Friday, Friday

Thank goodness it's over - I'm stuffed!

Feeling virtuous, I managed to arrive at uni this morning long before I'm normally awake. I'd been summoned to help administer, in true Italian style, the oral exam for one of the second-year Italian social/political history subjects, and preened delightedly each time I was introduced as 'a member of the Italian teaching team'. (I'm such a bluffer.) Quite amazing I managed to get my head out the door at the end : ) For all its length it was quite an interesting experience - I am now brimming with 'prompting' techniques - and for all of you out there who I just couldn't kick towards the answer, it was the economic entry criteria of the EU which provided the main impetus behind the efforts to reform corruption in the late 80s and early 90s. Thank you.

On the way home for a lightning lunch before work I got stuck in one of those inexplicable traffic jams. Two kilometres into the freeway all three lanes of traffic...just...STOPPED. And there we stayed for 20 minutes. I hadn't been in a gridlock for ages. I ran through my usual host of emergency activities. I retuned the AM band on my car radio. I put all my cassettes (remember them?) back into their correct boxes. I cleaned out my wallet. I cleaned all the crap out of my air conditioning vents with an old parking permit. At last we started to crawl forward again. One of those big light-up traffic signs told us to merge into two lanes, which we did, and then, just as we got ourselves organised, we were back to normal and up to full speed. No accident, no roadworks, no nothing. Odd. And the end of my lightning lunch!