Bloodshot

The summer holidays are two weeks too late already. I think my eyes are bloodshot all the time now. Every time I catch myself in the mirror, I see a ring of bright red blood vessels surrounding my iris.

Tell this to most people and they'll insist that working term-time only gives you a ridiculous amount of holiday (five weeks alone in the summer), and that you have no reason to complain.
That is unless, of course, they have worked in a school and know what it's like. Yes, you get more holiday, but you need it! Even in my low-stress position, the holiday is quite necessary.

But a school employee cannot expect a non-school employee to understand this. They will only see the number of days holiday you get per annum, and make a base assumption than you're whining over something that you should be celebrating. Eight weeks is the longest you go without a week off? They'll say. Do you know how long I have to wait until I get a day off? But they cannot understand how it works unless they have already worked in a school.

Anyway, like I said; the summer holiday is overdue. Well, no, that's not entirely true (although it's becoming a shorter and shorter break). More accurately: this term is too long. Eight weeks. Almost double the average length of a term. You can see it in the teaching staff, the support staff, and the students. We were all out of a working mindset about a fortnight ago.