The House Husband

When I chose my elective subject late last year, I didn’t bother checking out the timetable. I just went ahead and picked the subject I fancied. In this instance it was ‘Open Source Software’ or OSS, as we call it. It is something that interests me and most of the other choices didn’t. I mean there was no way I was going to do ‘Information Law’, for a start!

So, I chose and went back to writing essays. And then, before starting the second semester, I read the timetable. OSS was scheduled on Wednesday morning. My other classes were two on Monday and one on Friday. What a pain, I thought. Having to go up two days for just the mornings. I considered changing but decided I’d put up with it because of the subject.

In my first class, I sat and wondered why I was there. The lecturer was one I’d not been that keen on last year and the room seemed full of programmers. When it turned out that we would have to be in groups and work together towards presentations, I groaned inwardly. I was sorely tempted to change!

Today, in the same class, I realised how much I’m enjoying OSS. I’m really glad I didn’t change. In fact, it’s my favourite class this semester. The people are generally all nice, we have great class discussions every week. The presentations are fun and our group works together really well (ignoring the one who has done precious little work). The lecturer, while still not what I would consider a great teacher, has managed to create an excellent class. Mirinda was very interested in this as she has to work out feedback and how effective it can be.

After class I walked down to the Gherkin and had a lovely sushi lunch with Mirinda and realised how much I enjoyed that as well. It makes it a lot easier not having her at home if we lunch once a week in the middle. We decided that even when I’ve finished uni classes, I’m still going to come up on Wednesday for lunch. Sort of as a break during my dissertation.

So it was a great day and I feel very lucky and quite hoist. And all the crocuses were out, lining the footpath along Borelli Way. They were so pretty, I took their picture.

Line of crocuses along Borelli Way

“Well, she crossed her legs so there can’t be too much wrong” – two old ladies talking in Waitrose in the dairy aisle. I assume they were talking about someone’s plastic hip. Actually I found out the other day that Waitrose was named after two grocer-type chaps who joined together in 1908; a Mr Waite and a Mr Rose. Actually, there was also a Mr Taylor, but he left in 1906. It was then called Waite, Rose and Taylor, which doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. Had Mr Rose left, it may now be called Waitaylor. Or if Mr Waite had slipped off, it could be Rosetaylor, which is almost Rose Tyler, and we know what happened to her. I can’t imagine having to dimension hop for my groceries.

Having a rest from my presentation preparation this afternoon, I had a dig around the old family tree for about half an hour. I have been a tad remiss in keeping up with the ancestors, I must admit. I did find something interesting about the Buttericks. For some reason (a reason I may find out one day) three of the Butterick children were baptised on the same day at St Augustine’s church in Kilburn. This may not sound particularly odd, but bear in mind they weren’t the only children and one of them not baptised was, I think, a twin of one who was. Bloody confusing!

The rest of the afternoon was spent on my presentation, prettying it up, basically, and making sure my jokes are evenly spaced. Mirinda was doing a bit of work, so we both beavered away in adjacent rooms while the puppies occasionally wandered from one room to the other. There is also the occasional movement of documents between email accounts as Mirinda finishes drafts of things for me to proof read and give an opinion on.

We did take a break to wander up to the castle and back. Though, I should admit, we didn’t quite make it to the castle because of the deep mud we’d have had to plough through. The park, like our back garden, is not particularly pleasant this time of year. I think February in England – I think rain and mud. Naturally, while the sun has shone for large extents of the day, it drizzled with rain the whole way around, soaking the dogs.

Which reminds me, the odd hail storm we had last night and the fact that the temperature took a while to creep into positive figures this morning, made the path into town quite slippery this morning and I was fortunate that my muscles remembered the various flexing techniques learnt from a year spent ice skating in Homebush, or I would have found myself with a wet butt on a number of occasions.

This is an experiment. I have uploaded a video of the poodles to YouTube. You should be able to see it below. Please let me know if you can’t.