pen and paper?....naw.... podcasts.....

Being a student has all changed since I was a girl. Its all emails and "virtual" tutorials via the University Web "blackboard" rather than simply dragging yourself to a lecture with ballpoint and paper. Podcasts make learning seem like something out of Logan's Run (1976) Now that IS showing my age, but It is all very exciting and new. Some 400 psychologhy students mind you, crammed into PJ Hall ( all clutching ballpoints and paper), was a lttle too much.


Got home at around 7.30pm, exhausted, but did feel a bit better as I overheard four mature students ( from different courses) chatting on the train home about their respective "first days" and how hard and strange it felt. Although I didn't join them, I felt supported and and comforted by their chat!

Sorrel has tearfully gone home, which is a shame, and I know Chris misses her greatly. But, I do think he doen't always realise that his relationship with his mum IS a special and very close one, which is a rare thing !. Not many people are fortunate enough to experience a close bond like they have.

Just enough time to tidy up and walk the dogs, then bed to sleep a nice long sleep!

Sorrel's up and neighbours with pitchforks

Well Sorrel my mother-in-law is up visititng which is lovely. She is very easy, funny and young at heart so we always have a nice time when she's up. She and Chris have gone to Manchester for a " spot of shopping" in the car as rail links to Manchester are quite bizarre at the weekend. So I have the day to myself, which is great as I working all day tomorrow at the Hospital. So already I have done the house, chickens ( they have Feather Loss at the moment and are not laying) and organised my work and e mails for monday.

All I have to do now is get ready for dinner tonight , (Janet and Ned are comming to dinner), read the first chapter of my psychology text book ,and walk the dogs! Mind you Meg is now confined to the crate as she is now again in season (She is laying around in a listless way giving Finlay pathetic "come hither" looks--see pic)Just took the dogs around to Carol's big garden and let them run riot for an hour as Celt and Samson are getting their hair cut at the poodle parlour! all three fell in the pond!

Steve ( Very Welsh neighbour and Village self appointed leader), was very kind last night and cemented our damaged wall without even being asked!, ( a flour lorry had pulled down the wall) Lorries and cars are using their sat navs and bypassing roadworks on the North Wales Expressway by roaring past our cottage! Steve caught a spar articulated lorry trying to pass on Thursday and in true Brit style blocked the road and refused the lorry to try to pass ( they were trapped for 2 hours)! The other neighbours were brought out of their houses by the commotion ( he was filming the lorry at that time with his phone) and I had visions of pitchforks and mob rule!

"The villagers are revolting!!!!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gtlQS2bLFwww.youtube.com/watch?v=7gtlQS2bLFw

The great Unwashed and survival....

Well it's been a tough emotional romp of a week. I have had sleepless nights and swings of mood as the reality of University scared the shit of of me . Today introduction to the MacLab (Computer room) gave me some indication that some 250 fellow psychology students don't know everything there is to know about writing an essay! and that coupled with some loving and pragmatic support from Chris, thoughtful and measured support from Nige, Fluffy and funny support from Kim and a pithy text from John H all have helped me over that initial PANIC!!...and I am very grateful for that.

traveling on the coastal train always feels like some psychology experiment in itself. Apart from the regular commuters you find on any train network, I think the Welsh train is unique as large numbers of the Great Unwashed. Jobless, uniformed (see pic) young men with noticeable "shortness of bone", roam the network like black ghetto characters inhabiting brownstone house steps in New York crime films. This "underclass" I find threatening ,irritating and confusing . Is it just me?

