I'm still alive...

Forgive the lack of posts recently, but my ISP had a major crash locally. I rang them, only to be told by a computer that they were aware that there was a problem and that we weren't the only ones. I was beside myself with wrath at one point (apparently not a pretty sight), and threatened to leave only my ''calm and reasonable'' mother took over and managed to get us back on. In all honesty, not having had the Internet for almost three days was like being amputated. Indeed, I would go so far as to echo Tolkien's sentiments when he lost the use of his right arm...sometime towards the end of his life (I can't for the life of me find the letter, but it's in there somewhere - if anyone else finds it, do let me know!): that being deprived of the ability to write properly was (to him) like the loss of a bill to a bird.

Updates: I don't feel as depressed as I did, in spite of one or two setbacks. My book proposal was rejected (blast the publishers - this is probably because I didn't enclose a CV - what difference does my work experience make to my ability to write?). Nevertheless, it's been a good week. Most of my books have arrived. The one on ''Greek Love'' is very interesting, although off-putting since it was written by a flaming iron hoof (I should have guessed that when I brought it - I'm going to read it cover to cover though). The others are interesting too. Hildegard's Symphonia is interesting, but irritating sometimes, but I find a lot of Medieval Latin to be inferior anyway. My libellus on Catullus arrived, which Fr Tim was delighted with. It's an old school textbook, and was only 64p! It's a collection of his poems with academic notation and vocab. The Introduction is well worth the read! May blog on this soon. I was asked by Zephyrinus to blog more on Bl Hildegard this evening, so I may devote some time to this tomorrow, now that I am off work. My other book was recommended by a friend and is called Benedictio Aquarum in Vigilia Epiphaniae (The Blessing of the Waters on the Eve of the Epiphany). It's very interesting, since it contains not only two Roman forms, but the Greek, Syriac, Coptic and Russian equivalents. The first Roman form is about 42 pages long; the second one (approved by the SRC in 1890) is two. I have never seen the solemn blessing of waters before, but having gone through this book, I imagine it to be quite magnificent. Maybe we could do it at Blackfen next year...?

Meantime, I am going to bed.