Like a Sirens call

Not only was there no disturbance from the Chinese boys due to their departure yesterday, this meaning a good night’s sleep, but I even got to sleep in this morning because I am on a course all day. That’s a good start to the week, particularly given how chaotic things have been of late. My new head of unit starts tomorrow though so maybe it is only a brief respite.

We had absolutely torrential rain yesterday afternoon and the main road flood where I live, which is particularly odd as I live at the top of a hill. I don’t think it means that everyone at the bottom of the hill had drowned or that their cars floated away, but I haven’t set foot outside yet, so maybe I am being overly confident about this. It was a massive thunderstorm and we must have been right at the centre of the storm for a fair bit of time. There is an open fire in the living room where I live, so my landlady lit that all afternoon and evening, partly because it was bit chilly but mainly because you have to dry out the chimney when it rains. So in the middle of August we had a roaring fire blazing, which was actually quite nice, but not really what you expect at this time of year. Open fires in August, floods at tops of hills - I don’t know what they are talking about when they say we should be concerned about climate change.

I don’t really know much about Greek mythology but the story of Orpheus and Eurydice has been flitting through my mind for the last day or so. Basically, Orpheus is a really talented musician and he is in love with Eurydice. Eurydice gets pursued by one of the sons of Apollo and when she tries to escape him, she stands on a snake and dies from the bite. Orpheus is heartbroken so he goes to Hades (where the dead go) and manages to persuade the king of the dead to let Eurydice return with him. Because of Orpheus’ great musical skill his wish is granted but on one condition – that he does not look back at her as they are leaving Hades. Simple enough. Well apparently not because just as they are about to leave Hades, Orpheus looks back and as a result he loses her forever. Then, as if Orpheus hadn’t already gone through enough, his fate was to be torn to shreds by some women *and* after his death the Muses saved his head and he continued to sing forever.

Anyway, maybe it has no greater significance than that I saw it mentioned somewhere - or perhaps I should heed the warning that you shouldn’t look back. Once you’ve set your sight on the goal you should focus on that and all that lies behind is in the past. Who knows? But I will certainly be keeping any dormant musical talent in check just in case. Although if I had to sing forever, I suspect my fate would be even worse than Orpheus’ and I would be singing something like BBC Radio 2’s “Sing Something Simple” which marred every Sunday lunch time as I grew up. All those harmonies... *shudders*