To be or not to be

That is the question, or for the sake of Ms Patty Pravo, questo est la dilemma. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or ... you get the picture. What has brought on this recent naval-gazing, you may ask? Oh one and a hundred things, but principally the fact of waiting expectantly on the promise of a full-time job here in the universitát (for acute read umlaut). Not only will i not get the job, but no-one will as they are happy to keep paying us all part-time. As I had waited for this one, time ran out on the others which I (stupidly) did not apply for. Ah well, loyalty smoyalty. So here goes for another year of trying to make enough money to live on with part-time teaching. Subsequently, all urgency in my studies has gone. I may as well apply for a grant for another year and take longer to finish.

Anyway, comme ci, comme c,a (for comma read cedilla), can't miss what you never had, oh bla dee, oh bla daa. So, at the minute, I have one student I'm tutoring in logic, but apart from that I'm just taking the love/contraception train from dublin to belfast every week, doing most of my study on the train (I'm not joking). Anyway, and now for better news. It is young Fionnuala's birthday today, which one it is not chivalrous to mention. Anyway, age is but a number, and nobody of any worth cares about numbers. So I wish you a good day F, and i hope to see you on Saturday. I hope someone has a cake for you.

If Ciaran is reading, you might not know that Nina is giving birth by ceasarian section next Tuesday, so you might wish to think of her then or be in touch. She seems in good form and not too worried. She sent a few pictures of her having put on 17kg, but she still didn't seem that big! So that's good news and to be thankful for, and hopefully there won't be any problems for them. With such real problems around, it seems very indulgent of me to be sorry for myself for not getting the job, but still there it is as a fact. A fact I know capable of self-change. But whereas for normal people in full-time work, they look forward to the summer, for someone who only gets paid per hour, it signals relative inactivity and being broke! Anyway, I'm going to shut up now and count my blessings.