Sea

Last lecture of the academic year today; some of the students have been offered paid work as a result of doing placements and I am delighted for them. In a week's time, the sea of marking will start crashing in from two Universities and I'll be burning the dawn oil (I start at 7 and work through till early afternoon) to get it all done by the deadlines. I have also been examining a PhD which I read on the way to and from Brighton to take the Offsprogs out for dinner last night. I will have to read it a few times more to work out the way I will word the questions at the oral examination, or Viva.

Meanwhile, we are going to form a residents association in the little street I live in, which is about to be swamped by a huge housing development directly opposite where I live. One of the neighbours is selling up and leaving but I'm not in a position to do that. There will be two years of noise and damage. I can not believe that Barnet Council has OK'd a new housing estate right in the middle of a conservation area. Several of us who live in this street work at home a lot (I spent the whole of January marking 65 two thousand word essays and 12 eight thousand word theses) so these orange ear-protectors will come in very handy!

Thanks to Jonathan at the Gonzo Blog http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/ for name-checking my track The Song of the Unsung Heroine on Youtube. This was filmed at the gig in Gateshead that Martin organised where Gina Birch, Viv Albertine and Pauline Murray played. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoGALCk4Nrk For some reason Voiceprint lists the album Poetry and Rhyme as Poems and Rhymes. A much more down to earth title, perhaps?