Compostable Kate

I still have doubts about my ability to pass this course, but at least now I am physically managing this uni lark. For the first couple of weeks, if I wasn't at class I was asleep. The physical effort of getting around campus, sitting in my wheelchair all day, and all that concentrating (and confusion) were exhausting. Because I was so tired, and so asleep, I was behind in reading and assignment preparation from the outset. I was also hampered by not having any text books until 2 weeks into the semester (I had no money until then) and my chronic inability to focus or apply myself to studying outside of classes. Now that I am in Week 5, I am much more accustomed to the physical requirements, and my fatigue levels seem to be similar to when I was working (ie tolerable). Although it's come too late to get any of my first assignments in on time (I have extensions for all three; one since submitted), I am at least in a position to try to catch up. I no longer have to sleep until F...

In one of my uni classes we were asked to share a poem we wrote when we were younger. As we were all English Lit graduates, we had all written poetry at some point.  I went to find my poems, feeling sure that I'd find at least a couple of them in my trunk, that reservoir of my memories. I found the right journal immediately, and after flicking through it a bit, found that I had put a small collection of my poems in the back of the book. There were seven, including one that I thought I had lost completely. Just in case I do lose them, I'm going to put them here. Don't feel obliged to read them - or critique them! The Block of Flats The sun is a shimmering wave of heat, Beating relentlessly on the red brick walls Of the block of flats. The still air is thick with humidity; Behind the silence is the hum of traffic, Vast distances away, For a moment there is a slight bustling, A baby cries; a blast of music; a door slams; A slight wind moves paper. The fl...

Yesterday was one of those days. There were good parts, but also bad - and ugly - parts. Bad : Actually getting woken up by my alarm. Perhaps I need to choose a different tone; I currently have a nasty clock radio-type beeping noise. Effective, though. Bad : Couldn't move for all the animals on top of me. But... Good : Lots of furry bodies cuddling up with me. Bad : Having to get up, showered and dressed, breakfasted, lunched and out the door in the freezing cold. Ugly : What I saw in the mirror. Bad : Leaving the house at 6.30am and nearly falling asleep on my drive to uni. Good : Getting extra money out of the vending machine when I got my diet coke. Bad : A bunch of us being told off for being late to the lecture, when we were waiting outside while the students doing a presentation set up. Bad : Having to ask the lecturer for an extension on my assignment. Good : Getting an extension on my assignment. Bad : Feeling like a failure for needing an extension on...

I have up to three cats on my lap/desk/laptop and/or printer, with Miss Pepper the kitten or King Fred attacking anything that comes out of it! The dogs can't decide whether they want to be inside or out! I have foxtel (with extra channels I don't have at home), an extensive DVD collection and Wii for my entertainment. I have twitter and facebook in front of me on the laptop... I can curl up on the very comfy couch for a nap with up to 6 warm furkids. I am a world class procrastinator.... I need to go back to my place (I'm currently house-sitting for most of the aforementioned cats and dogs) to pick up paper and a book I left behind. I'm finding the avalanche of new information overwhelming, not to mention having all three of my first assignments due next week (one on Monday, two on Friday). Oh, and I'm in excrutiating pain from my right hip (the left is also painful as usual, but my right side has been extraordinarily painful for the past week or ...

Top to bottom: JJ, Fudge, Dexter I am house-sitting for Karen and Steve, while they are away on Kaz and Steve's European Adventure , looking after field spaniels Fudge and JJ , and cats Midnight and Miss Pepper Pots. I have brought King Fred of New Farm , and of course there is Dexter . It's fun, being surrounded by - and even covered in - so many furkids. However, there is a fair amount of animal husbandry involved. For starters, Freddy gets carsick, and had pooed within minutes of us leaving home on the way over here, and then spewed a few minutes later. Poor Freddy-Bear. I'm not sure which kitty spewed this morning, but I'm glad that I saw it before I stepped in it!! Happily, there has been no doggy spew, which is much more voluminous.  The only poo I've had to clean up has also come from the cats, and has been contained within the litter trays. There was one oops-someone-missed-the-box wee, but that was in the laundry, so easy to clear up. I don...

My poor arms (and shoulders and hands, for that matter)! So much extra - and unnecessary - pushing around today, trying to find how to get into the lecture room for the extra class I picked up. I tried one way, over a hump and down a ramp, only to find stairs. I went back up and over, and around the building via a narrow and steeply cambred footpath. I went around and around looking for the lift, only to find that there isn't one (QUT's mobility map SUCKS!). I eventually found out that the only wheelchair access to the room is via the steep road beside the building. I could have got down that road, but would never had got back up again (I was having enough trouble on the "flat"). This meant going back up to my car - including a switch-back half way to go and retrieve my keys from where I'd accidentally left them in the first lecture room - which is all uphill, driving around to the building and down the hill to the ramp into the lecture room. However, there ...

I have a task for one of my classes to draw a leaf, and write inside it my favourite poem, book and movie. Drawing the leaf itself was the easy part, although I think it's barely recognisable as a leaf! What is really difficult is choosing just one title from each category. In our very first tutorial, as a get-to-know-you exercise, we were asked to introduce ourselves and tell everyone our favourite book. Not one of us could narrow it down to just one book, so each gave a few examples of what we like to read. To select just one book, I have to think of it as a Desert Island book. If I was stranded on a desert island, and could only have one book for company, what would take? My answer: Laura Ingalls Wilders' "The Long Winter." It's an amazing story of her family's survival through a seven-month blizzard, stranded in their tiny frontier town.  It affected me deeply when I read it, and it still affects me each time I re-read it. I think that, even more tha...

1. Teachers each day will fill lamps, trim the wicks and clean chimneys. 2. Each morning teacher will bring a bucket of water and scuttle of coal for the day's session. 3. Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual taste of the pupils. 4. Men teachers may take an evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they attend church regularly. 5. After ten hours in school, the teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or any other good books. 6. Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed. 7. Every teacher should lay aside from each pay a goodly sum of his earnings for his benefit during his declining years so that he will not become a burden on society. 8. Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty. 9. The teacher who performs his labour fait...

I've had to have a re-jig of my uni units this semester, to include a 2nd core unit that I can't do as easily next This means that I now only have one 8am start, although it's still Monday. It also means that my already Manic Monday is now a bit more so, with an extra hour's lecture in there. This gives me a 3-hour lecture, a one-hour break, then a one-hour lecture backed up immediately with three hours of tutorials (although the tutes are all in the same place). It's only one extra hour added in there, but Monday is already just about killing me. However, I then only have one other 2-hour tute on Tuesdays, and then the rest of the week is classes-free. I can still have my nap in the student bar between classes on Mondays, but it won't be as long! I may also need more boosts from the Lolly Shop....