Tomorrow I have a speaking exam to assess and then my own candidates to administer - no teaching.
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| Look at my allotment! I could dig it forever without making much impression! |
Monday 29 June 2015
This is exam week
This is the exam week and I went into it thinking - hoorah! no preparation. But to my astonishment after being in the LRC for about half an hour looking at nothing much, I suddenly feel absolutely quaking with nerves for my students. How to manage stress? Well, I intend to spend Wednesday morning digging up the allotment. Nothing could be better for dealing with pointless stress. And after that I've got the exam marking. Actually, it was the thought of the marking that suddenly had me quaking.
Tomorrow I have a speaking exam to assess and then my own candidates to administer - no teaching.
Tomorrow I have a speaking exam to assess and then my own candidates to administer - no teaching.
Sunday 21 June 2015
And Finally, The Diary of Virginia Woolf Vol 1
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| It has completely fallen apart. |
Virginia Woolf's servant thing
Poor V really needs her servants but on the other hand she can't stand them. So from time to time the whole servant questions pops up in her diary and gives her a great deal of stress because it is not in VW's nature to make her own cups of tea - or anything. The two in question are called Lottie and Nelly.
Sunday 28th September 1919 The Strike
Cut off as we are from all human intercourse [they were at Rodmell] I cannot even be sure of the date. It is said that the entire railways of England are on strike; the miners, & perhaps the transport workers, are with them. This happened yesterday morning, or rather late the night before; & though we got our papers through late in the evening, we are without posts. The signalman gave us some information yesterday & believes himself to be striking against a reduction of 14/- a week in his wages. His strike pay comes to 16/- a week.
Tuesday 30th Sept
The papers are just in, shrunk to single sheets, & untrustworthy in their extreme - Daily Mail and Herald; truthful in the middle perhaps, Daily News. So far nothing but persistent hostility on both sides; no overtures.
Weds 1 October
The strike remains, so far as we can judge, the same. On the other hand, rumours of the strike change from hour to hour. A post came this morning. The post man is reported to say that all trains are running as usual. The signal man appears. situation unchanged, much depressed.
We went down to the signal man with books & offers of help.
Tues 7th October
[Hogarth House] The 'docile herds' whom I describe on Peace Day are not so deluded after all. they have held the country up for eleven days I think. We did a little to support them too, & kept one man on strike who would have gone back without our pound. [Probs the signalman.] There's a private strike to record too. [Judging by the next bit, she meant the servants went on strike.] I should like to write philosophically & analyse what is no doubt a sign of the times. ... Dear old Nelly came in shyly like a schoolgirl & asked to apologise last night; & I see us settled for life, with Hogarth, Monk's House, & two domestics.
[I can't help but feel that Nelly just wanted to take the piss at this point - she was probably thinking that if the Woolfs supported the strikers she and Lottie would go on strike and see if they supported that. I mean, it is funny!!! And poor VW just can't see it at all.]
Friday 28 November
It was the dinner parties that led Nelly to give notice last Monday. She did it in a tentative boastful way, as if to show off to someone behind the scenes which makes me think she would be glad now to change her mind. She would at this moment if I asked her. But on the whole I'm not going to ask her. ... we both [V and Leonard] incline to try a new system of dailies, which never ceases to attract us & what with Rodmell & a lower income... No one could be nicer than Nelly, for long stretches; at this moment she gives Angelica her bath, & is perfectly friendly & considerate to me...But the fault is more in the system of keeping two young women chained in a kitchen to laze & work & suck their life from two in the drawing room than in her character or in mine.
September 1918 : By rights Lottie should have a whole chapter to herself at this point; but to live through those things is unpleasant enough without reviving them here. At this moment owing to what she overheard L. say to me before breakfast [oh do tell what Leonard said!], I am uncertain whether we have 2 servants or not, & to tell the truth, completely indifferent, such is the relief of being without them for a fortnight. Considering their unimportance [She is so arrogant about them! this is the real problem: they are important to her but she can't bear that fact] they must be compared to flies in the eye for the discomfort they produce in spite of being so small. [I hope that piece of spite made her feel better.] But let us change the subject.
