Journal Entries
C., 1 May 2005
Posted May 1, 2005
Well my visitors left this morning, and it all seemed to go very well. They arrived on time on Friday, said they hadn't had any trouble finding where I live from my instructions (it's inside a maze of one-way streets and no through roads). We chatted for a bit, then they asked to borrow the computer for J to write a proposal for some work he'd been offered just before they left home. This took a bit longer than expected, which resulted in the salmon being a teeny bit dry, but everything else seemed to be OK.
Saturday started off cloudy but fine, so we drove over to Newnham and left the car there while we did the tour of the college, then went to the flower festival at St Mark's Church (quite small, but obviously an awful lot of thought and hard work had gone into it - the arrangements were beautiful). Then we walked along the river to Grantchester and had lunch at The Orchard tearooms. This is a real orchard, where you can sit on old-fashioned deckchairs under the trees - it's where Rupert Brooke and loads of other famous literati used to hang out. They have a little booklet with the famous Brooke poem ('The Old Vicarage at Grantchester') and various amusing anecdotes. Unfortunately said Old Vicarage is now inhabited by one Jeffrey Archer, who I understand has had a brush with the law recently. Anyway, it's all very picturesque.
We'd just finished lunch when there were a few heavy drops of rain, so we took refuge inside for a while, but it didn't last more than a few minutes, and we were able to walk back to Cambridge without getting wet.
It then turned into a lovely sunny evening.
The dinner with their friends from Inner Mongolia was a great success - they'd prepared masses of food, centred around a 'hot pot' - a bowl of broth, in which you put the pre-cooked food to reheat, before fishing it out with your chopsticks. Unfortunately they'd forgotten that J is vegetarian, but there was some fish, various sorts of mushrooms, noodles etc and Bin quickly prepared a non-meat hot pot in a pan, just for him!
In the early hours of this morning there was a terrific thunderstorm which seemed to go on for some time - lightning around Cambridge is pretty spectacular because the area is so flat - but C and J said they didn't hear it, so they must have slept well on the sofa-bed!
They left straight after breakfast to drive on to Margate, so I've had a lazy day. It'll be nice to have another day off work tomorrow, and I've already made plans to have a coffee with a friend from my Spanish class - we might even try and speak Spanish, so she can practise for the oral exam. I'm not taking the exam, as I'll be in Canada by the time the written part happens.
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Latest reply: May 1, 2005
C., 29 April
Posted Apr 29, 2005
I’m adopting Martine’s style for journal headings as I can’t think of a title for today’s entry.
Having the day off work today, as I worked last Saturday (the Open Day), and my cousin and her husband are coming to stay for a couple of nights. They live in Manchester and are on their way to a Golden Wedding party in Kent, so are dropping in here on the way. It’ll be really nice to see them, as we hadn’t met for years until I went to my aunt’s funeral in Edinburgh at the beginning of March.
I don’t entertain much, so usually get myself into a complete state about it, but I know that they will be very relaxed, so I’ve managed to stay fairly calm. They have Chinese friends here who’ve invited us all for dinner on Saturday night (home-cooked Mongolian food, yum!), so I’ve only got to cook tonight.
Went shopping this morning for salmon fillets (J is a vegetarian, but eats fish), which I’m going to cook in foil in the oven and serve with mushrooms, new potatoes and salad. We’ll have hummus with carrot and celery sticks as a starter, and I’ve made a very rich chocolate thing for dessert, to be served with almond biccies and fresh strawberries.
Then I cleaned the bathroom, tidied up the living room (removing several layers of last week’s newspapers from the sofa) and hoovered round. Now I’m just having a break before starting to prepare the veg etc.
It’s been a fabulous day here – sunny all day, with a light breeze. Hope it lasts tomorrow, as Cambridge looks its best in this sort of weather. There’s a flower festival in Newnham Church which we might go to, but I’ll definitely take them round the college gardens.
