hols are fun

man, i am going to be *so* fit. i have been bike riding, swimming, dog-walking and i went to an acrogym class three days ago (still hurting). we did vaulting, which was fabulous. i haven't vaulted since i was a kid, and it was very satisfying when i finally got over the horse. it was the fittest bunch of people. after warm up and stretches the teacher said "okay, we'll start with 60 taps", which turned out to be doing a handstand then tapping the opposite shoulder with one hand at a time (if that makes sense). i assumed he was joking, but stopped laughing when everyone else turned upside down and started tapping. there was a woman learning tissue in the other part of the gym, doing really beautiful stuff with the loose cloth.

bought some more toys for the bike from mec (lights, drink bottle + cage) and am now set for commuter cycling. i splashed out on panniers, which is very exciting. they're shiny and blue and easy to take on and off and i don't have to ride with a backpack on. yay! also a mec pack is like a vancouver rite of passage.

i like being on hols. lots of hanging out with friends and doing nothing. if only i get over this sense of guilt that i should be reading something.

squee!

new toy! new toy! it is a nice solid little mountain bike, second hand, from our community bikes (or ocb, as us locals call it), which is a hippy commune style bike place that hires tools and runs lessons in the art of bicycle maintenance.

i have ridden miles and miles and miles in the pouring rain, negotiated cars coming from the wrong direction and got wonderfully lost on the transcanada trail (the steepest hills i've ever ridden up, including cradle mountain. and when i say "ridden" what i mean is "walked very slowly stopping for rests.") great fun but now i am *exhausted*. bike! bike bike bike!

we've also been celebrating the end of semester in traditional grad student way - getting drunk in a basement and watching a lot of buffy. all good.

success!

i have popularised the term "slutmonkey." apparently g was crooning "oooo's a cv slutmonkey?" to the kitten the other day.

my work here is done.

amsterdam

this appeared in my pigeon hole at uni - thanks, tuchfrau and the hardfarmer! i want to go there now, too. . .

hols

ah, holidays . . . *stretches*

so far i have slept til midday and read a lot of L.M. Montgomery's journal. i was going to go for a nice long bikeride, had planned out a route and read up the road rules, but it's pissing down and foggy. after a week of brilliant sunshine! *wails*

i got all the exams marked and worked out their overall grades by midnight. honestly, exams are the most pointless way of assessing someone's learning, particularly in english literature. they waste time memorising stuff and waste lots of energy stressing out, and i waste time marking them all. nobody learns anything from the process. give me a good essay anyday.

now i am free, free as a, um, small bedraggled bird, in this weather. trying to get the remains of the gang together for tonight.

the girls from work rang last night! at 2am. dropkicks! it was so good to talk to everybody and catch up on the goss, and funny to hear the familiar shoptalk in the background (we've got a 5 at 7.30, dog two wants two strawberry margies). hope you all had a good pissup at myer's place!

yarg

view from current place of abode:
drafting essay - nearly finished, due tomorrow, think it's going to be pretty good:

sleep now tired

moved!

one car load - bring that on.

help mama, dahling

what's the plural of "exegesis"?

photos

i was waiting for a bus the other night, feeling a little sad.

but the whole city is in blossom, so sad doesn't stay long. look at this!


this is where that tree branch outside my window is at:
i've no idea how leaves will appear from here. i won't get to watch them unfold any further, but here's why i'm glad to be leaving the erstwhile halls of residence:
that's the corridor outside my room. then there's all the grotty adolescents shouting outside my window in the wee hours. . .

invigilated an exam this morning and collected a huge stack of them to mark, but had a nice marking session this afternoon with the prof and the other TAs. medieval essay is very nearly a complete draft, instead of a patchwork, which is great. steep learning curve on this one - i know masses about 8th century francia (france/germany) now, and about the benedictine rule and the politics of manuscript production. sometimes i think i'd like to be a medievalist.

snef's dogs!

yay doggies! this is tori above, and that's jules below:

aren't they lovely? thankyou for the pics, JT!

thank goodness for wikipedia. this has been confusing the hell out of me.

When ordering eggs in North America, one is invariably asked "how would you like your eggs?" This often bewilders visitors from Britain or Ireland, where this terminology is rarely used. North Americans may choose between the following methods (and refer to the British and Irish method as 'Sunny side up'):

• 'Over hard', also called 'hard' — cooked on both sides until the yolk has solidified.
• 'Over medium' — cooked on both sides until the yolk is fairly thick but still a liquid.
• 'Over easy', also called 'runny' — cooked on both sides (not clear) but yolk is still liquid. This is occasionally called 'sunny side down.' These are also commonly referred to as 'dippy eggs' or 'dip eggs' by Marylanders and by Pennsylvania Dutch persons living in southern Pennsylvania. Also called 'treasure eggs' in southwestern Pennsylvania.
• 'Sunny side up' — cooked only on one side; yolk is liquid (the oil or fat may be used to baste the sunny side, however). This is often known simply as 'eggs up'

moving

i hate moving. not that'd you tell, seeing as how this is my seventh move in five years. i don't have nearly as much stuff now, though, so it's easier. and, for the first time in five years, i'm not packing into boxes from work so all my belongings won't smell like corn chips!

