More things I love about Lampeter

[theatokos]

We live under a rock. With our internet time so public and infrequent, we hardly check the news. Today I see (thanks to Facebook status updates, at least they're good for something!) that Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Really?! That seems absurd to me. And NASA is crashing shit on the moon. I used to be a news junkie, but it feels good getting a media break.


Things I love about Lampeter:
*Lace curtains - Most houses have two sets of curtains, one set of lace and one other heavier set. The lace are always drawn. They let light in and you can see out, but it's very hard to see in. The curtains make even a rundown place look just a little classier. Very nice.

*I live next to a cemetery. Have I said that? The biggest cemetery in town is my immediate neighbor. So cool. Our house also is beloved by spiders. This too is really neat. Inside, outside, all different kinds. None of them are very big (well, a few outside are fat) and none are poisonous. I love it. It seems a good omen, if for nothing else than for the environment, indicating a rich biosphere.

*Again, the grass fed meat and dairy are amazing.

*This place is so small that I can leave my house 5 minutes before I have to be somewhere and I can walk there and be on time.

*When I walk to my office I pass a large field that has two pony paddocks and four ponies. At the bottom of the hill, next to the paddocks, is a large childrens'/picnic park with a gorsedd (standing stone circle) that modern Welsh Druids built. It's really beautiful.

*Autumn has fully set in. I've been meaning to comment on it for two weeks, but in the last few days the temperature has dropped and the mornings have been frosty. It's so gorgeous here: greens, greys, golds.

*I love the culture of tea here. The Chinese students in the offices meet for tea every morning at 10.30. I love going over to people's houses and being offered tea. 'I'll go and put the kettle on.' So cozy and hospitable!

*The local public library is wonderful. One librarian in particular is a doll. I mentioned that there is a book coming out at the end of the month, the third in a young adult trilogy (Nancy Farmer's Sea of Trolls trilogy) and was the library going to carry it? No, but she said she'd order it for me.... and well, we can't have the third if the library doesn't have the first two, right?

*The grey streak in the front of my hair is growing daily. It's fabulous. Although I actually got carded at the store when I bought a bottle of wine last week. They card if they think you look under 25. !! That hasn't happened to me in a long time....

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Books I have read:
*Every single Sookie Stackhouse book and short story.
*The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - so good!
*The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters' latest. Ok.
*The Little Prince - how is this a classic? It's banal.

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Also, I don't know what the Heavens want from us, but clearly it's to go bankrupt. Our internet is scheduled to click on next Friday. What arrived in the mail this morning? A notice from the power company that next Friday the area will need maintenance and power will be off all day. I just had to laugh out loud.

Comments

[honeyrider.livejournal.com]

*The Little Prince - how is this a classic? It's banal.

:O this is my favorite book of all time. really? banal?

[ewigweibliche.livejournal.com]

Really? Favorite of all time? I can see why it's sort of cute, but it feels like it's trying waaaaay too hard to remind us to be childlike. Plus, the prince's rose as the only woman character (ok, I'm only 75% of the way through) is super annoying and slightly offensive. It's clearly a book by a man, about a boy for boy children, written during a time when this was the norm. But still.

What do you love about it? So many people adore this book, so perhaps I'm missing something?

I'm also one of the few people I know who can't stand The Catcher in the Rye, maybe this is another of those books for me.

[seaivy.livejournal.com]

When I was in Grad School (long ago) The Little Prince was being viewed as actually written for adults and a metaphor. Lots of papers were written about it. There were a couple of books written about St Exuperey, one exploring his "spiritual perspective" as I recall.

[ewigweibliche.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can tell it's all metaphor and allegory and it feels so heavy handed to me. And the only female is a naive and vain, delicate rose? Blech.

[seaivy.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I don't remember much of it lol. We had a seminar in Grad school in which we had to take a popular cultural work and critique it as a Christian allegory. My room mate did The Little Prince. I remember her being almost obsessed with it. I wasn't very taken with it which is why I remember so little.

There was a popular book The Gospel According to Peanuts. I did my paper as a refutation and correction to some of the theology in that book. I have to admit that my professor liked it so much he read it to his under grad class.

Tea!!!

[lopezuna.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOLYYYsFqcI

[bloodfever.livejournal.com]

I think the Obama thing is a bit premature!

[readthisandweep.livejournal.com]

Lace curtains... make even a rundown place look just a little classier.

In this class~ridden society (yes, come on Brits, own up, we so still are!) net curtains are considered terribly working~class! This comment cracked me up! Fabulous that an American can turn net curtains into a thing of beauty & our horrible snobbery on it's head!

I don't like them because I can't see out (you really can't) & they make me feel claustrophobic. And they go yellow quite quickly & need constant washing. Too much like unecessary hard work for me ;)

Sorry about all the difficulties you're having & hope things settle soon. Not having the internet connected must be the worst ~ but glad to know you have met Kate, our wonderful librarian.

Haven't read The Little Prince so can't comment but agree with you about The Catcher in the Rye. 100%!

[ewigweibliche.livejournal.com]

Ha! That is too funny about the curtains. I certainly think them really lovely. I'll have to keep the washing of them in mind.

In spite of all the set backs and obstacles, we're still so happy to be here. Lampeter is wonderful.

[readthisandweep.livejournal.com]

*Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Really?! That seems absurd to me. And NASA is crashing shit on the moon.

Quite.

[hrafntinna.livejournal.com]

Lace-curtain Welsh as well as lace-curtain Irish? (And I mean no disrespect with those phrases.) All the basement apartments in old town Reykjavík have these two. It's cosy and grandmotherly to my eye, and in a basement flat, necessary for privacy.

[ewigweibliche.livejournal.com]

Lace-curtain Welsh as well as lace-curtain Irish?

I don't know what you mean by this. So no disrespect taken!

[hrafntinna.livejournal.com]

Lace-curtain Irish refers to, depending on who you ask, poor Irish trying to look respectable despite living in shanties by hanging a little lace in the window or upwardly striving Irish imitating their English neighbors. I'm not sure it's a kind label either way, but I was amused to hear that it might be applied to the Welsh as well.