CuppaTea

Yet another year of papal upheaval! Ex-pope Benedict IX gave up his renewed attempt to claim the papal throne in July, then in December Pope Gregory VI is accused of simony and abdicates, to be followed by Pope Clement II, the 149th pope on December 25 - an interesting Christmas, to be sure! He then gets to crown Henry III as the Holy Roman Emperor in the same year! Poor man seems to have had to wait seven years after his father's death to be crowned by a pope, though! And as for notable deaths: Gerard Sagredo, missionary to Hungary; and Abbot Oliba, from Catalan (northeastern Spain). And finally, one more international event: Bao Qintiang writes a "memorial to the throne" during the Song Dynasty in China, warning of the imminent bankruptcy of the iron industry unless more iron is produced. Apparently the throne listened, and increased iron production. This historical treatise was brought to you under the inspiration and authority of Wikipedia . Next stop, 1066!!!...

I finished a book on Friday night, which also happened to be the last in the Hornblower series that I own (although not the end of the series, thankfully). So to continue reading the series, I will need to buy the next book - or the rest of the series. And yet, I think leaving it where it is may be a better idea for now! So I decided to not start another book straight away. In fact, I told myself I wasn't to start another book until I had worked on one of the assignments with looming deadlines.

Ooh, I'm so excited to see those numbers increasing! Into the eleventh century now. 1066, here we come! So, jumping straight to Wikipedia (groan, but at least it gives some information! My first source was a game site! So you can look here for more details) reveals another papal death in 1024AD. I'll have to check, but I suspect we have had a papal death in most if not all of these historical posts so far... many of them don't seem to last long as pope! Anyway, with the death of Benedict VIII his brother became Pope John XIX, the 144th pope. By my use of the calculator, that makes an average of 6-7 years per pope over a thousand year time span, although I'm sure the actual timespan of the papacy in Rome was less than that. So, odds are you will be hearing more about papal deaths during these posts! In other world news, paper-printed money appeared in China! Sichuan province during the Song dynasty, and apparently the move was beneficial to the economy! And of co...

So, a few weeks ago I mentioned that I was looking forward to an assignment which involved writing a book for someone else ( this post ) - I have been working on this over the last week, and I'm enjoying it as much as I thought I would, perhaps even more so!

Jumping nearly half a century forward, what will have changed? Ooh! More than just significant deaths! First up we have "Sweden's Erik VIII Bjornsson defeats a Viking army at Fyrisvallarn near Uppsala and will be remembered as Erik "Seirsal" ("Victorious")." Although, technically I suppose a military victory would involve significant numbers of deaths... Hmmm... Next we have "the Danish king Harald II (Bluetooth) dies after a 35-year reign and is succeeded by his son Sweyn (Forkbeard), who will defeat the Norwegians, Swedes, and Wends; conquer England; and reign until 1014." That means that the son reigned for 29 years - quite the longevity in the family! And some more church history: "The antipope Boniface VII dies suddenly at Rome in July and is succeeded in August by the Crescentii family's candidate for the papal throne; he will reign until 996 as John XV." (All three are sourced from this website , which was also cite...

940 AD. Another year of death: Aethelstan (Athelstan), Anglo-Saxon king of England, died. During his reign he "gained sovereignty Wales, Strathclyde, the Picts, and the Scots." Masakado Tairo, emperor of Japan, died March 25 at Kitayama in Shimosa Province, having been subdued the previous year by two rivals. Arab calligrapher Abu ali Muhammad Ibn ali Ibn Muklah died in prison after being made vizier three times; he reputedly invented a cursive script for Arabic lettering ( nashkhi) to replace the angular Kufic. (For all three, see here .) I'm a bit amused that I seem to have to use different websites every time! None of the ones I've used in the previous two posts have had anything for 940AD. Except for Wikipedia. So, have a look here if you want to see what that site has to say.

It has been a while since I have baked anything, or cooked a meal which was noteworthy, but while we were on mid semester break I found a new cake tin. And I have made time to use it!

In 906AD the Tang dynasty in China came to an end (although I couldn't find why it ended on that date, it is the date given here and here by two museums). Slightly different dates (905 and 907) are given here , where it seems like military power led to the forced abdication of the Tang emperor. In searching for other events of the year 906, I again resorted to Wikipedia as a general Google search elicited nothing, and my strange sources of the last post even had the year blank! In the Battle of Fritzlar the Conradines defeated the Babenbberg counts to become the duke of Franconia. Conrad the Elder died in the battle. The family went on to become the source of a Germanic king a few years later, leading to the unification of the rival Franks and Saxons. (Go have a look here .) This page also claims a synod at Scone happened this year in which "Scottish Christian pastors unite for gospel reformation", which is described in more detail here . Finally, Wikipedia claims t...

It is amazing how quiet a year can be from an historical perspective. I just looked up the year 882AD, and aparently the only significant even which occured was that Marius I began his reign as pope on December 16, succeeding John VIII. Interesting that the death of the previous pope didn't rate a mention! (See this .) 882BC didn't even rate a page on that website! Wait! I take that back! It was listed under Famous Deaths for December 16 - quick election of the next pope! It also seemed to be a year for the death of kings, with the German and French kings both dying, although according to the page Loius III of France managed to die twice? (August 5 and 25) ( This page . Amusingly, see here for the same information!) Maybe I should have started with Wikipedia... which at least confirms that these three men died. (Reluctantly linking  here .) All of this because, as I have watched the stats on pageviews for this blog increase, I have though it might be interesting to mention...

When I am asked which is my favourite season, I usually say autumn or winter. If there is no reason for me to be outside very often, I really like winter. If there is a reason for me to be outside often, then I prefer autumn. I don't mind the cold and wet weather of winter as long as I don't need to get wet!

It seems that my home state was determined to show me how lovely the weather can be while I was back there, especially last week. Sunny days of warm temperatures eased the transition out of daylight savings. When I observed weather reports, there was a consistent difference of five or more degrees Celsius between the two states, my home state being warmer every time!

I thought it was about time I said something more about my study. Given I have just had a two week break, there isn't much to update, but I thought I'd talk about one assignment that I'm working on and one that I'm looking forward to.

There seems to have been quite a lot of serious stuff happening around me lately, and depression is a hot topic of discussion amongst some of my friends on Facebook. So I have been thinking again about how I cope with things when life is hard, as well as how I celebrate when things go well.

I had a wonderful time yesterday catching up with a dear friend. I had forgotten how easily we can pass time together, talking about all sorts of things, to the extent that we looked up at one point to realise we had been talking for more than three hours on the strength of one cup of tea! Considering we started at 10am, this meant that we hadn't even noticed that it was time to have lunch! An hour later I left, and yet we felt that we hadn't had enough time to catch up!

I have a problem with the number zero. Not a mathematical problem - I like the usefulness of the number zero in calculations. I have a problem with the use of this number as a size for clothing.

It has been wonderful to spend time with my family and friends over the last few days. But it has surprised me how much my niece and nephew have changed in the weeks since I saw them last! My 2 year old nephew is stringing sentences together into conversations! And my 13 month old niece seems so close to expressing her opinions in words!

Last Friday I drove back across to the right side of the border. That's how it feels when I drive back, although I don't have anything (really) against the state I'm living in this year! It is amazing the difference it makes to have someone on a road trip to keep you company. Easier to stay awake, shorter breaks, and someone to change CDs! Someone to discuss the road conditions with as things happen. And a chance to catch up with a friend.