I want a baby duck and other news.

I'm back in York! And it's all sunny and nice and it's good to be back. The lake is completely filled with the most adorable baby ducklings and the black swans have cignets and they're soooo cute! I'm going to go ahead and put in a couple of pictures so you all realise how cute they are and how much I want one for myself. I'd call it Alfred and I'd love it forever.

In other news we got sent a review for the concert I sang in last term:

The Seasons, York University Choir / Northern Sinfonia; York Minster
4:20pm Thursday 11th March 2010
By Martin Dreyer
Though it has never enjoyed the popularity of The Creation, its sister
oratorio, Haydn's last completed work The Seasons brings more of his
prodigious genius into play.
That was the irresistible message from Wednesday's often enthralling
performance in the original German, conducted by Peter Seymour.
The true tints of the changing year, seen in Haydn's cameos of country life,
come through most richly in his orchestra. Here Seymour had a hugely
reliable ally in the Northern Sinfonia. Whether in the thrilling horns of
the hunt, the bold fanfares at spring's close, the shepherd's trilling oboe,
or the crack of the sportsman's rifle, we had primary colours at every turn.
The strings, often in perpetual motion in the choruses, added sterling
support.
The soloists took rather different approaches to their rustic roles. Matthew
Brook applied his bass, with increasing success, to Simon's homespun humour,
most notably in his spaniel aria.
The Enlightenment moral of the final aria proved well-suited to his operatic
treatment. Adrian Thompson's twitchy tenor made a townie of Lucas, never
really at ease. But soprano Mhairi Lawson, phrasing stylishly, was always
the country lass whether cavorting or musing. Her folksongs were witty, her
evocation of sunrise creamy and her mezzo-tinted late-autumn cavatina
exquisite.
The choir, weighing in only slightly lighter than usual at 230 voices,
proved surprisingly light on its feet - once it had despatched its clunky
opening to 'gentle' spring. Clarity marked the fugal chorus-endings, and the
sopranos soared fearlessly above the stave. Teamwork triumphed.
Back
C Copyright 2001-2010 Newsquest Media Group

The original is here http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/leisure/music/5057002.The_Seasons__York_University_Choir___Northern_Sinfonia__York_Minster/ 

Which is all quite exciting since I've never had a proper review for something before and it was quite a positive one over all.

The other day we went to Whitby for the day. It was a monst fun day out. We went to the beach, and made a fantastic sandcastle, which we populated with people made from babybel wax, and we saw the abbey and this lovely old church, and many many goths. We took the bus there, which took us past Flamingo Land, which looks worth a visit but quite expensive, and the village they film Heartbeat in (which is a soap opera, in case you were wondering.) We had a picnic lunch, and ice-cream, and fish and chips for tea. And it was all together quite marvelous.

Everyone is getting back to York now, and I'm surrounded by people stressing about exams, while I have almost no work to do, just a little bit of reading and lots of lazing around in the sunshine. It's rather fantastic.

Black hole and shining stars

Yesterday I visited the Oxfam bookshop, which seems to me to be somewhat like a black hole, when considering my money and my time. Yesterday I bought 2 more books there, Selected Letters by Jane Austen, and Writing and Difference. Which brings the total count of Oxfam books to 7 since I got home 2 weeks ago ( the others include The Pilgrim's Progress, an annotated Lolita, a book on Elizabethan Colonisation, a book called How the Scots invented the modern world, and one entitled Women's Oppression Today, which is a marxist/femminist book I'd never actually heard of till I found it, but I'm sure it will be very interesting.) Of these I've so far read the Scottish History one, although I still don't think the Scottish invented the modern world, although they did do some pretty groovy things, like bring the first lending library to Britain and so forth. Still I don't think inventing the library, marvelous as it is as a concept, is quite the same as inventing the modern world. I've also bought several books for my course (Winter's Tale, Othelo, 'Tis pity she's a whore, Priccesse a Cleves, and a poetry anthology) and of course The second sex because the library refused to lend it to me. Which means three things, one, I'm much poorer than when I got home, two, I have a LOT of books to read, and three, I have no idea how I'm going to get these books back to York. Still. It's all good.

On a slightly different note I've just finished a book called The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, which I would definitely recommend reading. It's beautifully written and actually very interesting because it has so much random information about the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. It was quite fun reading about the Dangerous Diseases Acts and things in fiction since I'd done so much research on it last term.

