oops

This morning was pretty good. Jeremy went off to work on the scooter, and I decided to watch Good Morning while I ate breakfast (I made toasted muesli last week, which is super-easy and very yum, and means I get to put in the exact ingredients I enjoy eating in my muesli). This morning, the presenters were interviewing The Edge's "Boy Band", a manufactured pop-group with the express aim of trying to get a song to number one on the New Zealand charts. One of the members, "Gay Boy", is Jeremy's long-time friend Robert. I was impressed with his singing and dancing on the show this morning; Jeremy tells me that Rob has been in lots of productions and I can see why - he is very talented.

But even better than experiencing third-degree fame at 9am, was my walk to the busstop. It had been raining lightly all morning, in fact it still is now, which is the perfect condition for all sorts of animals; notably, snails. I really quite like snails, and remember being upset when my parents would put "Blitzem" on the garden to kill the wee things and save the plants.
Anyway, childhood pain aside, my morning was made infinitely worth waking up for, as I spotted a total of five snails on my walk to the shops. Their shells ranged from about 2cm in diameter to about 5cm; no giant land snails in Lyall Bay that I know of. Of course, each meeting necessitated a close encounter and examination, which meant that I was almost late for the bus. I should leave earlier next rainy morning.

For your information, here is a diagram of a snail:

There is a nicely detailed diagram here:

http://www.somers.k12.ny.us/SIS/MAIN/sis/research/gr.3research/snails/anatomy%20of%20a%20snail.jpg

And here is a funny snail anecdote. When I was living in Aro Valley, my house was on the hill and a good hike up various sets of stairs. One day, upon reaching the top of one set of stairs and before embarking on the next, Jeremy and I discovered a snail trying to make its way across the path. It was in full view of any passing birds or cats, so I decided to move it out of harm's way. However, as I set the snail down near a bush in some shade, I accidentally bumped it, and it rolled about 3m down the hill, straight into a storm-water drain. Oops.

***

Today in Romantic Lit. class, we were discussing Coleridge's "Christabel", and one of the members of my class starting talking about a certain passage. These few lines apparently reminded them of "Courtney Love", which surprised me, as I could not envisage Coleridge in a grunge band, nor Ms Love reworking "Christabel" into a rock song. However, after several people had agreed with this person, my brain started to actually listen attentively, and I realised that they were actually talking about "courtly love". I'm glad I didn't offer my thoughts of the distinctive intertextuality between epic ballad poems and California rock bands.