Sunday 28th September 1919 The Strike
Cut off as we are from all human intercourse [they were at Rodmell] I cannot even be sure of the date. It is said that the entire railways of England are on strike; the miners, & perhaps the transport workers, are with them. This happened yesterday morning, or rather late the night before; & though we got our papers through late in the evening, we are without posts. The signalman gave us some information yesterday & believes himself to be striking against a reduction of 14/- a week in his wages. His strike pay comes to 16/- a week.
Tuesday 30th Sept
The papers are just in, shrunk to single sheets, & untrustworthy in their extreme - Daily Mail and Herald; truthful in the middle perhaps, Daily News. So far nothing but persistent hostility on both sides; no overtures.
Weds 1 October
The strike remains, so far as we can judge, the same. On the other hand, rumours of the strike change from hour to hour. A post came this morning. The post man is reported to say that all trains are running as usual. The signal man appears. situation unchanged, much depressed.
We went down to the signal man with books & offers of help.
Tues 7th October
[Hogarth House] The 'docile herds' whom I describe on Peace Day are not so deluded after all. they have held the country up for eleven days I think. We did a little to support them too, & kept one man on strike who would have gone back without our pound. [Probs the signalman.] There's a private strike to record too. [Judging by the next bit, she meant the servants went on strike.] I should like to write philosophically & analyse what is no doubt a sign of the times. ... Dear old Nelly came in shyly like a schoolgirl & asked to apologise last night; & I see us settled for life, with Hogarth, Monk's House, & two domestics.
[I can't help but feel that Nelly just wanted to take the piss at this point - she was probably thinking that if the Woolfs supported the strikers she and Lottie would go on strike and see if they supported that. I mean, it is funny!!! And poor VW just can't see it at all.]
Friday 28 November
It was the dinner parties that led Nelly to give notice last Monday. She did it in a tentative boastful way, as if to show off to someone behind the scenes which makes me think she would be glad now to change her mind. She would at this moment if I asked her. But on the whole I'm not going to ask her. ... we both [V and Leonard] incline to try a new system of dailies, which never ceases to attract us & what with Rodmell & a lower income... No one could be nicer than Nelly, for long stretches; at this moment she gives Angelica her bath, & is perfectly friendly & considerate to me...But the fault is more in the system of keeping two young women chained in a kitchen to laze & work & suck their life from two in the drawing room than in her character or in mine.
Saturday 20 June 2015
The end of the Great War, recorded by Virginia Woolf
Before I go on to "To the Lighthouse" I want to write about this. This is where Virginia W, in her diary, starts to write for posterity, because she knew she was living in Interesting Times. It's also rather sickening, because the troops were fighting right to the very end, even though the war had been won - they had to carry on killing and being killed. This should NEVER happen. Surely a ceasefire could have been called?
Sat 12th October
Whatever we have done this week has this extraordinary background of hope; a tremendously enlarged version of the feeling I can remember as a child as Christmas approached. the Northcliffe papers do all they can to insist upon the indispensability and delight of war. They magnify our victories to make our mouths water for more; they shout with joy when the Germans sink the Irish mail; but they do also show some signs of apprehension that Wilson's terms may be accepted. L. has just come in from Staines with a paper which says, with obvious gloom, that the rumour is that Germany agrees to evacuation. She is not, of course, they add, to be allowed to make any sort of terms.
Tuesday 15th October
I did not think I should so soon have to describe a meeting with a cabinet minister ... Herbert Fisher's visit... was very obviously due to old family affection. ... Was I nervous or proud, or anything but interested & anxious to pick his brains for news? I don't think I felt a moment's agitation. ... he has lost his lean intellectual look; his hollow cheeks are filled; ... the number of deaths in his house caused this perhaps; but I can't help thinking that London life has rid him of his desire to say clever things to undergraduates all the time.
