today

This morning I almost got mowed down on my way into work by a lorry that decided to completely jump the lights. That was fun. And I don't mean jump the lights in the sense of pushing his luck as they changed - it had gone red a hell of a long time before he was anywhere near. He just decided to drive straight through anyway. I dunno. Maybe he's blind. Maybe he got confused by the filter lane alongside him being on green while his lane was on red. Or maybe he didn't like the look of me. Anyway, I evaded being hit with much glaring and crossness, muttered to myself about the fools that get let loose on the roads, and continued on to work.

Lunchtime I headed into town to run errands for work (we were almost out of tea bags, and we can't have that! *G* ) and found the craft fair setting up around the Hayes. How exciting! I love the craft fair.

Getting to and from work has become an interesting experience of late, due to extreme road works at the top of Penarth Road by the station. At first I was hopeful that it was a preliminary stage to demolishing the old Central Hotel. It did, after all, burn down more than three years ago now and has been an eyesore ever since. But no luck - no evidence as yet of that taking place.

And tonight I must remember to head down to the school of Lifelong Learning for the seminar with Richard Marsden, having missed Juliette's last month.

/end random entry!

today

This morning I almost got mowed down on my way into work by a lorry that decided to completely jump the lights. That was fun. And I don't mean jump the lights in the sense of pushing his luck as they changed - it had gone red a hell of a long time before he was anywhere near. He just decided to drive straight through anyway. I dunno. Maybe he's blind. Maybe he got confused by the filter lane alongside him being on green while his lane was on red. Or maybe he didn't like the look of me. Anyway, I evaded being hit with much glaring and crossness, muttered to myself about the fools that get let loose on the roads, and continued on to work.

Lunchtime I headed into town to run errands for work (we were almost out of tea bags, and we can't have that! *G* ) and found the craft fair setting up around the Hayes. How exciting! I love the craft fair.

Getting to and from work has become an interesting experience of late, due to extreme road works at the top of Penarth Road by the station. At first I was hopeful that it was a preliminary stage to demolishing the old Central Hotel. It did, after all, burn down more than three years ago now and has been an eyesore ever since. But no luck - no evidence as yet of that taking place.

And tonight I must remember to head down to the school of Lifelong Learning for the seminar with Richard Marsden, having missed Juliette's last month.

/end random entry!

the making of braveheart

So glad I made myself brave the wind and rain to go to the free seminar down at Lifelong Learning tonight. Richard was excellent - he's improved his delivery so, so much since the last time I heard him give a paper.

The seminar title was 'The Making of Braveheart', and was basically a tour through the historiography of the William Wallace legend, from what few contemporary sources are extant, through 15th century hagiography (namely Blind Harry's lengthy praise poem) right up to the modern re-telling of the legend in the form of Mel Gibson's 1995 film. Which I have now been reminded just how much I detested.

That said, Richard did point out that for all its flaws in terms of accurate historical detail, the film can and does take its place in what has been a very long tradition of re-workings of the legend to suit the audience of the day.

Richard always amuses - he's another who was at uni at about the same time as me and hasn't managed to escape yet. He's now doing his PhD at Glasgow University. Or at least, he's registered to do his PhD at Glasgow University. Since he still lives in Cardiff and does all his research down here, it's kind of a long distance thing...

Also, my best friend Heather was there with her nephew Ashley, who I haven't seen since he was about the same age Small is now, but is now a strapping 15 year old. Time flies!

the making of braveheart

So glad I made myself brave the wind and rain to go to the free seminar down at Lifelong Learning tonight. Richard was excellent - he's improved his delivery so, so much since the last time I heard him give a paper.

The seminar title was 'The Making of Braveheart', and was basically a tour through the historiography of the William Wallace legend, from what few contemporary sources are extant, through 15th century hagiography (namely Blind Harry's lengthy praise poem) right up to the modern re-telling of the legend in the form of Mel Gibson's 1995 film. Which I have now been reminded just how much I detested.

That said, Richard did point out that for all its flaws in terms of accurate historical detail, the film can and does take its place in what has been a very long tradition of re-workings of the legend to suit the audience of the day.

Richard always amuses - he's another who was at uni at about the same time as me and hasn't managed to escape yet. He's now doing his PhD at Glasgow University. Or at least, he's registered to do his PhD at Glasgow University. Since he still lives in Cardiff and does all his research down here, it's kind of a long distance thing...

Also, my best friend Heather was there with her nephew Ashley, who I haven't seen since he was about the same age Small is now, but is now a strapping 15 year old. Time flies!