Lastly sorry for the less than prosaic title for this post, I thought it would liven things up a little!

Easter Weekend!

It is finally Easter Weekend. And following today's trip to Sainsbury's we have all the necessary Easter foods. Lamb, hot crossed buns, smoked salmon. And Cadbury's cream eggs. Lots and lots and lots of cream eggs. And it's even decided to be sunny! Hurrah for England. Jolly good show I say. Jolly good show!

So...

... it transpires you shouldn't try to warm up blinis in the toaster. It just doesn't work. They get stuck. They fall appart. You put four in only one comes out. And so on.

In other news the staff list for camp has been emailed out. This is more exciting than you can possibly imagine! It's all so real! It's strange thinking back to this time last year!

Also check this out for giggles (link)

Cricket

I was watching T.V. today (I can't remember the last time I watched T.V. with ad-breaks) and I saw this advert (link) and I thought it would be an excellent strategy for our cricket team.
According to our captain we actually want to be more like this (link) because the first one made her think, and I quote, "Get off the crease, your heels are going to ruin it!" Which I think is a vital part of the strategy, but apparently my tactical thinking has been lost on her.
Back to the drawing board.

Joys!

Today I had to get up at some horrendous hour to take Ellen to Heathrow. Which basically involved me spending a great deal of quality time with the M25. Gotta love those variable speed limits!

Bookishness

You always read in novels and such about characters who are 'bookish'. Now I don't know about you, but I have often wondered what being 'bookish' entails. I believe that today I found out.

Ellen and I decided to go on an adventure to Jane Austen's house in Chawton, Hampshire. Once there we proceded to get over excited by the gift shop, then debate the merits of different versions of the same book based on the explanitory notes provided and how pretty the binding was (or what might be termed by smart people the 'paratext'), spend ages choosing between a postcard depicting Northanger Abbey v.s. one depicting Sense and Sensibility, get enthusiastic about Mr Darcy wrapping paper, notebooks, quill pens and other such items. I also got upset by a comic book version of Pride and Prejudice... I do not approve at all. I also made sarky comments while the old women in the shop debated the merits of Wilkie Collins over Dickens. Then we wandered around the little English village in the rain (I was with an American - she insisted) and made friends with two very excitable dogs. The big dog kept stealing the little dog's stick. On the way home we played Taylor Swift very loudly in the car. Once back in Guildford we stopped off to pick up... you guessed it! Some books. I am now the proud owner of Norton Critical Editions of 'Othello' and 'John Donne's Poetry, (for those of you who aren't excited by the fact that they are Norton's editions I'm going to assume it's because you are unaware of the superior notes and critical analysis provided in these copies). I also have Oxford University Press editions of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore and Other Plays by John Ford, The Winter's Tale and The Princesse de Cleves. These are less exciting, because they don't have quite such interesting notes, but there's still a decent introduction and footnotes, so I'll survive. Following this we decided to frequent the Oxfam Bookshop, only to find, much to our chargrin (question: does anyone know how to pronounce this word? Ellen claims it is said 'shag-grin' but I feel this sounds a little lewd) that it was closed. Instead we dropped by the Library. Whilst there I remembered why I never go to Guildford Library. There is a very good reason why I never go to Guildford Library. It is because it is USELESS. All I wanted was to borrow a copy of The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. Now their catalogue system is slightly naff and could not find de Beauvoir, because I stuck the de infront and it's under Beauvoir as if her name is: first name Simone, second name de surname Beauvoir. I assumed it couldn't find it because I'd spelt something wrong, so I went to ask the librarian, who despite clearly judging me for not knowing how to spell de Beauvoir, still thought that it might be in the literature section, when I explained it probably wouldn't be she didn't seem to impressed. Finally we found it listed in the catalogue under 'femminism' and went on our way to find the book. However when we got there the cupboard was bare. There was no Second Sex on the shelf. We checked the displays but nada. So I went back to grumpy mcgrumpson to ask of the whereabouts of this book. They didn't know and couldn't help. They were useless. Guildford Library is the ONLY LIBRARY IN THE WORLD that doesn't want to LEND YOU BOOKS. Grrrr and hmph. So in the end I took out The Feminine Mystique instead. Which is interesting enough. But about American Women. And I didn't want to read about American Women. I wanted to read about French Women. Bah Humbug.

I think this story perfectly illustrates what I imagine a 'bookish' person would act like.
The End.