Swiv's Idea of University
Created | Updated Oct 17, 2002
Swiv’s Idea of a University: part III
Right, where were we. Ah yes, two weeks ago the list of deadlines was impressive, now the first one has swanned by. I have spent the last week up to my neck in a book review of a tome on Passchendaele. Actually it wasn't that tome-ish, just a couple of hundred pages of mud, sweat and inept allied leadership, but it took a while, given my staggering workload to actually get around to sitting down and writing the thing. It was in on time though, and I even managed to persuade the tutor that I knew something about the Eastern Front as well in the seminar that I was supposed to have been reading for at the same time…
If anyone wishes to help me reach the next deadline in a calm condition, please let me know any ideas on the topic: 'Does Sallust have a coherent political standpoint in the De Coniuratione Catlinae?' Yup, I know, lovely that one. I swore last year that I'd never do classics again, and yet I got sucked in by a combination of the Ancient History/Classics department's best lecturer, and the prospect of reading lots of Tacitus without having to appear to geekish. There's one week of Tacitus in this course as it turns out, at the very end, so in the meantime I get to wade through Sallust, Livy and various fragmentary chunks of historians with daft names like Fenestella, and Hemina. However, the lecturer is great, so I'm not dying quite yet.
I'm just noticing, that there's a very pretty rainbow just outside my window. Well, actually not right outside, but just sort of over the Medical department where Clare and Mary are hard at work while I admire my First World War Books sitting on the floor. It's been raining up here off and on for the last five days – lovely, considering that it's not supposed to rain up here that much. I was all ready for the cold: fleecy hat, scarf, gloves etc. but my umbrella's rather piddly and not much use in horizontal rain and wind.
Just trying to think of what has happened over the last couple of weeks…I went hiking to Crianlarich, which was decidedly pretty, and being a 'Rhody Walk' – as led by the Rhododendron Man (he did his PhD on those lovely plants) – an institution in the hiking club. We had to balance our way across a muddy swampy creek on a narrow log, and debate the causes for the death of a sheep we passed. The Beast of Bodmin may have moved home.
We cleaned the house. Clare and I went to the shops and dragged home bleach, cleaner, air freshener and a pile of cloths, to find Mary in the kitchen: 'Don't come in, I'm CLEANING!!!!'
Fine by me, I went to the bathroom and scrubbed till it was just short of shining. Then we had a visit from Clare's sister. It got a bit scary at time, as they talked louder and louder at each other, till poor Dave, sitting between them, felt like the house had surround sound. We did get fed well though, since the aforementioned sister stayed with us, she bought us food. Clare cooked, but we saved money – and got full fry-up and Roast dinner. Jack went on army camp and missed out, having to camp in the rain and live on baked beans.
We had the Dunhill Cup the weekend before last, I didn't manage to get there – the Old Course is a quarter of an hours walk away, too far in St Andrews. Dave and his friend Mike went for a bit, and came back saying they'd followed Colin Montgomery around for a bit, but there wasn't anyone famous there really. Given that last year Samuel L Jackson and Michael Douglas rolled up and we all went out in the pouring rain to be ever so slightly sad and star-spot, Darren Gough and Alan Hansen didn't really do anything for us. Let's face it; St Andrews is just a bit blasé about it now. Life goes on – and presentations had to be prepared for.
Oh yes, that was the really fun event of the past weeks – Swiv got to stand up in front of a group of people and let them in on how much she didn't know about military leadership on the Western Front. I love public speaking me. It was great. No really, I didn't stammer or go bright red or anything like that. Honestly. Anyway, it'll be quite a nice essay to write up come the end of term when I become unable to do any work for counting down the seconds till the next Lord of the Rings film appears.
