... loves putting people's hair up. (She's the one that did my wedding hair.) So I went to see her this morning, to have it trimmed and tidied up a bit, and as she gets round to blow drying, she goes wild again and puts it up. I quite like it -- sort of Regency-ish, but less tidy. So I'll have a different hairstyle than my usual pony-tail or Jack-Tar-plait for Ceejay's fairwell lunch today.

the_marquis is just reading lj on our connection and so I am composing this off-line.

Yesterday was a strange day: I did some marking in the morning then had a meeting with a student about her dissertation and potential independent studies project. She’s thinking of putting together a presentation about some of the issues facing people that are long-term carers for loved ones with chronic illnesses – sounds really good! This girl really has improved so much since last year. Teacherly warm glow…

After that I did some marking (yuck!) of first year study skills portfolios. It was quite depressing because most of them didn’t do what asked for, despite repeated explanations. The final two I marked were pretty good, however. But I guess I’d better start on Tuesday with another workshop in using the Harvard Referencing system.

Had lunch with The Marquis, Ceejay, Marxist and Fierce and we had a good laugh about Lala, which Fierce sidetracked into a discussion of words for ‘many of’ – like skein of geese, flock of sheep, swarm of bees… and issues of Lala?

Did some more marking and started to prepare Monday’s session on Depression and psychological disorders during adolescence (cheerful, eh? I so know why I don’t like developmental psychology!), but didn’t get very far before my hair appointment.

I decided not to do anything too drastic just yet, but had the bottom layer taken out, which helps my hair look fuller. I also had a fringe cut. Not to sure about it, but it’s okay I guess, and certainly looks a little more purposeful than the annoying straggly bits I’d been having hitherto. We shall see what it looks like once I have washed it all again.

Back to work after that and back to the lecture for Monday. I managed to get the handout prepared and did a fair bit of the reading I’d meant to do – the session should be okay. But it did take me until about 19.30 until all was done. Because I knew I was going to be late, I called the Marquis and asked him to come and bring me some dinner, so that we could go to the cinema after I’d finished the lecture prep, which he kindly agreed to do.

So it was that we went to see The Last Samurai, which I enjoyed very much. It was a well-paced, well-told story, quite moving in parts. I was particularly pleased with hearing all the Japanese, and amazed at how much of it I recognised from my very brief recent bit of Japanese exchanges on the Soapy Place with pellegrina. I wouldn’t go as far as saying I understood it, but it had a very definite ring of familiarity in some cases. The other thing I thoroughly enjoyed was the visual execution of the Japanese village – much of it reminded me of what has become familiar about feudal Japan from reading Usagi Yojimbo. There was one scene that made me think of the Neko Ninja – I turned to the Marquis and he whispered ‘Neko Ninja’ before I could open my mouth! Anyway. I enjoyed the film, even if some of it was very sad indeed.

Emither update: still on ‘Connected’. Enjoying it very much. Wonder what’s going to happen next.

I didn't go in to work today, until I had finished the job application I was working on. Originally I'd wanted to go past the hairdresser's to make an appointment to have my hair cut, but by the time I was ready to head off I didn't have the time to do that. I went straight to the osteopath in the lovel local drizzle, appreciative of the existence of my recently acquired Drizabone -- apart from my face, I did stay almost as dry as a bone, too.

The osteopath made a not quite catty comment about the fact that I should be able to get my back to start improving rather than just keeping going at the same level of disfunction, but what with all the stress at work and so on, not much is changing. I really need to get back into the habit of going to the gym regularly -- it make a huge difference to my wellbeing.

Work after the treatment wasn't exactly conducive towards inproving the situation with my back.

( The current tale of work woe )

I left work slightly early to post the application, then wandered past the hairdresser's and my usual girl had an appointment for tomorrow at 15.15. Now I need to decide what I want her to do.

( hair dithering )

Hm... I am sure there were a lot more things that I was going to ramble on about when I sat down at the computer, but somehow I can't recall... Oh well... another time.