A love of language

It was an In Service day at school today and I wore my new "Yes" t shirt, which was much admired. I don't usually enjoy In Service days because I actually miss the pupils, and today was no exception. Too many meetings and too quiet! However we had a nice chat at lunch time and I got some useful work done. I'm worried about what is going to happen on 30th November which is probably going to be a day of Industrial Action. I hope I don't have to make any difficult decisions, I have never needed to go on strike. After tea James, Davie and I watched another episode of Stephen Fry's "Planet Word", this one was about accents and dialects and was very interesting, maybe I should have studied Linguistics! At University I studied English Language (which is different from English Literature, which I also studied) for a year and I loved it - all about the history of language and how it works. I remember writing an essay about different words for "smell" such as "stench", "stink", "odour", "scent", "perfume" - I think there were twelve words - and how their origins and development were linked to their different meanings; I found it fascinating and ended up getting a Merit! I have finished reading "Tiger Hills" by Sarita Mandanna which was a good read, and I'm planning to download some more books that I have been recommended to my ereader. Ally went to Disabled Scouts; he has good predictions from school for his A Levels and I think he is working very well this session. Jamie phoned for a chat and so did Jennifer, it was nice to talk to both of them. A pleasant evening.