Monday...

When I woke up this morning, I was too tired to even bother getting out of bed, so when my alarm went off, I re-set it for an hour later and reluctantly got out of bed then. I don't know why I was so tired, but I expect it has been a long weekend - plus I am not feeling that well. I had a meeting at noon today so I didn't have to get up at 6:30am, which was something I guess.

The meeting over, I went into the Library to do some work, but not before bumping into my beloved Latin teacher. She asked how I was, and I said: ''Haudquaquam calor solis hodie sentio'' (I by no means feel the warmth of the Sun today) which makes no sense at all of course (as she charitably pointed out!), as calor is Nominative! As I keep saying, something will click one day! After the work (frustratingly the printers were out of order) I retired to the stacks for about two hours to do some last-minute pleasure reading before all the work starts. I picked up a 1900 edition of De Imitatione Christi and sat down to read. I had planned on perhaps completing a translation of this pious work over the Summer but those hopes were dashed because of lesser academic commitments. I realised when I got to the counter that I had left my Library card at home! Alas...

At 5:10pm I made my way to Maiden Lane for Mass. Fr Finigan was Celebrant and I was his Master of Ceremonies. It would have been a boring Ferial Mass (a missed opportunity for Tolkien's Requiem, never mind) but instead we had the Mass of St Placidus, a disciple of the great St Benedict. It was a shame that it is term time though - we'd have had a full compliment of young servers then! I have just watched that video of Fr Reginald Foster on Fr Finigan's blog and was quite touched by it. I aspire to be fluent in Latin one day, but I doubt I could ever match Reggie's enthusiasm for the language. I think I am most enthusiastic about Tolkien at present...