Fighting against Halloween darkness

So I've heard all the arguments but for me Halloween is a terrifying celebration of all that is evil in the world. Sorry, I can see very little 'fun' at all and when I was young the 31st October meant cowering in the dining room bobbing apples with my sister trying to avoid any sign of ghosts/skeletons/dripping blood etc etc etc. Now I am older and wiser and my house contains a 6"5 Scotsman so I less prone to Halloween terrors. That said, I decided to formally reject the modern tenets of my least favourite night of the year by making a smiley pumpkin face. I was so impressed by the result that I thought I'd load a photo on to Molemaison. Hoorah to happy pumpkins!




How sweet!

CSW

Thoughts for the weekend...

...so here are two things I am currently thinking about:

1) Why don't women like Nigella? In an attempt to answer my own question (a typical lecturer trick) I think it has something to do with my rant post on twenty-first century women of a couple of weeks ago - women just seem to enjoy dragging other women down. I love Nigella. I think she is wonderful...as is her flourless chocolate brownie recipe. Oh, too yum!

2) Where are all the brown trousers in the shops? It is autumn, the season of browns, oranges, warm scarves and lovely boots. Well, my bargain pair of Hush Puppies arrived just this week but a search of our local shopping district for a pair of gorgeous skinny brown cords proved fruitless. And another thing...why are skinny jeans so blinkin' tight around the calves? Do I have unusually large calves in comparison with the rest of me? Am I the only lady to have such issues?

D and I have enjoyed two films in as many days. Tonight it was some classic James Bond action with Goldeneye. Last night we watched Shutter Island. In many ways it reminded me of Inception, a film I loved. Partly this was the Leonardo di Caprio factor and partly the similarities as psychological thrillers. I did enjoy it mostly. There were a couple of 'hide behind the hands' moments. I am a notorious film wuss! There was a certain ambiguity about the end and I was still thinking about it this morning...that's always a good sign.

Anyways, given that the clocks 'Fall back' we can enjoy an extra hour of snoozing. How nice! I think I'll head that way now. I spent the day smiling and attempting to impress prospective parents and students at our open day. It is all very exhausting! Don't expect much news this week; a busy few days of assessment coming up. Really looking forward to seeing the students' work. It is always super exciting.

Enjoy the week folks

CSW

And another thing...

...two posts in less than 12 hours. Phew! After my Saturday eulogy I meant to post on some exciting news early this week. Ooops for not celebrating this one live on Molemaison...Last Friday Smelly (my sweet sister) got engaged to Stu as they crossed the threshold of their new house. Goodness, when did I get a little sister who is old enough to buy a property and get married? Congrats to you both! We'll look forward to celebrating with you properly in December. Well, I'm off to do some Book writing now. What a lovely day in store!

CSW

Yes, it is late in the day...

...Thursday is drawing to an end and Friday is about to begin so I thought I'd write a quick post before bed. D is watching BBC's This Week so I'll bash out the Warden news for the week. It has been tutorial week so I've had lots of 1-1 meetings with students. I really enjoy these wee chats so it has been lots of fun. Research day tomorrow (yes I have had two this week but I won't get one at all next week) so some Book writing is in order.

Last night D and I went to an evening lecture given by an American gentleman called Michael Albert. He is a 'radical' (whatever that means!) and has designed a post-Capitalist society model, Parecon (participatory economics, don't you know). We both disagreed with him largely for a number of reasons, none of which I will bore you with tonight. However, he did get us talking as we drove home. Questions like 'what is the role of the State?', 'what do we understand by "onerous work"?' and 'what is wrong/right about capitalism?' All extremely interesting. I always like to be provoked and Albert certainly did provoke us! It's John Pilger next week so we're looking forward to that.

So, this weekend it is open day (me) and the sausage festival (D). Ah, Lincoln life...what larks, Pip! And I'm off to bed to prepare for tomorrow. It's squash day as well and I gave D a good run for his money last week so I'm hoping for an equally competitive match tomorrow.

Enjoy the end of the week and the weekend.

CSW

Home day

One thing I am thankful for and will never take for granted are my home research days. I count myself very fortunate to enjoy a day at home every week to work on my own private research. Sometimes these days go really well and sometimes I find myself just reading over chapters in a vain attempt to find gaps (of which there are many btw!). Today though was one of the good ones. I had chance to read through the papers for Seattle and get excited about the forthcoming conference. I then had some time to think over my own research plans up to 2012ish. I have a big research meeting tomorrow and I want to sound professional...or at least competent! I spent the afternoon on the Book, interspersing intense writing sessions with house tidying. Living room, bed room and hall are now done. Hoorah!

