With reference to his link to the Dobsons - with the alt text as stated:

I looked at your blog. Why are we "not for the faint hearted"?
Mark Dobson

I should of course have said "In what sense are we &c."

Because of the hugely religious bent to the blog.
[...]
hoose | Homepage

And Rosy's link to us says "The (slightly religiously oriented) Dob-log". I find this all a little odd. It occasionally enters my mind to do a reciprocal link to Rosy calling it "The (slightly heathen oriented) Rosy's blog" but I shouldn't like to cause offence.

Woooooohhh (that's in a ghostly way, not a hurrah kind of way) I'm a Catholic - woooooooooh! My faith is important to me - run for your lives!

Heh. People are funny.

House

This week is half term for Emma, so I've not been doing too much serious job hunting yet, and had Monday and Tuesday off as a little holiday. I was working over most of the summer so didn't see that much of Emma.
On Tuesday we went to Alton Towers for the day. We'd literally just stepped off the monorail at the park entrance when I got a phone call from Mum. The house sale has fallen through due to the sellers deciding not to sell. This puts us back to square one, while we'd been within a couple of weeks of completing the process.
Financially it's not too bad, but we've missed out on a lovely house and have to start looking again. Obviously we were very upset initially, but these things happen - hopefully for a reason.

My friend has given birth to a lovely baby boy today! Just half an hour ago! His name is Tommaso. I'm so happy! I'm looking forward to meeting him and to covering him in kisses!!!

Oh and my sister promised me today that she is going to have a baby girl when she will be pregnant.

I went running this morning and I run for 25 minutes. Maybe. Anyway, I stopped only three times for just a minute to stretch my legs. It's been really good. The air was fresh and I ran not very fast trying to maintain a rhythm. I'll try to run for 3 times every week, only for half an hour, to give air to my small brain!

My parents phoned me and my dad said that his association, the volunteer firemen association, it's organizing a trip to Trento, North of Italy in the mountains, to visit the Christmas` markets. I don't know how to translate this, it's a lot of stalls selling Christmas' decorations and Nativity Scene and all those sort of things. But in the mountains all these things are handmade so they are really good. So we are going, my parents and I on the 16th of December. I'm really looking forward to it! I love Christmas' market and I can spend some time with my family. I'm really happy! I hope my sister can come, so it will be all the family. It would be so nice!

On Friday I managed ( is that correct in this case Mark?) to complete the form for the tuition grant! I couldn't belief it! The Director of the Modular Degree was really nice and filled the part reserved to the University without saying a word. He also certified the copy of my passport. Mark posted the form for me on Saturday, now it's just a question of waiting, but it's a relief!

I enjoy correcting my translations with Mark, I learn so many things. He speaks and writes English so well!!!! He's so patient with me. I'm so lucky, can you imagine if I had a German boyfriend? Useless, completely useless.

I've got a cake in the oven, it better rise this time. Now back to Spanish grammar and a bit of Italian Fascism.

This is a photo of me as Dr. Who for Kate's party yesterday.

I'm such a dude.

Sturrock Sacked

Less than a month after signing a three year extension to his contract at Hillsborough, Paul Sturrock has been sacked as Sheffield Wednesday manager having been in charge for just over two years.
In his first season he got the team promoted, winning the playoffs at Cardiff, and surpassed the expectations of what the team he inherited should have achieved that season.
In his second season, he kept the team punching above their weight, surviving what was always going to be a tough year back in the Championship.
This season has seen a poor start. The first few games saw reasonable performance fail to merit a decent return of points, but the last couple of games saw pretty dire standards from the Owls, and the 4-0 drubbing by Colchester looks to have been the last straw.

Two reasons why I'm pissed off about this:
I really think that given time, Sturrock would have sorted the situation out. He's got a decent track record as a manager, with (effectively) back to back promotions at Plymouth, and an impressive record in Scotland before then. Yet again the manager at Hillsborough has not been given chance to do his job.
Sturrock always struck me as honest and hardworking. It was refreshing to have a manager who'd say that the team were rubbish. I particularly enjoyed "we can't defend like that and expect to win football matches".

