Last day at work

Yep, last day before Christmas. I'm off home to York tomorrow - depending on lifts!! And I'm taking my PC with me. Then it's Huddersfield from Boxing Day (Sally) and down to London by plane from Manchester - so decadent! yet cheaper than the train and way, way better than driving for five hours - to see Alex, Julian (and Jason??) as New Year tradition demands. I do have a lot of marking, but it's the feedback that takes time, not the marking itself. You know, trying to find something good to say about something at the rubbish end of the scale. Plus, at some point, I'll get to watch the second half of the Hogfather (Sky One). Long story...

So, while I'll be updating over Christmas, Seasons Greetings everyone. :)

The Good, the Bad, and nothing Ugly.

I have a lot of marking waiting for me again. 45 practicals (3,000 words) and 75 essays (1,500 words) to mark before 9th January. Pretty do-able I think, but I stress that I don't actually *want* to do this marking.

Still, on the upside, I paid too much tax 2005/6 and I've just had a chunky repayment. Nice one. :-)

Random comment about no buses for days, then three in a row. ;-)

Gareth's Blog is music-heavy - and rightly so! I very much enjoyed his You-Tubing of Imagine the other day so I thought I'd post something from the past. Who remembers this?

August 23rd, 2008

That's the date of Eddie and Yvonne's wedding so I'm told. By Sally. And she should know, as we were at Eddie and Yvonne's engagement party in Barrow on Saturday night and Eddie pointed out the church and told her so. That's a good week before my 35th birthday [see how I turned that post into something about me. Good eh? ;-)] Thanks to Mik and Karolina for the lift, btw. I very much enjoyed it, and funnily enough, it was my first time across the Humber Bridge in twenty years at least. Cue second fascinating fact of the day - that the stanchions of the bridge are four inches nearer each other at the top then they are at the bottom - purely due to the curvature of the Earth. More geeky facts later? Who can tell.

Anyhow, Hull actually looks somewhat stunning from several miles away. Across an estuary. At night. And only then, probably... ;-)

Christmas is coming!!

Er, is it??

It may just be me, but I'm not seeing many signs. I mean, lights are going up, Newland Avenue is looking suitably festive - or else, it would be, but the sun is hining, some trees even still have leaves, and winter seems just as far away as ever. It's mid-December, and it should be cold, wet, windy and horrible. But it isn't. How odd.

Side note: Did you know that while it's winter, we're closer to the sun that any other time of year. I discovered (though reading a book!) that it's colder not because we're tilting away form the Sun at this time of year, but that we're tilting *towards* it! The angle is such that light rays are being scattered across the northerm hemisphere and are reflecting/bouncing off. Just the kind of fact that does your head in. ;-)