Climbing

I don't know if this will be news to anyone but me but Ruth Graham, Billy Graham's wife, passed away last week.

http://www.billygraham.org/RBG_Obituary.asp

I hate admitting my ignorance of things but there are a lot of things I am sadly lacking in knowledge about so perhaps it's best just to confess; it's good for the soul after all. :)

This morning I was looking my entry from yesterday in which I mentioned "Stewart's fiance, Lucy". I knew fiance looked wrong but couldn't work out why; I thought, perhaps, it was because the accent was missing from the "e" (how do you do that anyway?).

Alas, this was not the reason. I will allow Wikipedia to explain for those of you who are as ignorant as me:

"A man who is engaged to be married is called his partner's fiancé; a woman similarly engaged is called her partner's fiancée. These words are pronounced identically in English; the separate feminine form exists because of the inflectional morphology of grammatical gender in French, where the term originated."

*places Dunce's cap on head*

The stork landing this morning in a hospital in Surrey carrying a rather small (for a Wylie!) baby boy, who weighted in at 4 llbs and 2 oz.

My brother Stewart and his fiancee, Lucy are the proud parents. The pregnancy hasn't gone that smoothly and over the last few weeks there have been various worries about the baby's growth. This culminate yesterday in the doctors deciding that they needed to do a caesarean section asap; the baby wasn't due until 21st April. The little one was born at 10.46am and everything is fine.

I'll update when I have photos and a name. :)

Check out this BBC article.

Well, not exactly. I didn't expect to work at the boarding house again until after Easter (the School stops for the holidays this Friday). However, one of the House parents can't work tonight so I've been asked to fill in. Woot!

I *need* the money so the work is most welcome. :)

In other news, last night's Concert was fabulous. My highlights were Chanconne in G minor by Vitali - Caroline playing the violin (I'd never heard of it until last night but I was spell bound for the whole piece) and the Scottish Traditional Ensemble, particularly the Slow Air in which the Scottish Fiddle featured prominently. It was absolutely beautiful. I just ♥ the violin and the fiddle.

"People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”

Zig Zigler

... Paperless Office?!
This is my office: a typical beige, local government set up. The desk in the left hand corner of the room is mine. As you can see the office is a mess, particularly my desk. On the stand at the window you can see the piles of files I'm working on - they should be neatly filed away somewhere but storage is a problem at the moment.

Colin, hope you have a frabulous day!

Happy Birthday to lorna_babes!!

History: Broadband connection out of order for 4 weeks.

Act 1: Yesterday morning BT engineer visits and tells me that it's due to a fault at the exchange. He goes off to the exchange and then calls to tell me the fault is fixed and my broadband connection is now "back in play".

Act 2: Last night I discovered that, not only was my broadband connection still not working, my phone line was dead. I phoned BT to discover that they can't fix the fault until I raise the matter with my broadband provider.

Act 3: Phone Eclipse this morning - Technical support staff very helpful and laise with BT.

*Curtain Closes*

After the Interval, Act 4 will begin on Monday morning when the BT engineer will visit to investigate. Until then no phone line or broadband; what's more, I've just ended my cheap calls contract deal and switched to pay as you go. *weeps*

Happy Birthday to lewah!

I've no idea how old you are - 28? Have a good one!

I got this set from Crabtree and Evelyn for my Christmas. I used it for the first time this morning and it smelled amazing. In fact, I smell amazing 3+ hours after this morning's shower.

I need to try the rest of their range. :)

1. What album is the song "I have a light" on? I want to download it for my ipod.

2. (For those of you who remember the discipleship training course we did at the student meeting) Does anyone have a copy of the handouts? Lorna had 3 of them on the computer which she emailed to me - - "you will receive power" and two others. Does anyone still have any of them? If so, let me know what ones and I'll borrow them to photocopy.

Thanks!

Happy 26th Birthday joanneabigail!

Hope you have a fanastic day!

My desk calender, Latin for the Illiterati, finished with the last tolling bells of 2006. However, I thought I would take this opportunity to share my favourite latin legal maxim:

A coelo usque ad centrum

This means that the owner of a piece of ground, regardless of how little in acreage, in theory owns everything a coelo (from the sky) usque ad centrum (right down to the centre of the earth).*

My other favourite is:

Quantum Valeat

- For what it's worth. It's a good phrase to drop into conversation; for example, "Quantum Valeat, I think you bear a striking resemblance to Pinocchio." :)

*However, in practice it's not as romantic as it sounds as there are many exceptions to this principle. The mineral rights have often been reserved and the use of the air space above by aircraft is covered by other legislation.

I'm aware that I've been sent cards over the Christmas period that (as yet) I have not received. barlow_girl sent me a card, which I assume was posted at the same time as the one to kari_w; Karen's arrived before Christmas and I still don't have anything.

I'm pretty sure the Card Thief has struck again, although it is possible that it's delayed in the post. However, if you've send me a card and I've not thanked you for it, please let me know.

Good

Classic FM are offering 40 free downloads if you sign up to emusic. Good selection if you like classical music; they do have other types but the selection is a bit sparse, depending on your taste. If you're not impressed enough to continue membership, you can do what I did and downloaded your 40 free tracks and then cancel.

http://www.classicfm.com/sectional.asp?id=11129

For this Christmas season, I recommend:

Troika by Prokofiev and Gloria in D major by Vivaldi. They also have lots of traditional carols. :)

Not so Good

As displayed in the front window of an Aberdeen City Council building:

"Biodegradable poo bags on sale here"

"I'm driving home for Christmas yeah!" on Thursday. Or more accurately, train-ing it home for Christmas accompanied by the blessed ipod. :)

This is an interesting article about strangers you see every day but never meet:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6176235.stm

I used to commute to Edinburgh every day and see the same people each day on the train or waiting on the station platform and wonder who they were. I would even overhear parts of conversations and get to know a little bit about them, or get into conversation with them but never find out their name. Some even worked in the same building as me but yet never spoke to me. The bizarre nature of urban life!

However, I can't say I want to get to know everyone I've met on the train. One prime example being a young man that sat directly across from me one afternoon and spent the journey burping and talking to his reflection in the window!

Lux tua via mea

Thy light is my way