Sharing a house with cockroaches is part of everyday life. There aren’t that many of them and seeing them doesn’t make my skin crawl as much as they used to. Fortunately the roaches usually confine themselves to our kitchen. Death by fly swat is the preferred method of execution, although every few weeks I empty the kitchen of food, spray lots of bug killer, close the kitchen door and return an hour later to remove the bodies. The interesting bugs are the ones that jump. The best way to describe them is that they look just like mini versions of the alien in the film Alien 3.

I received my monthly allowance today. I am officially an employee of the college so I am paid in the same way as all of the staff. I go the finance director’s office where I sign a pre-completed form. I then sign another form along with a duplicate copy. The finance director then tears a cheque from a chequebook, and I sign the cheque stub. We then walk together approx 10 m down the corridor to the cashier’s office. Before I actually receive my cash I have to sign the back of the cheque. That’s five signatures before I receive my money. Perhaps there are good reasons for collecting so many autographs but I'm afraid it's beyond me.