Update

My goodness, this course is a lot of work. I haven't done much this weekend except work and worry about my lessons.

I am definitely going to laze around for the rest of the year. And some of the year after that.

I miss blogging!

Update

Hi folks! Just a quick note. I am in Moorhensroad staying with my parents. It is lovely. My Dad showed me a partridge feather. We rode his fold-up bike down the road. We are having chicken casserole for dinner.

The course is very hard work and surprising. I have forgotten most of the grammar I ever knew and it doesn't seem to be relevant anyway. Tenses and participles have been renamed, which is very confusing. (the Pluperfect is now the Past Perfect; the past participle is now the Third Form)

But the most surprising thing is that I am rather good at teaching. (I hope this doesn't sound too immodest). I have this teaching persona, which in some ways resembles my blogging persona...It's like being taken over by my own evil twin. I tease my students and make the occasional silly joke. While this new part of my personality is coming in very handy, it's rather exhausting for the quiet bit that likes sitting in a corner cataloguing documents. The genie is out of the bottle.

time to learn some more tenses and write a lesson plan.

By the way, James is reading people's blogs at the moment because I'm not there to do it for him. So enjoy his comments while they last...;)

News flash

Our house is packed and our tenants move in next week. We are camping at friends' houses. It's strange.

I gave all our bottles of sauce and stuff to Pete and he has blogged about them in rather an amusing way. What a lot of stuff! What bad housekeepers we are!

Packing was awful and we got very stressed. I had to have a brief cry when we found a tub of Flora in the fridge door, which was dated best before 2005:

"It's white! Is it meant to be that colour?"

"Oh no! It must come from our last move."

I didn't date that letter I was cataloguing, but on closer inspection, I discovered that it referred to a previous letter in the series, so that was good.

The ESOL course starts a week on Monday. I will be living partly in Oxford and partly in Moorhensroad. I keep hearing from various people who have done the course that it is a lot of work. I don't want to do lots of work. I want a holiday. After the course I am going to Australia for a month. I go to France at the end of November.

A la prochaine!

I went to work this afternoon. It was much better than being at home in our half-packed house. I am dreading packing my wardrobe. I have too many clothes.

There is an undated letter in the series I am cataloguing at the moment. It would be possible to date it, if I could discover when in 1918 the person it was written to was awarded a medal by the Queen of the Belgians.

I mean, honestly. Life is too short.

We are trying to pack everything up by Sunday evening. We are not doing too badly.

Funfares

That's what National Express calls their cheap tickets.

Going on National Express buses is not fun.

Poor James bought a cable that is supposed to link his Mac to the TV in colour. It didnt' work.

Dull whining post

If you're going to be ill, it's much better to have a few symptoms. Some spots - you can rub cream on spots. A cold. You can blow your nose and drink hot toddies and take aspirin (not together, I know). Aching bones: you can go to bed for a few days and keep warm.

But this illness is just vague tiredness, slight nausea, and a nagging sense of guilt and depression. It sounds like my usual state, except that James has it too and this is not his usual state. So, although it is bad to be ill at the same time as him, in this case it's slightly better because I know this is an illness and not my imagination.

I am now very familiar with daytime TV; in particular, the works of Noel Edmonds and John Burton Race. TV has become so cruel. Thank the Valar for Stephen Fry.

James is reading The Woman in White, so I wont' see him this evening. The TV version had me cowering in terror last night.

People are coming to view our house, which is looking unnaturally clean and tidy. We hide the untidiness under the bed and in cupboards when people come round. James is boxing up his books to send to Ango.

I feel sad today because I have the flu. I have spent most of the day sleeping. I woke up this morning weighed down by more doom-laden thoughts than usual and failed to get out of bed. I thought I was just being lazy but I think I'm having the illness that James had a couple of days ago, which makes you very miserable and think that everything you do is useless.

How can you tell? It's a good question.

I saw a TV programme which included some film of kakapos. A kakapo climbed down a tree and then jumped to the ground. They said that there are over 100, but I'm sure the web site says 86. Have they hatched 14 eggs without anyone alerting the world? I have a Google news search for kakapo so I'm sure I wouldn't have missed it.

If you want a laugh, watch Enemies of Reason, and pretend it's a comedy instead of a programme about science.

Scene: a New Age Fair. Richard Dawkins approaches a stall.

"So, do I have any guardian angels?"

"Everyone has angels guiding them on their path through life."

"Can you see my angels?"

"No, you haven't asked them to come near you."

Scene: Richard Dawkins lies on a massage table. A kind woman wearing a purple shirt rubs his feet and he strokes his temples. He's quite enjoying himself, he says.

"So," she says, "Repeat after me: "Fear of being ignored."" (James, mend this punctuation please x).

We are tired of waiting to move. We want to get on with it.

Satisfactory

James has bought a new pair of trainers. They are like trainers that skateboarders wear. They are very comfortable. They are blue. He has ordered a second pair, in black. In the sale.

He now owns at least five pairs of comfortable shoes.

I nearly took a photograph but perhaps that's going a bit far.

The Enemies of Reason

Roused my brain from its usual torpor. I thought he chose some rather easy targets, though.