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Thursday 27 May 2010

My studies and his new life

I have just finished my final assignment for the first year of Open University - it feels rather strange that I now have a long summer holiday with no studies until October when I start 'Exploring Psychology'.  I have pretty much decided that social order is the direction that interests me but I still have another year to decide on my final degree.  

This 'year' (ie. 9 months) feels as though it has gone both quickly and slowly.  Last September Mr H was home from his year's placement in Scotland and I was just about to start OU.  Now I am just finishing my first year, he is taking his last exams for his degree and about to move back to Scotland again for full time permanent work. The next couple of months are going to be like a re-run of summer 2008 only different - deciding what he's going to take and what is going to stay here; feeling fine interspersed with wobbly moments; stocking up on writing paper; excitement about his new career mixed with questions about my own career future. 

We have previously talked about one day moving to Scotland; but the other evening as we sat on our verandah looking at the garden we agreed that we can't ever imagine wanting to leave this house. We have lived here almost 20 years and have created what it now is. We can see ourselves keeping it and having another place in Scotland... who knows.

Interesting times lie ahead!

Sunday 9 May 2010

Friendship... by Dylan Thomas

As a not-too-distant relation of Dylan Thomas, I make no apology for quoting here an extract from one of his letters, which I rather like:

"Shall I give you a lecture on Norman? .... all Norman needs from a friend is friendship, and friendship, to him, is only acquaintanceship that has gone on for sufficiently long. He has never tried a friend's friendship to the full, is ignorant to the extent to which real friendship can be tried; and, therefore, when his own friendship is tried, it fails. It fails through his lack of experience: he can open his heart to let lots of people in, but he can't open it out altogether for one person: he covers his heart with half-friends to conceal it's nakedness from the advances of a whole friend: he doesn't understand that a real friend is always naked, that a real friend doesn't have to undress but that he just has no clothes to wear in front of him,... He can't understand that people are bound together because of what they give out to each other, not because of what they offer to each other (and a companion is always offering.. while a friend is giving out all the real, warm things)."