I'm sitting in my office wearing a 'suit' (well, as close as I get) having spent the morning at our graduation ceremony. It's always good to see students when they've got their degrees. Three students shared our 'outstanding academic achievement' award and they had all taken at least some modules with us, which was great. Even if there was a bit of confusion onstage about who had one, and Hanna's prize-winning wasn't even mentioned. As I type, I'm also listening to a really good compilation Hanna made for us (I'm on 'Crap' by the Tiger Lillies right now).

Came back on the tube and I can report that everything seems very normal. Everyone looks like they normally do. The only differences were one policeman (not sure if this was a one-off or one of many) and attendants at the rear door on the overground train (ditto). Apart from that, it seemed like any other day.

Hope it doesn't seem wrong to notice linguistic things in this context, but I do find it interesting how we adopt each other's phrases more quickly than usual when we have to make difficult public statements. 'Our thoughts and prayers are with...' is absolutely standard now. Yesterday 'cowed' became a word that everybody used ('...we will not be cowed...'). Hope I don't get many more chances to notice things like this.

(Listening to 'Sesame Street' by The Singers Unlimited now)

B-)

PS Sample lyric of 'Crap':

There's CRAP!on the records
There's CRAP! on CD
It's got to be CRAP!
It's an in- dus- try
This CRAP makes me angry
This CRAP makes me sad
This CRAP
This CRAP
This CRAP
Is so bad

(love the backing vocals too: 'crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap...'

Sample lyric of 'Sesame Street' (even though you know them)

Sunny day
Sweeping the
Clouds away
On my way
To where the air is sweet
Can you tell me how to get
How to get to Sesame Street?

(love the bass on this one)