I am on my 15 minute break between piano students so rather than do anything really productive like my assignment (because let’s face it takes me 15 minutes to get all my books and papers out and organised) I thought I might write a little blog post. What about? Well, we shall see. For what is supposed to be the mid year vacation time it is ridiculously busy at work. No sooner have we marked our students’ final assignment than we are testing and interviewing students for term 2. I spent the morning chatting to all sorts of prospective students ranging in age from 17 to early 60s with the varying degrees of life experience to boot. It looks like it will be an interesting class with a more even gender balance than we had in Term 1. Apart from that I am teaching the piano, trying to find time to finish my last library assignment (a monster sized report), wondering when I will find time to big revision on a paper that has come back from peer reviewing, wondering whether I can find the time or energy to apply for a promotion and/or a teaching and learning award grant thingo. The latter two involve “writing to selection criteria” which I absolutely loathe. Still, moving up a level would be nice financially if nothing else. Have I been watching television? Sure! Doctor Who is keeping me mightily entertained as is The Craig Ferguson Show (which I try to remember to record every night). Repeats of Friends every evening on GEM are nice to eat dinner by. Remember when Ross and Rachel were “on a break” and Phoebe carried triplets for her brother? I do, and now I am reliving the late 90s all over again. It’s comforting. And (apologies for the atrocious pun) the Kindle has rekindled my love of reading. I have read more books in the last two months than I have in the last year. I’m even finishing them! This is amazing as I had developed a terrible habit of starting books but never getting to the end. I’m delving into comedians’ autobiographies at the moment and really enjoying it. I have the vaguest awareness of Russell Brand but his two Booky Wooks were a treat to read. I also enjoyed Sarah Silverman’s book, Anh Do’s story, Stephen Fry and Tina Fey. In hardcover I adore Dawn French’s Dear Fatty and like Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up. Perhaps I will become a collector of memoirs. I find them far more interesting than fiction at the moment. Although, I am reading The Blythes Are Quoted by LM Montgomery. It’s an unusual collection of Anne and Walter Blythe’s poetry and short stories in which the main Blythe household feature as bit players. And now it is 4:27 so I best return to the piano room, sharpened pencil in hand and ready myself for a rigorous working over of some Bartok.