Eddi Reader
Allelujah song obviously by Eddi one of my all time favourites - so lets add it in . . .
the lights on the Westway go on
a million cars hurry home
an ice cream van shuts off its tinsel bells
winter won’t be long
I see you every day
I watch as you walk down this way
we pass on the stairs of this council block
too shy to find words to say
but your smile is a prayer that prays for love
and your heart is a kite that longs to fly
allelujah here I am
let’s cut the strings tonight
so meet me on the corner at eight
let’s get out of this place
we’ll kiss the first of a million kisses
and let the past fall away
for your smile is a prayer that prays for love
and your heart is a kite that longs to fly
allelujah here I am
let’s cut the strings tonight
yes your smile is a prayer that prays for love
and your heart is a kite that longs to fly
allelujah here I am
let’s cut the strings tonight
yes your smile is a prayer that prays for love
and your heart is a kite that longs to fly
allelujah here I am
we’ll cut the strings tonight
and we’ll kiss the first of a million kisses
la-la-la-la-la-la
Well all I can say about the concert - Ooops have I not mentioned that - Judi & I went on Saturday - almost had an altercation with the white feather brigade and we entertained on the steps alongside the bar but that's all for discussion over a glass of red wine - the concert was great - I have never seen Eddi live - was a ardent fan with Fairground attraction and caught one of their concerts by chance on TV once which alerted me to the fact that she was Scottish - and then liked her even more. She has an exquisite range with her vocals (which is more than I can say for her dress sense - each to their own) - I think she got the mix of old standards up-tempo / ballads etc., just right and had everyone eating out of the palms of her hands . . . great accompaniment - although the guy who was her supporting act was roped in as a support guitarist - did not seem quite as enthusiastic as everyone else - John McCusker was superb on fiddle and an Irish accordion player outstanding as was the upright bass player - not to forget Boo Hewerdine on guitar - who has written a number of the songs. Michael, Judi's son - who obviously knows his Mum - gave her 2 tickets for Christmas. Judi is a BIG Eddi Reader fan and on a number of occasions I had to entice her down from her seat as she was standing dancing - or could that have been from the red wine and whisky . . .lol only joking - but she knew all the lyrics and lets just say the arms were going in the air . . . .
Anyway that was Saturday evening - Lazy Sunday - came home about 19h45 after bus & train - was exhausted - managed to do Designing Usable Systems - intended doing Java but couldn't keep my eyes open . . .
Monday morning - up and off to AI - it didn't get any better - I was asleep outside the classroom before I even got in - then fell asleep during the lecture - it just seemed incredible dry - couldn't quite grasp it - like information overload and mind couldn't cope - so I went to sleep - albeit (my favourite word at the moment) for a very short period of time . . . Lab was hence challenging and luckily I have now taken to attending a 2nd lab / practical period on Friday - were I could ask Peter some questions and he sat down and explained some thing is to me. Tuesday I could come up with the solution but didn't understand what it was really saying to me . . .which I know sounds a bit weird - lets look at an example - you
have 3 nodes (see diagram) each one has to have a different colour assigned to it - so Nodes A, B & C - colours 1(red), 2(amber), 3(green) - so mathematically we say A could be 1 v 2 v 3 - which reads Node A must be red, amber or green - but that's no good really because all the nodes could be either colour . . .so we then tabulate for the other options if A is set to 1 i.e. then its not amber and neither is it greenwritten:
-1 -2 (which is kind of like saying [not not one {which means if its not not one then it must be one}] and not two . . . . . etc., all gets a wee bit confusing he says as he reaches for the whisky bottle again (I'll make shensh of theesh yet . . . .)
-1 -3
-2 -3
now the strange things is I can work all of that out . . .i.e. have no problem coming up with combo's . . .don't ask me to explain them though . . .oh the joys - the exam here is starting to worry me . . .
