so life goes on

Now Playing: Sky Sports on common room TV.

I wrote up yesterday’s entry, etc., this morning. Went to ENL204, chatted with Carmen before class started, and with Professor M after tutorial—he cheerily asked me if I were going home, and said I must be enjoying myself. I went back to the house and spent an hour or so talking with Loganon Skype. I went downstairs for communal lunch at one o’clock. We had soda bread pizzas today. A fair number of people came, some boys for the football match, some girls just to hang out, Beulah, Pamela, and Naomi. Outside, the sunny morning had become an incredibly blustery afternoon. Patches of luminous daffodil-translucent sunshine alternated with nearly horizontal gale-blown rain. The boys had a football match at half two, and Rosemary, Beulah, Naomi, Sarah W., Sarah R., Emmaline, and I went to watch. Joel and Abigail came toward the end.

Standing at the edge of the pitch, watching the match, we were miserable. The wind scoured down over the fields from the northwest: when it wasn’t raining, it lashed our hair over our faces and struck straight through our coats; when it was raining, it drenched the backs of our legs and turned our umbrellas inside out. The boys were playing the Church of Ireland team, which they’d been sure to beat, but they ended up being crushed, 3-0. It was pretty discouraging. The pitch was sodden, the mud stinking, and they were soon plastered on cheeks and arms with smears of grey mud. During halftime, Sarah W., Sarah R., and I sheltered in Emmaline’s car. I was so chilled that I crawled back in again a couple of times. Sarah R. and I spent most of the second half standing pressed side-by-side, shivering. The great dark clouds blew over, and for awhile there was a rainbow spanning the green pitches in an iridescent arc. The available sky was a vivid blue, and a flock of gulls spun and circled over the green grass, white wings flashing in the brief intense sunshine.

After the match, we all crawled back to the house and sheltered in the common room. I was cold right through. I sat in the bay window beside Emmaline, doing my ENL204 homework, while Andy M. helped her with a French translation. She went upstairs to talk on the phone with Alistair; I went into the kitchen to fix tea. I was feeling rather like a limp rag. I went out to buy cheese; when I came back, Emmaline took a look at me, took the cheese, and went into the kitchen to finish making tea, while I went upstairs and slept for half-an-hour. When she called me, I was groggy but feeling better. She had everything sorted downstairs. The two of us ate and chatted. Sarah W. and Heather came in, and we talked with them.

At half seven, Heather, Emmaline, and I drove to Trinity for the last of Pastor D’s three talks. We were late, of course, and of course Emmaline marched up to the front of the church so that she and I could sit beside Catherine Donnelly while she ran the powerpoint presentation. The talk was good. We didn’t stay too long afterward. Emmaline, Heather, and I looked at the bookstalls, and then Emmaline and I drove back to the house. We took a slight detour, but had great fun talking rubbish most of the way about fruit and plans for spring break and the weekend and such.

Back at the house, we ended up in the common room with Steven, Johnny, Ian, Beulah, Rosemary, and Rachel, just sitting around. The TV was on Sky Sports’ match-of-the-day. Beulah was taking people’s blood pressure. Rachel, Rosemary, and Beulah had made tea, and Rachel had a plate of buns for everyone. Emmaline had warmed up a bowl of sweet potato casserole, which she let Rachel try. Beulah explained to Rachel, Emmaline, and me the mysteries of taking blood pressure.

Now Ian and I are sitting in the common room, working on our laptops. There’s a whole flock of people out in the hallway, laughing, talking, and making a huge ruckus.

Johnny wants to be mentioned in this post, so here goes: Currently he and Samuel are watching an incredibly stupid show on Emmaline's laptop here in the common room. As Emmaline said, it's funnier to watch them watching it than to watch it.

Scottish ABCs and pudding party

Scottish ABCs and pudding party