one fell/foul/fowl swoop

It's been my favourite kind of Saturday and the kind of Saturday that I haven't had in a long long time. I slept in until 8. Got up just before 9 and managed to be showered and dressed in time for my dear mum to pick me up at 9:15. We nipped downtown for a morning coffee. I had a toasted sandwich for breakfast (cheese, tomato and avocado). We did a little bit of people watching and enjoyed the comfy lounge seats at the cafe. Then I came home via Officeworks where I picked up some archive boxes. With a great sense of satisfaction in one fell/foul/fowl swoop I plonked all of Term One's bits and pieces from study in a box and neatly stored it in the hall cupboard. Then it was time to start the washing (an ongoing project as I write), have a bowl of cereal for lunch and watch the end of The Lake House which I recorded last night. Yes I know it's a crap film. Yes, I've seen it before. Yes, I still can't understand the whole time difference between Keanu and Sandra or why the mailbox is magical but that didn't stop me recording the last half and watching it over my Just Right and muesli. I think I have a problem.

Then, and only then, it was nana nap time. Two and half hours later I woke up on the lounge to the sound of a very bad 1950s musical starring Janet Leigh and some other long forgotten Hollywood stars.  It certainly wasn't any Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire number but they did sing Manhattan which is one of my favourite tunes. And incidentally it is the name of Woody Allen film on ABC2 tonight after the second half of the doco of his life. Here it is in a very early version. Old Rodgers and Hart could certainly put together a tune.


Anyway, after that music interlude Saturday continued with some soup for a late snack. Now I am enjoying a green tea and posting this final #blogjune. I'm looking forward to a quiet night, perhaps with some @TunnFM for @KyliePC 's birthday playlist and a little bit more Haigh's dark chocolate. That my dear friends, is Saturday.

something profound tomorrow

That's it my friends. No sooner did it begin than the mid-year break is over. Five weeks between the end of Term 1 and the start of Term 2 sped by in a flurry of finalising grades, marking, preparing for a Moodle upgrade, recovering from a Moodle upgrade, finishing my own assignments, preparing for a conference and trip to Adelaide, going to Adelaide and a conference, getting back with three days to get ready for teaching this term. Luckily I have had the #blogjune challenge to keep me motivated or I fear there would have been precious little posting here at The Spiralling Shape. Many days it has been a scramble to post something. I had grand visions of one substantial post after another but it has not turned out that way. I shall try for something profound tomorrow.

Lucky for you and your nine lives

Dear Harrison

I know I went away and left you alone in the house for a week. I'm very sorry. I would remind you that I did organise for a very nice lady to come in and feed you and fill up your water every day. She even told me that you sat with her on the lounge while she did some reading and kept you company. With all that in mind, I do not see why you chose to throw up on my lounge at some point today while I was at work as some kind of weird punishment for perceived neglectfulness on my part. Lucky for you and your nine lives I have a throw over aforementioned lounge. I am now washing it and I would appreciate it if such behaviour could cease and desist immediately. So I went away for a while. Build a bridge young man. Build a bridge.

Sincerely
Wendy
(your "owner")

holiday snaps

Things I ate today that I probably shouldn't have

Banana bread on the plane
Cheese and crackers on the plane
Pie and mash
the rest of my sister's nachos
two so called "healthy muesli bars"
two pieces of pizza

Achievement unlocked

I haven't done a conference presentation for quite a number of years. I don't really count in house seminars at work although I do a couple of them each year. Sure, they mean getting up and talking in front of people, but usually the people are colleagues from various disciplines so they don't ask tricky questions. Today was different as I co-presented a paper here in Adelaide at the RAILS8 conference on GLAM, cultural policy and Australian cultural heritage. I was very relieved to have an excellent partner in crime as it were in Katherine Howard. I was also very relieved to be presenting in a friendly sized room ar UniSA. I had spent the evening prior with visions of giant, cold lecture theaters dancing through my head. Fortunately this did not come to pass. I thought about all the times I had blithely encouraged students in public speaking, or piano students in performances. How could have possibly been so uncaring? Anyway, apparently it's good for us to do something that scares us every day. Achievement unlocked for me today.

"P" is for Personal Learning Network

Saturday saw me do one of my very favourite things. Yes that's right. I met an imaginary twitter friend IRL. it's always exciting and @K1Howard turned out to be just as fabulous as she is on twitter and other online, virtual places. We drank coffee, chit chatted, laughed (a lot) and generally had a lovely time. That's what puts the "P" in Personal Learning Network my friends.