everybody else is moving as well. this has been the view outside my window for the last week:

random lovings

mia dyson is still so very much the best muso ever. you all must listen to her.

g, b and d's recent walk at waterloo bay

if you want to see a photo big just click on it.

marking and moving

i finished my marking! huzzah to me! some very good essays, hardly any very bad essays. i think i've taught some of them stuff. all but one were stapled, for one thing. success!

i'm moving house on the weekend, to a funky little sharehouse off the drive. i'm there over summer, then to a friend's basement in august. very excited to be moving, living so close to nice coffee and funky shops and pretty people. and a park with swings! my housemate is a friend of a friend, and we get along well. i have my new address now - persons wishing to send postcards, letters or parcels of gold doubloons please apply via email.

right now is packing, which is BLAH, and working on my medieval assignment. though i have an extension until monday, on grounds of being the living dead last week.

off to met a student about their exam, return books to the library and hunt down boxes. bye!

p.s. am couch hopping between this weekend and the start of may, when new room is free, so inty access may be infrequent.

jt! we need your help in "children and dogs"!

studying

the many old, dusty books i'm working with (cause of asthma? hmm.) and the decoration above my desk, before i take it all down. pretty, huh? if a little grad-student-stereotype.
still working on my medieval essay, going pretty well. nothing else to add. how 'bout that weather?

oh, but i don't think i want to go to america anymore. want to stay in countries with sensible gun laws.

i heart crafts

took a big step today and left the house. phew. it was fun - j,c and i went to the "i heart crafts" fair at a ukranian cultural centre near china town. it was packed out with funky hippy artsy people selling funky hippy art. many strange and beautiful things, like the cuffs in the shapes of bats, made from the artist's old leather coat; t-shirts with ghost ships on, goldfish made of felt, paint-by-numbers tops that came with little kits of fabric paint, furry canvasses with screen printed birds and some very disturbing stuffed toys. i got the best top ever. thus:
it has random stuff written underneath the face, and across the back, that tweed at the front is a little pocket and a mate of hers made the felt on the side. oh yes.

the girl who made it (who also made those fabulous wrist warmers i got at the last fair, with the feathers on) told me it's a homage to joseph bueys, who was a german artist. he seems to be a complete nutbag, but that's all good. the world needs more loony artists. i realised i saw a sculpture of his at the tate modern:
Das Rudel (The Pack), 1969; Volkswagen bus with twenty-four wooden sleds, each with felt, belts?, flashlight, fat and stamped with Braunkreuz (brown oil paint); Staatliche Museen Kassel, Neue Galerie
(image and text stolen from the telegraph)

it's all to do with his possibly mythical rescue from a german fighter plane by tartar tribesmen. each sled holds the basic requirements for survival in the wilderness. if i'm remembering correctly.

a very satisfactory day out. the girls also bought pretty things, then we went for lunch and now i'm back at the computer, coughing.

getting dark early, biggles

asthma is boring

sorry i haven't been here much. i can't concentrate on anything and reading on screen makes my head hurt. plus am buzzing on ventolin. asthma is boring. (new meds are working - instead of tilade i have one accolate pill a day, which is much pleasanter to take than tilade. just a note for the asthmatic aunts.) though i feel chipper and well-rested this morning (most odd), so things are on the up. i intend to stop whining very soon.

essay not going terribly well. i have found out some more interesting stuff about the nuns and murderous saint balthild who founded the convent. now i am avoiding reading _bede's eccelesiastical history of the english nation_.

i had a lovely loooooong chat with vegie taco about vancouver last night, with great work gossip. we are going to drink coffee by the art gallery and go to vancouver island!

there has been a very cool public sculpture exhibition up round uni, by the first year fine arts students. though none of them were as good as my little wall i made on the velvet lawns of MU, there is some fun stuff. here is my favourite. it's a huge swirly pattern, all made out of electrical tape. i like art that you can walk on (see above re. little wall).

stanley park

handed in my feminist theory essay thismorning (bumped into a couple of the women from my class. we stood in the hallway and giggled for about five minutes before dropping the essays into the mailbox. i love this class) and randomly decided to celebrate by going for a bikeride around stanley park. i've been meaning to do this ever since i got here. stanley park is a vancouver icon, and The Book (ie. the lonely planet guide) was very enthusiastic about the cycling. also i miss my bike something chronic. have i mentioned that?

