intertext

And it was The Maltese Falcon which was great - over-the-top in ways that only movies made at that time could be, but quite wonderful in other ways. Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre made a delightful homoerotic pairing. Humphrey Bogart is always terrific, though I don't think I had noticed the twitchy thing he does with his teeth quite so much before. If he didn't have so many rather large teeth and such a big head I think I'd find him quite attractive. He has beautiful eyes and hidden depths of character. And isn't the falcon itself the MacGuffin par example? All that fuss getting hold of it and then... oh well, off they go. Kelly and I agreed that Sam Spade's secretary was one of the most interesting characters and plan to write a kind of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" of the story only from her point of view. We'll call it "you're a great guy, sister" or whatever that line was. She seems to be able to keep her head while all around them are losing theirs, although she did misjudge the Mary Astor character rather badly.

And of course the company was delightful - all the group from last time, plus Simon and marri, who were welcome additions. And there was pizza and fresh fruit and great conversation and music. I stayed out way past my bedtime (I'm sorry, I really am middle-aged) and could hardly think all day today, but never mind.

I had my first real administrative success at work today. When I arrived back at work, there had just been a lot of last minute changes made to several people's schedules and one or two of them were very unhappy about it. One person's concerns were sufficiently serious that it became apparent that I would need to fix it, but changing one schedule has ricochet effects on a number of others. I endeavoured, and succeeded, in switching things around so that in fact everyone's timetable ended up slightly better than before. Yesterday morning I had a meeting with one of the two Deans I work under as Chair, the one overseeing this particular group, and she not only approved the changes but was very pleased with my work. Go me :)

So it was in a cheerful frame of mind that I drove downtown to meet superfoo, lidocafe and marri for lunch, which we partook at the Tapa Bar. I'd never been there before, and enjoyed it, particularly sitting at a table outside which made me feel vaguely Parisian again. It was a good time, good company, though lidocafe was distinctly subdued - she knows that we're all hoping she is soon able to move out from under the cloud of sadness that is following her around just now.

I had time to buy some fresh salad things from the Thursday Cook's market beforehand, which I then cleverly left at the restaurant, necessitating a return trip downtown after work, at which point I discovered that the liquor store in the Bay Centre has closed. It was the first and only time that I've ever wanted to use it, so of course it had to be gone! This necessitated a stop at the one closer to home to stock up on Gin (Bombay Sapphire).

However, I had a nice tuna steak waiting for me at home, which I marinated in lime juice, lime infused olive oil and ground cumin, and then grilled, and ate with a salad of my market greens and some strawberries, dressed with lime olive oil and balsamic vinegar. A G&T before that while watching Corrie, supper, and the penultimate episode of Angel, and my evening was complete. Oh, and some Ghostwritten before sleep. The nice thing about Chairing and SD is that I don't really have homework, so evenings and weekends are my own.

As if I needed it, I have been reminded several times this week that I'm not as young as I once was. This has been a very busy week socially, and now of course I'm too tired to sleep, so it's 5 AM and I'm awake writing in my journal.

So this was my week:

Monday: Easter dinner with kp that had been postponed from Sunday. I made roast lamb and a rather good not-exactly-ratatouille (sp?) with artichokes and zucchini and mushrooms and tomatoes and lots of basil and cheese and breadcrumbs on the top, and roast potatoes with rosemary from the garden. We had a lovely Australian chardonnay with it - a red wine would probably have been better for the foodies, but I can't drink it so white it is. To follow we had fruit and creme fraiche and coffee. It was good.

Tuesday: dinner at Spinnaker's with ad, a colleague and getting-to-be friend from work. This was very pleasant, too. We had an amazing conversation about a lot of things I didn't know about her - she is another quiet introvert at work, but I've always enjoyed her intelligence (anyone writing a PhD dissertation on Harry Potter can't be bad!) and humour. There's a fierceness about her that strikes a chord with me - I trust her integrity.

Wednesday I stayed home, much to the delight of my dogs, and watched an episode of Angel (I've reached the bit where he turns back to Angelus in Season 4, just - they do that long "fake out" episode with everything turning out wonderfully in the battle with the Beast, then at the end it all turns out to be a trance-dream or something and we hear "Angelus" going bwahahaha. quite chilling; can't wait to see more.)

Tursday: pub night at Irish Times with superfoo and her coterie of Simon and Baz, plus other ex-and current students of mine - Mandeep, Tom, Eli and a girl whose name I'm ashamed to admit I couldn't remember though I know I taught her something once, and Dave whom I'd met before, and of course kelly and some students of hers from her class that is just ending, and last but not least I got to meet marri, whom I'd heard so much about and whose journal I've read from time to time. I would have recognized her from her likeness to her userpic, which is quite striking. It was very nice to meet her finally (hi, Marri, and welcome, if you should happen to pop in). This was a Good Time - a charming and intelligent group that managed to make me feel welcome in their company without making me feel for an instant old or out of place. I almost danced. Perhaps I will again someday. There was a very good band - they played a well executed cover of Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" which is on my personal soundtrack and made me feel sorrowful for lost youth and love but never mind. We stayed out well past my bedtime, so I was not in the best of shape for

Friday: department potluck and retirement party for jb, a long standing colleague (though he started AFTER me, which makes me feel old again - though to be honest he'd been teaching for decades at other places before he came to our institution). This was pleasant; the food was good as always and there was some fairly good conversation. Not such a late night, and was home by "bedtime" but now, as I mentioned, I'm overtired and can't sleep.

Term is now officially Over, bar the marking. So from now for the next few weeks it will be marking, marking, marking, and, oh did I mention, marking. I have four classes, all of whom are handing in long analytical essays, journals and an exam - you do the math. (oh well, once it's done and I've delivered my workshop on blogging and wikis and things for the college on May 4th, I'm off to Paris. Yay.)