GSOH alert

Oh dear... I can feel my sense of humour, always a sensitive characteristic, in my book, leaking away...
Woe betide the person who admits to not having a sense of humour, and I am not saying that I don't laugh like a drain on some occasions,but if I am tired or stressed, it flies out of the window.
So, with exams about 7 weeks away and revision done = 0; I am feeling a lack of that carefree spirit, that joie de vivre, etc.
Beware the Ides of March---and the next 2+ months, possums!

Far-vell, St Bartrick

Sorry - that Danish-accented ad has got to me...
Of course, it isn't over, because the Irish government has decreed that St Patrick's Day lasts for a week now, so they can scrape more money out of the tourist - and Irish - pocket. This year, with it falling on a Saturday, is fortuitous, or maybe not, since many people now take a four-day weekend, with the double excuse of Mother's Day on Sunday. Since St Pat's was on a Saturday, causing no disruption to normal lives, with people flocking to the city, or speeding away from it, if they have any sense --Monday must be also a holiday, so that no normal business can be resumed until at least Tuesday.
The greetings card shops have practically gone into meltdown, with St P, Mother's Day AND Easter cards simultaneously on display.
Sooner or later,Mother's Day will have to be moved to match the American one - some 6 weeks hence, falling in a relatively empty corner of the calendar - and there aren't many of them left now, what with the RUNUP (my least favourite portmanteau word) to other holidays extending further and further back from the event itself.
The time approaches when there will be no time of the year when we are not engaged in the runup, or the celebration of, some spurious holiday.
I mean,MOTHER'S DAY?? As if we are not, at any other time?

This rant has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I am now engaged in the runup to final exams, that yesterday I spent 12 hours,finishing off THREE (count'em) essays and that TODAY, I must return to my neglected dissertation, without the adulation of my offspring to cheer me on my way.
Well, I'm expecting nothing: one is away in San Francisco, doubtless recovering from yesterday's excesses - and is bound to forget that Irish M Day falls 6 weeks before the American celebrations, without the reminders from Hallmark cards in the shops.
T'other went off to get drunk yesterday and has never been known to remember any event that might require a present being bought with his own money.
So Yar, Boo and Sucks, as they say in the playground. Well, they used to.....

Watch the birdie!

The birds on the lake are acting a bit strange -they seem to be deserting the water for the concrete edging, even if they are in the path of hundreds of student feet. One almost-adult cygnet was under the awning of the new admin extension last week - what can it mean?
Maybe Mrs Swan is sitting on a nest and her twitchy cob feels he has to scare everyone away. If she has a nest,it isn't on the little island like the last 2 occasions,so maybe it is under the bushes somewhere - otherwise - no new cygnets this year. Plus I can only see about 4, maybe 5, cygnets from the original 7 of 2006. They are hard to count now,as they are 95% white now and I cant distinguish them from their parents when they are distant.
So, who do they belong to? In England it's the Queen, in Ireland ?
I haven't seen the speckled blackbird again.

I'm trying to take my mind off the fact I have just broken the tooth that I have been waiting eighteen months to get fixed.I feel as if I am inexorably falling apart, like the house.

and now----back to work.

Phew! I feel much more comfortable now. I have drifted to earth, landing with a little bump, as I realised that the Medal is not GOLD(you fool) but solid silver, which is quite acceptable - but where on earth did I get the idea it was Gold? I have looked back at the letters and nary a mention was made of whatever metal it is, so I am mystified where I got the idea...
Offspring backed out of attending the ceremony at the last moment, but my oldest friend came to support me so it was all very pleasant, with plaudits for all.
There was my daughter's best friend picking up a scholar's certificate too, with her mother in attendance, which made me feel really old, since she is younger than me. It is really set up for student's parents anyway,of course. Mind you, there were post-graduate scholarship winners and others as well as the really young ones.
The new crop of undergraduates - the ones on Modular degrees, seemed to be all female, so maybe that system suits them better, because most of our year were male. Not that I would want to be sexist or anything.
The Lord on-High Pooh-Ba had to go and ruin the grace of the proceedings by criticising his deputy's pronunciation of Latinin his speech at the close of the ceremony. Quite unnecessary - that man has no manners. Goodness knows what the parents made of it.
The food and wine afterwards was all very civilised and we were serenaded by a trio, who looked rather bored, especially the cornettist.
I then managed to disgrace myself by throwing wine all over a poor guy's trousers, which lowered the tone a bit, but he was very gracious about the wine splashed all over his groin - and I wasn't drunk really - it was just my hors d'oeuvre unexpectedly fell apart and I tried to catch it...oh well.