At Home

I woke up to freezing cold icy rain that continued on and off all day - a brutally stark and sudden contrast to recent warmth and sunshine. My cleaning lady was here and, with school closed for Thanksgiving, we worked around each other - her making my home look lovely, and me moving from room to room according to her schedule - except when I wrapped up and took myself out of her hair for half an hour to charge a few laps around the plateau - which resulted in extraordinarily fiery red cheeks, runny nose and teary eyes!!

Anyway, feeling a little estranged from the concept of personal academic study after such a long break, (unbelievably, nearly seven months since I finished my last paper), today, already too late really, was the day to start my academic learning engine firing once more, working towards the dissertation proposal due mid-December. I ended up being so engrossed that I decided to bah-humbug the Thanksgiving dinner at school - it is after all, more US than UK - and anyway, tomorrow, I have 10 guests coming for said dinner, which is more than enough celebration! (Weird - English vegetarian hosting an American Thanksgiving dinner - but I am providing lentil and blue cheese bake and others are bringing the bird!) Still not really any closer to finalising my dissertation topic though.

The panorama pic 'at home' (360º spin in the entrance hall) may turn out to be a memento as school policy regarding housing is being changed so that according to an email sent yesterday to all on-campus-dwelling faculty quite possibly, probably, my days in this place that I have called home for 7 years may be numbered because it has two bedrooms. Show it while I can.

Well, for a day introduced as "uninteresting', I seem to have had a lot to say and will close with wishing much joy and happiness to everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving today :)