(We are studying) actuellement (French vocabulary).

i don't wanna! realised this is the first test i've done since i got my driver's license. it'll be fine (see the two piles of flashcards - the ones on the left are the ones i know!) but i can't be bothered studying. or reading. mostly cos reading is postcolonial theory (poco gives me hives) and saint augustine's "on christian doctrine", which is dry like a dry thing.

whine whine whine

knocked back two invites in favour of staying in and whining, so is all my own silly fault. on the other hand, had a lovely long skype w grot and a good swim before that. i did three tumbleturns that worked! very exciting! (and a whole lot that involved me shooting off towards the bottom of the pool or into the lane ropes or simply getting half the pool up my nose. a work in progress. . . )

very excited about maybe doing my phd in NY. planning on going to visit over easter, to try and get a feel for if i could cope there. all of this subject to change, btw, but inspiring none the less. must get ridiculously good marks in order to get ridiculously good scholarships or the whole thing's shot. so - back to the past participles.

also

don't neglect the rousing game of hide the cockroach happening below the last london post. this is a particularly creative round - all welcome.

birthday dancing

wheeee! big weekend. winifred's bday, so we went out dancing and had a good time. remembered why one doesn't break in new boots by jumping up and down a lot. i like the start of semester. lots more social stuff. um, what else has happened? i went to a vegan potluck, that was interesting, and kings was fun, and FLQ and i made dinner together the other night cos we couldn't face heading down the hill in the snow storm to buy groceries. can't remember what else. this morning we had pancakes together (ie. winifred and the gang). yum.

still have masses of reading, but she'll be right. mate. haha. we have four minutes more daylight every day now, and there is a feeling of spring in the air. it was still light at 4.30 today. very nice.

happy birthday to my grandpaternal figure for last week! (how old is he again, bbb?)

plans are afoot:

today at uni

with bonus moody soundtrack.

it has been snowing all day. they finally cancelled classes at 4.30pm.

bit of a slow day. tute thismorning was pretty quiet. 9.30am. bah. i was tired, my students were tired, it was snowing. . . but we did a nice exercise with a john donne poem, which they eventually got into. i have a kiwi in my tuesday tute, which is most exciting. starting to learn their names. i've told htem they're only allowed to laugh at my spelling on the board if they can correctly spell the word. hah. need to work on the ol' spelling.

yesterday was *exhausting*, but in a good intellectual challenge kind of way. class from 9.30am to 8.30pm, with a three hour break in the middle. in my feminist theory class i gave a presentation on _this bridge we call home_, which is a follow-up/companion volume to _this bridge we call our back_, a groundbreaking feminist text about women of colour. challenging and interesting stuff. we had a good session about the many ideas the text brings up, lots of different points of view. it is interesting being in women's studies - a different way of thinking and talking.

the medieval class was also very interesting, though i was starting to fade by the end. we get to look at lots of nice manuscripts (in facsimile) and talk about the means of production and so forth. last night we did a whirl-wind tour of the history of the written word from ancient rome to the 14th century. then we had a good chat about the bible. let there be light and so forth.

and, today, it arrived! bliss!
(chocolate has melted and reformed in a big lump, so must gnaw. still delish.)

last day in london

i bet y'all forgot i hadn't actually left london in that last post. well, here is my last day. it started with the hard farmer jogging to the post office to pick up the christmas package the girls had sent. oh, we had so much fun unwrapping all the things. thankyou hughie, tine and missmojay! (sorry it has taken so long to acknowledge - aaagh) i keep virg in my office to freak out my students. here she is saying "i can't work under these conditions!" (quoting me as i stomped through the snow to class thismorning):

to infinity and beyond!:

i have the bark hanging up on my bookcase, and look out for the rubber stamp on a postcard near you. . .

