AWOL

I am alive. Some of you will already know this of course. Anyway. I live, I breathe, I sleep. No updates for a while due to everything fun being blocked at school (grrr) and actually not having much to say. Oh and the internet is dodgy at home and I got bored of Blogger crashing!!

News:

Loving new job, but finding it very tiring. Roll on half term!!!

Phil and I officially move in together in two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Watch this space....

Am in two plays at the moment, "Treasure Island" with Ottershaw Players and "Little Red Riding Hood" with Byfleet Players. Consequently I spend most of my time trying to remember which play I'm doing at the time and which lines I'm supposed to say...

Will be back in half term I promise!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please leave a message after the tone....

Clare is not available to blog right now, but will be back, after 14th September (but probably before) when dissertation hell is finished....

Due to lack of time, and rising stress levels, I seem to have neglected this blog. I am very sorry, as I still really enjoy reading everyone else’s. I may not be able to participate in the Photo Hunt this week as I am seriously stressed about work (dissertation due in oh not long enough days) and also can’t think of a suitable picture.

Instead I will leave this picture with you, for all the women who read this (again, sorry for 3 blokes who read this blog), which I received through email a few months ago. It made me chuckle, and I printed it out – it’s now on my wall. (You may have to click on it to read it better...)

Also, here is a picture of little Kieran George Hames, who was born on 29^th August at 10:33, weighing 9lbs. Kieran is the son of my friend Zanna (whose purple nails you can see in the picture!), who I went to school with.

Stress....

I now have three documents open. In total I have written 1,342 words. Unfortunately it's about as dysfluent (it's a word, honestly) as some of my stammerers. I'm sort of writing things down as I find them, and then hoping I can make it hang together at some point. It's terrible, I hate it, and I cried a lot earlier. But hey.

I found this poem from Lewis Carroll (a stutterer - did you know the character of the Dodo was based on the man himself?) which amused me:

Learn well your grammar,
And never stammer,
Write well and neatly,
And sing most sweetly,
…Drink tea, not coffee;
Never eat toffy.
Eat bread with butter.
Once more, don't stutter.

-from Rules and Regulations

Now I'm trying to work out where I can slip it into my project...

Writer's Block

I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.

OSCAR WILDE

I cannot think of anything more to write. I have written about stammering. I have written a little about Conversation Analysis. I have written about why we should look at stammering in the light of Conversation Analysis techniques and theories.

I am bashing my head against a brick wall.

With apologies to Helen Fielding (and Bridget Jones)

Cups of tea: 3 large (not v.good)

Cups of coffee: 1 large (not v.good)

Glasses of water: 0 (very not v.good)

Lines of Chocolate Eaten: 3 (not good, but choc is fair-trade and therefore allowed?)

Cookies eaten: 2 (ok, except that the only other thing I’ve eaten is 2 slices of toast)

Work done: minimal (very not v.good – deadline is fast approaching)

Naps: 45 mins (awful, bad, terrible)

Blogs read: numerous (very very very bad)

Blog articles written: 3

Television watched: none (very good!)

Games of Solitaire: none (very good!)

Please stop writing interesting blog articles. In the last 2 days I have found 4 more people I want to read on a regular basis. I am never going to get my thesis done.