electricpenguin
contains multitudes

Tall? That's almost certainly me then. Yeah, the exams have been fairly hellish - but there over now! As for confidence, I'm hovering on the 1st, 2:1 boundary, so things are a little bit tense. Ah yes, 'Sigurd and Gudrun' - I've ordered a copy of amazon as a present to myself for finishing the exams - I really can't wait, it sounds fascinating!

It's quite possible that you did - quite a strange feeling, eh? As for essays, its one down, one to go, and an exam to sit, and then graduation. Yeesh.

Anyway, I went home for the bank holiday, so I've got a wee bit of catching up to do - how are things going is MA-land?

Good morning, ep - re: the aussie cousins - went to visit in 2007, they made me most welcome and I have a permanent invitation to return, which I may take up some day. Loved Australia, amazing scenery, such friendly people, wicked sense of humour! Flew to Sydney but didn't see as much of it as I wanted as a certain G W Bush was there at the same time and much of the city was closed off (literally, with fences) for 'security reasons' - grrr. Flew up to Cairns, went on a glass-bottomed boat to see the Great Barrier Reef, up the mountains on a narrow gauge railway and back down over the tree-tops in a cable car, flew to Alice Springs, then went on to Ularu, walked round the Rock at dawn (well, not all of it, just a little way - not bad for a lady of a certain age with two steel hips!), flew to Melbourne, toured the area, flew to Adelaide, went over to Kangeroo Island for a couple of days, flew to cousins in Perth, thought I was going to have a few days r&r but they had a three day tour of the southern tip of the continent planned for me. Was exhausted but enjoyed it all. Then I came home via China... went to South Africa last year, staying home this year (I've got to have the Builders in and am not sure how long they will take so have not committed myself to travel) but going to Egypt next year. Have case, will travel! Didn't travel much after early forays into Europe and over to the States - bought a house and became 'poor'! Married a marine engineer who had travelled the world in his job and just wanted to settle down when he finally came ashore, though we did travel a bit within UK. We planned the trip to China as a retirement treat, meant to go via the Trans-Siberian railway through Mongolia, but sadly he didn't make it to his retirement, so I went on my own, all the time thinking 'Geoff would have loved this!' Didn't think I would manage the railway, having watched a tv programme on it - no platforms, you have to scramble up and down ladders to get on board and the hips were very new then and I was still very stiff, so went the 'soft' way, by plane and boat and train and coach. Loved China, would go again - though I have a list of 'must see' places and time is not on my side.

Hope the essays are going well - they are going, aren't they? (She said severely....) get that nose to the grindstone - the end is in sight - well, it would be if you raised your head from said grindstone! )

Have a good week-end.

Kay.

Family are nice, but I'm looking forward to getting back tomorrow - back into the swing of things! Plus, I do need to visit the library PDQ - why does some nimrod always feel the need to request books I've taken home with me!?! I think my library fine is pretty much keeping the Uni going...

Many, many apologies for not replying sooner, ep - my Internet Server has been having major problems and I have been unable to get on-line since 4 April - I have just managed to get back on-line via the pretty route (Google), don't know why I didn't think of it before, think I need some Internet tuition from a ten-year old... Now have rather a lot of catching up to do, 69 e-mails, mostly interesting 'junk' but one from Australian cousin worried that I might have fallen off the edge of the world! Hope you are well and enjoying life.

I know! Pointless, isn't it? It really screws up the revising period too...

Yes, I'm at home at the moment - taking advantage of my creature comforts! Yourself?

I was not able to get the Due Tramonti album, but instead got the Divenire one. I'm enjoying it alot. Thanks for telling me about him. I tried to see if Barnes and Noble had any of his music, and they did not. I guess I have to go to bigger music stores.

It was the bane of my life for a while - I'm surprised how much Ican remember of it of it however - not that I've much call for descriptions of battles and mead halls, these days! I'm learning Welsh at the moment - well, I live in 'Welsh' Wales and hear it spoken around me so it's a matter of courtesy really. But it is hard - the grey matter does not function at the speed it used to! And Welsh has some grammatical rules I've never come across before, I'm only just coming to terms with mutations - you change the first letter of a word after certain prepositions or if the word is the object, or...or.. It's a bit like changing 'a' to 'an' before a vowel but not nearly so straightforward, the word ends up looking totally different which throws you at the beginning. For instance 'Caerdydd' (Cardiff) becomes 'i Gaerdydd' (to Cardiff) but 'o Nghaedydd' (from Cardiff) - it's all meant to confuse anyone who isn't Welsh! At least I don't have to take exams in it! It's voluntary!

And Hi to you too, EP! Old Norse, eh? Stopped short at Old English, myself - and that brought on tears of blood!

'Norseome' - now that's a term I like! My tutor always uses the phrase 'Norsetastic', but I think this might replace it!

I know the feeling - I first encountered Old Norse two years ago, and fell madly in love with it. The language is fascinating - I'm useless at languages, but it is seriously worth the effort. I particularly love Eddaic poetry (hence my screen name!). Yeah, some of my friends (even the classical civilization types) accuse me of being geeky and roll their eyes. I'm doing a BA in English at Leeds Uni, where we also have an Old-Norse Reading Group (also known as the Dead Vikings Society), so there are lots of us who can be geeky together about it!