There is now a good prospect of a complete defeat of the German army; Foch says "I have not yet had my battle". Despite the extreme vindictiveness of our press and the French press, Herbert believed that we are going to baulk Foch of his battle, partly because the Germans will accept any terms to avoid it. "Lloyd George has told me again and again that he means to be generous to the Germans. "We want a strong Germany" he says. the Kaiser will probably go.... they've been taught to be brutal. But it hasn't paid. Each one of their crimes has turned out badly. ... it cost us £1,000 to kill a German at the battle of the Somme [1916]; now it costs £3,000. "
... in a little room in Downing Street, where, as he said, the wireless messages are racing in from all over the world, ... where you have to settle off hand questions of enormous difficulty and importance - where the fate of armies does more or less hang upon what two or three elderly gentlemen decide. Herbert thinks there are 2 or 3 geniuses in the cabinet (L. George, Balfour, & possibly Winston Churchill - his definition being that they make everything appear different) & a number of mediocrities.
Friday 18th October
... Wilson's second note came out on Tuesday, in which he used the word 'peradventure'; so far the Germans have not answered. But their Retreat goes on, & last night, beautiful, cloudless, still & moonlit, was to my thinking he first of peace, since one went to bed fairly positive that never again in all our lives need we dread the moonlight. [the irony could break your heart.]
24th October
We took tram to Kingston & there heard the paper boys shouting out about the President's message, which we bought & devoured in the train. The main points are that he is keeping negotiations going, though the Times came out with a great headline "No parley" this morning. He discriminates too, between the German people & the Kaiser; he will consider an armistice with the one but only complete surrender with the other.
...avoiding London, because of the influenza - (we are, by the way, in the midst of a plague unmatched since the Black Death, according to the Times, who seem to tremble lest it may seize upon Lord Northcliffe, & thus precipitate us into peace).
Saturday 9th November
Lord Mayor's day among other things, & one of the two last of war, I suppose. It's just possible that Lottie may bring us news that the armistice is signed within an hour. People buy papers at a great rate; but except for an occasional buzz round a newspaper boy & a number of shop girls provided with the Evening News in the train one feels nothing different in the atmosphere.. the general state perhaps is one of dazed surfeit; here we've had one great relief after another; you hear the paper boys calling out that Turkey has surrendered, or Austria given up, ..
but apparently Katherine Murry had heard someone say "we're giving them everything and getting nothing". Since then it is difficult to see how the most bloodthirsty citizens can squeeze anything more out of Germany.
Monday 11 November
Twenty five minutes ago the guns went off, announcing peace. A siren hooted on the river, They are hooting still. A few people ran to look out of windows. ...so far neither bells nor flags, but the wailing of sirens & intermittent guns.
Tuesday 12 November
...we were both conscious of a restlessness which made it seem natural to be going up to London. Disillusionment began after 10 minutes in the train. A fat slovenly woman in black velvet and feathers with the bad teeth of the poor insisted upon shaking hands with two soldiers ... she was half drunk already, & soon produced a large bottle of beer which she made them drink of; & then she kissed them ...but she and her like possessed London, & alone celebrated peace in their sordid way, staggering up the muddy pavements in the rain, decked with flags themselves, & voluble at sight of other people's flags. The Heavens disapproved and did their utmost to extinguish, but only succeeded in making feathers flop & flags languish. Taxicabs were crowded with whole families, grandmothers and babies, showing off; & yet there was no centre, no form for all this wandering emotion to take. The crowds had nowhere to go, nothing to do; they were in the state of children with too long a holiday. ..there seemed to be no mean between tipsy ribaldry & rather sour disapproval. Besides the discomfort tried every one's temper. it took us from 4 to 6 to get home; standing in queues, every one wet, many shops shut...
