an OU student? Have you successfully passed one of their courses?
Well then, you are an Alumnus and are on their books. And if you have ever had anything
published, be it a book, poetry, an article, you are eligible to join the
Alumni Authors' group. Membership is free and the OU library is showcasing the works of its Alumni in the brand spanking new building.
I attended the celebratory lunch yesterday and was given
the tour. The new library was very impressive, and, if you're registered on a course, you get to use the virtual library. One thing that caught my attention as I walked from the car park to the library was the BBC complex that is opposite the library. I'd never noticed it before.
How was the event? I was bored for much of it, but that could have had something to do with the fact that I'm under-the-weather. (Must look up the origins of that phrase, it surely has a nautical base?) I was extremely tired by the time I got there. Lunch was a buffet affair and suffered from a lack of chairs and no side tables, so food plate and drink container had to be balanced in one hand, the other being full of
Welcome Pack. I did perk up at the sight of the first speaker, a prof. from the Philosophy department who bore a striking resemblance to a young Rober Redford. Why this prof. was giving the opening address on
Authors' Rights God alone knows, but he was very easy on the eye.
There was a good turn out of Alumni Authors. One woman flew in from Zurich, where she works as a Medical translator. Her published work is the poetry of her Great Grandfather who was a lay preacher at the London Mission in the early 1800s. She writes poetry herself but had only discovered her ancestor's poems on the death of her mother in 1994. There was a box containing Great Grandad's writings. I thought that was a lovely story.
I've wondered about that myyself, and since there's no time like the present, I've just found the following on Internet:
from Under the Weather: Climate, Ecosystems, and Infectious Disease (2001) Commission on Geosciences, Environment and Resources - The national Academies Press website:
"A change in weather can lead to the appearance of epidemic disease. This simple observation has been appreciated since the dawn of medical science when Hippocrates taught that many specific human illnesses were linked to changes of season or temperature. Indeed, the very terms we use today for infectious diseases often preserve ancient notions of disease being caused by environmental change and other external factors. Familiar etymological examples are “influenza,” which is derived from “influence”; “malaria,” contracted from “mal” and “aria” (bad air); or simply “a cold,” the quaintly preserved term for an upper respiratory tract infection. Perhaps the best reflection of these widespread beliefs is the colloquial phrase “under the weather,” which is taken to signify a temporary illness or indisposition without other explanation."
from kidshealth.org:
"When it's gray and rainy out, does that affect how you feel? This expression comes from the idea that bad weather might hurt a person's health and mood. The saying also may be related to "under the weather bow," the part of a boat that will take the force of rough seas during stormy weather. If you were in that part of the boat, you might get seasick!"
Or even from the BBC:
"If you are under the weather - and this is a very common expression - then you are slightly unwell.
In England, as I'm sure you know, we have lots of bad weather that people are always complaining about: lots of rain, lots of wind and lots of cloudy days when don't see the sun. This can be very depressing, so it is as if you are affected by the weather."