anyway, so after we extracted ourselves from presents we hit the road (poor old tofu went to work, still crook). first stop was buckingham palace, via st. james park, where HF sometimes does marathon training. we arrived for the changing of the guards and stayed around to watch the brass band and the guards getting ready. the outfits were fab:
there was a lot of stamping and shouting and about face-ing. the whole thing was fascinating and incredibily pompous.

then, after a quick stop to buy a toy bus for me:
we went to westminster abbey. i recommend this website. it has virtual tours and weird 360 degree video clip things. westminster was huge and wonderful and packed with tombs. lots of amazing ppl buried there, like queen elizabeth:
who is buried with her half-sister mary, who she hated. the other mary is across the way.

there's the famous poet's corner, where chaucer and t.s.eliot and dickens and austen are memorialised, if not buried:
lots of really cool sculptures (nice skeletons) and the coronation chair and other historical things. lots of marble and gold and enormous vaulted ceilings and medieval clay floor tiles. stunning stuff. and we went into a little basement bit (see, this is why i should have done this a fortnight ago, so i could remember all the names) where they kept the wax/ceramic funeral effigies of the kings and queens, in their original robes. (none of these are my photos, btw. my camera battery died.)

that was all a bit amazing. we grabbed a quick lunch from boots and headed out to the british library for the afternoon. british library is neat. the treasures exhibition is amazing. and, incidently, their webpage is also amazing. they have a cool interactive reading thing, so you can read, for instance, william blake's notebook, turning the pages virtually. go, see.

among the amazing things we saw:
shakespeare's first folio

earliest surviving copy of beuwolf (my medieval lit prof most cranky that tourists can see it but no-one's allowed to study it)
leonardo di vinci's notebook
orginal letter-version of alice in wonderland (read online! do!)

contemporary copy of chaucer
gutenberg bible
captain scott's diary (just going outside, may be some time)

manuscript of jane eyre
magna carter
masses of wonderful illuminated manuscripts

beatles draft lyrics
draft of elizabeth the first's "of course i'm gonna get married, get off my back!" speech, with all her corrections

gosh, it was speccy. after two or three hours my eyeballs were about to fall out - low lighting and lots of reading - so HF and i headed back to the flat.

tofu made us a lovely dinner and we hit the bubbly and talked and talked and played w our presents. it was a perfect last day.

then the next morning i got up early and headed off. cried a bit. as i do.

miss you guys.

cock-a-roach-a #V

I am ready.

The cockroach is prepared.

Please mount the picture…..

It’s time to hide the cockroach!

BBB

oh

philippa pearce died in december. sad.

listen to mr mombassa

the truths are out there

the campus is all fogged up atm, in the most creepy fashion. you can't see very far and there are lights looming out of the darkness and, of course, the snow. very x-file-ish. i keep expecting something be-tentacled to leap out at me. if only i were carrying a torch and saying "mastasicising" a lot.

turns out they actually *filmed* the x-files on campus.

(david duchovny claimed vancouver was like an ice-age rain forest and now we hates him.)

medieval lit readings for this week

Bischoff, Latin Palaeography, pp. 7-45

Shailor, The Medieval Book, pp. 6-22

Plato, Phaedrus, 274c-277a (http://books.mirror.or/plato/phaedrus/)

The Bible, Genesis 1-5; 2 Corinthians 3; John 1.1-20 (from the Douay-Rheims translation of the Vulgate: http://www.drbo.org)

Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, Book 1, pp. 3-33

sorry, no new posts. i got distracted by this:
don't they look so young???

also i have masses of study. i still have one more day of my england trip to put up (last day in london), which will happen as soon as this presentation is out of the way. betcha you've all been on tenterhooks.

foto of new docs

they are fab and waterproof and comfy and i luuuuurve them
thankyou caroline!

hide the cockie V by grotty, the Big Winner!

where can that cockroach be? roll up, roll up and make a guess! no guesses too silly. lurkers - this means you!

for grot

Latest News

GOONOO FIRE - DUBBO 9.45AM update Monday 15/01/07

Posted: 15/01/2007

Overview

A bushfire that was started by two lightning strikes on Friday afternoon continues to burn in the Goonoo Community Conservation Area. The fire has burnt out about 19000 hectares of bush land and remains uncontained. Properties to the west of the fire may be affected by spot fires and smoke today. The threat has eased for properties to the east of the fire that were affected by smoke and spot fires on Saturday.

