just another bank holiday weekend
I am finally back home after a surfeit of holidays, some would say. Personally, I wish I were still away if I could be in Edinburgh or London - or Brittany, or Italy. Maybe not in burning-up Greece or monsoon India.
Here we have had the traditional Bank Holiday rain since last night but it is brightening up now that everything is truly sodden.
I don't care since I am trying to get some reading done. Since I am taking up the MA course, I need urgently to find a dissertation subject. The more I think about it, the less clarity I feel. I could do with having my 3rd year mini-dissertation comprehensively reviewed and critiqued, but of course, my supervisor is away and won't be back until September - and it's a bit dubious how much help I will get there anyway, considering the total lack of it during the course. I don't know the mark I received for it yet but can probably discover that next week, IF there is anyone in the office.
According to a friend, I will end up with an overall 2.1 degree, even though I got a 1st in HA, as the new marking system applies only to the modularised students. I might have guessed the the information given on the website did not apply to the students in 3rd year! That is how it has been for the last year, so why change now? Going by the exam website, it had been my understanding that the 2 subjects will now be regarded separately and also on my judgement document, under Overall Grade, it appears only as 'AWARDED'. How confusing; I will discover the truth eventually I suppose. What a pity I couldn't have stretched myself that little bit further and got the 1st for archaeology too, but I fear the emphasis on Irish material had me snookered. I might enquire as to a breakdown of marks in both subjects, just for curiosity's sake.
Meanwhile, I am moving on and getting back to the cultural milieu, after all that physical emphasis in Sark (not allowed even so much as a peek at world-famous archaeologist's latest dig), where I did manage to transform some of the flab to muscle by bicycling and swimming every day but it may even now be reverting back to fat.
The trouble is, I now find myself exhausted after a bit of pavement-bashing, so tired that by 6 pm every evening I am fighting to stay awake. I am hoping that I am not sickening with some dread disease but merely suffering some kind of effect from the rigours of having to deal with offspring again plus the effort required to resisting industrial quantities of noise.
One advantage of the rain today is that the Bouncy Castle now installed in my-very-close-neighbour's garden is not currently in operation. I have been subjected to up to 10 hours per day of pump noise on previous days, which have created much the same effect as living next to a factory, I imagine. The pump must be installed close to the adjoining wall, next to my back door and the noise is unrelenting. Their new extension looms over this wall, cutting out late sunlight. Maybe this is affecting me more than I had realised but there is little I can do about it. My neighbour is the parent of a Down's syndrome child and as such, is immune from the normal restraints of manners or empathy with others' problems.
Reading this back - how bitter I sound - a real grumpy old woman! I don't feel that way but I am a person who needs a bit of peace and quiet and that is a commodity that is dearly bought here. All part of the re-acclimatisation process most probably; it's my own fault for having gone away for so long!
Here we have had the traditional Bank Holiday rain since last night but it is brightening up now that everything is truly sodden.
I don't care since I am trying to get some reading done. Since I am taking up the MA course, I need urgently to find a dissertation subject. The more I think about it, the less clarity I feel. I could do with having my 3rd year mini-dissertation comprehensively reviewed and critiqued, but of course, my supervisor is away and won't be back until September - and it's a bit dubious how much help I will get there anyway, considering the total lack of it during the course. I don't know the mark I received for it yet but can probably discover that next week, IF there is anyone in the office.
According to a friend, I will end up with an overall 2.1 degree, even though I got a 1st in HA, as the new marking system applies only to the modularised students. I might have guessed the the information given on the website did not apply to the students in 3rd year! That is how it has been for the last year, so why change now? Going by the exam website, it had been my understanding that the 2 subjects will now be regarded separately and also on my judgement document, under Overall Grade, it appears only as 'AWARDED'. How confusing; I will discover the truth eventually I suppose. What a pity I couldn't have stretched myself that little bit further and got the 1st for archaeology too, but I fear the emphasis on Irish material had me snookered. I might enquire as to a breakdown of marks in both subjects, just for curiosity's sake.
Meanwhile, I am moving on and getting back to the cultural milieu, after all that physical emphasis in Sark (not allowed even so much as a peek at world-famous archaeologist's latest dig), where I did manage to transform some of the flab to muscle by bicycling and swimming every day but it may even now be reverting back to fat.
The trouble is, I now find myself exhausted after a bit of pavement-bashing, so tired that by 6 pm every evening I am fighting to stay awake. I am hoping that I am not sickening with some dread disease but merely suffering some kind of effect from the rigours of having to deal with offspring again plus the effort required to resisting industrial quantities of noise.
One advantage of the rain today is that the Bouncy Castle now installed in my-very-close-neighbour's garden is not currently in operation. I have been subjected to up to 10 hours per day of pump noise on previous days, which have created much the same effect as living next to a factory, I imagine. The pump must be installed close to the adjoining wall, next to my back door and the noise is unrelenting. Their new extension looms over this wall, cutting out late sunlight. Maybe this is affecting me more than I had realised but there is little I can do about it. My neighbour is the parent of a Down's syndrome child and as such, is immune from the normal restraints of manners or empathy with others' problems.
Reading this back - how bitter I sound - a real grumpy old woman! I don't feel that way but I am a person who needs a bit of peace and quiet and that is a commodity that is dearly bought here. All part of the re-acclimatisation process most probably; it's my own fault for having gone away for so long!
posted by ruth @ 6:18 AM
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