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Izzie is just enjoying the last few hours of freedom from Goblins. At 8am tomorrow the first class of Izzie's last year at the Min of Fin begins. Five subjects left and then it's out into the big bad world of counting beans.
Tomorrow is a public holiday but one not observed by the Min. Silly really because lots of students using busses or trains will not be able to get to classes. I am so lucky that it is only a 15 min walk away.
Today was so so tempting to stay at home and snooze before going to work. But Iz thinks - February 29 is not exactly a normal day and what will you think about it tomorrow. So off we went with the Precioussss and two green books to one of the Izzie favorite cafes. Was a nasty hot day 38c plus but it was not humid like the other week.
Finishing one little green book ( the offline Izzie secret diary) and starting another was on of the Izzie intentions of the day as was finishing "The Two Towers" which is due back to the library on Thursday.
Will not be able to even dream of peeking at book 3 until after the exams in June and I guess "The Fellowship of the Ring" will be waiting until Friday 29 February 2008 ;) Iz somehow suspects that TTT will remain the favorite. Unlike the radio and film versions of the book, the original sticks to one story before moving to the next so Iz enjoyed the oodles of Gollum goodness as well as Treebeard and Saruman. There are far too many Elvish and other two legged creatures in the last book.
I am just so peeeved that the only Rings DVD I bought is the second one - as I definitely should have got the extended edition like I will for the last one.
Iz was thinking of a couple other February 29s. The first that springs to mind was 1984. Izzie had never really been a February person and this was one particularly nasty one. It seems to be the month that the Dementors had specially reserved for Izzie visits and 1984 was no exception. What made that particular Wednesday stick in the Izzie memory - apart from being bored to tears being forced to read the insufferable "Persuasions" by Jane Austen for the English exams and tearing the snaky curls out over the tons and tons of maths homework was being a naughty serpent and finally snatching a song on tape that I'd heard only a few months previously and totally knocked the Izzie socks off. Yesss. Iz was one of those naughty people who did not buy tapes or records - yess Izzie remembers records on vinyl!
Certain songs are just so powerful, magical or whatever that they entrance you from the very first note. Iz was certainly enchanted by Elizabeth Fraser's "Song to the Siren". This love at first note is a rather rare thing for Izzie.
This song while being very bleak and extremely dangerous to listen to in the vicinity of water - there was also something else about it. Very hard to explain - but it was the first song Iz heard that was a sort of prototype / archetype of Enya, Lisa Gerrard, Natalie Merchant, Portishead and all that esoteric spine tingling bloodcurling banshee sort of singing.
So for me that song became a sort of symbol of light at the end of the tunnel. And it still remains so.
Tuesday 29 February 2000 was another one that I remember particularly well. That day finished work at 1pm and had my very very first class ever at the Min of Fin that evening at 5pm. So that was the beginning of a new adventure and invasion of Izzie dawdle doodle time. But in those days Iz had not discovered (or was rather only rarely acquainted with) the endless distractions and temptations of Cyberia and was an utterly insufferable Hermione Granger who used to read her textbooks during the holidays before start of term and even answer some of the questions in the books for practice. (But then in January 2002 Iz finally got herself a LIFE!) The Izzie auditing books for this term have got cobwebs on them.
But Iz had other plans for the day. Could always go after work on Wednesday but Iz absolutely insisted that no day but 29 Feb would be good enough to buy a big fat juicy green Bible that we had been eying up in one of the 'Smells and Bells' book stores - the same place that sold those evil Anthony DeMello books.
This particular bible had a whole bunch of Apocryphal books and stuff recognized by the Eastern Orthodox churche but not the Catholic or various Protestant denominations and vice versa. But most importantly it was the NRSV translation which meant none of that exceedingly irritating he/man thee/thou language that annoys the hell out of Izzie. Being NOTHING BUT a spare rib is insult enough but being constantly ignored too is just one insult too many. The thees and thous I can cope with now. I just pretend that they are German but the other thing gets on the Izzie nerves. It was also important to have a translation rather than mere paraphrasing and one done properly with lots of explanatory footnotes and alternatives.
It was not there so Iz made do with another version instead that also had oodles of interesting and insightful commentary and footnotes. But I did come back again to snatch a copy of the preciousss green book on 21 June. (Yes...Iz likes to observe certain dates and things)It was wonderful sitting watching the sunset on the shortest day of the year outside an old graveyard and reading Ecclesiastes -'All is vanity...there is nothing new under the sun' etc.
So it was a bit of a mad rush to get home, scrub the scales, hop on a bus to the city and then get to the Min in time for the class at 5pm. It was a nasty stinking 39 celsius that day and very very muggy and sticky too. But Izzie likes her rituals and they must be observed.
By the time I got to 21 June 2003 had it all down to a fine art - but this time Izzie got her priorities right and resorted to requesting the day off from work 6 weeks before the big event.
Oh and another wonderful thing about the Mel movie - is just the perfect excuse to have conversations about religion and stuff. It has got people asking the big questions all over again.