Friday 15 November
You can go to London without meeting more than two drunk soldiers; only an occasional crowd blocks the street. In a day or two it will be impossible for a private to threaten to knock out the brains of an officer, as I saw done the other day in Shaftesbury Avenue.
Sat 12th October
Whatever we have done this week has this extraordinary background of hope; a tremendously enlarged version of the feeling I can remember as a child as Christmas approached. the Northcliffe papers do all they can to insist upon the indispensability and delight of war. They magnify our victories to make our mouths water for more; they shout with joy when the Germans sink the Irish mail; but they do also show some signs of apprehension that Wilson's terms may be accepted. L. has just come in from Staines with a paper which says, with obvious gloom, that the rumour is that Germany agrees to evacuation. She is not, of course, they add, to be allowed to make any sort of terms.
Tuesday 15th October
I did not think I should so soon have to describe a meeting with a cabinet minister ... Herbert Fisher's visit... was very obviously due to old family affection. ... Was I nervous or proud, or anything but interested & anxious to pick his brains for news? I don't think I felt a moment's agitation. ... he has lost his lean intellectual look; his hollow cheeks are filled; ... the number of deaths in his house caused this perhaps; but I can't help thinking that London life has rid him of his desire to say clever things to undergraduates all the time.
"We've won the war today" he said at once. " I saw Milner this morning, & he says we shall have peace by Christmas. The Germans have made up their minds they can't fight a retreat...Of course we can't accept their present terms. Why, that would leave them still the greatest military power in Europe. they could begin again in ten years time. But it rests with the French. Lloyd George is going to Paris on Monday; but they are holding out for the evacuation of Alsace Lorraine as a guarantee. We shall probably demand the disarmament of certain regiments too. But we've won the war."
There is now a good prospect of a complete defeat of the German army; Foch says "I have not yet had my battle". Despite the extreme vindictiveness of our press and the French press, Herbert believed that we are going to baulk Foch of his battle, partly because the Germans will accept any terms to avoid it. "Lloyd George has told me again and again that he means to be generous to the Germans. "We want a strong Germany" he says. the Kaiser will probably go.... they've been taught to be brutal. But it hasn't paid. Each one of their crimes has turned out badly. ... it cost us £1,000 to kill a German at the battle of the Somme [1916]; now it costs £3,000. "
... in a little room in Downing Street, where, as he said, the wireless messages are racing in from all over the world, ... where you have to settle off hand questions of enormous difficulty and importance - where the fate of armies does more or less hang upon what two or three elderly gentlemen decide. Herbert thinks there are 2 or 3 geniuses in the cabinet (L. George, Balfour, & possibly Winston Churchill - his definition being that they make everything appear different) & a number of mediocrities.
Friday 18th October
... Wilson's second note came out on Tuesday, in which he used the word 'peradventure'; so far the Germans have not answered. But their Retreat goes on, & last night, beautiful, cloudless, still & moonlit, was to my thinking he first of peace, since one went to bed fairly positive that never again in all our lives need we dread the moonlight. [the irony could break your heart.]
24th October
We took tram to Kingston & there heard the paper boys shouting out about the President's message, which we bought & devoured in the train. The main points are that he is keeping negotiations going, though the Times came out with a great headline "No parley" this morning. He discriminates too, between the German people & the Kaiser; he will consider an armistice with the one but only complete surrender with the other.
...avoiding London, because of the influenza - (we are, by the way, in the midst of a plague unmatched since the Black Death, according to the Times, who seem to tremble lest it may seize upon Lord Northcliffe, & thus precipitate us into peace).
Saturday 9th November
Lord Mayor's day among other things, & one of the two last of war, I suppose. It's just possible that Lottie may bring us news that the armistice is signed within an hour. People buy papers at a great rate; but except for an occasional buzz round a newspaper boy & a number of shop girls provided with the Evening News in the train one feels nothing different in the atmosphere.. the general state perhaps is one of dazed surfeit; here we've had one great relief after another; you hear the paper boys calling out that Turkey has surrendered, or Austria given up, ..
but apparently Katherine Murry had heard someone say "we're giving them everything and getting nothing". Since then it is difficult to see how the most bloodthirsty citizens can squeeze anything more out of Germany.
