Phew.

I have just completed the first of my class assessments, an oral presentation on religious poetry in the Middle Ages. It was actually quite interesting to research - the rise of rhythmical verse over the Classical quantitive variety (ie all about vowel lengths) and when people started sticking music to it, and what the Franciscans did and so forth, but I'm very glad it's over, I spent most of my weekend fuming over it, with occasional breaks to translate Aldhelm and Bede as my regular homework.

I'd love to say I have a life now, but sadly I have a passage analysis, another oral presentation, a class test and a draft edition of a an Old English Psalm, all coming due in the next two weeks. I'll say Hi, when it's all over...

Winter is coming

Late dawn, early sunset, and a chill in the air.
I was quite glad it rained yesterday, actually, the grass needed it, and the air feels clearer.

Free to a Good Home

Today I did a purge of my bookshelves, and have two boxes of books that I'm unlikely to want to read again, along with a couple of inadvertant duplicates. I can't be bothered posting a list, but anyone who visits is welcome to fossick and take happy finds home.

A Blog With A Cat In It.

Yesterday I got home around 8.30 and wondered where the heck my cat was (she's usually camped out in my room or the living room and was unusually not in sight.) Then it occurred to me that I hadn't seen her when I left the house earlier in the day which was a little worrying. It turned out that she'd gone into the back garden and been stuck there for around 8 or 9 hours because the gate had swung shut in the wind and she can't jump over it anymore. She was sitting in a corner of the garden in the dark, very meekly, when I came out to find her. Poor Babe. Resignation is one of her virtues, but I could wish that she doesn't need it quite so often.

On a slightly more optimistic note, I've started giving her cod liver oil, and not only is her coat looking less scruffy, but she seems to be moving less stiffly as well.

There are three printers in the library,

and none of them are working. I must be back at Uni. :-(

First Week Back At Uni

And I've spent enough time on campus to long for the halcyon days of summer when there aren't all those pesky students hanging about getting in the way. It's mainly first years I think, they have things they need to queue for and they get lost easily.

Apart from that things are going well enough. Im having a bit of a problem in Latin right now in that translations are taking ages and I'm not understanding things as well as I want to, which will hopefully come right soon when I get into the right mindset again. Old English is in fact going better than expected - the three week swot before the class started has paid off, and Christine (the lecturer) is really nice. She seems to have given me and the other couple of newbies temporary immunity from being called on in class. I have slightly more news on the Mystery of the Head - other members of the class tell me that it's all in the Life of St Edmund, which they translated last year, so when I get through reading it, I'll update people on the story.

And Alasdair came down from Northland to have lunch with me today. This was something we did practically every week last year, when we were both on campus at the same time. Felt just like home.