Despite this post’s title, this is more about Saturday than Sunday because apart from a quick venture outside this morning to see the last of the events I had checked into at the university, I have done the bare minimum this Sunday, or, I should say I have minimised any interruptions that might interfere with my reading.

Apart from the poetry session in the university botanical gardens, there was little to get out of the house for because I had already achieved all my weekend goals yesterday. In particular:

1. Go to gym/training. – check.

2. Meet up with friends. – check.

3. Learn something new. – check.

4. Enjoy the (rare) sunshine. – check.

After playing tennis for a couple of hours on Friday, yesterday’s early morning workout was just enough to make me not want to move much, not that my Saturday allowed me to crash on the couch for a bit either.

The University of Aberdeen’s May Festival took place over the last three days. The May Festival is a series of events, lectures, walks, tours, readings, etc. that centre around the very beautiful university grounds and are somewhat tied in with the university faculties. So, there were classes and talks at the sports centre, experiments by the science department, lectures on history, bookish talk, food stalls, lots of other things, and beer.

It’s an event that I look forward to every year because it is such a fun way to spend a day with friends. Yesterday, I met up with a friend i hadn’t seen in a few months for a morning lecture, and in the afternoon I bumped into another one who was happy to have found someone to have a beer with on the lawn. The university had provided lawn chairs that were so comfortable that we nearly forgot the time.

I’m not sure what my favourite part of the day was, because it is hard to decide whether spending time with friends can ever be beaten by the events themselves, but one of the events was really rather special:

I had been looking forward to a talk about The Suffragettes in Aberdeen. As you may know from other posts, this is a topic that I have an interest in. What made it extra special, tho, was that the lecture was being presented by one of the lecturers that I knew from own undergraduate days. And I had not seen her since. So, I was excited by both the topic and by the prospect of saying hello after.

Needless to say, it was a thoroughly interesting talk and I am looking forward to reading up on a few points about the differences between the movements for suffrage in England and Scotland – and on some of the characters who dared to defy Mrs. Pankhurst. It sounded like even tho the story of the Suffragettes is widely known in a general way, some of the individual characters and side-stories have already been brushed over by the more general story of the big-hitting (in more sense than one) organisation led by Mrs. Pankhurst. And it is worth remembering that some of the success of the Suffragettes was due to some other colourful characters.

The other fabulous event yesterday was a lecture by the department of psychology on The Science of Swearing. You always know that you are in for a good time when an academic starts of the talk with  disclaimer and a request for anyone that is easily offended to leave right away and the announcement that there will be live audience participation.

I took away many interesting points about swearing, but mostly I loved that they had prepared graphs to show the use of swearwords through the ages, that showed that the Victorians again ruined everything. ;D

Altogether, Saturday was a great day but I was on my feet from 7:30am (way too early for a weekend day) until about 8:00pm, at which point the sunshine and beer had taken their toll and sent me straight to sleep.

As mentioned, today I mostly chilled, but I was also reminded that it was Soup/Salad Sunday, so I figured that sounded like it might just need little enough effort to feed me and be delicious:

There is no particular recipe for this. It’s just some chickpeas, peppers, quinoa, tomatoes, and sweet pickled gherkins, olive oil, salt, black pepper, cayenne, and smoked paprika – i.e. stuff I found in my kitchen – with some homemade tzaziki (garnished with a bit of dill).

I hope you are all having a great weekend, too!

BT

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