A lovely easter weekend!

and it all started with my 30th birthday on Good Friday. I had known that my 30th birthday would be on a Friday for years, but only sometime last year I found out that it would be on Good Friday. At first I was quite annoyed about it, but after all it was a lovely day. Friday Morning I woke up not too early and even had a present to unwrap there and quite a few cards had arrived early as well. The package from my mom still hasn't arrived now as I am typing this on Tuesday. Anyway, I spoke to my mom on the phone and then my grandma rang as well. As I was speaking on the phone to various people Neil put balloons all over the living room, which made it look very nice and birthday like (and not just because the balloons had happy birthday and happy 30th written on them!) In the afternoon a few people came over for cake which I baked myself. It was nice to have people there and even better that they liked all the cake. In the evening we met up with even more friends for a lovely dinner at Harry's Grillbar. It is an excellent choice if you are in the mood for steak and grilled things. We had a great time, and didn't even find it too expensive for what it was. And the restaurant is a lovely building too.

Saturday Neil had to go to work in the morning, and then drove a friend out to an antique shop to pick up something so I just lazed about in the morning and then met a friend for coffee in the afternoon. It was a nice day as well. If you can't tell by now I like being lazy...

Easter Sunday again we didn't do very much got up late and lazed about for a while and then met a friend in the pub just across the road from us. Very nice thing to do in the afternoon.

Yesterday Neil went for a run in the morning while I watched Numb3rs and then I met another friend for coffee in town. And in the afternoon and evening we watched the last 4 episodes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Very good show, I can't believe it was canceled after just one season. But who knows, maybe there will be more episodes coming...

Today I need to pack my things for the trip to Germany. I leave tomorrow for just under 2 weeks. It's my god daughter's confirmation, and since we are on break at uni I said I would be able to make it. And just in general it will be nice to see my family for a little bit. My parents had been planning to come over for my birthday, but with my dad's crazy work schedule it just didn't work out.

PS: And being 30 doesn't feel at all different...

getting up early to go to the gym...

... just isn't always easy. This morning it almost felt like torture to make myself get up. Still am up and nearly ready to leave the house now, but thought a tiny bit of procrastination is ok so I can put something on the blog. We had a very nice weekend. Friday night just stayed home, even though I had an invitation to birthday drinks. Didn't really feel like going, mostly because it was too late (9:15 pm start - that's nearly my bed time!!!) so we just watched a few episodes of Studio 60 and then went to bed early. Saturday I met some friends for coffee and lunch and then spent the afternoon lazing around the house not doing a lot but waiting to go out for dinner that evening. Dinner was really nice, we went to a place near Exeter for a lovely meal with Neil's mum and dad for both our birthdays (early for me, but late for Neil). and yesterday morning was spent again lazing around the house - that's what Sundays are for! - and then met a friend in town for coffee, then went for a drink at Mill on Exe and then had friends over in the evening to play bowling on the Wii. And now I can't believe that it is Monday morning already and time for the gym...

finally we are getting to the end of the open day period, these days are quite draining and I never get anything else done. There are always little things to sort of throughout the day, but today it looks like I am getting a bit more time. Students and parents seem to be enjoying their visit to Exeter, and for the most part the students do show a lot of interest. I never quite know how to deal with students who clearly are being dragged here by their parents, and I just want to say that it's not worth it sending your child to uni if they clearlt have no interest. Give them a gap year to have a think, makes life for us who have to teach and tutor them easier. But it's not up to me to say this at these days. Anyway, let's see what this afternoon brings, aparently it is going to be very manic with loads of people coming to find out about our various degree programmes.

sometimes I still wonder what I've got myself into when I am up at this hour of the day to get ready to go to the gym. Didn't sleep particularly well last night with all the wind out there, but now I still feel awake enough to go swimming.

We had a nice and quite weekend, apart from Friday night when we had a birthday party for Neil's 30th birthday. It was fun to have people over, and most of them had a go on the brand new Wii we got as a combined birthday present to ourselves. Saturday was spent being lazy and going for food in the evening at City Gate, very nice food for pub food and good prices. Yesterday Neil watched three films, all for free. One at the Picturehouse in the morning, one at home in the afternoon, and then another one in the evening. I just wanted a bit of dreadful telly and some DVD in the morning, had coffee in the afternoon, and then played on the Wii in the evening.

and now it is already time again to get going... Hope the gym isn't too busy today...

another update

while Neil is having a go on the Wii (and making sure I can never beat him at the bowling), I am quickly going to update my blog. Been quite busy over the past few weeks. We've been having Post offer open days in the university, and on top of the central programme run by the Admissions office each department/school has also been playing host to lots of students and their parents. It has been quite fun so far, but these days are quite challenging. Organising over 100 people is not the easiest thing to do, but at least we seem to have a lot of interest in the new programmes being offered here. It is also interesting to see pupils of varying backgrounds and with varying reasons to come to Exeter in the first place. Besides that I have been seeing my students to talk about their exam results (which they never like that much) and been trying to write a paper for publication (which I am not liking very much at the moment). The problem with the paper is the flow, the information is all there, but somehow it just isn't quite what it should be.

Hmmm, besides that I don't have that much to say, Neil pretty much said it all already in his blog, so just have a look there