Monday 11 November
Twenty five minutes ago the guns went off, announcing peace. A siren hooted on the river, They are hooting still. A few people ran to look out of windows. ...so far neither bells nor flags, but the wailing of sirens & intermittent guns.
Tuesday 12 November
...we were both conscious of a restlessness which made it seem natural to be going up to London. Disillusionment began after 10 minutes in the train. A fat slovenly woman in black velvet and feathers with the bad teeth of the poor insisted upon shaking hands with two soldiers ... she was half drunk already, & soon produced a large bottle of beer which she made them drink of; & then she kissed them ...but she and her like possessed London, & alone celebrated peace in their sordid way, staggering up the muddy pavements in the rain, decked with flags themselves, & voluble at sight of other people's flags. The Heavens disapproved and did their utmost to extinguish, but only succeeded in making feathers flop & flags languish. Taxicabs were crowded with whole families, grandmothers and babies, showing off; & yet there was no centre, no form for all this wandering emotion to take. The crowds had nowhere to go, nothing to do; they were in the state of children with too long a holiday. ..there seemed to be no mean between tipsy ribaldry & rather sour disapproval. Besides the discomfort tried every one's temper. it took us from 4 to 6 to get home; standing in queues, every one wet, many shops shut...
Friday 15 November
You can go to London without meeting more than two drunk soldiers; only an occasional crowd blocks the street. In a day or two it will be impossible for a private to threaten to knock out the brains of an officer, as I saw done the other day in Shaftesbury Avenue.
Sunny Afternoon - a five star show
One of the great things about the theatre which one always forgets if you don't go often (we don't go often) is that you can look at someone - stare at someone - for 2 hours if you want to, without it being weird or embarrassing. And in this show there is so much to admire and take in - one's focus can go anywhere on the stage - one tries to look at everything, but in the end the most fascinating thing is this man's face. It is intelligent and unusual and humorous and sensitive and strong - and the fascination is not desire (luckily, I don't have much desire left) but only fascination: you want to know what is truly behind that face; I guess this is charisma. He has a load of charisma, he is a leader.
So it is entirely appropriate that he's playing the leader of a band: Ray Davies of the Kinks, the guy who wrote most of the songs. It's Ray's show and he makes himself the hero of the piece; all the less palatable parts of his life are cut away to depict him as Mr Clean, which we didn't fall for for a second. But this is art; it makes for a dramatic contrast with his brother.
It's a great show. The cast change their clothes constantly and come back on to do more energetic dancing and singing, the singing is superb (the a capella version of "Thank you for the Days" was a highlight) and so is the playing and the atmosphere was great too.
here's a great trailer showing you how exciting and energetic it is.
I don't think John Dalgliesh is like Ray Davies - but at times he is a little like John Lennon, and that's pretty special.
And the show is called Sunny Afternoon, which is the name of the Song That I Can Sing. I can't sing many songs.
So it is entirely appropriate that he's playing the leader of a band: Ray Davies of the Kinks, the guy who wrote most of the songs. It's Ray's show and he makes himself the hero of the piece; all the less palatable parts of his life are cut away to depict him as Mr Clean, which we didn't fall for for a second. But this is art; it makes for a dramatic contrast with his brother.
It's a great show. The cast change their clothes constantly and come back on to do more energetic dancing and singing, the singing is superb (the a capella version of "Thank you for the Days" was a highlight) and so is the playing and the atmosphere was great too.
here's a great trailer showing you how exciting and energetic it is.
I don't think John Dalgliesh is like Ray Davies - but at times he is a little like John Lennon, and that's pretty special.
And the show is called Sunny Afternoon, which is the name of the Song That I Can Sing. I can't sing many songs.
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