We even saw a rainbow

It was another cold and rainy start to the day here in Adelaide. Still we powered on and ventured out of the city to Hahndorf. The car thermometer said it was around 4-5degrees...and this was at midday. We were glad of our brollies because the rain continued the whole time we were there (except for when were inside eating lunch when we thought we saw the sun!). I'm pretty sure Hahndorf would be beautiful on a sunny day. We were desperate to get warm so the car seemed the best option. A leisurely drive to Victor Harbor was broken up with a couple of stops at a cheesery and wineries. We exclaimed rather enthusiastically when the sun emerged as we got closer to the coast. We even saw a rainbow. But by the time we hit the city in peak hour the bleakness had returned. Home to the heating, bed socks and a nice warm cup of tea.

Thursday in Adelaide

Got up late, showered, soup, tea, rain, went to Glenelg, ambled up and down the main street, stopped for a chai latte and a rather gigantic piece of carrot cake, bought an excellent pair of green leather ankle boots, back through town, marveled at the many umbrellas, hoped it might stop raining tomorrow, home for tea, pasta and plans for Friday.

Wednesday's post is full of travel

Wednesday was a day of travel. We left Bundaberg at 6.30 in the morning and it was a shivery 6 degrees. One pit stop at sexie coffee just outside of maryborough was our only break before Brisbane airport where we made it in nice time catch the 1pm flight to Adelaide. It was bright sunshine all the way until we were 10 minutes out from our destination. The clouds looked like the end of the world approaching over the plane. It was rainy and grey by the time we landed and has been ever since. We found our cottage, walked to the nearest grocery shop, stocked the fridge, watched a bit of Telly and fell into bed. Thank goodness for beautiful snuggly doonas. They kept us all warm all night!

Bound for South Australia

It's my last day of work for nearly a week. Yes that's right. At what has turned out to be the most hectic time of year I am going away on holidays and to a conference. In some ways it will be a relief to set my out of office messages and lock the door behind me this afternoon. All the nuttiness of new course profile and Learning Management Systems will be behind me. On the other hand, it will mean I land back here next Tuesday evening with a day full of Orientation on Wednesday, and three or so days to get ready to teach the new term. Swings and roundabouts.

In the meantime, I am deciding what to pack to take to Adelaide. I have been reliably informed that to fit in I should call it "Radelaide"? I hope that's correct. I mean I wouldn't want to look like an idiot.

 I am very bad at packing. I am filled with angst that I will pack the wrong things, not enough things, too many things, etc etc. You get the picture. I'm also not really a fan of travelling. Well, that's not strictly true. I like seeing new places. It's the boredom of the planes, trains and automobiles that I really don't like. I like to get where I'm going as quickly as possible. Then, and only then, can I feel like I'm actually on holiday.

And that is the disadvantage of living in regional Queensland. To fly to Brisbane to connect to any other capital cities is Expensive with a capital E. Here in Bundaberg we only have the choice (ahem!) of Qantaslink to get to Brisvegas (as the "cool" kids call it). Unless you book months in advance and catch a sale price, you are looking at a minimum of around 300-500 dollars ONE WAY. That's right, a 40 minute plane journey where the cabin crew throw a plastic pack of prepackaged food at you and then land miles away from the terminal in Brisbane is ridiculously overpriced. This means that to fly out of Brisbane at 1pm to get to Adelaide tomorrow requires getting up at 6am to drive the 4 and a half hours to the airport. Imagine my joy and delight at this prospect if you will.

So providing my iPad keeps working the next edition of The Spiralling Shape will be coming to you from South Australia.

Was it opposite day?

I feel very lucky that I was not one of the Moodle horror stories today. Some poor course coordinators had spent all weekend on their courses to find that when the new version went "live" everything disappeared. I knew I was smart not to work all weekend on my course. Although, that did mean today was all about the Moodling. That's okay. I mean I taught myself lots of new things. It was a matter of having to really, seeing as there were no help features to be seen. That's where youtube came in very handy with some nice "how to" videos explaining how to set up groupings and all that kind of stuff. And I also managed to solve the problem of the disappearing discussion forums all by myself. The conversation between me and the young man at the help desk was sort of me suggesting possible solutions and him saying "yes you could try that and see if it works". Was it Opposite Day? It seemed so. Anyway, finally this afternoon I pressed the go live button. (It wasn't really button, more of a changed setting). I have checked it now I am home and while as usual the formatting has gone all bizarre in places, it's basically stable....in the world of Moodle that is.

