Monday, April 20, 2009
London
Not having my Monday morning class, I took it fairly easy and did not experience the beginning- of-week morning stress. Awaking at 6. 00 am today, I began reading the next Harry Potter book in the series--The Order of the Phoenix. Had a bit of a set back on discovering a mix up in the date for the lecture I was scheduled to give at Oxford this summer. This made me feel a bit low for a while, but hopefully something will still work out favorably--fingers crossed.
After breakfast, I sat to edit and caption a bunch of photographs I took a while back as I am still trying to catch up with that. Before I knew it, it was 10. 30 am and I had to leave my flat to get to Kensington High Street to meet Reverend Trevor Hubble who showed me around the Lee Abbey International Students' Club--a really nice place.
Then, I was on my cell phone with my high school classmate Charmaine Rodriguez who has arrived from Australia to spend a few weeks in London with her sister and her parents. She happened to be based at Kensington, literally a few steps from where I happened to be. We had spoken on the phone this morning (after she had emailed mea few days ago) and had made tentative plans to meet.
It was a treat to see Charmaine after almost 35 years. I also met her sister Shirley who did not remember me at all. Unfortunately, I had to leave almost as soon as I arrived at their place as I had a 2.00 pm class for which I did not want to be late. Hopping into the Tube at Kensington, I alighted at Tottenham Court Road and walked the ten minutes to our Bedford Square campus where I picked up my files and headed straight to my class in Birkbeck College.
It was great to see my students again. Almost every one of them had traveled to some exotic European destination (Berlin, Greece, Istanbul) and were full of stories about their adventures. We then got down to the serious business of setting dates for future assignments (drafts and final essays) before class began.
My South Asian Studies Seminar was next at 5 pm in my office. This small group meets in a tutorial. Today, we covered Indian economic and foreign policies after Independence and the political history of Pakistan since its creation. It has been a very interesting few sessions we've had, with the students asking many questions based on independent study.
At 7 pm, after they left, I dealt with Aetna Global Medical Insurance in the States, photocopied some material and made a packet to be mailed to Llew. Then, off I went at 8. 00, arriving home at 8. 20, feeling suddenly quite exhausted. I read some more Harry Potter before getting my dinner ready (two kinds of Chicken Salads with olives and feta cheese). At 9 pm, I watched New Tricks on the Alibi channel and, quite predictably, nodded off on the couch for about 10 minutes but did not miss anything by way of the plot.
At 10 15, I brushed and flossed my teeth and went straight to bed as I badly needed some shut eye!
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