An Elderly Man.

At this time every year a number of students ask if I will come to their graduation and to meet their mums. I never go to graduation hence my complete ignorance and anxiety about my own ceremony last week. I tend to shy away from people's families. A few demand to talk to me during the year but I'm not allowed to talk to them. In truth graduation is their day not mine.

Today though something slightly different happened. A student and her mum came in to see me. E is not from this country. Her culture as an indigenous person in her home country is alien to me. She has bipolar and in my small way I guess I helped her through. Her mum told me today that she didn't expect what E described as "an elderly man" would be able to help. How old does that make me feel? Actually it was quite funny and once again illustrated just how challenging young people find describing older people. No offence taken. Nice to have good chocolates too and I very much hope they both enjoyed her ceremony this evening.

It was good spending the day with Beka yesterday. It is some months since anyone came to stay and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the company. I do pretty well living alone most of the time. But change is good. We had some slow roast belly pork for supper and went to a nice country pub. Her meeting went well today.

Back to tonight my satellite dish is giving me grief. I have to unplug it from time to time and it does get temperamental. It should right itself though.

What will tomorrow bring? We will see.

I Heard a Voice.

Mendelssohn for a Change.

Hail and salutations. You find me on a warm Hertfordshire afternoon at home. Shopping is done, there is a fine Greek roast chicken with lemon and oregano in the offing and I'm listening to Mendelssohn's oratorio Elias. In some funny way this quiet Saturday in September has seen a political earthquake with the opposition Labour party lurching further to the left with the election of Jeremy Corbyn as the new leader. The really funny thing is that this is being applauded by the left and right wings of politics. The left see it as a radical shift in line with people's expectation. The right feel this decision will keep them in power for the next decade. What a curious state of affairs.

I do not profess to understand the intentions of the Labour party supporters but I'm baffle how they think this will help their cause. My friend James who until recently was chair of the local Labour party and now a councillor thinks it's a good thing. I think he has lost all sense and reason. I suppose we will know an outcome in 5 years time.

Beka is coming to stay tomorrow. She's not been here for ages and requested belly pork for dinner. I'm most happy to oblige. She has an important meeting nearby on Monday morning so we finally get a chance to see each other.

As for me I'm taking work only a day at a time. Yesterday was not too bad but still have a dread most mornings when I prepare to go in. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians; not easy taking directions from 3 different people and that the information given to me differs from that given to others. The bullet will start flying soon so I just hope we can resolve the bureaucracy I'm suddenly faced with before then.

So now it is back to Mendelssohn, it makes a nice change from Mozart.

I Heard a Voice.

A Special Day.

Hello, have you missed me? Viewers seemed to disappear whilst I was away. Hope you come back. Well I'm back home now on the final day of my allocated annual leave.

If you have been following the news you will no doubt have noticed that today is a special day for royalists in the UK. For today Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest serving British monarch in history. Of course for some she is a divisive figure. I'm a fan although I have never met her. I've met her son the Prince of Wales and her sister the late Princess Margaret, but although I have seen her twice that was as close as I got.

Yet the title of today's post does not refer to the Queen's day. It is for yesterday. The day I graduated with a Master of Science degree. We had a lovely day despite my anxiety. All went smoothly, a number of friends were there to witness my achievement along with dad and Miriam. Although I took a shortened route-I only had to do 90 of 180 credits as my books and teaching counted-it has been a long journey. I worked very hard and feel proud of what I have achieved. People keep asking if I will go on to do a PhD. Maybe but I'm nowhere near ready to do that. One day perhaps.

I have to return to the grind tomorrow. The inbox is groaning, the demands are mounting up and I still have no desire or motivation to deal with it all. That doesn't really bode well for the autumn. But by hook or crook I will make it through to Christmas.

I Heard a Voice.

The Waning of Summer

September, the month of creeping chills, misty mornings, leaves beginning to turn. In many ways I'm very fond of this time of year. It is a time of rebirth for those of us who work in the education industry. A time of new beginnings for many thousands of young people as they transition from education by rote and laid out carefully to you are on your own. Now my studies are finished I have a greater understanding of the world of my students. At times studying for my MSc was a very lonely business.

