Now I Have A Bicycle. Ho. Ho. Ho.

So for my birthday, Mum gave me a certain sum of money and told me to buy something I wanted with it. Directly I repaired to Pennyfarthings the Bike Shop, with ReptonInfinity as technical advisor, and got myself a bike.

It's very shiny, and has front suspension, and lots of gears, and lights, and a pannier rack, and a Cool Helmet as opposed to a plain old boring one. It's all good, in fact, except for getting home up Brooklyn Hill. I needed lots of rest stops, and in fact, just after Brooklyn walked part of the way because my legs had given out, my lungs had given out, and my arms were pretty shaky as well. Zooming down the lesser hills up around the Ridgeway was lots of fun to make up for it, though, and Repton says that the distance up Brooklyn I can get without a break is a good measure of how fit I am, so I'll keep plugging away at it.

To harp on a theme, in case anyone hasn't gotten the news that I'm having a birthday party tomorrow, you're invited, assuming that you know me well enough to know my address (or my email address to ask what the physical one is. :->) It's from 7pm until whenever.

Cheers all,

Stephanie

The 48

So the reason I've been mostly incommunicado this weekend is my excursion into the 48 Hour Film Competition, with my team the Flying Monkeys. We had to make a movie in 48 hours with the following random elements:

Character : Jerry/Gerri Reed, a hypochondriac
Prop: A rope
Dialogue : "What do you call that?"

We made a serious War movie, with serious issues, in Lego. Will load it into YouTube after the whole business with heats and finals and stuff is done.

Medieval Manuscripts

The National Library of New Zealand has a medieval manuscript collection. Most of them are gifts plus the odd rare purchase, and sadly the library isn't really sure what to do with them - they don't have enough volumes in any one area to form a decent research library, so often they're stored away in a climate controlled room or occasionally brought out for display.

On the other hand, if you're lucky, one of your lecturers will arrange a class visit and you can go in and drool over them, admire the pictures, and even read them. (They're actually unrestricted books, so anyone can go in and read them, usually visiting scholars or people from Vic.)

The stars of the collection are both by Boethius, De Consolationes Philosophiae and De Musica, the first of which is very famous, and the second of which has ancient musical theory combined with a work by Guido of Arezzo who invented the current musical notation system. Very cool.

Things to be surprised about:
1. Exactly how small and how neatly scribes can write when they put their minds to it.
2. What good nick the manuscripts are in. Vellum is really tough and it holds its edges well. Interestingly, this is why some fragments have survived, they were cut up and used in the binding for printed volumes.

Never trust anyone over thirty...

Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday to me-eeeee (and Cat)
Happy birthday to me!

(Ahem. Moving right along.)

I have discovered...

That my mother, at the tender age of sixteen, once dated a Dutchman named Arnaut Groenevelt, whom she met at a ballroom dancing class. As the days and weeks passed in her pursuit of the Foxtrot and the Maxina, the length of her skirt migrated upwards from a demure knee length to the heady heights of the 60s undie-huggers. My grandmother no doubt noticed but, to the immense gratitude of my mother, did not comment.

That I should have a relative who dated someone with such an interesting name is, I feel, an instant source of family prestige. I have been to Palmerston and back this weekend for a family dinner, which was fun, but I'm fair exhausted from hanging out on buses so much. I should really go to bed now. G'night.