Now that I have a slightly clearer idea of what I'll be doing next vis a vis jobs, I reckon I should be back in the UK in July - may be in Thailand in August, possibly, and may be in Egypt in June, possibly. Hope that we might be able to muster a mini F2F in London - that would be fab.

Even if not, have you ever checked a map of the region? Thailand's pretty damn close to Australia. Yup, pretty damn close. How close, you ask? Well, it looks like I can get a return flight for under a grand, or alternatively I can use 36,000 Qantas frequent flyer points to halve that. Oh, look at that! I currently have over 36,000 frequent flyer points! What could I use them on?

I was going to advertise Thailand's proximity to Australia to help Fay make a decision, but it seemed presumptious. But yes! You guys could fight crime!

Heh. Yes, I had indeed recognised that Thailand is a damned sight closer to Australia than I am at present. Buffista F2F in Bangkok? I understand that one night there will make the tough guys crumble - we could fight crime and dodge pingpong balls?

Or would it be wiser to mention the tigers and elephants and bears, oh my? And the barking deer, mouse deer, pangolin, dugongs etc etc?

I can't find any info about this online, but apparently yesterday afternoon our sister school, in Gaza, was attacked by gunmen. Most of the kids had gone home, but some were still there. I don't know whether they succeeded in taking any of the teachers hostage, but that was clearly the aim.

Fun fun fun.

I saw that, Fay! Two teachers were taken hostage for several hours, until the Palestinians determined they weren't in fact Americans. Scary photos of balaclava-wearing men pointing guns at the head of one teacher. I'm so glad everyone is safe.

Oh, jeez. Damn. Wow. I'm a teacher, and we have had drive-bys, and lots of gang activity....but HOSTAGE? I can't even imagine.

Dude, we're TEACHERS. Commas, gerunds, cells, and pi...I...I...don't get it.

And one of these times, one of the teachers is going to get wounded or killed. You can't have emotionally-heightened, not-too-bright men with guns flailing around forever.

As official Americans overseas, we've always known we were targets. But it really bothers me that recently, ANYone who might possibly be American is a target. And for what? It's not like any of the other hundreds of Americans killed or taken hostage has made life in the Muslim world any better.

Well, that isn't entirely recent, is it? I mean, I can remember flying to Europe in the 80s and being aware that I could theoretically be a target. (Mind you, this was partly because we had military ID and were specifically advised to put that in the checked luggage.)

Having been spat at for being American (which I'm notably not), and having enough Canadian friends pissed off at the pretenders to the Maple, I figured it was a long time thing, for many reasons, to avoid being IDed as American when travelling.

having enough Canadian friends pissed off at the pretenders to the Maple

At first I thought it was cool, but it got widespread enough that people started going "hey, they're going to mess with us too, just in case we're incognito Yanks".

Also, the time I ran into a bunch of Canadians in York Minister. My mellow was harshed when they told us they were from "Vancoozer".

I was like "Dude, you're letting down the side. There's even a Vancouver in Washington." I was kinda miffed at being a flag of convenience for people that dense.