As the sun came out on the waning summer today that chill is in evidence. The last day of my holiday moves towards its end with the smell of pork roasting and Mozart's Litaniae de Venerabili Altaris Sacramento in E flat major accompanies my afternoon musings. As ever it has gone all too quickly. I do not feel ready or happy to be going back but back I must go. Yes I'm off Tuesday and Wednesday for graduation but the mayhem starts soon enough and will not end until Easter.

My mood is a little flat and I still yearn for more sleep but it is too late for that. I'm not struggling just lacking in motivation to carry on to the next part of the journey. No doubt on the good days it will fly and on the bad days crawl. Christmas will loom far quicker than we can imagine. A lot of things to go through before then though.

So at the end of summer I wish you all well for coming autumn, may it be prosperous and rewarding for all my kind readers out there. I will return soon.

I Heard a Voice.

Time Running Out.

Greetings to all my wonderful readers. Well as I said it all went so quickly. I have but a single night left when I can get up at a reasonable time then back to that sometimes awful thing called reality. Actually I woke up feeling refreshed thank goodness. It was about time after lacking during my fortnight holiday.

Went for a drive, a little lunch, a pint at The Waggoners before home for dull domesticity. To mark the coming of autumn I'm cooking beef in beer in the oven flavoured with fresh bay and thyme. I bought a lovely spare rib pork joint yesterday for a fine Sunday roast-I suspect I might have a small glass of Rioja with that.

After work on Monday I head to St Albans for graduation. I'm meeting my friends Kym and Peter for a nice Thai dinner that evening. Then comes the big day. I'm proud of what I achieved in the MSc. I still feel a bit of a fraud but if nothing else I did work hard. I wonder if it will ever take me anywhere?

But back to tonight I quite fancy watching a film. Will have to give that some thought on what to dig out of the cupboard. See you soon.

I Heard a Voice.

Transitions to the Future.

As I noted in my last post back to school is in full swing. Facebook is awash with photos of tiny children going for their first day at school, tearful mums and commiserations on how fast time flies. It was a long time ago that I went to school. Too long ago to remember. But I do recall the day in 1978 when I first went to Cambridge to board-I couldn't wait to get there. I was in for something of a shock a week or so later when the choir came back from touring Japan and I saw the fearsome violence of those seeking perfection in my first choir practice. Today children are protected, back then they were not.

My mind also turns to that strange limbo land of those about to go off to University for the first time and that extra few weeks of nothing. In the summer of 1988 I worked in a small factory. It was dull work but they were nice people, it got me out of the house and gave me some money. Come September I stopped working, did a trip to Sussex for our final weeks of nothing and prepared for Cambridge. Yes back I went.

Today's students also face that unknown. They still seem so young to me. They use words like mature a lot but know little of it's meaning-did any of us at that age? Then they take their scary transition steps into a world where they have more responsibility, more temptation and more people. Those who were brilliant in their previous worlds may not be now. They will get competitive. All the students I see will be seeking perfection and wanting to save the world. University is not always all it is cracked up to be.

They prepare and I seek comfort in my final 2 days of holiday. I'm listening to Peter Grimes, doing a little reading, contemplating the curry I will cook later and pleased that I have finally ordered a graduation photo for dad. I'm not bothered but I knew he would want a nice framed picture.

Tomorrow is another day, the final day. I had hoped to go to Borough Market with Dory having postponed last week but she has to work. I will have to find something else to do.

I Heard a Voice.

Seasonal Change.

So here we are again. September has arrived. It's only 8.00 pm and it's almost dark outside. Facebook is filled with mums bemoaning how busy Clarks the shoe shop is for back to school shopping and by the end of the week many photos will have gone up of that first day at school for their little darlings. The nights are getting cooler and it is more uncomfortable leaving the windows open.

And me? I'm just relieved to still be on holiday. Energy is inching back although I'm still sleeping long into the next day. A little cooking, a hair cut and some shopping have all I have achieved today. I'm going out for dinner tomorrow with our former Dean of Students David at The Horns. It's been a while since I was there.

A week today I will be in St Albans Abbey dressed on my finery receiving my MSc award. Seems faintly ridiculous that someone as artsy as me can get a science degree. It adds fuel to my belief that mental health and psychiatry are anything but science.

Another gentle day tomorrow I think. Hopefully a little less tired and will get up a little earlier. All too quickly it will pass and the mayhem will start again. Give it 2 weeks and I'll have forgotten the tranquility of these days as I'm buried in chaos. Oh well, it is only a job.

I Heard a Voice.