Attention! Attention!

To the man sitting next to me on the bus: Did you recently give up smoking, or do you regularly suck on red lollypops that smell after plastic cherries? Please don't do it ever again when other people are around. The faces you make are quite revolting. I hope for your girlfriend or boyfriend that isn't your face when using your tongue on them.

To my colleagues: Morality has nothing to do with faith (geloof), thank you very much. Please start using the more correct term "world view" (levensbeschouwing).

To the pink Bic lighter dodging cars at Madou a while back: Are you still alive?

(If you feel so inclined you can post your own Magical Message™ in the comments.)

Tiny wars

Sometimes I fear my own self and what I become in the face of the aggressiveness the pupils at one of my schools have towards each other. It spreads, and turns itself towards the teacher trying to cool things off. That teacher being me, she is unable to cool things off, but only makes it worse, yelling and fuming. When I return home on Tuesdays I still have steam coming out of my ears. I start pinpointing everything that went wrong during the afternoon, and that makes me feel even worse. "It's all my fault that they don't listen to me," I whine, and wonder how I can cool down, for I have gone over that frustration treshold again – where it leads to agressiveness. The next day carries the scars and bruises of last day's tiny war. There is no tranquility within me, and the defences are up at the littlest complication.

On these days I ponder if I should take the words of my singing teacher seriously: "Why don't you audition? If you like to go further in this..." But I'm too scared.