Unsolved Mysteries

...actually used to terrify me when I was young.

But we've had our own unsolved mystery at ours involving a mobile phone full of water (thus broken) without any clues as to where the water came from... We woke up on Monday morning to the alarm of said mobile but when Nas reached over to turn it off, he picked it up, and water came pouring out. I'm making it more dramatic for rhetorical purposes - it didn't really pour out I suppose, but given that there shouldn't be any water in a mobile, it may as well have. The mobile had spent the night on the shelf by the bed - that is at least 2 feet off the floor. We don't keep unopened water beside the bed cos Laila and Logan see water in cups/glasses as a special treat that (presumedly) tastes much better than their water dish water. So that isn't the solution. The shelf is slatted but there was no water above - or below for that matter. It hadn't fallen into a puddle as there was no water on the floor.

Eliminating the impossible then leaves us with a scenario in which I, or Nas, turned - for one night only and without precedent - into a sonambulist, decided to wash the phone, and had the presence of mind to dry off the outside ...

In other news, we've given in - sort of - and will shortly have the interwebs at home. And Nas replaced his phone. The mystery remains unsolved.

Fat Tuesday

We realised yesterday morning that we had nearly stumbled through Mardi Gras without noticing - fortunately, the day was rescued in time. Unfortunately, we found ourselves without maple syrup ... disaster: pancakes (proper pancakes - none of these silly crepe things) must be eaten with maple syrup in our house. To do otherwise is anathema. But Mardi Gras demands pancakes! What to do?

That evening, being in high good humour for unknown reasons (I do not question these things), I set about creating dinner for Pancake Tuesday that would not draw unnecessary attention to our deplorable state of maple-syrup-less-ness. So we had savory crepes with salmon, leek, and mushroom in a white wine sauce. I made it up. And it was really really good...

And fortunately, there were crepes left over for breakfast - a very ersatz crepes suzette.

I'm not giving anything up for the next 40 days. I would inevitably fail and thus cause myself even more stress.

Catching up

Keeping up on this blog has proven darn near impossible with my new 'working academic' lifestyle - actually, I've given up on keeping up with anything beyond scraping by week-to-week with my classes. Today my very very reticent class finally admitted - well, one brave or fed-up student admitted that they weren't following my seminars. When I opened the next seminar with a discussion of how the module was going, they responded positively to the seminar structure. I have to admit that the idea of designing four different seminars - one for each group in the module - is rather daunting, especially as just writing a lecture and staying on top of the reading takes up most of my free time.

Other things that are interesting: the snow is gone. It's actually gone quite mild and the first crocuses are coming up in the park. I've never noticed crocuses in Canada - I love them here. On the last really snowy weekend, Logan, Laila, and I watched our neighbourhood fox play in the garden next door. I love our flat - I still love our flat: I love the view over the school and across the valley on nice evenings. The fox must have been as confused as most of the population at the snow but seemed to be having a good day of it.

I've now been rejected - ever so nicely - from three Canadian universities. And one UK university.

I tink it is all the fault of the internet: more specifically, Facebook. History repeating: I seem to remember the same 'concerns' and anxiety directed at television, comic books, the internet in general, fashion magazines, 'entertainment' news, tabloids, ... ... I wonder if Lady Greenfield has read this? Lack of narrative indeed!

A colleague in America found this - it just has to be posted - and every time I remember it, I remember how much I love this business...

Surprises!

1. Snow! Loads and loads of it - well, for Leeds anyway. Canadian friends may snigger but this is the biggest snowfall I've seen in 5 years (apart from Christmases back in the true-north-strong-and-free). I walked to work in a whole new world. It's been snowing off and on all day but this morning, bright and early, before 8am - it was perfect. The library is closing early tonight and generally, the country is descending into chaos. But I walked to work and I'll walk safely back home. As a change from the rain and greyness of a Leeds February, it's nice. I even spent a good 10 minutes watching some spontaneous snow-sculpture making outside my office window - okay, it was yr standard snowman but still! Granted, being British, they were poorly dressed for the occassion but there was something very fresh and re-freshing about it. I also walked past some students who I can only assume were international from the excitement and photo-snapping.

2. I'm kind of sorry I missed this.