Merry Christmas! This morning, one Chinese lady turned up in a beautiful china dress to celebrate Christmas. She is the only one who wore something nice. There are many Catholics here but no one was bothered. There were only two people who said to me, 'Merry Christmas.' Both of them are Muslims. This is yet another evidence to support my theory: Everything here in Australia is upside down!
I received a beautiful Christmas card from my little guinea pig boy. Proud Mum could not resist showing it around to everyone. He looks content and looks like to have a bath before this photo shoot. He is looked after well. My pigggie has always been a very handsome boy but he seems to be growing up to be a really good looking man!
Had the lawyers for the Minister not so incompetent as they are, I would have been holding my boy in my arms by now. But I cannot complain so much since I was once a part of the production line producing faulty lawyers. I gave a pass mark to a lot of students who should not pass because universities these days do not allow us to fail more than 2% or so of their customers. If we fail more than that benchmark, we will be summoned by the board of examiners for show cause why we should not be sacked.
In one year, I failed 60% of students with their raw score so that I had to leg up their marks. But since I had already taken the softest approach before adjusting the marks, I could not think of any excuse to give any more marks to them. What did I do then? I gave marks to everyone for the reason that they could write an alphabet even though they could not write a meaningful sentence. This criterion aligned well with one of the university's objectives, namely, the graduate must be able to demonstrate the appropriate level of the written command of English. You thought that law schools are the place to acquire legal skills? I thought so, too... until I became an academic in this country.
I am getting a bit cranky. I'd better stop thinking about bloody lawyers.
I had a nice Christmas lunch: salad, prawns, glazed ham, roast chicken and veggies, cherries, peach, nectarine, apricot, and Christmas cake and custard. A typical Australian Christmas dinner (!) minus the alcohol. Well, I am not a drinker so I am happy with the menu.