Oooh lookee here, LJ still exists, I'd  nearly completely forgotten about it.

and it turns out I have nothing to say

Shame.

In case I haven't told everyone in the known universe yet, I am now course coordinator for the Foundation Degree, although somehow still only a supply teacher.  It's a bit of extra work at a time when I have tonnes of work, but it's pretty damn awesome and will look brilliant on my CV if I want to look at FE or HE teaching jobs ( Read more... )

It's pretty good having an influence on someone's life.  From the students on the summer college who've gone on to do mainstream college courses, to the girl on the checkouts at Morrisons who I encouraged to do her GCSE English so she could get a job as a nursery nurse.  Then, there's the student you made a flippant comedy comment to who, as a ( Read more... )

Yay LARPing!  Lots of demons of various rainbow colours smashing poor Jackals around.  Hi! Golden City people!  how's it going? .  I was very very tired on the way home, and now my bath is mostly filled with mud ( Read more... )

 Sometimes things seem bleak and melancholy hangs in the air.  Nothing seems to awaken you from this dismal existence and into the bright dawn of the future.  Only one thing can save you.  A thing that you may have long ago forgotten.  Friends: turn up your speakers loud and click this link ( Read more... )

Gwyn and Lucy's wedding was very very beautiful.  Snow and sunshine and loveliness.  Pictures here ( Read more... )

Lucy's hen weekend was lots of fun.  Pictures are here ( Read more... )

Ben did a top ten albums, so I thought I do top 10 books. These are all fiction, I expect no fiction would include The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene, Simon Singh's Code Book, Genius of Photography and The Lens of Nostalgia, but I'm not making a list of those.

( Ali's books of the decade )

Yay, nearly the end of a dumb ass decade, which failed to provide flying cars or tinfoil clothing (beyond conspiracy theorists in their tinfoil beanies). I still haven't visited the moon and, though I'm sure it wouldn't really be fun, there was no robot invasion ( Read more... )

Today, despite being fine yesterday, Monkey died. Poor little guy was OK and just went to the vets for his teeth to be cut. While there he had a dose of anti inflammatory for something else. Shortly after getting home I thought he was dead. After holding him for a little while he started breathing again and after about an hour of me keeping him ( Read more... )