NEW COURSE AND THE CRISIS

Summer's over and classes have begun. The new course has been inaugurated and the first students have started to learn English or, in the case of previous years' students, are busy revising what they've learnt so far.

The CRISIS, however, has taken its toll and I thought the cartoon on the left was particularly apt for the occasion! It reads:

We’re sorry… we just can’t afford to send you to the kinds of schools where the guys who wrecked the economy went! )

There are fewer classes; fewer students; fewer grants; less work; less teaching hours. Result: more time for writing. So, I'm taking advantage to put on paper some ideas, revise my work and send copies to book competitions, agents and publishers in the hope that someone will, in the words of ABBA, "take a chance on me"!

Getting a book published is proving to be really difficult. Publishers don't want to take risks on new, unknown writers and prefer to stick to classics and outstanding authors. Unfortunately I'm neither one nor the other; I just write reasonably good (I am told) stories for children and adolescents.

However, time will tell. In the meantime, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

SPRING IS HERE

Well, nearly here! Only a couple of weeks left.

But the birds don't know that... they're out there in force singing away to their heart's content.... and ours (many of them have already returned from their winter migration).

And the flowers don't know that. They've forced their way through to emerge as beautiful as ever and splash the bare landscape with their gorgeous colours.

And in the park I saw two snow white swans gliding gracefully across the mirror surface of the lake, obviously courting. Isn't life wonderful!

Yes, I know there's misery everywhere, and people are fighting and killing each other all over the world, and men and women are tortured and kids are exploited and animals are treated badly and made to suffer. This world is full of injustice, but it does have its positive side, or at least I like to think it does.

Otherwise, what would be the point of trying to do good. Oh, yes, thousands of people are out there doing good. Volunteers, medical people, missionaries, teachers. I even venture to suggest that some, not many though, politicians are trying to do good. Ordinary people, such as yourself, or humble me; in our ordinary lives and within our ordinary families and communities, surely we're all trying to do good. And that is beautiful. There's beauty everywhere, if only we stopped and looked and learnt to appreciate it. Gilbert and Sullivan expressed it so poetically in "The Mikado" when Katisha begins her song:

There is beauty in the bellow of the blast,

There is grandeur in the growling of the gale,

There is eloquent outpouring

when the lion is a-roaring,

and the tiger is a-lashing of his tail!

Gosh! That brings back memories, of school days, and operettas, and Nanki-Poo, and Jaqueline. Sweet Jaqueline. I wonder what's become of her and her sensational voice.

Youtube has a large selection of performances, including one with Groucho Marx! The first line is the title of the song. Do listen to it, it's really good. As for the words, you can get them at:

http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/mikado/webopera/mk212.html

I raise my glass to beauty.... in spite of all the horrors that surround us. For beauty is love..... and love is beauty.

.

APOLOGIES & XMAS

My most sincere apologies for the time elapsed between my last posting and this one. This academic course is proving much busier than originally expected and I really am very short of free time. I hope to remedy this next term.

Anyway, Christmas is just around the corner and, although we're all feeling the consequences of the financial crisis, the shops seem full and people appear to be spending a fair amount of time and money. To be honest though, the discount shops seem busier than ever; I wonder whether quality this year will be sacrificed in favour of quantity.

A couple of my groups are busy rehearsing their Xmas songs for the forthcoming Christmas Carol Concert. This will take place on Thursday the 18th at around 3.30 pm. If we manage to film it I'll post some clips and a few pictures.

IF YOU'RE THINKING OF DRINKING.... THINK ALSO ABOUT NOT DRIVING :-)

FINANCIAL CRISIS

"Laugh and the whole world laughs with you," - says the song. - "Cry and you cry alone!"
So there's a new financial crisis. I don't know about you, but I think I've had enough bad news this year, so I'm all for a good laugh. I hope you'll join me. Here are the views of two famous comedians on the on- going financial crisis (with Spanish subtitles for my Catalan and Spanish students).