Weekend...

[juliet]

Pete & I have just got back from an epic 4-hr trip to John Lewis which involved buying lights, a kettle, and curtain material; and creating a possible-things-to-buy list covering rather a lot more.

[falls over splat]

I do approve of their 'customer collection' thing which means that you can buy something & send it off to the Customer Collection dept, & then pick it up on your way out. Rather than having to drag stuff around with you.

Yesterday I got up hideously early to go to Colindale to teach, but thankfully less hideously early than I expected due to the splendid Dr Phil giving me a lift. Hurrah. Was somewhat nervous about the day - doing a Philosophy of Mind course with a group of 12 10-13 yr olds - but in fact it went really, really well. The kids were interested in what we were doing & in general engaged with it & really tried to give things some thought. Some of 'em were, of course, doing better than others (one kid in particular was *way* ahead of everyone else - at the end he said to me "I'm really glad that I'm not mad for thinking about this stuff - if I talk about any of this to my friends at school they just look at me funny". I have suggested he try going on one of the residential courses as I think he'd get on really well); but that's to be expected & the important point was that they were giving it a decent try.

So after 6 hrs of that (we had breaks & lunch, but I was the only adult present so was on-duty for the duration) I was simultaneously enormously hyper (because it's *really good fun* doing this sort of teaching when it goes well) and absolutely knackered :-)

Arrived home to find that Pete had successfully returned from the Far Wilds of Florida, which was entirely splendid news :-) So there was much snuggling to catch up on. Constructed dinner, chatted to beingjdc for a bit when he dropped round, & then headed down to Balham for a swift half with Mike, Rich & Mark (friends from college). Haven't seen them in *ages* (well, other than Mark, who was down for Nick Cave a couple of weeks back) & it was really good to be able to catch up. The pub had a late licence, but we bailed around closing time anyway due to both being shattered. (I suspect the lads didn't last much longer; it was getting very loud indeed in there, & there were many drunk people trying to dance & suchlike).

And, yes, today = John Lewis. Argh.

In further house update: the reason we now feel able to go out & spend vast sums of money on house-apparatus is that we exchanged on Friday, hurrah! Completion date is next Friday. Meep.

Comments

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

> I do approve of their 'customer collection' thing

Sadly though they don't seem to stock laptops any more so you can't collect it on the same day as you pay for it. (I just bought a Powerbook from them and am waiting for it to be delivered)

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on exchanging!

[jhg.livejournal.com]

Wow! It's my opinion that everyone should do some sort of philosophy at school. The independent thinking stance makes an excellent counterpoint to 13-odd years of being told to shut up and copy this down.


J

[juliet]

[strongly agrees]

I was at pains to point out at the start of the day that there are no right answers - anything is OK as long as you can try to justify it. A couple of them were kind of surprised by that initially, but they all got into it pretty quickly. One lad, who'd been pretty quiet throughout & who I wasn't sure how much he was getting out of it, said at the end that the 'questions without answers' aspect was what he'd liked best.

[juliet]

Thank you!