Dona Nobis Pacem

Two little boys, Archie & Max, entered my life this year. How wonderful it would be if I could be sure that they would grow up in a world filled with peace.

Ermmm...Merry Christmas, Happy New Year & probably a few Happy Birthdays!!

Well doesn't time fly when you're enjoying yourself!....and I have been enjoying my time at Uni soooo much....and then when there was a holiday it was Christmas, New Year, essays to write, an exam to revise for.....then reading, and reading and reading! And to be honest if I am on the computer I just want to research, research & research!!! So apologies everyone for the belated Christmas, New Year & Birthday wishes.......and truth be told I may well miss Easter...so Happy Easter to you all too!

I don't know why I suddenly had the urge to do a blog post....I think it was a mixture of having an email from a special blogpal mixed in with the desire to take a few photos. I went for a walk by the river...first time this year!...and found myself composing a blog post in my head as I took a few photos...so here goes.....

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR: rather scarce photowise....must have been enjoying myself too much.......Mandy, Chris, Nicole & Chris's mum Edith came for Christmas dinner......I really enjoyed cooking it and their company. The only photo I can find is this one of Manda bringing in the Christmas Pudding (alight).....I love the look on her face!

NEW YEAR'S EVE: we all went to Leanne's......had such fun and a great buffet! Melissa has a Wii and I really enjoyed trying to play the bells.....Leanne is hooked on it and I managed to get a sneaky video of her & her friend Kim playing (please excuse the odd profanity)... a bit of trepidation here as this is the first time I've tried loading a video direct via blogger!




UNIVERSITY: all going well...I've surprised myself by getting grades ranging from 2.1+'s to a couple of 1='s. I was convinced that I'd failed my exam and was so suprised that I'd passed! When I reread my essay I thought...'I didn't even know I knew all this!'..lol

We had a couple of lectures called off because Uni was closed due to the snow...so have been playing catch up. It's already reading week/half term although we don't seem to have been back long! I would be finishing an essay about Poe's The Tell-tale Heart if I wasn't writing this post. The financial situation is terrible as a 'single' student without any children at home. My grant doesn't even cover my rent and council tax (yes I do still have to pay council tax)...but SOMEHOW I intend to get through the next few years & get my degree...not sure how yet.

We've had snow both before Christmas.....


and after......though not as much as many parts of the UK.

(that video still hasn't loaded....wonder if it's supposed to take this long!....think I'll go and have a cuppa)

Time for that walk by the river now........................one small step for mankind, one muddy trainer for Ruth.......
The ducks are out to play.....and these 'ugly ducklings' are starting to turn into......
.....swans...............

and some people are 'messing about on the river'....

or enjoying the tranquility.......

Time to 'paws' and enjoy the view....


you can see that the meadows had flooded......
My pet hate....LITTER.......part of a shopping trolley in the river...

and look how close the rubbish bin is to this litter by the bench!!!...it would have only taken seconds to use the bin!
A remnant of Summer frisbee playing....................

a remnant of Winter snow....

I remember when Mick & I used to collect molehill soil to fill our tubs....sweet memories....Back home in the garden now.......the snowdrops are beginning to bloom...
and the Iris.....
the daffodils started blooming three weeks later than last year!...
Well I must leave you and get back to my essay....I mustn't let my studies SLIDE!...
Till next time....whenever that may be....Be Happy, Stay Healthy & Keep Smiling.

A ROUND BLOGGING LETTER

It's traditional at this time of year to send a Round Robin Letter to friends and family you've not been in touch with for a while...so here's my Round Blogging letter...to let all my blog pals know that I'm thinking of them and wishing you all a truly Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Years.

My studies are going really well and I really enjoy University.....I just hope I can continue there!!! I'm struggling financially to stay on..........we are lucky in England to have a Benefits system...but it seems ludicrous that I can stay at home doing nothing and receive money to live on plus get my rent and council tax paid...yet if I go to Uni all my student loan gets me is enough to pay my rent!...and Babergh District Council (unlike other student's councils) still expect me to pay full council tax!!!! But I mustn't complain..... I'm sure many have been hit by the recession that we are all going through.

So let's put that behind me ....'cos it's CHRISTMAS!!!!.....time to worry about that in the New Year.