See Harrison

See Harrison. See Harrison sitting on the laundry basket. See Harrison sitting on the laundry basket getting his crazy eyes on. See Harrison sitting on the laundry basket getting his crazy eyes on ready to spring like a tiger at the idiot calling his name to take his photo.

piano reductions

This *is* the post for Saturday June 16 despite what the date on the post says. Last night's concert went smoothly. I survived the horrid accompaniment for the Beethoven Hallelujah from the Mount of Olives. Piano reductions of orchestral scores are not the friendliest things at the best of times but this one is particularly awful. I've always thought that accompanying is often about knowing which notes to leave out. I left out quite a few in that I have to say. Who's going to know? I followed Beethoven's endless V and I chords so hopefully he isn't rolling over in his grave. We do it all again this afternoon at 2pm. Then that's one more thing ticked off my list of things to do before going away on Wednesday.

view of an accompanist

Have I overshared?

You think by now I would be able to recognise PMS for what it is. I mean it's been happening every month for quite some time. But every month I spend a day wondering why I feel extra stress and emotional. Then I spend a couple of days wondering why I want to scoff all the bread and cakes I can manage. Then I spend a day wondering why I have an absolutely splitting headache. Then I can spend up to two weeks wondering why my breasts are really really sore. Then I wonder why I feel all bloated for a few days. And then the pains arrive and it usually takes me half an hour to work out what this somewhat familiar feeling is. Then I have a lightbulb moment, swear quietly under my breath and try and get on with the day. Since the grand ovarian cyst debacle and surgery of late 2010 (and I refer you to some posts from July, August, September of that year if you are new to The Spiralling Shape) these symptoms have become quite ad hoc, a little bit random and often arrive at surprising moments (early, late, in their own good time). Today is one of those ad hoc days.

Have I overshared?

Bestest colleagues

I have had a beautiful working day with two of my bestest colleagues. Then we went out for dinner and wine. There should be more days like these.

big scary spreadsheets

The Monday you get when you're having a Tuesday seemed like too, too many things this morning before I got to work. Imagine my delight to arrive at work and find more distance essays in my pigeon hole when I had thought I was done with them last Friday. Still, I ploughed on through them, two other later internal ones and then very kindly took three from my distance marker. His wife had a baby last Wednesday. He had been up since three am this morning. He looked a bit tired. Anyway, I am much more confident by the end of today that I will get the big, scary spreadsheet done by Friday. I was not at all confident about this when I arrived this morning.

So now it is forward ho into Moodle 2. After briefly playing in my migrated site this afternoon I have discovered that I can't find the help feature, I can't find the discussion forums, the assessment block doesn't yet seem to be "editable", and the groupings I had set up don't seem to have migrated over. Tomorrow I shall be calling the helpdesk. And yes, before they ask, I did attend the training but given that was back in the middle of April, forgive me if I haven't committed it to memory in time for June.

That was all  a bit whiney wasn't it?
I'll be happier tomorrow because my two bestest ever colleagues are coming to the campus for two days of excellence!

At least I'm not standing in sewage

It's not having to answer the front door in my pyjamas that I mind so much. It's the crazy bed-hair that goes with wearing my pyjamas that goes with it. This morning was the third time in about a month that I've had to answer the front door in my afore-mentioned PJs. It's ok. They're quite respectable. What I don't understand is why two out of the three times have been on a public holiday when you would THINK that people would realise that public holidays are for sleeping in, staying in one's pyjamas until whenever they want and not answering doors to any of the following:
1. Police following up a complaint from neighbours that someone had been "meddling" with their boat. This is the same boat that I hate because they park it right on the fence where I once had a clear view out of my dining room windows. Never fear, my strategically placed trees will soon be higher than it. Also, it was not me that "meddled" with it.
2. Council workers following up a complaint from someone the next street over apparently having trouble with the main sewerage line that runs between my house and my other next door neighbours. In answer to the question "Have you noticed any problems with this?" I said "No". What I should have said was, "Well no, apart from the time five years ago when it rained like buggery and your feeble attempts to keep the drain/pipes situation properly maintained resulted in both my neighbours and I having to vacate our house for a week because the sewerage backed up right through both our houses". At the time, the council came and did some work on the line and installed a sort of non-return flap/valve thing so that would never happen again. I got some nice insurance and the floorings of my house completely recovered, as did my neighbours. I also got a new saying to console myself when things are turning out a bit rubbish "At least I'm not standing in sewage". This event is also known as "The Great Poo Flood of 2008".
3. Music students wanting to pay me for accompanying services rendered at the music eisteddfod over 6 weeks ago. This is perhaps the most welcome of the early morning visitor because she gave me money and didn't say "Oh, have I got you out of bed". Perhaps she just wanted to get away from my scary bed hair.