i hired a bike, stuffed my pants into my socks and headed off along the seawall. the path follows the beach, nice flat path, stunning views out to the mountains, lots of people mucking round on rollarblades. beautiful sunny day. then there was a detour through the centre of the park, which turned out to be a really steep gravel path, but through the most amazing forest. it's huge! look at these trees! and it smelt so good, all green, with occasional whiffs of the sea.



i realised the reason there was a detour was because stanley park got really beaten up in all those big storms we had late last year, and lots and lots of trees came down. so lots of the paths were closed, and there were fallen trees everywhere. you could even smell sawdust (which always reminds me of my childhood).

one hell of a storm, cos they're not small trees:

i got back on the seawall towards the end, and look, VTA's future home! (the building shaped like a hut):

oh and there were raccoons (not in a cage, just behind the little fence on the edge of the path). and while i'm blathering about size, i always thought raccoons were cat-sized, y'know, but really they're more like small-to-medium dogs:

it took about an hour, i probably went 10k, rental was only $10 cos a student (yay!) and i feel like a better human. huzzah for random cycling!

and now back to the study. one paper down, one to go. plus marking and whatever. i have been reading stuff about charlemagne, the european king from the 8th century. it's *fascinating*, all this religion and imperialism and politics. i have decided that it is a very bad thing to be a young royal. you tend to get disappeared.

me in downtown cafe w/ _Charlemagne: Empire and Society_.

children and dogs

OK and AK, my cousins, and G+B's doggies, up at Nanny's place. (she needs an acronym. NT?)

speed

you can get sudafed off the shelf here! there's masses of it, lined up the aisles of shopper's drug mart. wheeee! trying to get sudafed in australia is like a person of middle eastern appearance applying for an american visa.

i know this cos my "i don't have a sore throat and am not getting asthma" chanting over the last couple of days didn't work. bah.

sketches of customers in funky cafe

cos it's not pretentious to sit in funky cafe with a tiny sketchbook. . .

they're all a bit Not Quite Right, but it's the first time i've drawn in ages, and it was fun, so to the interweb they go.

studying in funky cafes

hide the cockroach #327

abigail has been getting cosy with the daffies, and now she has disappeared completely! where *can* she be?

funky hand gesture, yo

yesterday was fabulon. j and i were going to go on a research and book-returning trip to ubc, but we dropped by m's for coffee on the way then all decided to have lunch at the nam instead and look at clothes we can't afford. so we spent the day window shopping in kitsalano and had a really good time.

the nam is a very funky vegetarian restaurant filled with very funky people. and missymojay knows the owners! i had a particularly nice fruit smoothie.

women's studies essay going well. i nearly have a complete draft, which means i'll have to time to print it out and pull it apart, then stick it back together again before wednesday.

trees

check out this spunktaculous magnolia tree. oh, and i saw another bumble bee today! they're fabulon! all fat and round and furry and stripey! i want to touch one.
went to a very funky cafe on the drive called "bump and grind" this morning and worked on my women's studies essay for about three hours. it was funky to the max. yo. *does hand gesture*

then i bought some patchouli essential oil so i can live the stereotype.

remember that photo i put up a while ago of the tree budding outside my window? this is what it looks like now. i think it's fascinating - great big leaves are gradually unfolding.

musings

i just don't get bagels. they don't taste of anything, really.

i am the very hungry caterpillar!

On Friday
she ate through
four blood oranges.
But she was still
hungry.





good things:

- listening to the port nepean music festival on triple r

- playing giant scrabble! it was the best fun ever. i joined a team with some random strangers and it was totally cool. we all conferred on possible words then picked up a letter or two each (they were about a foot square) and walked out onto the humungous board. each team had a table propped up to hide our letters. and we clapped the other team when they put down a word, like we were playing golf or something.

- walking chicory this morning. he got a compliment on his ears, i got a compliment on my pants and a small girl dressed all in pink gave him a pat, which was very brave of her, as they were about the same height. her father told me about the chicory plants he was just putting into the garden.

- lovely warm sunny day, cherry blossom all over the city.

- finished presentations, which means a bit of pressure off. now all i have to do is make them into proper long essays. and do all my marking. she'll be right. . .

- teaching my last tutorial. it was a fun tutorial, we all know each other well enough to joke a bit, but now i won't have to get up early and wear teacher drag. a win/win.

- our feminist theory symposium. so cool. we even had a bit of a floating audience, and such good discussions. i will miss those debates. we're all comfortable with each other too, and able to make fun of the over-enthusiastic chairing and ask tricky questions of each other's presentations.

- going drinking after last medieval class, and making fun of beowulf nerds.

- having masses of fruit and veg and other foodstuffs. after my recent time in the study-bubble the only things in my fridge were coffee, dodgy milk and half a bag of brussel sprouts.

happy long weekend

hope the easter bilby brings you good things. . .

portugal

the postcard is actually in focus. my photo is not.

the stamp is also really cool:
thankyou, ms hard farmer! portugal sounds really cool - and pretty. glad you're having such good work trips. was there nice grub?