Charlie is in nursery for the full day today and I have to say, IT IS SO NICE. I have been with him so much lately and I am so enjoying having a work day all to myself. I have given tutorials, I have had a proper lunch in college and talked to colleagues, I have gotten some work done, all without tearing around from place to place like a madwoman ( Read more... )

It happened - yesterday I came down with Charlie's stomach virus. It was like a 24-hour detox. I couldn't keep anything down, not even water. Yuk. And lying around feeling like death when you have a child bouncing up and down on you saying, "Play with me! Play!" ... well, it wasn't one of the happier days of my life ( Read more... )

... by complaining yesterday when I didn't really have that much to complain about. During the night Charlie proved to have some evil stomach ailment and repeatedly woke up vomiting. The poor boy. So - no nursery for him today, and no nursery tomorrow either ( Read more... )

So M has gone to Toronto for two weeks, to teach a seminar and earn heaps of money (which we plan to use to fund a spring trip to Australia). I've hardly ever been on my own with Charlie before, apart from a spell during the first weeks of his life (due to the deportation saga). And it's just not easy. I've said before and I say again, my ( Read more... )

... to Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of the USA.

I still can't believe a man with a name like that got elected.

It's morning in America. From New York to Chicago to my own home state of California, people are waking up. From Florida to Ohio to Missouri ( Read more... )

I don't know how people managed to flourish in this country in previous centuries. It's so dark and damp and sunless. I took Charlie out to the natural history museum this morning, and the light (or lack thereof) felt like late afternoon. I'm actually grateful for all of the absurdly early Christmas merchandise in the shops, because it is bright ( Read more... )

I've been quiet on here for awhile because I have been working so damn hard, not just when Charlie's at nursery, but late into every night. Of course, if I managed to do a bit more teaching prep BEFORE the start of term, I wouldn't flail so much once term actually started... but never mind. My teaching hours are flexible in number, depending on how ( Read more... )

The combination of the start of term and a nasty NEW family cold (when I hadn't quite recovered from the old one) made me go incommunicado again. But I want to hail the now-past birthdays of curtana - woman and mother exemplaire - and oursin - woman and scholar exemplaire ( Read more... )

The secret is finally out: The University of Oxford is a horrible place where all the people are miserable. So says Tanya Gold in today's G2 ( Read more... )