I didn't know you played the violin

Random people on a number of occasions in the last few days: "I didn't know you played the violin" Me on the same occasions: "yes I do" Clearly, I've been hiding that light under a bushel for the last few years.

watch out Cate Blanchett.....

I took my Mum with me to the Bundaberg State High School open day. She went there in 1963 and 1964 and completed Years 9 and 10. That was in the time in Queensland where Year 8 was part of primary school and everyone sat "scholarship". I went there from 1986 to 1990 in the days of the T.E. Score. That's the system that was before the OP score for all you young 'uns. My Grandma went there in (I think) 1936 and 1937. She was not that interested in walking around the school given that most of it wasn't in place when she was a student. The original building is still there. It has been turned into computer labs and they have replaced the lovely wooden railings on the butterfly staircase with metal. I'm sure it's to do with health and safety but it's just not quite the same.

The weather was dreary with showers but we soldiered around the school grounds, studiously avoiding the "guided tours" run by current Year 12 students. We visited my Mum's old room in "D block". Then we went to "G block" which in Mum's time was the Home Science building. In my time we did one year of cooking there before they built a new Home Economics building and turned G Block into classrooms. I spent Year 9 in there, as well Year 11 and 12 English. Here was the patronising sign on the staff room door.

In my day the teachers used to leave the door open! Now, it seems they cannot get up to answer it for themselves.

Then I made my mother take my picture on the stairs which were the scene of a dreadful accident. I was not a terrifically clumsy 13 year old but I did manage to spectacularly scrape the skin off both knees in year 9 as I was racing down these stairs. I still have a faint scar on my left knee from the incident. Ah. Memories!

And then we went and checked out the memorabilia in the library. (Mother: "In my day, we didn't even have a library!"). I found my Year 12 photo. Blergh. And also this....notice which prize I won in Year 12. Watch out Cate Blanchett. If I remember correctly I did a pretty magnificent soliloquy from Hamlet.

Overall impressions? It looked like the school I went to but then it didn't. Where were the bike racks in the middle of the school? Gone, because kids don't ride bikes to school anymore. They get the bus or get dropped off. Why were all the windows covered with ugly security mesh? Because Bundy High is in the middle of town, its demographics have changed over the last 20 or so years and like all schools it is at risk from vandalism. That also explains the six foot high black spiky fence that surrounds the entire school grounds. Where was the tuckshop where I used to buy a ham and salad roll, a can of sarsaparilla and a packet of salt and vinegar chips for less than 2 dollars? It seems to have been bricked in and turned into a toilet block? Where were all the port racks? They took them away. Students can't leave their bag in one place anymore because other kids steal things. They carry their bag from class to class and never let it out of their sight.

I had a great secondary school education at Bundy High. And I'm proud of the fact that I did so at a state school. At that time unless you were Catholic (which we weren't) you didn't even consider going to the Catholic high school. Now it's packed and highly competitive to get into. There were no other independent high schools. Now Bundaberg has two more. And for many parents these are the first choice. Perhaps that explains the tiredness of the school, the cheap paint jobs, and the peeling paint on other buildings. There wasn't much that was shiny and new. Many buildings looked a bit grim. Who knows? Maybe it looked like that when I was there too and I didn't notice. I don't think it did me any harm anyway.

Dreaming of my very own Josh Lyman

Thank goodness it was Friday today. And now for a wonderful long weekend. For the first time in forever I have no assignments to do and I have not brought home any marking or work things. I do have a conference paper/presentation to put together but I'm hoping that will be fun!

The other thing that is happening over the weekend is the centenary celebrations of my high school. I have just discovered that the concert I thought I was playing in is on Sunday evening, not Saturday. That is a relief. I thought I was going to have practice tonight! Instead, I shall continue my West Wing-a-thon and dream of meeting my very own Josh Lyman.

Tomorrow I am going to wander around my old high school. There may be photos of old classrooms, and bench seats. You have been warned.

Two ice creams in one day

Just right, muesli and milk, Green vanilla tea, Mandarin, Cous cous and tuna, Banana, Honey nougat bar, Ice cream sandwich, Cup of tea, Potato wedges with sour cream, Lamb korma and rice, Caramel magnum.

