The Book of Na'Lon

My parents are visiting! Yay!

I picked them up at the station at noon. They brought my cello in its new case with them. Very exciting! It's beautiful - new strings and bridge and spike and string-attachment, the varnish is darkish chocolatey (rather than reddy) brown. The case is gigantic, but not heavy. It has backpack straps and little wheels.

Actually I am a bit lost for words. *looks happy*

It's raining today. So my knees were right last night with their soreness -- they usually get sore when there is a change in atmospheric pressure, which is not good for someone living in England. :-|

Initially I was wondering if Tuemi and friend had packed the good weather up in their suitcases, but they claim not -- too much other stuff. I saw them off to the station earlier on. Sad to see them go, but also nice to get back to sorting out the house some more.

In fact the sorting out that needs to be done encompasses some fairly major problem resolution. While Tuemi and friend were visiting, we discovered that our shower leaks into the kitchen. Yesterday the Marquis decided to investigate. He took the side of the bath and discovered that 12kg (about 24lb) of wet plaster had fallen off the wall behind the bath and lain wetly on top of the floor board, which had begun to rot underneath its damp load. The Marquis shovelled out the dirt and went online to investigate what was to be done about wet-rot... Now we just have to hope that the Land People respond soon to our email.

I was going to inaugurate my nice new birthday brolly -- a huge contraption with photos of Nuremberg all over it -- but I forgot it in the house and am having to make do with my little fold-up umbrella that I usually cart around with me. *shrugs*

I worked on my website last night, while Tuemi and her friend were watching DVDs. This morning Tuemi asked me if I was narked with them. Um... not really. I was very tired what with the early start packing the Marquis off to Carlisle, and my back/neck is very sore from getting used to new office and job and all (and consequently I was feeling a little sorry for myself). So I'm sorry that I gave the impression I was grumpy. I was just exhausterated. Will try and be more sociable tonight. ;-)

Anyway... today is graduation day here and I need to get dressed up in hood and gown, something I always enjoy. :-)

The new kettle that my office sharer, Nix, has bought for us has just boiled and it's time for a cuppa of genuine English Breakfast tea bought in France, as it were.

A huge big welcome then to my sister, tuemi (formerly known as Ta'Nik).

Nachdem ich jetzt zumindest eine deutschsprachige Leserin habe schreibe ich auch ab und zu mal was auf deutsch.

Had a very long weekend -- Society T seminar, more seagull rescue (with a happy end, thank goodness), Shrek 2 (very funny).

Tidied out the loft today: lots of cardboard boxes...

Longer update when I feel more human again. ;-)

It is now one minute past eight, I am pleased to be able to inform you. :-)

My usual watch -- the good old reliable stainless steel Citizen that I have been given as a gift from my granny 'Nari -- suffered a minor setback on Tuesday, when its strap packed in in such a way as not to be repairable. Of course.
The Marquis went and checked it out at the Watch Hospital.

So today I decided to go and buy a new strap for it, but not leather: it had to be one of those sprung metal ones. I like those. But the only ones small enough that they had at the Watch Hospital I didn't like -- I just wanted a plain one. Fortunately they can be ordered.

But since I have been spending some time wondering what exactly it is I am earning money for, I had earlier in the day decided that I wanted to have a second watch. This feels like the ultimate luxury to me :-). But I figured since I hardly ever wear any jewellery beyond my piratical gold earring and my wedding band, a pretty watch (in gold-colouring) was exactly what I wanted to have earned some money for. I found a nice pretty and elegant watch (by Citizen again, so it happens) and went for it!

It is now eight minutes past eight.

I love my new watch! (But am also looking forward to get my old one back soon...)

Because of the disgustingly early start this morning, I feel that I have had quite a good day, really. The lecture was done before the sun had set -- it's setting noticeable later now! Yay!

The Marquis and I went for an itty-bitty walk around the park and took a look at some of the flooding there in one of the bits that's 'land-locked' but as low as the river. It's cold again, so we didn't stay out too long. We we came back in, the Marquis made us hot chocolate and we watched Time Team. While we did this, I spent some time sorting through some long overdue paperwork and banking. Feel virtuous now...

Told my Dad about this lj today -- hi, G'Lon, in case you are reading this! He called to say thanks for the translation work. :-)

This is just what it says on the box...

( Na'Lon's Saturday )

Isn't that absurd. I can't think of a title for my update, but I want there to be one, so I make one up that means nowt. But, heck, why shouldn't I? Today's entry is mostly inane, but read if you wish...

( Don't say I didn't warn yer! )

I resent having to work at the weekends, I really do. I want to get on with things I want to do. But because I tend to feel guilty about the requirement to do work, I usually end up doing nothing worthwhile at all. And the next thing I know is, it's Sunday night and I am intensely dissatisfied.

So this weekend, I have work to do. This damned assignment for the teaching and learning course, and when I realised yesterday that I hadn't really done the right thing with my drafting so far, I became very unmotivated indeed. Which is a farce, really, giving that part of my assignment is about helping student's find motivation and some form of enthusiasm for research methodology. Grrr.

I tried to break the cycle described in the first paragraph today. I will do some of the things I want to do instead, so that at least I enjoy my weekend as a break from the week. And maybe once I have done some of the things I enjoy, I can get down to work feeling less deprived of my fun.

As a result of my reasoning, I have already reedited chapter one of my Story and sent it to my Evil Twin (jane_somebody) and I have finished and posted off my bi-monthly column for the magazine of a society I belong to. I have also sweated over the current emither with pellegrina which is very enjoyable, but hard, hard work as it's plumbing some psychological depths that are hard to put into words. But very useful exercise nevertheless.

Yesterday, I finally spoke on the phone to my aunt Yo'Quith to thank her for her Christmas parcel. She sent me a couple of video tapes of a puppet show that I used to love as a child, because she saw it and was reminded of one of my "phases" (or "thuses" as eudesia might call it). It's about a ghost that lives in a castle. I don't remember this at all, apart from remembering that I liked ghosts and puppet-shows by this particular group of puppeteers.

Hm... while I think of it, a note for any one who recognises some of the names, such as Na'Lon or Yo'Quith, from my fiction writing and role-playing: I am borrowing these names for various people, including 'Na'Lon' for myself, but here they are only used as descriptors, and no similarity between character and RL person I refer to is intended. There are some similarities between character's family structures and my own family structure: e.g. The Marquis is also Na'Lon's mate in the Game, and Na'Kat really is Na'Lon's mother in Game and fiction. However, that is as far as the similarity goes...

Today's entry is some rambly insanity, as usual and so I'll park it sideways, as it were. That way I won't take up too much space on my friends' screens... This really is about coursework assignments. It also is about what I have to do over the weekend and some burbling...

( Read more... )