A wind change on Saturday afternoon pushed the fire to the west and similar wind conditions are expected today. Firefighters will attempt to take advantage of decreasing wind speed and continue fire containment works on the southern and western areas, unfortunately the fire will remain difficult to control and contain due to the topography and extensive size of the fire. Winds are expected to remain from the east throughout the day.

snow #17,000

i wanted to go for a swim but the pool was closed again so i went for a snow walk instead (til it got dark - scared of bears and coyotes in my old age). thus:

the snow is soft and powdery, like walking in ankle-deep sand.

dunno what happened here, but i like it:


and the joys of ultimate frisbee:


i have so much reading to do, it's insane. so played trivial pursuit last night with the new MAs, beer in a snowdrift by the door (now know i suck at british *and* american trivial pursuit), and am going to dinner and kings w anne tonight.

it was supposed to be a top of zero today, but i don't think it got that warm. top of two tomorrow, then more snow. re. the enjoying this weather thing - it's fun, and it's pretty. and i'm not out in it terribly much, and then i come into a nice warm room. as my friends from colder parts of canadia tell me, it's all about dressing properly and not being outside for more than twenty minutes.

yes, indeedy snow

there was a huge blizzard last night, complete with roads up to uni closed and buses cancelled. we had classes today (my thursday tutorial is good fun. they talk and stuff. excited to be teaching them) but the uni felt moved to put this warning on the website:

"Roads are open but drivers should be careful, and watch out for possible icy patches and vehicles that were abandoned during yesterday's severe snowstorm. Allow extra time to get to campus.

TransLink buses are operating. People waiting for buses, and pedestrians, should be prepared for below-freezing temperatures."

the pic is from my office window again. on the right is the pond, frozen over but not enough to skate on this time. it was sunny today, which was lovely and unexpected. very odd to have the sun shining on yr face but be in such bitter cold.

i do enjoy this weather.

me_snow

whoops

oh dear. snowed in again.

let's pledge to make daria's dream a reality

oh, uni has gone back! i have so much reading! haha. actually i haven't yet, but spent $150 on set texts today, so will. (also $160 on asthma meds - all the puffers always die at the same time, like lightbulbs).

had my first french class (mostly on the parts of speech. quick! what's an indefinite article?) which was good n challenging (the teacher is very enthusiastic, which is my key requirement in a teacher, also knowledgable and into grammar, but unfortunately reminds me of mr o'neil from daria) and my first intro to poetry lecture and tute. not sure how i feel about the prof yet, but my tute went okay. i made them talk to each other in small groups. mwahahaaha! actually, my circus training has been most useful for teaching. hmm. . .

very lovely to see everybody here again. jetlag nearly over, thank god. it has been raining a lot and is due to snow a lot tomorrow, with tops of zero forecast later this week. so the usual.

you may have noticed some additions to the blog (unless your view of the page squishes my sidebar waaaay down the bottom of the page, in which case you may have missed them - not sure what's causing this problem). thought youse might be interested in weather/hit counter. i know i am.

more to write, but must sleeeeeeeep.

bath

then there was this business:
and here's some photos i took around bath on the walk back to the train station, via some very scenic/historic/blahblah this was built two thousand years ago. ..


the baths (oh, if only i'd paid attention in latin!). i had a little peek inside the entrance way - fabulous domed ceiling:


and the angels climbing up to heaven which so struck me from grot's england photo album when i was a child:bath was very beautiful. it was a good taster - i'd like to back and spend more time there.

then the five of us hopped on the train to london.