Bizarrely, this makes Sturrock the longest serving Wednesday manager this millennium. That's six managers in six years. I can't see the club going forwards long term unless the board have the guts to stick with a manager through a poor spell.


Links

A sensible article from the BBC about the decision
Interviews with the chairman, ex-manager, and others

Burnley have rejected an official approach to speak to their manager Steve Cotterill, and Nigel Worthington has ruled himself out of the running.

Thesis Submission

I've submitted. It's all in. Huzzah!
I'll have a viva in about a month's time which will determine the result (Pass, Pass with minor corrections, Pass with major corrections, or Fail).
I'm off to the pub now.

Oh, and I'm changing my email address, as my university one expires soon. If I haven't mailed you, please let me know so I can give you the new one.

Something Craig of Gooseania, conscientious atheist, mentioned earlier and also came to me in my Co-op newsletter. Do it:

If you care about climate change and want something done about it, one thing you must do today is get your MP to support The Big Ask - a campaign asking all 646 MPs to back a law making the Government cut carbon dioxide emissions every year. No excuses.

We believe that there are solutions to climate change. Which is why we're campaigning with Friends of the Earth and supporting The Big Ask. And why we seek to invest in renewable energy and refuse to invest in businesses that extract or produce fossil fuels. But our MPs need to help too.

Climate change is no laughing matter. But with your help something can be done about it. Please support The Big Ask by emailing your MP. It only takes a few moments to do your bit...and to make sure your MP does theirs.

Simply visit our website, enter your postcode and click go!

A very busy-seeming day for me.
I went to a once-weekly, limited duration careers advice service in the library this morning, using an interest and work environment guided program, unfortunately the session was cut short-er by the time limit, so I'll pop back next week to finish off. Some interesting ideas so far, Marine Biologist, Agricultural/Horticultural Scientist, although I'm not too keen on Acupuncturist as a career idea.

Went to the job centre with my support worker to have them check over the paperwork for by benefit claim, always a stressful time for me. I always worry about sending important documents by post, especially ones I had to wait for!

Housegroup was very nice this evening, I was assisting with the talk on the Good Samaritan, I'd done some research about the Samartians history and read a version of the story from John Pollock's 'The Master". A very helpful book that explains some of the context of the Gospel according to John.

Well, I 've been a good girl today. I went running a bit. I said to my dad on the phone "dad, guess what I've done today, I went running!" He said the world is coming to an end because he can't remember me running. He asked me " How long? 1 hour?" "Well... dad just 10-15 minutes..." He started laughing and he still is.

I tried to run in the past with my friends, but is not easy in my village. Either you run in the street hoping that nobody will run over you or you go in the countryside where there is no straight road and everything is up hill.
Once Margherita and I joined the village football team during their preparation. The coach, who knows us since we were children, wouldn't stop laughing at us! But we went, we managed to follow them for the first 5 minutes and then they disappeared.

Anyway, I would like to try this time. I am quite stressed these days and I need to release the tension otherwise I will go mad. So tonight after coming back from Uni, I went running. Just 10-15 minutes, but it's a start. I immediately felt better. I like the fresh air and the wind in my face. It was really refreshing and relaxing and now I can feel a lot of oxygen in my body!!!

But I need help because I don't know how to run. My dad suggested stretching first for a bit, start running, stop running walking fast for 2 minutes and stretch a bit, start running again for 2 minutes and then stop start again for 3 minutes and so on. So that I will manage to run for more than 10 minutes. I don't know. What is recommended to do? I don't know.And what about food? One should eat before or after? My dad recommend me to bring with me water with lemon, which is enough for my 10 minutes running, I think. And how often? I was thinking twice maybe three time per week.

