News

Part of a New Year’s resolution achieved – That’s satisfying!

The last year has been very disrupted for me. I changed (or lost) as job and have moved house (country). As a result of “the move” I still have lots of possessions (mostly books and papers) in storage boxes. This in itself is not really a bad thing, but it has created an opportunity for me to put-off some administrative work that I really should have done.

At the same time, I’ve taken up improving my Russian. I already had a number of textbooks, and I found (or rather didn’t find) that the Russian-English dicitionary I wanted was in one of the boxes I had not unpacked. In a funny indirect way, that was the trigger for me to start sorting out the accumulated admin work.

Once I had started I found the task, that I had probably been avoiding, went more quickly and more easilly than I had been expecting. The apparent volume of the papers shrunk when I removed the envelopes and unfolded the papers. The actual sorting took relatively little time.

It was at this point that a little serendipity crept in. I went to the computer to print out the manifest which lists the contents of all the boxes (in a basic sort of way) and noticed that one of the three boxes standing next to it said “Russian” on the label. Sure enough, the Russian dictionary was in there! I printed the manifest anyway, I expect I’ll need it in the next few days.

None of this was a “New Year’s Resolution”, but it was all on my “List of things to do”. All in all quite satisfactory!

Learning a new language – Russian

Part of my New Year’s resolutions – write something in the diary every day. This is a start.

For the past week I’ve been warming up my Russian. It’s years since I used it at all, and I was expecting to get nowhere. Actually I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Bits are coming back to me, and not just the numbers and standard phrases that everyone seems to remember. I’m remembering the patterns for the regular verbs.

The thing I find most difficult, is listening to people speaking Russian. I have some software which has a good number of examples. I expect (hope) that the producers used native speakers. Anyway, that’s the bit I find hardest. I seem to be making progress. It’s as sort of “tuning in” process. My hearing or understanding is becoming more attuned to listening to Russian.

And for the rest of the day, I have some ECDL (European Computer Driving License) scripts to mark. This has been delayed a little because there was a mix-up with the exam papers and the CD containing what the students had done. I was given the wrong CD, and so had nothing to mark. Still, no harm done and it shouldn’t take me too long to work through them.

Outside the sun is shining, and reflecting off the frost on the grass. A bright, pleasant day. I may take some of it off to go for a walk.

Does it get any better than this? – Count your curses!

(Written off-line on 3rd July 2010 and added after the event.)

Hint. Only do this if you are feeling pretty confident already!

Today is the first, or maybe the second (depending count) day of my holiday this year. Some things have gone well. Some things have gone less well. It’s 11 o’clock in the evening, and I thought I would review the day. Being in a slightly perverse frame of mind, I thought I would look at the things that are not as I would wish them to be:
1) The lock on the tail-gate of my newly purchased car is not working as it should. This gave me an unpleasant surprise when I found it would not remain closed, never mind lock!
2) We arrived too early at the holiday cottage we had booked.
3) When we eventually got in: we found that the cottage does not have a microwave in the kitchen.
4) … in some places the beams are so low that my head brushes them (and I’m not over average height).
5) The batteries in both my hearing aids decide to give out when I was out this evening.
6) The vilage has only three pubs!
There, I’ve got that off my chest. It’s a reasonably short list…

Let’s address them one my one…
1) This is a nuisance, but within a few minutes of realising that there was a problem, I had identified a temporary work-around. A few minutes later, my host had shown me how to make the lock work for the duration of my holiday. The problem can be fixed when I get back to base and I talk with the people who supplied me with the car. (and it isn’t a problem they would have known about anyway.)
2) … so we went and had a look at Cardigan, which is a wonderful town. My wife did some “essentials” shopping and I found two interesting places to eat while she was doing that.
3) … so we’ll (maybe even I’ll) have to re-learn how to cook!
4) … and it oozes character. My wife thinks it is marvelous, and so do I!
5) … and I’ve just changed them …
6) … and there isn’t a dud among them. In fact, it was a quiet night (odd for a Saturday) so I was able to talk with some of the locals. The beer is good too.

Now on the positive side:
*) The village (Cilgerran) has several things which I find really pleasant: It has a castle (pictures, more pictures), and I took a walk down by the river, and then I persuaded the family to come down there as well.
*) The cottage is growing on me already. I shall spend a little time working out how it has developed over the years. Definitely 100 years old, the question is how much more?
*) The garden is great…
*) …and there are bats! Great!
*) …and the pubs are really, REALLY good (if you want a quiet drink).
*) …and there are Ordnance survey maps of the area in the cottage
So I’m really looking forward to tomorrow!

Q: Does it get any better than this? A: It could, but not much.

Postcard:
Hope you are well. Having great time in Wales. Love, OB!

The Batchelor, the Chinaman and the Solicitor…

There are a lot of jokes which start out “An Englishman, Irishman and a Scotsman were…” (you can substitute other nations if you wish). This evening I set out to walk down to the town and watch the second half of the Brazil versus Chile match in the pub. Even before the half-time whistle blew, it seemed fairly clear that Brazil were in control, so I set off a little before half-time itself.

Walking along the road, I noticed that the front door of the house of one of my neighbours was open. I hadn’t seen him for a while (not since before Christmas, I think), so I called in. Anyway, a glass of whiskey, a bit of conversation, and an re-introduction to his one-eyed cat and her kittens later, I was on my way. (He’s the batchelor, by the way)

It’s a fair walk down to the town, so the second half and started by the time I got to the pub. The place wasn’t busy, so I bought my pint, pulled up a stool and started to watch the match. A little later a new fella came in. Obviously “not from round here”, but equally obviously well known. He was given a packet of crisps, without him asking and he too sat down to watch the match. I’m not sure, but I think he has something to do with the Chinese Restaraunt a couple of doors along. (…the Chinaman…)

Once the game was finished, with the expected win for Brazil, the Chinaman left, I finished my pint and so did I. It seemed a bit early to finish the evening, so I decide to have one more in the wine bar on the way home. The place was empty except for the barman, a man I’ll choose to describe as “The Solicitor” and me. The Solicitor was finishing his evening mean before going home.

There’s no “story” to this. No punch line. But it is rather nice to see people who catch your eye in the evening. I wonder if they noticed me? Possibly not, but then it doesn’t matter all that much either way.