So first of all a bit of 'own trumpet blowing'.....I was the only one to get a '1' for an assignment...Yahoo!!! Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks????

To be honest I'm quite boring at the moment....all I do is READ!!!!....everything I'm learning is so fascinating....I'm reading everything I can get my hands on!

I did have a brilliant trip to London to see the Capa photography exhibition and a a play about Thomas Hobbes at Wilton's Music Hall...you can FEEL the history in the theatre!!!

Typical!!!! it seems I can't upload any more photos...even though I've PAID my Google account....I sometimes think the 'God of Capitalism' is working against me.....and it's put a bit of a damper on this post as I had SOOOOOOO many photos I wanted to show you.

So no photos...no fancy Christmas Wish Glittery animations......................

All I can do is wish all of my blogpals a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and the HAPPIEST OF NEW YEARS.....

and to a special blogpal who is recovering from an operation....FORTE!!!!!!

Dona Nobis Pacem

I know that today most of my fellow Blogblasters will be posting about the end of war and peace between countries across the globe.
I intend to leave that to them; I want to post about peace slightly nearer to home. Over the last few months I've seen so many of my friends arguing with their loved ones; husbands, children and friends.

Monday would have been Mick's and my Wedding Anniversary. We were one of those couples who seldom argued; maybe a small disagreement now and then; but we were both of the same mind....that in the great scheme of life...petty trifles were negligible.

I see my friends arguing over such silly things....I want to bash their heads together and remind them how lucky they are to be together...I want to tell them the sadness they would feel if they lost the person they were arguing with.

All over the world people are fighting and dying for peace for far nobler causes than...coming in half an hour late for dinner...having the one drink too many and falling asleep.....forgetting to buy the milk on the way home from work..etc etc etc!!!

My one small voice may not be able to stop the wars around the world...but if it will make you stop and think and prevent one petty squabble...who knows...maybe like a pebble dropped into a lake...the ripples of peace will spread.

BlogBlast for Peace
Dona Nobis Pacem
peace globes
Peace Globe Movement

SNOWED UNDER!

Don't panic!!!.....no we've not had snow yet here in Great Cornard.......though we did have our first FROST last night. I admit at the moment I've relented and put the gas fire on for a while.....

Actually I'm snowed under with reading and writing up notes. I can't believe how much paperwork I've got in my folders and we've only just finished the second week! Admittedly despite the reading lists being VERY LONG we are not expected to read everything; though all class handouts are a must.....but it's all so interesting that I'm trying to lay my hands on anything I can. It's much too expensive to buy all the books suggested (even on ebay or Amazon etc) but quite a few I've managed to get from the Uni library or my local library in Sudbury. I'm make great use of e-resources too. I've discovered Google Books and some of the books I need to read have limited previews on there and my Google Library is slowly growing.

I may well have mentioned on a previous post that the three modules for this semester (up until Christmas) are

'An Introduction to Drama' (Sophocles' Antigone, The Glass Menagerie, Macbeth and The Dolls House)

'From Cradle to Grave'.......England 1560-1720...seeking to understand the "otherness" of the past

'An Introduction to Political Ideas'....Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Utilitarianism, Marx, Lenin, Nietzsche, deBeauvoir and Fascism

ARE YOU STILL AWAKE!....HOPE I'M NOT BORING YOU ALL TOO MUCH!

I've my first essay to write too.....'Death in Antigone'

Nikiphoros Lytras, Antigone in front of dead Polynikes (1865)

Oil on canvas, 100 x 157 cm. National Gallery of Athens

Still not quite sure how I'm going to afford being at Uni for the next 3 years...no lodger or job yet!....but one bit of good news is I've managed to get a lift to and fro with another girl who lives in Sudbury. It does mean a bit of a walk to get to her house but paying my share of the petrol is about £8 cheaper a week than going by bus. Even better still it means I get home about an hour earlier than I would if I went by public transport.

Gosh...all this chat about Uni...I'm going to have to change the title of my blog to Me, My Life, University and My Garden (when I get the time to garden)! Actually the garden is still doing quite well despite a little neglect over the last couple of weeks. When I have set a day to one side to do gardening it's peed down with rain.....maybe the powers that be are giving me a sign that I should get back to those books!

