M. Willis Monroe

We have baby foxes in our garden. I was watering my plants and the water ran down the wall into the garden below when these two cubs came out to lick the water. The next day I saw three cubs playing in the garden. I think this explains the persistent fox sounds I’ve been hearing at night.

Last Thursday I did some work for SOAS at a university fair at a private boarding school north of London. It wasn’t quite the right crowd for SOAS. I think I talked to a total of four people over the whole event. But I was particularly amazed at this school and I loved their slogan “Successful careers start at the top”.

Last weeks Pub Quiz was a hoot. Chris the barman bought balloons and made little baggies for all the teams with enclosed instructions. Everyone had a blast these were the two winners, we had them explain the pieces on the spot. Everyone shared in the Treasure Chest afterwards. This week is the last Pub Quiz of the year and my last at SOAS. I’m going to miss it, this past year has been particularly fun.

On Saturday Anna, Holly, Esther, Maria and I went to the Barbican to hear the LSO’s woodwinds chamber orchestra. It was very nice. I’d never been to the Barbican before; it’s an amazing building very well designed and quite pretty. Plus the tickets were five pounds thanks to Anna so it was more than worth it. I’d love to go there more often.

In other news I’ve applied for the Residency Manager position at the Beacon Hill Friends House. It would really be the perfect situation for next year. Hopefully I’ll be interning at the MFA two days a week and living and working at the Friends House the rest of the week.

In terms of right now I’m in the midst of exam revision of dissertation research. I have two exams in two and three weeks. My parents are coming in one and a half weeks. I’m going to Paris at the end of May. My dissertation has to be finished before mid-July when I head off to Turkey to start digging again.

I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of drawing on my window before.

I just received and excellent piece of spam. Someone remarked a while ago on how spamming companies were starting to incorporate literature and other texts into their messages just to try and fool spam filters into thinking it was a legitimate e-mail:

It in my wallet. Sir george looked up at me with in the senate,
and perhaps in the house of representatives feelest the
influence of sexual desire. I am a when finished would be
on a level with an adjacent and narada and parvata and sudhanwa
and ekata priest to pray for them in a dead language which
biojibjiboos to heaven he lives in the company of soma’s daughters.
there being no jantleman resident in it, nor near and daughters
he possessed, with inevitable questioning purity and exquisite
delicacy. Finding in me no hari, the lord of the universe,
brahma said these apologies, and the sketch from thimble
island, areaaabkhjml cutting down a forest with an axe. If the
king sabha is unquestionably the foremost in the world subjects
to bear. Wherefore the five periods set.

I especially like the first two and last two sentences.

I was quite late to meeting on Sunday and didn’t get to enjoy worship as much I would’ve liked (blame it on the snowy roads). So I decided to try coming to Wednesday meeting. I cycled over after coming back from working in the library. Initially it was just three of us, later a fourth member came. Worship was very nice though. We met in the small library with a candle in the middle, the character of the light changed dramatically and by the end we were all illuminated by the single candle. I fell asleep a bit, worshiped a bit, thought about my essays a bit and just enjoyed the silence. Afterwards we went to a pub for a drink and had some really great conversation.

Last weekend it snowed and before that Anna and I went to Borough Market. I’m waiting till I have a house and income and then I’ll shop at Borough Market; it’s all too expensive and tasty.

The Oven

Three weeks ago was Easter. I went up to Peter’s for Easter Sunday and had a very nice time with his family. Later I met up with Anna in Long Hanborough to see where her sister and her boyfriend are working at a pub. We then took the train back to Birmingham and then two days later on to Pembrokshire. We stayed in Wales till Saturday hiking everyday and eating big meals with family. I did some more work on my underground oven. I started building a woven fence from saplings around the edge of the pit. Saturday we drove back to Birmingham with her parents. And Sunday we took the train back to London.

The Welsh Sea was not happy on Saturday

I guess I never wrote about my previous trip down to Wales in February. It was very nice as well; that’s when I started this oven project. There is a very nice coastal hiking path (called the Coast Path) It’s very beautiful.

Dotted along the coast are remains of old Iron Age forts. I’ve been meaning to go to the Institute of Archaeology and dig out some field reports on Pembrokeshire archaeological digs and read more about the forts. Apparently the dean of St. Davids is quite an archaeology buff.

Here’s some shopping I did this past week at Yaşar Halim. I’m quite busy at the moment writing two essays for Monday. One is on the Anitta Text and the other is on an Old Assyrian diplomatic letter between pre-Hittite rulers of Anatolia (see Kültepe). After finishing these two essay I’ll be much more relaxed.