Not a great night's sleep last night - I spent the last ten minutes before leaving going back in and out of the room picking up various things I'd forgotten and still managed to leave my wallet in the flat. I know who my friends are.
We ate at the little Chinese counter/restaurant in the supermarket, where I had a huge plate of noodles with chicken, beansprouts and other vegetables for 4 Euro. There's almost no point in doing your own food with that and the equally reasonable salad bar.
Doing some reading for the last module on the MA - strange to think that the taught part will be over in 6 months. The first set of background reading has been giving me pause - not so much for thought, although there is that too, but for vocabulary.
I've had to look up etiolated (becoming pale and weak), late Ptolemaic effort (no idea), hypostatize (make into a distinct substance; conceive of or treat as an existing being), allomorphism (different forms of the same thing?), apostate (someone who renounces a religion or faith), miscegenation (mixing or blending, esp. of races) and Barmecide feast (no idea). Combined with the trip to the Botanic Gardens, where I can't actually name anything, it's rather humbling.
I also came across the delightful quote by socialist Viktor Adler "Absolutismus gemildert durch Schlamperei" (Absolutism tempered by slovenliness). I'm sure there are many more wonderful quotes out there. I haven't been reading much of any quality for some time. The author of the piece I'm reading also describes The Man Without Qualities as "the great comic novel of our time". His own book isn't that old, revised edition of 1991, but has that lovely old-world slightly cranky yet achingly funny and painfully true professor tone to it.
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