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Latest reply: Apr 29, 2005
Open Day
Posted Apr 23, 2005
Just got home from the Open Day at the College where I work. The numbers were very disappointing: 29 sixth-formers had booked places, but only 18 actually turned up. This was in spite of having sent them a confirmation slip a few weeks ago to remind them, which clearly asked them to let us know if they couldn't come. And in fact a couple of those who didn't come had only booked a week or so ago. I suppose they think that there will be so many people there that one or two more or less won't make any difference.
What they don't realise is that we look at the subjects they say they are interested in and ask the Directors of Studies in those subjects to come in and talk to them. Most of the DoSs are not thrilled at having to do this on a Saturday, and are even less pleased when I phone them up and say "Sorry, you know those three potential Law students you thought you were going to see in an hour's time? Well, they haven't turned up."
Anyway, those who came seemed to enjoy it and think it was useful, so we'll just have to hope it produces some good applications. We have also started running "curriculum enhancement" days for Year 12 students (Science, Ethics, Cultural Literacy), which were very popular last year, but resulted in a lower rate of applications than we had hoped. If any of you out there are in the process of attending University Open Days, either for yourself or as parents, I'd love to know what you think makes a good one.
We did get a compliment from one set of parents about our "self-guided tour" - a leaflet that anybody can pick up at the entrance and use to look around the College grounds, so they know what they're looking at. The couple who'd taken it said that they found it a much more satisfactory way of seeing the place than being taken round in a large group, with not enough time at some points and waiting around for ages in others.
Just having a cup of green tea, but sense that I will be moving onto the hard stuff shortly, unless I decide to go out to a film. Mmm - will probably leave that until tomorrow, as a reward for doing some housework (which I hate).
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Latest reply: Apr 23, 2005
Winter again
Posted Apr 20, 2005
20 April 2005
Well that didn't last! Cold enough for gloves and scarf again today - I'm really getting fed up with this. We are having an Open Day on Saturday and the forecast is rain and 10 degrees. 
Just got back from my Spanish class - have to admit it was slightly better this evening, mainly because there were only seven of us there again. The teacher also gave us a break a bit earlier in the class, which made a tremendous difference, because it meant we hadn't yet reached the stage of being absolutely desperate for coffee, so we were all in a much better mood.
BUT - the teaching methods are still driving me up the wall. Today we were supposedly being taught the pluperfect tense. She announced this last week, explained very briefly (and not very clearly) what this tense was, and then did the first part of a listening exercise which was designed to present the tense. End of class. Homework: a series of exercises on the pluperfect (which we hadn't yet been taught).
This week: class begins with another, more detailed, but equally garbled presentation of the tense. Her main example sentence (which she appeared to make up on the spot) was such rubbish that even the people in the class who don't know anything about grammar teaching could see that it didn't work. It was: "When I came to Cambridge in 1999, I had been to the mountains a lot (in Spain)" (Cuando vine a C, habia ido much a la montana). See what I mean? Despite having promised myself I would not get drawn into it, in the end I couldn't stand the general incomprehension any longer and offered a new example sentence of my own. Thank goodness she seized on it gratefully and the moment passed. But really!
THEN, we did the second half of the listening exercise from last week. Two out of the seven of us there had been absent and missed the first part, but she didn't explain to them why we were starting in the middle of an exercise! 
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Latest reply: Apr 20, 2005
Spring is here! (we hope ...)
Posted Apr 18, 2005
18 April 2005
Left home this morning in pouring rain and cold wind (no fun on a bike, but at least I've got the waterproof gear), but it had more or less cleared up by lunchtime and this afternoon we had glorious sunshine.
Walked to the University Centre for lunch - it's less than 10 minutes from my office, right by the river and they have a cafe on the 2nd floor with great views: over Cambridge roofs to King's on one side, the river and water meadows on the other. Walked back across the meadow to work.
Cycling home this evening spring was definitely in the air. Leaves on the chestnut trees almost fully open, and the flower spikes are visible although still green; there were several groups of people in punts as I came over Silver Street bridge.
One of those days when I feel how lucky I am to work in such beautiful surroundings!
Oh yes, and my boss is back from her hols too, so actually had quite a bit of work to do!
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Latest reply: Apr 18, 2005
annie_cambridge
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