It's the music you see.....

Today being Wednesday saw the regular afternoon of piano teaching. As usual I raced home from work in time to make the music room tidy enough that people could walk into without tripping over music stands, instrument cases and other bits and pieces. I quickly made my cup of tea and settled in for three hours of surprises.

First up are the brother and sister. They have been learning for a couple of years. Still in primary school, they did their first official exams a couple of weeks ago. Since then they have been firing on all cylinders piano-wise. I have given them a new piece every week for the last fortnight and each week they have returned to their next lesson with it COMPLETE, HANDS TOGETHER, THE LOT. All you music teachers out there will know that rarely, if ever happens. Today was no exception. What joy it was!

Then my newest student arrives. He is 8 and preparing for his first exam in September. He takes everything vey seriously, and is something of a perfectionist. That's alright by me. I like it when students make a mistake and go back and do it again without me having to tell them to.

Then, my longest serving student who is preparing for her A.Mus diploma in September. This is an hour lesson that can be quite full-on as she is playing at a very advanced level. I have to put my brain fully into gear for this. It's wonderful to think and talk about music in such a concentrated way.

Lastly, is one of my three adult students. Sometimes, with all my adult students we make the mistake of starting to chat and suddenly the lesson time is gone. This happened today. But luckily he is the last of the day so we made up the time and I finished about 7.

As always, time flew by. Strangely, that always seems to happen even when I am less than enthusiastic about starting because work has been a pain, or I'm tired, or I'm out of sorts. It's the music you see. It makes things better.

what Frank Black said...

I will save my fascinating post about my excursion to the Fairymead House Sugar Museum until tomorrow. For today was totally overtaken by a revolting headache that I woke up with and still have now. (yes I have taken painkillers). So I give you this instead. It's all I'm up to.....

Acceptable: 7/10 for discipline

Last night I went to my parents for dinner and because I've been working with my lovely group on our proposal for a local history cultural heritage collection I asked about a photo I remember seeing in an album of my grandma's. My dear mum went and dug it out. It's a photo of my mum as a toddler at her grandparents' farm at Apple Tree Creek. The family are all sitting on a wooden sled kind of thing, that is being pulled by a big draught horse. After my Grandpa died, and my Grandma moved to a retirement village my Mum cleaned out all their photos and bits and pieces. I was horrified to see what my Grandma had done to her old photos from when she was young...for some reason she had cut them out of their original photo albums so there are all these weird shaped pieces of cardboard with photos still stuck on both sides. We found a photo of my Grandma going to her debutante ball in the late 1930s. She was quite glamorous! We also found all my Grandpa's war documentation, including the will he had to write in 1939. He had also kept some amazingly grotesque cards from his Sunday School teacher, a photo of himself at 15 with his premiership winning football team (most likely in Childers) and some photos of himself walking along the main street of Childers in a very dashing striped jacket and slicked back hair. There were photos of his beloved cars. Until the day he died he took immaculate care of his cars. (I would be an immense disappointment to him in this regard I fear). And there was also a photo of another woman who, family history has it, he was close to marrying, before he met my Grandma. The other woman looks very jolly. (I'll leave it at that I think). We also found my Grandma's high school reports from Bundy High from 1936 and 1937 as well as her workbooks from teacher's training college and the inspector's reports from when she was teaching. It seems like at teacher's training college she spent most of her time preparing an anthology of poetry in her finest penmanship. And her inspector's reports all said the same thing. Acceptable. 7/10 for discipline.

Blind mice, Brahms, books and Belafonte (with added Muppets)