I do feel a lot better after only 10 minutes, it sounds ridiculous I know, but there you are. I am easily pleased. Once back from running I did a bit of stretching in my bedroom and some exercises I remembered from my dance classes.

Tomorrow I'm meeting the Director of Modular Degree for the SML so that she can complete the form for my tuition grant, and then hopefully it will be just a matter of sending the form and the documents. Oh and there is the part-time job faire tomorrow, I hope it will be helpful.

Corking. I was flicking through my phonebook before Italian and phoning and texting people that I hadn't for a while. Amongst them was Nina, a friend from university who now works at the museum. It occurred to me that she plays badminton, so with any luck, I'll be able to organise mixed doubles with Ben and Hannah as well, and maybe even get some decent regular exercise rather than go lane swimming, which I understand is very dull, even if it is good for you.

Aaaaand - I complain well, because Exeter College apologised and said I could have the refund of the first Italian lesson that I asked for.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand - I'm getting independent financial advice next week, so I can get my pension arrangements back on track again.

Huzzah!

Mass on Thursday in Stretham Court has always been good for me. It's like an oasis in the middle of the chaos which is the campus. I remembered arriving at mass exhausted after a day in campus and really hungry! But then when the door closed and mass started the world was shut outside. I always left full of hope and peace, as it should be every time I go to mass I think. Tonight the gospel was Luke I think, (I apologize but I'm not really good at Bible references, actually I'm afraid I'm not really good at reading the Bible in general) it was the bit that says ask and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door will open... ( something like that, oh dear I do sound really profane.)Paul said that often we ask and we receive something we didn't ask or we search and we find something different from what we were looking for. Then he said that it's not only about me, this with God is a relationship and I should allow the Holy Spirit to work in me. How I allowed my beliefs to affect my life? This is what he asked and made me think about what, I don't know, I'm still thinking. Anyway, it was good tonight as it always been, it's a moment in the week when I stopped and His words calm me down, they comfort me and give me peace. It usually last for a day, but it's a start. I have been a good girl for the last couple of weeks, I re-started saying morning prayer. I think I'll alternate a week of morning prayer and a week of evening prayer. Psalms are really good.

I paid my fees today, the first installment. I am really poor now!( No it's not true I should be just a bit careful until I find a job.) So I bought a frame for Mark's picture(49 pence in Age Concern.)Charity shops are great, there was also a double duvet cover for 2.99 but it was a bit boring. Mine has nice pink and blue flowers I'd like something like that.
So now Mark, you've got a nice frame around your beautiful face!

I watched Central Station yesterday. Nick you are right. It's a very good film nearly cried at the end, but I restrained myself, I can't cry in the library!!Tomorrow I'm going to watch Amores perros and then I'll choose.

I had a really good lecture for Oral Spanish. We were just 4 people and we had the chance to talk a lot. The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed and this is quite important when you have to speak in front of other people in a language you don't know. I'm not good at speaking in general I'm too shy, I thought I was going to improve with the age but I think I'll die shy. At my University in Italy people were so competitive it was ridiculous. I was scared to talk, which is not so good if you are studying languages.

Oh Mark, Fabio has just emailed me. He said "congratulations or best whishes for learning Italian, but if you think you will then be able to understand Monica better, well you are wasting your time! It's not a problem of language it's her brain that cannot be interpreted! However, 5000 years ago, nobody would have thought of decoding the DNA, so maybe there is still hope for her little brain." And this is one of my friend.(I hope my translation makes sense)

I bought the flight back to Italy on the 12th of December. My sister is really happy, we will have time to go to town, see the lights and do a bit, just a bit of shopping. Then I can decorate the Christmas tree, make the nativity scene and sit near the fireplace with a good book and lots of biscuits! Not chocolate biscuits though, it's so unfair!

It's late, it's late, I should study a bit. Buonanotte e sogni d'oro a tutti.