Then, what should come through the post today but Eric Whitacre's new CD (bought by D but recommended by Pastor Mikey - cheers Mike!). I love Whitacre and I am currently watching the sun go down as a hot air balloon floats languidly across the sky, listening to some of the most beautiful choral music. Any Rudsambeelets reading, Whitacre's hand-picked choir perform Five Hebrew Love Songs nearly as well as we do! Having just had a cup of tea I feel extremely contented and thankful for our quiet wee Lincoln life. Just need D to get home now. He has been in Oakham helping folks back into work today and called to say that Rutland was looking very beautiful in the sunshine. Responding to my friend Emily's blog post today, I am experiencing peace :-) Look at that, both Luehrmanns mentioned in one post!

So a happy day all round...and I even have Waitrose prawns for tea! Yum, oh too yum!

Hope you are enjoying a happy evening too.

CSW

p.s. Sleep has just started. Oh, man I love this piece! Rudsambeelets, I can hear all your voices now and I feel a little wistful.

100th Post!

Well, that is an exciting milestone! I really enjoy writing this blog. I find it helps me to organise my thoughts and to reflect on life here in Lincoln. Thanks for sharing the journey with me.

Reeling from the announcement that Wayne Rooney will stay at United (what, eh?) I am taking a wee lunch break from the Book to write this post. I'm off to uni to meet with a student in a bit but thought I'd get this in first. Not many posts this week, largely due to extreme busyness. This is quite unusual for us; our days here are generally quiet and peaceful but this week has seen me running about like a mad thing with dinners out, evening meetings and a school drama competition (I was guest judge - it was like the X-Factor!), not to mention the final week of teaching for this block. Phew! The flat needs a good clean and I am looking forward to spending a happy weekend with D.

Winter has arrived in Lincoln and I had to put our heating on this week. It has, however, been cold and crisp so all is well. The sun is currently shining through my living room as I write. Lovely! I really like October. I don't really mind that feeling of heading towards Winter. For me Winter is a good excuse to stay warm, wear tights and boots, watch films (I have Hugh Jackman's version of Oklahoma on my viewing list - ah, swoon!), read great books and eat hot food all the time. Heading towards the weekend, I am quite tired, so I'm looking forward to indulging all the aforementioned joys.

The big news of the week, of course, was the spending review. We listened to George give us his worst on Wednesday lunchtime in our office. It is hitting the university sector quite hard, unfortunately. That said, there are a number of ways that money can be saved in higher education and to pretend that it is a streamlined institution is just a nonsense. I'm also hoping that students understand the full implications of the fees issue before they go and protest vigorously for a cause they don't really understand. Higher fees should also bring help for poorer students.

I sit firmly on the metaphorical fence when it comes to politics. One of my third years said 'Claire, you never tell us what you really think about politics' and she's absolutely right. I would probably classify myself as an optimistic realist. I am all for personal ambition while being a pretty vocal advocate for supporting society's vulnerable folks. I hate wastage, arrogance, ignorance and petty-mindedness, and love honesty, freedom and generosity. I am interested in green issues while recognising (with a certain amount of exasperation) that some folks somewhere are making a serious amount of money with all this environmental scare-mongering. My favourite thing about living in Britain are the free museums and libraries, and I get thoroughly sick of jingoism, celebratory nationalism or bigotry. I don't like unions who have historically always let the working class down in the end, but am all for peaceful protest and marched through the streets of Edinburgh in 2005. So, put me in a political box if you dare! ;-) As an undergraduate I was a bit of a Commie (at least in a jokey way); I think I've become more complex as I've got older. And Adele, if you're reading this, it does not mean that David Cameron is on my Christmas card list! ;-)

I'm off to do a bit more writing before heading down to the LPAC. Later...

CSW

In Edinburgh

I woke up on Thursday morning to find that our electricity was off. This was not because we hadn't paid our bills, you understand, but because something had gone wrong underground. Strangely the night before D had been watching The Road, the film version of Cormac McCarthy's 'Oh, it's so postmodern, ra, ra, ra' novel. It is a post-apocalyptic narrative and when I realised that I couldn't even make a cuppa on Thursday morning I wondered if life had imitated art! Fortunately it came back on again before I left for university and our frozen meat remained frozen.

It's the weekend and D and I are enjoying a happy time in Edinburgh. Yesterday and this morning were spent in the library catching up on some research. The highlight was finding a play that I presumed was lost forever to the annuls of time. It was a very exciting discovery! We've also seen a lot of the fam, including our wee niece Rebecca who is growing all the time. And to top it all off we had a lovely lunchtime meal at the Dakota. It was Rebecca's first time in a restaurant and she behaved magnificently. She's developing a very refined palate and a taste for fine dining...at 6 weeks old! We're heading back to Lincoln tomorrow but it has been a very restful but very productive couple of days. I must admit it has been wonderful to sit in the library and get on with some work. I get a lot more done away from the university office!

Anyways, we have a busy week coming up with meals out, meetings and (so much joy!) judging a school drama competition. Looking forward to that. It is also our last week of teaching for this block which means that assessment is just round the corner. Lots of Bertolt Brecht in store, which should be fun. I'll fill you in later in the week.

CSW