Saturday, December 06, 2008

Brain training

Christmas is coming.   Does that mean the goose is getting fat?  No chance.   The Advent fast is starting to bite: no meat, sweets, biscuits, desserts.... The children are revolting in more senses than one, and gorge on whatever animal flesh they can find if I'm out for a mealtime.  But that first Quality Street after Midnight Mass will be sweet indeed.

Life in a household of older teenagers is somewhat surreal.   They are all doing different A level subjects, and I'm the first port of call if they are struggling with their homework.   So in a single evening, I can be trying to revive my rusty maths to help with differential equations when another one cames to ask the difference between the Augustinian and Irenaean theodicies, and then switch straight to evaluating models for social research.   In between, I provide food, discipine, medical advice and interest-free loans.   Who needs gadgetry for "brain training" to stay mentally flexible?

Meanwhile, term rolls gently towards a close, with students starting now to panic that the essay season is upon us concurrently with the Christmas one.   There's a bit of general scratchiness in the air after a long term and some unusually heavy start-of-year stresses.   Most of my teaching this term has been research supervision, so I've kept up more effectively than usual with administration.  This last week, though, my colleague has been silenced by a nasty laryngitis bug, so I have been covering her teaching, which has been quite fun, for me if not for them:
Student: Thank goodness we will be judged by Jesus and not by you.
Me:  Maybe, but Jesus won't be marking your essays, and I shall.

Autumn being busy for both if us, I've seen less than usual of my lover, and our joint project is now badly in need of the extra effort we're going to put in over the Christmas holiday. After that I have another new project in the pipeline which, if it won't make me rich and famous, at least associates my name with those who are really doing exciting stuff.   Much as my heart is embedded in theology, it's very refreshing to do multidisciplinary work at this level.

One highlight of the term has been eldest son's MSc graduation from Sheffield Hallam.   We went out with him and his in-laws-to-be the evening before to look at the church where they will be married, and then had a meal together where the main topic of conversation was wedding planning, and therefore very scary stuff.   September next year seems a long time away yet, thank goodness.