Next was Designing Usable systems - Tuesday afternoon's and we started off by looking at the work we were supposed to do in preparation - I originally read the wrong chapter (I read 5 instead of 4 - will make next week better . . .) but knuckled down to preparing an improved scenario . . which (against my better judgement) ended up sending to David (who is submitting this week) - we had a lengthy discussion regarding a small wheelchair icon for people who are wheelchair bound which would have a green, amber or red background (no this is not AI again) - just to show people whether or not the station / route etc was wheelchair friendly etc., . . . Last week we were awarded 8/10 for group work so hopefully David can maintain this mark - its actually supposed to be a group effort so not a solo run - only ourselves to blame if marks are not as high . . . Nothing to hand in next week as it is spread over 2 weeks with 4 components forming the report and (guess what) 4 people in the group - I'm getting an idea here ..- lol . . .so we'll each complete 1 section of work - the first truly collaborative report.
Wednesday morning went for a swim - nothing too strenuous (that had me sweating on
predictive text on my mobile - but I learned as I can write it now easily - so it has its educational uses . . ) was in plenty of time for the 10h52 train (which never comes at that time- always late) which didn't arrive on time - I'm spoilt now and would in all likelihood miss it if it ever did arrive on time. Its an express train stopping only at Dumbarton East; Dalmuir skips everything and then stops from Hyndlnad onwards Partick; Charring Cross & Glasgow Queen Street (my stop)) I was early for class and I have a classroom opposite my lecture hall that is always empty which I now use as my personal waiting room - I sometimes sit there and surf the Internet as the uni has wireless access throughout . . . I actually wrote this note whilst sitting waiting (just changed its tense for the blog) - this is all on the Royal College building which was built in 1903 - and must have been quite an imposing building in its time - So it has been an educational building since its inception - Strathclyde uni was originally a college which merged with a number of others before finally becoming or being granted its uni status - this is why some people don't like it as they refer to Glasgow as the only true uni in this neck of the woods - we actually have Caledonian uni - just across the road from us and then Paisley uni another 6 or 7 miles away - so you have quite a few to choose from. The Royal College building houses mostly engineering faculties and you see some strange sights as you walk around. At the moment there are builders everywhere as they are in the process of yet again trying to morph the existing building into something else. These builders seem to appear from nowhere and are everywhere - I think this is linked to the fact that it is almost 12h00 - which is a universal lunch time - more scary are the uni staff in white lab coats which somehow in my mind (illogically) conjures up visions of a mental institution - just saw an elderly (oops just realised my tense has changed - sorry you'll have to cope with it) wo
man walking round with what looked like long thin test tubes - almost expected to be stopped and asked for a urine sample (sorry - no explanation) then I was nearly knocked down by another white coat pushing what I can only describe as something that looks like it was made to strap a body to it and be wheeled away for experimentation . . . lol - crazy I know . . . my AI lecture starts at 12h00 - oops which it was now time for . . . - better run - I can always tell when it is almost time for my class to start - I don't have to see the time - I can actually hear what time it is - by the activity in the hall way / passage way - the classes empty their contents into the passageways - like floodgates opening and releasing water into these canals / central channels and it is this noise which alerts me to the fact that it is time to go . . . .AI was OK - was given a virtually unsolvable problem and asked to solve it . . . Peter was basically revising what he had covered with us over the last 3 lectures . . .
Thursday Software Construction and Lord Linlithgow had given us an introduction to trees last week which he continued and elaborated on - still struggling a bit with practical. Dealing with LinkedLists; Nodes; Mergesort etc - but not just allowed to make use of existing methods need to write our own - Practical basically have to type in a series of integers - store as objects in a LinkedList - then split this list into 2 - sort the integers (collection of objects) in numerical
sequence and then merge the 2 files again back into 1 and ensure that it is in sequence still. Hope to meet with Colin on Friday morning to go over it - worked late (late) on Thursday evening - Murphy's law emailed everything to myself apart from my main file - so it was hardly worthwhile having him look at my code as a major part was missing . . . will have to see him next week during the week rather than on the Friday as we are going to be assessed on this practical . . .so need to work on this during the week . . .And basically that was my week - did sit with Peter AI in the lab on Friday again - as I mentioned already - I now start and end my week with AI . . .
Oops nearly forgot - very chuffed with my Java GizzaPizza project for which I received 84% - Yipeee! time for celebrations! And Judi come over to my place so champers on ice and a quiet drink and a meal to celebrate the return on all the hours I put into that project - ALL of our outstanding marks should be out early next week - a number of assignments / project / exam marks still outstanding - I hope to be as happy towards the end of next week with my marks as I am this week . . .
Bye for now - keep smiling . . . .
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