And the big question tomorrow will be how many gongs the Ring will get?
Tomorrow is a public holiday but one not observed by the Min. Silly really because lots of students using busses or trains will not be able to get to classes. I am so lucky that it is only a 15 min walk away.
Today was so so tempting to stay at home and snooze before going to work. But Iz thinks - February 29 is not exactly a normal day and what will you think about it tomorrow. So off we went with the Precioussss and two green books to one of the Izzie favorite cafes. Was a nasty hot day 38c plus but it was not humid like the other week.
Finishing one little green book ( the offline Izzie secret diary) and starting another was on of the Izzie intentions of the day as was finishing "The Two Towers" which is due back to the library on Thursday.
Will not be able to even dream of peeking at book 3 until after the exams in June and I guess "The Fellowship of the Ring" will be waiting until Friday 29 February 2008 ;) Iz somehow suspects that TTT will remain the favorite. Unlike the radio and film versions of the book, the original sticks to one story before moving to the next so Iz enjoyed the oodles of Gollum goodness as well as Treebeard and Saruman. There are far too many Elvish and other two legged creatures in the last book.
I am just so peeeved that the only Rings DVD I bought is the second one - as I definitely should have got the extended edition like I will for the last one.
Iz was thinking of a couple other February 29s. The first that springs to mind was 1984. Izzie had never really been a February person and this was one particularly nasty one. It seems to be the month that the Dementors had specially reserved for Izzie visits and 1984 was no exception. What made that particular Wednesday stick in the Izzie memory - apart from being bored to tears being forced to read the insufferable "Persuasions" by Jane Austen for the English exams and tearing the snaky curls out over the tons and tons of maths homework was being a naughty serpent and finally snatching a song on tape that I'd heard only a few months previously and totally knocked the Izzie socks off. Yesss. Iz was one of those naughty people who did not buy tapes or records - yess Izzie remembers records on vinyl!
Certain songs are just so powerful, magical or whatever that they entrance you from the very first note. Iz was certainly enchanted by Elizabeth Fraser's "Song to the Siren". This love at first note is a rather rare thing for Izzie.
This song while being very bleak and extremely dangerous to listen to in the vicinity of water - there was also something else about it. Very hard to explain - but it was the first song Iz heard that was a sort of prototype / archetype of Enya, Lisa Gerrard, Natalie Merchant, Portishead and all that esoteric spine tingling bloodcurling banshee sort of singing.
So for me that song became a sort of symbol of light at the end of the tunnel. And it still remains so.
Tuesday 29 February 2000 was another one that I remember particularly well. That day finished work at 1pm and had my very very first class ever at the Min of Fin that evening at 5pm. So that was the beginning of a new adventure and invasion of Izzie dawdle doodle time. But in those days Iz had not discovered (or was rather only rarely acquainted with) the endless distractions and temptations of Cyberia and was an utterly insufferable Hermione Granger who used to read her textbooks during the holidays before start of term and even answer some of the questions in the books for practice. (But then in January 2002 Iz finally got herself a LIFE!) The Izzie auditing books for this term have got cobwebs on them.
But Iz had other plans for the day. Could always go after work on Wednesday but Iz absolutely insisted that no day but 29 Feb would be good enough to buy a big fat juicy green Bible that we had been eying up in one of the 'Smells and Bells' book stores - the same place that sold those evil Anthony DeMello books.
This particular bible had a whole bunch of Apocryphal books and stuff recognized by the Eastern Orthodox churche but not the Catholic or various Protestant denominations and vice versa. But most importantly it was the NRSV translation which meant none of that exceedingly irritating he/man thee/thou language that annoys the hell out of Izzie. Being NOTHING BUT a spare rib is insult enough but being constantly ignored too is just one insult too many. The thees and thous I can cope with now. I just pretend that they are German but the other thing gets on the Izzie nerves. It was also important to have a translation rather than mere paraphrasing and one done properly with lots of explanatory footnotes and alternatives.
It was not there so Iz made do with another version instead that also had oodles of interesting and insightful commentary and footnotes. But I did come back again to snatch a copy of the preciousss green book on 21 June. (Yes...Iz likes to observe certain dates and things)It was wonderful sitting watching the sunset on the shortest day of the year outside an old graveyard and reading Ecclesiastes -'All is vanity...there is nothing new under the sun' etc.
So it was a bit of a mad rush to get home, scrub the scales, hop on a bus to the city and then get to the Min in time for the class at 5pm. It was a nasty stinking 39 celsius that day and very very muggy and sticky too. But Izzie likes her rituals and they must be observed.
By the time I got to 21 June 2003 had it all down to a fine art - but this time Izzie got her priorities right and resorted to requesting the day off from work 6 weeks before the big event.
Oh and another wonderful thing about the Mel movie - is just the perfect excuse to have conversations about religion and stuff. It has got people asking the big questions all over again.
And the big question tomorrow will be how many gongs the Ring will get?
