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/2703/2003 Archived Entry: "New thing"

I haven't been writing here for a while. You may have noticed. Although I doubt I get too many daily visitors - I mean, if I'm not a daily visitor, why should anyone else be?
So, what's been going on in my life?
Well... I've been working reasonably hard. I've actually had stuff to do - papers to prepare, proof read and get published (although I don't actually do the last bit myself, but I do say when they are ready tp be published. The Power! HA HA HA!) I had a meeting yesterday. I didn't actually mean to have a meeting yesterday, but I did. My colleague, Helen, had a meeting yesterday but she couldn't make it in to work because her son was ill. So I did it. It was a Standard Setting Meeting. When a group of examiners mark the same paper they get together to try and set a standard way of marking. It seemed that, after all this time, (they have been doing it for a fair few years now...) they were pretty much on the same wavelength. The one thing I can say about them is that some of the candidates are damned lucky that there is no mark reduction for spelling and grammatical errors.

What else. I'm currently reading Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy. And it's rather marvellous. I'm streaking through the books, finding them extremely difficult to put down. It has taken me a long time to get around to reading them (I read her second trilogy - The Liveship Traders - when I was working at Waterstone's and she came to do a signing) but I'm glad I have. I was trying to think what other fantasy I have read recently and couldn't think of anything since Chaz's Outremer series. (Which is being released in the States this year, which is rather exciting. The only novel which I have chosen to buy more than one version of is The Lord of the Rings. I don't know if this means anything, it's just something I thought worth mentioning. And I got to put another Amazon link in.) I'm sure I have, but I just can't remember them. Which shows how good they must have been. (And I'm not really counting Terry Pratchett, because he's only sort of partially fantasy.) Anyway, read them all. They're all very good.

Candy is still throwing up. It's not as bad as it was, but it's still happening. we (and especially she) are pretty much resigned to it happening it all the way through to the end. It only happens once when she gets up in the morning and then she's pretty much okay for the rest of the day, but it's still not good. We are now calling the bump Hecky The Kung-Fu Bump (I don't remember if I explained the origin of the name 'Hecky' or not. When we heard it's heartbeat, it sounded exactly like a helicopter. so - hecky-lopter. Obvious, really.) It's a case of Crouching Foetus, Hidden Baby... I have felt it kick against my hand a few times and last night, lying in bed, I actually saw Candy's belly bulge out momentarily as it kicked. Now that is weird. Exciting, but weird.

My mom is down here this weekend. At long last, she is getting her birthday present from us. From last November. We are taking her to see We Will Rock You, the Queen musical. I'm expecting it to be fairly appalling, but the music will be good. So, that'll be fun.

Another rather fun link I discovered. Or, at least I assume it's fun. I can get to the front page, but I can't get any farther, becaase C&G blocks it for some reason. Good, eh? It's an Online Etymological Dictionary. Which is a very nice idea.

Posted by Jean @ 03/27/2003 12:33 PM GMT