Overfaced and feeling stupid

Well only 3 days into University and I am feeling like Julie Walters in Educating Rita. ie. Completely overfaced and thick. I am also feeling terribly tired ( and actually slept for an hour when I got home this afternoon), so bugger only knows how I am going to cope with 5 days in Uni ( I am in every day!!) and two full days at work on the weekend. It has been 6 years since I did any course at all and the IT changes seen here are really scary. Chris has been good , as he calms down my salad days fears. But I can't help worrying that I have bitten off more than I can chew.

off to bed

First day in School

Well how do 18 years old do it? Today was my first day at University and I certainly do not have the energy the above first year student seems to have, (mind you nor do I have a bikini like that one either!) Feel a bit jaded and tired, but glad that at least I have attended one University talk ( warning us students of the horror that is plagiarism) and found my way to various Psychology sites and offices. Mind you had a dicky lower colon ( Thanks to that Kentucky Friend Chicken eaten last night at Volver) so hopefully tomorrow I will be feeling more energetic

Seeing that today is a first, thought I would also turn over a new leaf and start to get a little healthier. so...
Making a list...

1. I want to eat more healthily
2. I want to drink more sensibly ( and not have a regular nightly chardonnay)
3. I want to get physically fitter!!

There simple!.........

job done..........

Volver

Volver, is a typical Pedro Almodóvar piece. Hollywood (aka Mildred Pierce ) meets a story of rural Spain's ,death,motherhood, sexual abuse and female solidarity. I am not a fan of Penélope Cruz, but she hoists up those breasts like Sophia Loren and gives her role of single mother, murderess and grieving daughter some gusto.

Mother of invention,Bangor and a good heart

How did I fit things in when working full time, bugger only knows? (Right) see the newly patented "Chicken claw scraper". Chickens being dirty little buggers need cleaning out daily, and having a fat arse does mean that I cannot crawl into the deepest and dirtiest corners of the coop. So after hours of blueprints and action groups , I have come up with a fusion of copper coal shovel, yards of tape and two bamboo poles!.......hey presto!
yes a real natural in the smallest of small holdings!!

Yesterday went to Bangor for a self orientation day!. Went on the train and the trip west of Rhyl was beautiful. Bangor City itself is a bit of a strange affair, all University and no City. The place itself seems crammed over and inbetween two valleys, and according to Wikipedia the population is 14 Thousand ( 8 thou being students)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangor,_Gwynedd

Very excited as I found , a huge Marks and Spencers,Theatre Gwynedd ( and the arthouse cinema) AND I found a proper coffee shop!!! oh..... I guess I did find the school of Psychology, main library buildings too! My student "Peer" support is a guy called Stuart, my age, a previous Steel Worker, and pragmatic and down to earth, at least I have not got a spotty youth as support!

Busy today, as the weather is lovely. Purchased all the bark chipping for the garden and laid them down, put in a load of wall flowers and white tulip bulbs and used the magnificent "Chicken claw scraper" so the girls are now squeaky clean. The dogs have had two walks around the countryside in Llanasa, and the young pheasants seem to be flocking in their hundreds around the fields! Bathed the dogs and then settled down to listen to the BBC website and "The News Quiz"

Laughed out loud at Phil Jupitus as he discussed his hypertension problems! .he stated that his blood pressure is 400 lbs per square inch and when the nurse took it, she ran down the hospital corridor screaming "He's going to blow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Actually wrote a couple of letters today too, and was inspired to do so, after getting a letter from an old friend and colleague Alexa Ridge. Her letter was just a reflection of her personality, warm, friendly and funny, and she is one of the people I most liked working with in Sheffield as she has a big heart. I worked with many big hearted people in nursing, Joy Hutton, Andrea Day, Ruth Smith and Andrea Whitworth all have that special something that put them ahead of others in the profession. Genuine warmth and sympathetic care is a surprisingly rare thing to get in nursing, and you would get it in bucket loads with these women.

Chris is back from Norway, so tomorrow we may be off to the cinema to see Clive Owen in Children of Men (also the Spanish Volver is showing so I can feel a double bill comming on)

arhhhhh!

Thats the best I could do!

action shot of the dogs at 7 am ( yes AM!!!) this morning on the beach,they just kept moving.

must be mad