Would you believe it!? The amount of work right now is astonishing. I’m thoroughly enjoying writing for www.cleanerlondon.com today, and I’m learning all sorts of tips and tricks about cleaning to pass onto their readers. My knowledge of the public’s perceptions of nuclear power has deepened after copy-editing a college paper, and I’ve been helping a teacher plan her English lessons.

Monday was my first day back in the classroom – at Salzburg University of Applied Sciences; it felt no different than any regular Monday morning back in the day. My suit still fitted and my board pens still worked! I’m rather looking forward to getting back there on Thursday afternoon. First lesson for all four groups is ‘Advertising’ and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed using the classroom projector and computer to present PowerPoint presentations and getting the classes speaking as much as possible.

Proofread a friend’s fable as well, which was very interesting and threw up a question about serial/Oxford commas. In the US, it turns out, using a serial comma (a comma before grammatical conjunction like and, or before the last part of a list) is perfectly acceptable – even expected, but in British English it really is something of a no-no.

Something that has been bothering me a bit recently is the use of a comma before ‘but’; there seems to be such inconsistency in literature that I’ve been hunting around in order to make my own mind up – once and for all … at least I can be consistent! As with anything there are always exceptions to the rules, but it seems that there should always be a comma before a but, or, yet or while when what follows it is a complete contradicting clause.

Helping my children to read and write is a pure pleasure. My son is now able to write his own name and can recognise the alphabet sounds, while my daughter is working on it!

We’re all living and learning!