that compassion and understanding now rank very highly on my list of desirable human attributes. Yes, I understand we are no longer civilians and that military standards apply. Yes, I understand we must follow orders and instructions. Even so, surely there must be reasonable limits to cleanliness in an environment like ours? Today has been rather unpleasant, but I will not take it personally. It's just one of those things that happen here, that's all...