Ah Sunday...a day of blind mice, Brahms and books. I began the day by getting up late, eating a nutritious yet slightly horrible breakfast of cereal,music and yoghurt (yoghurt because I ran out of milk yesterday and forgot to buy any at the shops). Then I raced through the shower, jumped in the car and went to a rehearsal for concert that is next Saturday night. Next Saturday night, my high school alma mater, Bundaberg State High School, is celebrating its centenary. That's right, 100 years old. Pretty old when you think about. Anyway, as part of the "festivities" they're having a concert on Saturday night. It's all been a little bit last minute but I'm playing a piano duet with the conductor of our choir (who is also an excellent pianist). She was a music teacher at Bundy High many moons ago. I student there for five years not quite so many moons ago, but still, quite a few moons now. We are playing a cute piece we have played before "Three Blind Mice go to Mexico" by Sonny Chua who is a contemporary Australian composer. It is what it sounds like. Three Blind Mice with a Mexican flavour. It's fun, not actually that simple, and a little bit silly. Even though the piece last about five minutes, the rehearsal went for nearly two hours. Because, of course we had to chit chat in between. That's the best bit of rehearsals really I think. Then it was home, for a spot of lunch, a little bit of laundry, some reading about weeding digital library collections and I was off out again to choir practice. Yes! I know, choir is Monday night. But seeing that we have a concert in two weekends time, and the Brahms chorus from the German requiem is a little bit iffy in places, we all gave up two hours on a Sunday afternoon for some extra practice. Brahms did improve. Goodness gracious though he didn't like tenors - so high! And, this week I really must bring my piano folders into the house (out of the car where they usually live) and practice the blasted accompaniment. I'm constantly missing a flat here and there at some vital moment. Stupid orchestral reductions for piano. They never work! What was the other thing? Oh yes! Books...when I got into town I remembered that the Bundaberg Library book sale had been on all weekend and was about to finish in 15 minutes. That was more than enough time for me to spend 10 dollars and get four lovely hard copy books. I'll probably never read them...but really, you can never have too many books. Or can you? And with that, it seemed entirely appropriate that after attending a "weeding" event from the Bundaberg Library, that I came home and managed to put something together for our assignment on weeding our proposed, imaginary collection for the Bundaberg Library. See, see how things come full circle and are all connected. I'll leave you with one final B.... Belafonte...we are singing this song in our concert too...It's about connections as well.

Wendy spends the day at her desk

Wendy gets involved in exciting things: the crowd sourcing post

So I was working away on my Collections Management assignment, doing some research and reading about crowd sourcing in libraries when I got totally distracted and inspired. I follow Amanda Palmer on twitter. For weeks and weeks I had been watching her tweets and retweets her kick-starter project roll by. Sure I'd taken notice but I hadn't been compelled to actually bother to take part in it. Then all the stuff about libraries employing crowd sourcing techniques to take them into the 21st century suddenly took hold and before I knew it I had created a kick-starter account, made a contribution and tweeted it out to the world. I also sent Amanda Palmer a message explaining the reason for my contribution. What she will make of it I have no idea. Anyway, then soon after my tweet the excellent @misspoppysmith urged me to go to possible to support what you see below. And I did. Without hesitation. What's all this got to do with anything. I'm not quite sure yet. But I'll keep thinking about it. What I do think is that we are on the cusp (or perhaps in the middle) of a change to the way the arts in all their amazing forms operate in our culture. Participation, engagement, involvement - all these things are forces that will hold our communities together when elsewhere it seems to be fracturing. If I can play a small part in that then that must be good.

church pews, old school pride, marking, soup

So in the interests of getting my blogging mojo back I've decided to #blogjune. This means I have to post something every day in June. Today being June 1, I thought I should start off on the right foot. Actually, yesterday being May 31 I actually thought I would be ultra organised and schedule a post for today which will hopefully appear later this evening. Already, I'm ahead of the game! What's been happening today I hear you ask? Well, I woke up with the same icky sore throat as yesterday. I rejoiced in the fact that I could work from home because I am marking, marking, marking essays. I also did some work on my assignment for Collections Management. Lunch was soup. Minestrone. Out of tin. Edible but not delicious-to-die-for-edible. I have drunk numerous cups of tea and coffee (decaf only on the coffee front), responded to Moodle postings from my students, been called on a short teleconference about markers for next term. I also railed quietly to myself at my stupid work email which is full and won't let me reply until I can get to work to manually archive emails. It's supposed to do this automatically but mine never does. Annoying. Basically, I was afraid to stray too far from my desk in case I fell asleep which is what always happens when I sit on a comfy chair while working from home. Now I have to do some piano practice on a duet that I'm playing in a concert next Saturday night. It's the 100th anniversary of my high school and they're having a concert. Goodness knows why I agreed to take part. Old school pride or something I suppose. And then I am going to play the viola, have another cup of tea and continue my West Wing marathon with an episode or two. I was going to go to a lovely chamber music concert that is on tonight in the Anglican Church but (1) I don't feel like snuffling through a concert in a draughty church and (2) the pews are the most uncomfortable in the whole world. You have to be feeling really full of strength to cope with them. I'm serious...you would have to go a long way to find more uncomfortable church pews. And that my friends, is Friday.