BONG, BONG -nothing- BONG

They must be repairing one of the bells in the City Hall clock tower. It was trying to strike the quarter hour as I came past it on the way to volunteer at Amnesty this morning. BONG, BONG -nothing- BONG. BONG -nothing - BONG, BONG.

I'm enjoying my volunteer work. It's not brain surgery, just reception and admin work, but it's a nice change from my day job and it helps the few people who actually get paid in the office to advance a worthy cause - plus I get to be quite a bit more informed about the state of the universe than I might otherwise. The staff and the other volunteers are great folks too. Well, except the one who loves to come and talk to me about his job in 'financial planning'. (He's a telemarketer.) When he arrived at my desk this morning he was already halfway through his standard monologue - he'd probably started it with another victim - and the fact that I was on the phone at the time didn't seem to deter him much. When I first started there I thought he fancied me, but now I realise it's much more serious than that - he thinks I'm actually interested in what he's saying. I'm a polite person, but I can only grunt noncommittally for so long!

And I'm loving my Korean classes. (Had another one tonight.) It's brilliant to be back in language lessons as a learner, and I'm relishing the challenge of a new and quite intriguing script. (I can write my name : ) It's surprisingly easy to pick up, and after only a little practise we can all read aloud (not that we know what we're reading yet). It's only a small class, which is nice, because we're getting to know each other quite well. Half of the class is there to learn Korean for business, the other half because they're in love with someone who's Korean*. I think that's wonderfully romantic - can you imagine someone learning an entire language just for you?

*And one of us just likes learning languages : )