Life has changed completely again!!!! Have worked at Mepal for a week now and have gone through a whole gamut of emotions from fear and frustration to pure pure pleasure!!

Turned up Monday having had a most incredible weekend... more of that later....not really knowing what to expect... the day was busy.. full of 16 year old public school boys... worked on the high ropes section... very buzzy... it is a series of 40 ft high timber poles with a variety of activities like a trapeze to leap towards...and similar sort of stuff... it was fun... exhausting.... a sort of confusing day.... hate being new and not knowing where anything ... you feel so stupid.... the week sauntered on... my face getting progressively pinker with each glimpse of the sun.... friday was splendid... got a go on the high ropes so finally it was me 40 ft up throwing myself towards a small metal bar suspended above me... and yes I caught it!!! after that had a chance to go sailing... the weird thing is I was actually more scared of this than the height thing.... and I ended up going out in a Wayfarer on my own!! had a lovely time tacking up and down the lake.. felt more comfortable with being in control and then I had to take it in to the jetty and I suddenly realised I hadn't a clue how to do it.... Les the lovely 78 year old sailing instructor called out instructions from the bank and I awkwardly steered it in... terrifying!!!!

and in amonst all this marvellously new adventure I have met someone gorgeous from Greenpeace.. and have been starting a whole new thing.... we went climbing last weekend... and well it has been brilliant.....feel very warm and content....

and now there's just today and tomorrow left... and more work to do than i can possibly fit in... particularly as I am spending time writing this!! Peter, the cleaner, presented me with a plant this morning and I actually felt quite emotional!! Tomorrow's leaving do lunch might be hard work!!!

Going for lunch in Browns today with Lindsay an old friend who now runs her own outdoor cente... it's mostly mechanical stuff like her monster truck, quad bikes and go karts... will probably help out on occassional days there this summer.... there's just so many possibilities throwing themselves at me at the moment it's all rather difficult to take in...

and the sun is shining, spring is here and life is bloody marvellous!

Three days left working here at the university... ahhhh no more little trips up to Dampt (the Department of applied maths and theoretical physics) no more popping in to Old Schools with porters in ancient costumes... no more stuffy hierarchical unhelpfulness either and pompous blinkered attitudes!!! god knows just what I will be doing after next monday but it will be different!!! Very different

The weekend was splendid... met a lively and interesting group of Essex Greenpeace people... and will arrange to do some joint actions with them and the Cambridge group so that is really positive.... might have found someone to do a bit of climbing and sailing with too but that is another story!!!! Went to Mile End with C and had a bit of a boulder around.... still a very friendly inviting place... lovely to be back really

but feel I want to write about the suitable womb theory again.... think I mentioned ages ago about meeting chappies in their 30's who seemed only prepared to enter into a committed relationship if the woman had a suitable womb, ie if she specifically said she wanted babies.... anyone else just wasn't good enough... have been pondering this a bit... obviously its not all men but it does seem to be much more common than I had at first realised.. having conversations with others slightly younger than me, I find I am not the only one that is coming across this phenomenon... pondering further I think it reflects a massive change in our society and fertility choices... Thirty or forty years ago, prior to efficient contraception, if a couple were in any sort of relationship then pregnancy was always possible... there was limited choice in the matter but now things have changed dramatically... women have the choice and complete control of their fertility, if they chose to use it... and men just have go with it... which is so fundamental a change that I'm amazed that it isn't acknowledged more... so men are now making their choice in a different way .. and rather than selecting a partner because of other needs the paramount choice is one of potential fertility....men seem to want babies more than previously acknowledged...

For the first time ever I have to say I am thankful for existence of The House of Lords!!!!!!!!!! Amazingly I completley endorse their holding up of the Terrorist Bill and am utterly in favour of the sunset clause and feel that the Government is totally totally wrong in it's actions. Tony Blair's assertion that, without this bill going through, the country will be set upon immediatley by a new breed of terrorism is nothing short of emotional blackmail more closely aligned to George Bush's rhetoric than any Labour PM should ever be!!!

Busy weekend ahead, industrial climbing! Party in Hoxton, beer in Shoreditch, a visit to Decathlon in Canada Water, catching up with friends!!! and a day off on Monday!!! Last week at the university next week...

lost the ability to walk downstairs!!! at the moment I am looking like either a hobbled convict or a feeble 98 year old making a last ditch attempt at independence!! It's not a good look at all! So the weekend was spent sailing but more of that later....
Went to see Sideways on thursday and thoroughly enjoyed the film, even if it was about two appalling unattractive characters.... it was very very amusing and you actually found sympathy growing for the depressive unpublished writer Miles! It was set in Californian wine country and the scenery looked as delicious as the descriptions of the wine .... I haven't actually laughed out loud in a cinema as often as I did for this film, and despite the brief story line, the awful characters and the unguessable ending it was a warm and delightful film!?

Then friday another Darwin Lecture in the Conflict series...this time it was Willy Brown, Master of Darwin and someone I have heard speak before... this was actually a vast improvement on Kate Adie as he gave a coherent and fascinating talk on the rise and fall of trade unionism, with only the merest glimmer of hope for the future world in the newly arisen development of ethical trading/fair trade consumerism... interesting!

So saturday I had to force myself out of bed... had the startings of a cold and I felt really heavy and tired.... stuffed massive amount of clothes in a backpack, put an even massively larger amount on and headed for Mepal..... sort of dreaded it really... but of course once we were out on the water I utterly loved it.... even when it snowed!!! Admittedly the time that the boat, a Wayfarer, nearly capsized my heart pinged into fear mode, but god it was good.... the lake isn't big so it sort of felt that as soon as you tacked you had to tack again but by sunday afternoon my brain had taught my hands to shift the tiller and rope (whoops I mean sheet)each turn and we were racing! Probably not good spectator sport as we fluffled up one tack after another but fun to be doing!!

saturday evening C kindly cooked pasta and afterwards we headed out to see The Life Aquatic.... an intrigueing film, decidedly odd but very amusing, wonderful music and hilarious 70's detailing, loved the addidas trainers!!!and the red hats!!!!! definitely a film to see again as I feel I missed sooooo much of what was going on.....

Becoming more and more concerned about what is happening in this country. It has been bad enough with the Americans claiming independence from International law and the goings on in Guantanamo have been very very scary but there's stuff afoot here in the UK that seems to highlight a fundametal change in our supposedly democratic country. Going through Parliament at the moment is a bill that precludes the natural right of any citizen a recourse to the courts and a fair trial, which is so fundamental to what is right and proper about our judicial system that it makes a mockery of what should be a true democracy, a democracy that has taken hundreds of years to develop! Even simple, and non-violent, street protests are under threat! It looks like soon if I hand out a Greenpeace leaflet giving information to a couple of people whilst on the street I will be committing an illegal act! It is getting very very scary!