It's the first day of the spring semester, and I'm back in the office. I still have grading to finish from the winter intersession, and that will occupy most of my free time today.
We spent the weekend in England, visiting my brother and his family down in chilly, windy, and rainy Exeter. My last three visits to the UK have been in March, December, and February; I think I need to break out of this rut and go in the summer months!
Yes, it's a long way to go for even an extended holiday weekend, and I'm feeling the effects of the long plane ride this morning. But my brother and his family are enormously important to me, and I'm grateful to have the time and the resources to travel to see them yearly, if only for a very short time.
I promise a more thoughtful post later today, but for now, while things are fresh in my mind, a few notes from our trip:
1. I didn't run or work out once during the entire time we were in England. My body needed the rest, and I'm jumping back into a training schedule today. I don't know whether this is great advice or not, but I have found that sometimes, after a month or two of very hard training, it can be a good idea to take four or five days in a row completely off.
2. I ate at least a dozen Cadbury Cream Eggs.
3. We went to a lovely Evensong at St. Michael and All Angels, my brother's Anglo-Catholic parish (where he and his wife were recently wed). I enjoy being around the very, very high churchtypes; every service I've ever been to there concludes with the Angelus, and it's still a stunner to my evangelical side to hear the "Hail Mary" recited in an Anglican church. My brother and his fellow parishioners are adamant that they aren't Protestants, merely "Catholics in the English way."
4. The BBC coverage of the Winter Olympics was disappointing. A joy to have it without commercials, but two hours straight of curling was a bit much to take. Curling, by the way, strikes me as the ideal "unisex" sport. Anyone want to tell me why women and men couldn't compete against each other quite successfully?
5. Watching the BAFTAs (the British Academy Awards) was fun; I'll note that it was also moderately exciting to be flying back to Los Angeles last night on the same plane as Jake Gyllenhaal. He was seen at baggage claim, clutching his BAFTA award for his performance in Brokeback Mountain. (He was accompanied on the flight by Justin Timberlake, a pairing that mystifies me a bit.)
6. And if there's one thing I really love about England, it's the newspapers. I read the Guardian and the Independent daily during our trip, the Observer on Sunday, and a few other dailies as a supplement. At my brother's urging, I even bought a copy of his beloved Morning Star, the daily paper of the Left (still largely under the control of the tiny British Communist Party.) Yesterday morning, I read it on the train from Exeter to Paddington, and got several curious stares from the young businessman across from me, bored by his Telegraph.
Right. Some grading, some emailing, some "first meeting of classes", and another post up soon.
a dozen cadbury creme eggs?? gack! i love those things, but i can only eat one every few days.
jake gyllenhaal and justin timberlake, huh? *insert your own 'brokeback mountain: real life' joke here*
Posted by: kate.d. | February 21, 2006 at 11:07 AM
I never used to like cadbury cream eggs until I started working out -- then the intense love of sugar kicked in.
Yes, we were wondering whether Jake and Justin are friends or just happened to be sharing first-class accomodation on British Airways, and struck up an acquaintance.
Posted by: Hugo | February 21, 2006 at 12:57 PM
a dozen cream eggs? that's about 40,000 calories! Good lord - hope you got to running in to work off the excess energy!
Glad you had fun over here. :o)
Posted by: Steve | February 21, 2006 at 03:33 PM
A Jake Gyllenhaal siting AND curling? You do live a priveleged life!
As for the gender segregation in curling, it's a good question. The only part of the game that requires brute physical strength (as opposed to motor control) is the sweeping. But it's hard to imagine that sweepers would ever be required to exert force greater than what an average, physically-fit woman could, so it comes down to skill and motor control once again.
Posted by: Jenny | February 22, 2006 at 12:05 PM