Speaking of money....I found some fabulous bargains at our local Tescos...it seems they had over ordered their fruit and vegetables and were selling bags of carrots, potatoes, oranges...you name it they had it on offer.....all for between 5p and 10p a bag! I do hope that who ever did the ordering didn't get into too much trouble as they have certainly done me a favour...I'll definitely be having my '5 a day' for the next week or so.

Before I do return to my essay and books.....just time for a quick plug for this years Blogblast for peace..........................


Just click on the banner to learn more!

THE PRINCE & THE PAUPER!

'Benefits should be conferred gradually;

and in that way they will taste better.'

~Niccolo Machiavelli~

How apt that statement seems........the 'powers that be' have cocked up had a technical hitch and not paid out the student loans. I don't intend to go on to much about it as, otherwise, I really enjoyed my first day at Uni. Let's just say there were a lot of long faces in the first seminar....and when we can all afford to go shopping I'm sure the food will 'taste better' as we will have waited so long to buy it!

I'm sure our lecturer never expected that one of Machiavelli's quotes would be used to complain about Student Loans not arriving!

As I hinted in my last post....I really know so little about politics, past or present...but the seminar was fascinating. We looked at some parts of 'The Prince' and had some lively discussion about the rights and wrongs of some of Machiavelli's ideas. As soon as I got home I couldn't wait to get on the computer and start 'googling' around to read more. I found some great sites and so many differing points of view.....exciting stuff! If Hobbes, Locke etc etc stimulate me as much I think I'm going to enjoy this module much more than I expected.

Tomorrow we have our first 'Introduction to the study of drama' and 'From Cradle to Grave' lectures. 'Greek Tragedy' and 'mortality in the 16th century'.....what a cheery couple of topics....LOL

I'm sorry this is only a short post but I want another quick look at 'Antigone' before I go to bed. I can't leave wihout posting a photo though.......so here's a photo of a Cinnabar Moth...for no other reason than it's the first time I've ever photographed one!

UPSIDE DOWN AND ALL OVER THE PLACE

Well tomorrow's the big day...my first day at Uni! I do wish our first class/lecture/tutorial wasn't 'An Introduction to Political Ideas'. I'm not really au fait with Machiavelli, Locke, Hobbs etc. Still I bet I'll know a lot more by this time tomorrow. I must admit I'm a bit upside and all over the place at the moment...a mixture of excitement and nerves...a bit like the rainbow that was seen during the week.Not my photo.....and if you want to know more just click on the photo and follow the link.

I had a great evening on Friday...I invited a few friends round for a 'bring a bottle and plate of food' evening. It's something I and a few friends have been doing lately...a girlie evening when we have a few drinks, some food and play games. This week we played Articulate...so much fun and laughter.......

and (somehow) although I drank plenty of wine, finished off the evening with coffees liberally laced with brandy and didn't go to bed until 3.30am I managed to be wide awake with no hangover by 6.30am. I do enjoy evenings like this......we've played quite a range of games, Yahtzee, Uno and Jenga to name a few.

Weatherwise....suddenly Summer has appeared...we've had some glorious sunny days. Quite handy as I've been helping a friend (who rents out a house) to clear the garden up...the last tenants left it in such a state and it need a good tidy before she could show the house to potential tenants. It has a lovely open view across the fields.......what joy it would be to have this view from your bedroom window each morning......You may wonder what I'm doing blogging if the weather's so lovely....well as I still have Rob's (son) laptop I'm happily typing this in the garden....there I am on the bench...well I would be if I wasn't taking this photo.......Talking of photos....I snapped these two cars when I was out shopping.......
Oh this weather is lovely.........I could quite fancy a swim in the sea.......during the Summer Lynn took Manda & co and myself to Aldeburgh. I had a lovely time in the sea..... There's a fabulous sculpture on the beach......

and walking along the sea front I saw this sweet little house.........

As Lloyd Grossman would say.."I wonder who lives in a house like this?". I must say Aldeburgh also has the best fish and chips I've tasted for years!

Well that's enough blogging for now.......the fish need feeding..........

Gosh they were hungry....and I think I see a few roses that need dead heading......Till next time...............................

'Our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate.

So practice happy thinking every day.

Cultivate the merry heart, develop the happiness habit,
and life will become a continual feast.'

~Norman Vincent Peale~