The blessing of being at home
and eating proper food. Bread without salt is uneatable, and if a little salt in my bread is going to kill me, so be it. Staples are gone, and new summery shoes bought to celebrate.
Plodding on with the Southampton University course on Exploring our Oceans, I am getting a bit bogged down with all the maths and chemistry. The creatures of the depths are wonderful, though. One more week to go.
I learned something new today from Jo Woolf’s delightful online wildlife magazine The Hazel Tree about the piddock (Pholas dactylus), a fascinating mollusc that bores into rock to hide from the force of the waves on its brittle shell.
Piddock shell image from wikkipedia
Piddock siphons – photographed in Washington State, US. Credit pfly via Wikimedia
Are universities going to become semi-redundant under the onslaught of knowledge that’s available online?
Vivinfrance's Blog 
Happy to hear you are getting back to normal and, yes, it’s hard when you aren’t well to stick to doctor’s orders. Magma ice cream on sticks and digestive biscuits are my current failings in spite of knowing that my knees would love me to be kilos lighter. It’s not always easy to do the sensible thing – which of course in France means ‘sensitive’ – I love that!
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I hope you are getting more mobile too. Since deciding that I would obey the spirit rather than the letter of the dietary rules (including the occasional chocolate) I have been feeling much better.
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a little bit of salt is good for you. We discovered it was a way to increase my Dad’s blood pressure because it is too low.There is too much salt in prepared foods so we stick with fresh.
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So do we for the most part.
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🙂 Best wishes with your new machine, Viv!! [does it have a built in defibrillator?]
Best wishes too on your course. It sounds really interesting. And, like I always
told my (college) Business students, “Study hard!”
I once took a statistics class that gave me fits. It required a lot of math, calculus.
By the time I had reviewed my calculus and its theory I would be behind with
the statistics stuff.
..
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No de-fib. But there’s one on the wall of the Mairie about a Eusain Bolt dash away!
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Ii love to get new shoes! I love to learn new things…and I always enjoy your posts! You are an awesome lady! Happy Saturday!
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Three cheers for the celebratory shoes! It’s good news that you are back home. 🙂
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So happy to hear. Enjoy your weekend, making yourself happy, and your soul will thank you too!
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nothing beats being in a real classroom!
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if you have the money, the energy and the availability! I don’t go out much these days, and I live in a small village in rural Normandy, about an hour from Caen University (where I did a great Summer School a few years ago, when I was fit).
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I don’t think it’s a tiny bit of alt in your bread that would cause problems; it;s the enormous amounts they put in tinned and processed foods — which is unlikely to bother a cook like you, living in France and using fresh ingredients!
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In the hospital, they insist on “salt-free” rather than low salt.
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Bread. Lean on that staff of life, V.
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I am so glad to hear that you are home. Bread ~ simple but so comforting ~ one of the joys of being at home indeed! I do hope you are making a full recovery and that you will soon be well enough to enjoy the beautiful Spring x
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Thank you. I’ve decided to eat good bread and to hell with doctors’ orders!
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Thank you very much for your kind words, Viv! I’m glad to hear that you’re enjoying being at home, and the staples have gone now. There’s nothing like a new pair of shoes to raise the spirits! To answer your question about universities – that’s a good point! But I guess the advantage is that with a Uni course you have a planned programme of study – there is just so much info online, that you don’t know where to start!
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My BA and French diplomas were online, via the Open University, which has a precious place in my heart. But whenever I find something that puzzles me, or is a bit out of the ordinary, I can call up information immediately. That is what I love about the internet.
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Universities are not redundant for those subjects where you need equipment and space to experiment! I think we need strong scientific research more than ever and universities are the best place for this. It would be nice to think that universities could provide totally independent research but even they are dependent on private funders to survive. S
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True, O daughter. But I did say semi-reductant! There are many areas of study which can feasibly be undertaken ptart-time and online, without incurring vast debts for students and parents.
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Quite possibly they are, Viv, when you look at the cost, but it’s the social side that seems to motivate these days. You’ll never stop learning, anyway. What an amazing creature 🙂 (the mollusc, but you, too!)
New shoes! Yippee! Glad you’re more yourself, Viv. Happy Saturday!
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