Wake me up before September ends

The new students have arrived and the campus was buzzing away like an agitated bumble bee. Although the miserable weather had been unwelcoming, it must have been a very exciting adventure for them. I bet for some of them, this must have been the first time away from home. Welcome and I really wished them the very best.

My first encounter with these new students was supposed to be last Monday. Two whole students had registered for a tour of the library which happened to be on my schedule. This was to be the first session and all my colleagues were looking forward to my report. Did they turn up? Nada, zilch, non!!! What a waste of my time. But, I don’t blame. They were still trying to find their way…

I’m also glad no one turned up because the library was freezing. There was a district heating shut-down for maintenance works. Not a good welcoming sign especially for new students to a cold library. Portable heaters were distributed to keep us warm which really didn’t help us on the ground floor.

Later that evening, Babe and I were invited for an Eid dinner at SR’s house. But Babe couldn’t make it cos he was feeling sick so I went alone. Thankfully, she lived nearby and it was about a 30 minute walk. When I arrived, SR and family were watching a taped Eid programme, specially sent from Malaysia. I was also introduced to her housemate, DJ, a student at the university.

The table was groaning with a delicious Malay banquet, There was butter rice, sweet-sour chicken, vegetable curry, Mee Hailam and loads and loads of home-made Eid cookies. Yum..Yum…:-) We’d a lovely time demolishing the lovely meal, talking in Manglish, a delightful combination of Malay and English. I brought a Malay sweetmeat, Seri Muka, which went down well.

Around 8.30pm, I bade them goodnight. It was very thoughtful of SR to pack a lot of food for us, especially for Babe. Thank you so much. That is something about Malay hospitality. We never go to someone’s house empty handed and in return you never go home empty-handed too. I guess the saying, the more you give, the more you receive do have some truth in it.

On Tuesday, I took the bus to work cos Babe was too ill to drive. There was a mad dash to find coins for the fare. And the bus-fare had gone up again to £3.20. It seemed that everytime I took the bus, the fare had increased. A lot of school children got up the bus and they prefer to crowd near the front with these huge school-bags strapped on their back.

I was nearly hit several times on my face from these bags. Everytime someone wants to get off the bus, they asked these kids to move so that they can get through. Guess what, when they turned their body, these heavy bags will also turn and often bashing those who were sitting down. Sheesh…I did asked them to move back but they just ignore me…

On my second bus trip, from Pool Meadow to the university, a blonde sat beside me talking on her mobile. You wouldn’t believe what happened. She was paying her bills using her credit card and saying and repeating the numbers out loud. The bus was packed and I bet everyone could hear them. How careless was that?

I also pitied those who were trying to get the bus from the centre of Earlsdon onwards. The bus was  full and did not stop to pick any passengers at all after this route. And most of the old students haven’t even arrived yet. Hopefully, the Student Union realised this and demand more buses for this route.

This was also why, RC, who lived in Earlsdon cycled to work. She’d missed the bus several times and was late for work. I’d 2 training sessions with her last week. One was on standing orders and the other on British official and European Union publications. She might be doing the standing orders but not the later. But, it would be good for her to know the different materials that we have in the library, their processes and work-flow.

It was such a nice day on Wednesday that I decided to check out the cygnets at Lakeside. The 5 of them were doing well, still gawky teenagers. Their parents were around, keeping a watchful eye from a distance. I wonder how on earth they were going to survive in the wild once their parents chase them away. Just look at them being hand-fed by these ladies. They rushed to the banks as soon as they saw the ladies coming…

I continued my walk around the lake. The water-level was too high for the wagtails to be feeding on the banks. I could hear their cries all over the place. It was a very nice surprise to see these 2 dragon-flies. They took advantage of the warm, sunny afternoon to make sweet love. Don’t blame them. 

I ended the week by attending the open staff meeting. What’s on the agenda? Off course, everyone wanted to know whether they still have a job next year. So far, this academic year 2010/2011, we can breathe. The previous cull of 5% had saved us. After that, depends on the budget in October. Fingers and toes double-crossed, we’ll be ok.

The rest were the usual administrative stuff like the new staff introductions, the outcomes from the PS action group and on the opening date of the newly-renovated floor 5. LMG also planned to have an open door policy. So before this everyone was thinking, what was their policy??? We just have to wait and see.

The trees were beginning to change colour. I’m starting my usual ‘oohing’ and ’aahing’ at how lovely the leaves were. There were plenty of asking Babe to slow down cos I need to check out that tree or admiring another tree as the most beautiful tree I’d ever seen. And it’s not even fully Autumn yet. Couldn’t wait for another leaf-peeping walkabout :-)

Before I close the month of September, do check this website. It analyses how old the blogger is. My heart dropped when it analysed me as between 65 and 100. WTF….