Sunday, August 19, 2007

Way to go Aphra Behn!

I've just finished watching the DVD, provided by the O.U., of Aphra Behn's The Rover, and what a pleasant surprise it gave me!

I had read of so many complaints about it from other students that I had been putting off watching it, or even reading the script provided - and I wish I hadn't waited so long now!

It probably makes me a very strange person to like it so much, but it amazed me at the subtleties, and the darkness, that Behn showed through her characters - especially for something written by a woman, and in the 17th century - although, when you think about it, she had some of the best writers ever to learn her trade from, and it certainly shows that, despite the downer men had on the subject of women and education at that time, you can't keep a good, and intelligent, woman down! lol

I don't usually like 'modern' plays, where the scenery is minimalist, and the actors play a multitude of parts - but I have to confess that this really emphasised the plot, and themes, of the play, in a way that brought out so many thoughts for me, I don't know whether I'l have the word-count to cover it all.

I've also watched the BBC's 1979 transmission of Shakespeare's Henry V, on DVD, with David Gwillim playing Henry. I've watched the Olivier, and the Brannagh versions of this, but I found this BBC version so much more authentic to the script etc., and thoroughly enjoyed Gwillim's version of Henry.

The production gave a much better idea as to how it would be performed onstage as well, so was very helpful to me in performance matters so, all-in-all, I found it a very entertaining and educational performance.

Now all I've got to do is put all my ideas together for the perfect TMA answer - I wish!

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

I got my results.

Well, I got the results for my TMA06 - 69% - and am very happy with them!
I really had thought I would get a low one on this, but to stay within my average is great.
I'm supposed to be studying the next block at the moment, but a mouth abcess has given me a fever that doesn't seem to want to go away, which means I'm having a job concentrating on anything at the moment.
I saw my dentist today, and he's given me some antibiotics, so I hope they'll start working over the next few days, so I can start thinking clearly enough to study, as I've really been looking forward to studying Shakespeare, which is what we deal with now.
As I've mentioned before, I'm a Jehovah's Witness, and we had our annual 3-day conference in Cardiff last month. It was called 'Follow The Christ' and dealt with everything to do with Jesus.
I didn't manage to get to the conference this year (although nearly 10,000 others did), as my health has been so bad, but friends brought back a new book released, called 'Come Be My Follower', which also is all about Christ, his life, his ministry, and the sacrifice he made in his death.
I find it very hard to put the book down, and have been reading it avidily. I'm loving all the details given about him, and I decided that I'll probably do a series of blogs with a synopsis of each chapter or, if I've the time and energy, I may write the whole thing, a section at a time, as it's far too interesting to leave anything out! lol
I don't know if I'll do the blogs here, or whether to start a completely new Blog just for this, with maybe a link to it from here? I don't know yet, so I guess I'll pray about it, and see what comes up.
Talk to you soon!

Friday, August 03, 2007

On, on, on with the tasks!

Well, I managed to complete TMA 06 in time, with much help from a fabulous tutor, and sent it via the e-system. So now it's a case of waiting for the shoe to drop!
We did Top Girls by Caryl Churchill for this one and, although I enjoyed the play, I found it a little too disjointed to truly enjoy as I might have done - but that's the thing with learning, isn't it? At least you find out what you do and don't like in the literature world!
I've been looking back over my blogs, and I didn't realise just how long I've been stuck in bed until now - it's truly frightening to see how badly my health has gone down!
I've now got 5 things wrong with me, with four of them incurable at the moment - but the symptoms treatable to a certain extent - I've got PolyArthritus (Arthritus in many places), Fibromyalgia (To do with tendons, ligaments, and muscles), Lymphoedema (Damaged Lymph Nodes - with no treatment for it in my area), a blood disorder called Antiphospholipid Syndrome (Commonly known as Sticky Blood Syndrome), and the ever-present Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Now, a least with the Carpal, there's something that can be done, but there has been delays because of the discovery of the blood disorder, so I'm still really hopefull that they will operate in September, so that at least one thing can be sorted!
There were problems because of the blood thing, and I've been told that I'm going to have to have a local anaesthetic for this, as the general anaesthetic would react with the blood problem - it never ends, does it?
On the same topic of health, I haven't mentioned my experiment with the Emu Oil Capsules and the Knotweed Tincture, have I?
Well, as you may have guessed by my lack of comment, it's been a dismal failure - neither of them have done a thing for me, except make me lighter in the purse!
The only thing I can think of, as to why the Emu Oil Capsules worked for the girl who reccomended them to me, is because she's got nothing else wrong with her, and the Fibro was a fairly new thing with her - so it looks like its a good thing for the early stages at least - pity I'm not there . . .
On a different tack, have you found this summer to be as dismal weather-wise as Bob and I have? It's driving Bob nuts to watch all his veg rotting before its ready to be harvested - this time last year we had a freezer full of veg, ready for the winter, and this year - nada!
I've just treated myself, and had a marathon reading session, starting and finishing the latest, and last, Harry Potter book - and I managed it in 30 hours (I don't sleep much, so why not?) I loved the book, and it's put that finale on one of the longest of sagas I've read to date - it's going to be strange not to hear my daughter, Brex, ask if I know when the next one is coming out!
I'm going to have a lazy weekend now, and start my last block on Monday (it should have started last week, but with my health the way it is . . . ). We're due to study a play called The Rover, which I'm dreading, judging from the last intake's comments of it then, pure bliss for me, Shakespeare's Henry V and As You Like It - oh, I'm gonna be enjoying them!