Journal Entries
Cultural Literacy Day
Posted Jun 30, 2005
We had the second admissions event of the week today - a university 'taster' session for Year 12 students taking arts subjects.
Great programme of talks, can be seen at: http://www.newn.cam.ac.uk/admissions/y12culture_prog.shtml
They seemed to like it, and the rain was kind enough to hold off during the tours of the gardens etc.
But I'm now shattered and almost ready for bed! 
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Latest reply: Jun 30, 2005
Film festival soon - yippee!
Posted Jun 29, 2005
Have just been to the Picturehouse on the way home from work and spent zillions of pounds - well, 72 acksherlly - on film festival tickets. I know that sounds like an enormous sum, but I have got tickets for 14 films in the 11 days of the festival.
Had a glass of wine in the cinema bar while making the final decisions. The only one for which I couldn't get a seat in my favourite part of the cinema (middle of the back row) was for the Jim Jarmusch. Mind you, it was the last day of members-only booking, so I had left it a bit late.
Watch this space for further reports - the Cambridge Film Festival starts on 7 July.
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Latest reply: Jun 29, 2005
Busy week
Posted Jun 28, 2005
Sorry about the rather mundane subject line, but I can't think of anything witty at the moment!
We had a Year 12 'curriculum enrichment' day yesterday on the topic of Ethics. We ran this for the first time last year and it was very popular (although it didn't result in many undergrad applications), so we decided to do it again this year. 78 visitors signed up, but two schools didn't turn up - a bit annoying because it had been oversubscribed and we had a waiting list. They all receive a personalised information pack about the College (collated by me!), including leaflets on the subject(s) they are interested in studying.
We start off with a little introduction to the College and university applications, then our Principal, who is a philosopher and the 2002 Reith Lecturer, gives a short talk on the freedom of the Press. She is great - she just talks for about 10 minutes, then invites questions and discussion. There's usually a bit of a silence at first, but once they have heard her serious treatment of the first question, they come thick and fast.
Second talk is on the ethics of cloning and is given by the Prof of History and Philosophy of Science. Very accessible, clear list of points pro and con given on a handout.
Between the two talks they have a tour of the college, taken by current undergrads, who can answer their questions as they go round. Then lunch in the main dining hall (beautiful room).
In the afternoon, we put them in groups of about 8 (schools can send up to four participants, so 2 or 3 schools per group), again with a current undergrad, to work on a 5-minute presentation about any of the points raised in the talks. They usually choose the cloning one, because it's easier for them, but they produce some very good presentations (dialogues, mock TV shows, straight list of points etc) and the Principal comes back to judge them and we give prizes to the best three.
Luckily it was a lovely day and they all went out and sat on the grass to do the workshops.
Today I've been tidying up from that event and starting preparation for the next one - Year 12 Cultural Literacy Day on Thursday, at which I'm giving a talk 
. Also writing letters to a couple of schools pointing out that we weren't specially pleased when their students "had" to leave at lunchtime - and particularly when they departed without telling us!
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Latest reply: Jun 28, 2005
Grey day ...
Posted Jun 25, 2005
... but mercifully a lot cooler.
As I felt cheated out of last weekend (left Calgary on Saturday evening, arrived Cambridge Sunday late afternoon, went back to work on Monday), have been dossing around not doing very much today except popping in here and ML. Listened to Home Truths while still in bed - thought Michael Rosen did a good job, btw - then got up and did a bit of half-hearted tidying (I HATE housework 
) and went to the supermarket.
This afternoon I've been up to the shopping centre to buy a new umbrella, as I forgot mine was still drying out in my friends' utility room in Calgary when I packed, and it looks as though I might need one in the next few days. Found a very nice black one with little red flowers embroidered round the edge - I wonder if the holes from the embroidery will let the rain through?
Should really deal with some of the bills etc that have accumulated while I've been away, and/or finish the PowerPoint presentation for my talk at the Year 12 Cultural Literacy Day next Thursday, but I don't feel like it at the mo, so will continue to doss and do all the rest of the chores tomorrow.
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Latest reply: Jun 25, 2005
Canada - last eppy
Posted Jun 24, 2005
Well the end of the holiday turned out to be a bit of a damp squib - with the emphasis on the 'damp'!
We had one more nice trip out, this time to Troll Falls, in Kananaskis Country, accompanied by two year-old, so walk was rather slower, but there was plenty of noise to scare the bears! The falls were absolutely gushing due to the recent rain - the last time my friends had been up there, they were frozen, so that was a bit of a change. Lovely walk through the forest, heard lots of birds but couldn't identify them. (I bought them a book on birds of Alberta as my leaving present to them.)
As we were leaving the car parking area, we had to stop while a deer moved out of the road in a very leisurely manner, and on the way home we saw a group of elk near the roadside.
Last day there (Friday) was forecast to be wet, but in fact it didn't actually start raining until lunchtime. I went to the Glenbow Museum in Calgary which is excellent - spent nearly 2 hours there and only looked at one floor, mostly First Nations (i.e. Native American) stuff (oh, and the gift shop, natch!). They obviously do a lot of work with schools and there were various groups of kids there who all appeared to be having a great time, drawing pictures, having talks from museum staff etc. One lot appeared to be having a writing workshop and writing stories based on the exhibits in the 1920s section.
Well as the day wore on, the rain got worse and worse. We had a short powercut during the evening and the water went off (computer at the water treatment plant was down, apparently). During the night I woke up and heard a beeping noise, which was the alarm system letting us know that the power was off again. C was out half the night with the rest of the fire crew, pumping out people's basements and moving items like fridge-freezers above the level of the rising water. By the morning, the water in S and C's basement was about a foot deep and the gas had been turned off as it was reaching the level of the pilot light in the boiler - so no heating and no hot water.
C had a few hours sleep and then went back to the fire station. S packed an overnight bag for her and her daughter and prepared to go and stay with a friend in town. I packed my case and we went off to have lunch and try not to think about sewage backup. So it was a bit of a subdued farewell at the airport later that afternoon - however I see from the paper that temperatures in Calgary have been in the 20s again this week, so I'm hoping this means that everything is drying out, rather than that snow is melting rapidly and raising the water table! We did have a quick chat on M$N and they said the water was going down, so fingers crossed ...
Anyway, it was lovely to see them all and to spend time with them, and I really miss them now I'm back. 
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Latest reply: Jun 24, 2005
annie_cambridge
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