"Lairy fights, that's right!"

bid goodnight to who you were
and dream the path where she's a ghost
keep her memory close
the way she'd hold the image you've become
only speak her secret name
to feel her judging eyes on you


richard marsh

Count your blessings...

...when they're hatched.

Or was it chickens? Something along those lines...
I've been feeling a bit better these last few days. It's either down to those shooting stars I saw (eventually) and wished upon or to the fact that the end finally is very nigh indeed. Or the fact that I'm totally ignoring that pile of 90 English tests and managing to only feel mildly guilty about it. Or the fact that I've got all my christmas cards sent and presents bought/made and that all three top exhausting courses at university are no longer on next week and that now really all that's left to do for me is to sit through three more days of showing completely-christmas-unrelated movies to hyperactive pupils and handing round cookies. (FYI, it's "The NeverEnding Story" for the little ones and "Juno" for the bigger ones - although, now that I think about it: a 16-year-old girl getting pregnant does have a christmassy touch to it, doesn't it?)

Besides, it's pretty hard to feel down when you wake up to this:

Anyway, there's still some more crochet work to finish, which - laugh all you want - has a kind of soothing and therapeutical effect on me. Especially when accompanied by "Little Lord Fauntleroy", "A Christmas Carol" and "Little Women" in the background...

Now, spot the quote: "Evangeline and I will make you some ginger tea."

:-)

A case for escapism.

In keeping with the mood of the last few weeks,
here's another lullabye to tide you over til the weekend.
And you never know,
sooner or later you might come to believe it:

Everything is alright.

So many things I would have done...

...but clouds got in my way.

Could someone please push the clouds away? Like, right now? Just for, say, one hour during the next 13 hours?
It's Geminids night, for heaven's sake! Which means that behind that blanket of clouds there's a meteor shower party going on in the sky with 50 to 80 meteors per hour. And I haven't been invited. Booh.
Well, maybe you have been asked? If you have, will you please, please watch the nightsky for me for just 5 minutes? The meteors should have their "starting point" near Castor (that's the upper one of the two bright ones in that parallelogram just "left" of Orion...ehm, you do know Orion, right?).
So, please watch out for some shooting stars - It's such a waste if they happen and no one is there to watch and make a wish. And if you happen to have one to spare, wish upon one for me too, will you? What's that? What kind of wish? Ooh, can't tell you, can I? Just make it up as you go along...
Let me know how it went.

I'm not going out there...

Well, what are you still doing up and about?
Shouldn't you be in bed by now?
Oh, alright, I'll come and tuck you in.
Yes, okay, a bedtime story it is.
Just the one though.
Now, close your eyes and sleep tight!
Nightnight.

Memory effect.

You know how you're supposed to always let the battery of your mobile, cordless phone, mp3-player etc. run completely empty until recharging it? So that when you recharge it, you charge it fully? Because otherwise the memory capacity of it will wear down?
Well, mine is worn down good and proper.
As of today I appear to be at the point where I don't last the week any longer. Wednesday, 5pm (in the middle of my piano lesson) definitely is way too early for my battery to keel over and die on me. It used to last until Friday round noon, the way it's supposed to. Then I had a good few weeks where I made it through til Thursday noon, which gave me a couple of hours to catch up on sleep before heading out again. So now we're down to Wednesday. I only just made it home, closed the door behind me, changed into my pyjamas straight away (because once I'm on my bed, like now, I'll never manage to get up again) and burst into tears from pure exhaustion. Nothing else, really, nothing extraordinary happened.
I'm very simply beat. It's an actual job to lift my fingers to type. And I guess I should just turn off the lights and go to sleep, but you see, that's not the way it works. It's not only hours of sleep my body screams to catch up on but also hours of "time off". Because if I go to sleep too soon, the next thing my mind will register is "What? It's the start of another working day already??? This can't be right. I've only just come home from work!"
That just won't do.
All this just won't do.
But there's nothing really to cut back on. (And believe me, I looked hard.)
So, I am deeply grateful for small mercies - like the fact that I accompany the Third Years to the museum tomorrow instead of teaching... - and pray for the next two weeks to pass in a trance!

...how I wonder what you are.

I've really been meaning to post about today's events, but somehow for the last (quite a few) minutes I've found myself staring at this photo of the Pleiades. I just can't take my eyes off it. I find it oddly soothing.

Also, it makes me want to live in a place where I can see the stars properly and not just those thirtyodd ones that make it through the neverceasing glow of the city. Oh, and while we're at it, it also makes me want to live in a place where it doesn't constantly rain, so that I might actually get an unblocked view of said perfect night sky.

Anyway, there they are, the seven sisters. And as if I didn't have anything else to do, I spent the last hour reading up on star clusters and trying to figure out how to pronounce names like Alcyone, Celaeno, Taygeta and Merope. (Ooh, also, did I mention how I love it when I track down yet another of J.K.Rowling's name sources?! I guess if I knew my Greek mythology just a tad better, I wouldn't be quite so surprised.)

Wow, look at me - all studious on a Sunday night... Gee, all this reading about new stuff made me kinda tired, guess I better call it a day.
Rightyho: hands up: who's going to finish (sorry, start and finish) tomorrow's coursework for me?