Still mired in sodding words

[nineveh_uk]

Onwards goes the giant report. And oh, it is giant. 14,500 words written in two weeks alongside attempting to do those parts of the rest of my job that couldn’t just be completely ignored, and which included a couple of days of preparation for the other giant meeting of the year, the report on which I now have to find some space to write up. Got report to Ultra Boss. She, thank goodness, really likes it, has identified some things she’d like to expand, suggested some good bits of rewording, all is on track. Except unexpectedly I now have to get a copy to Personnel by the end of tomorrow, except I was planning to spend today writing up a different meeting. Just take my annoyance here as read. I have not held back in expressing it.

But things could be worse. I had to work on Saturday, when I was visiting my sister, but this didn’t get in the way as much as it might on account of her spending all morning and most of the afternoon in A&E having a bit of broken ear plug removed from her ear*. And then on Sunday we went to the beach and had lobster and chips.

Right, I am going home do my report without feeling distracted by all the stuff I’ve had to ignore, including the other minutes, which are – of course – also urgent.

*It is a great comfort to me that while my sister is an intelligent, well-paid, and conventionally highly successful person, she is also a total and utter idiot in quite significant ways.

Comments

[azdak.livejournal.com]

That's not a report, it's an MA thesis!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of that, you're right. It is better-written than my MA thesis, perhaps I should apply for one through practice!

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

Inquiring minds wot use earplugs a lot want to know whether it was the foam ones, which don't work as well, or the wax ones which work better but come with worry (I thought unfounded) that you might never be able to get them out again.

That is a truly ridiculous amount of report in two weeks.

[white_hart]

This confirmed user of wax earplugs (only things that block the noise from the sodding neighbours yammering away in their garden until all hours) shares your spirit of enquiry.

Also hoping that nineveh_uk has at least been managing to write her report with Test Match Special on in the background this afternon - it does sound like a horrendous amount!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I have/am! It is VERY exciting just now.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

The silicone ones. You are supposed to flatten them across the entrance to the ear canal, not push them in, but of course they fall out when you do that, because they are sized for people with big ears. B, in one of those moments of 4am irrationality in which she was annoyed for her husband for breathing audibly, squidged hers into a narrow point and shoved it down her ear, and it broke off.

I have suggested custom-made ear plugs (not that expensive), or buying the child-sized silicone ones, which is what I do when I need them: http://www.allearplugs.com/earplug-suppliers/macks-earplugs/macks-childrens-pillow-soft-earplugs-6-pairs.aspx Certainly in theory the wax ones could have the same problem B had, but I don't know whether, being wax, they would break down and work their way out of the ear canal themselves.

[white_hart]

I tried silicone ones once when I couldn't find Quies anywhere, and they were *huge*, so I do sympathise with her!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I used to cut them in half, which was not ideal. As a person with small ears, I find the kids ones work well, and if they fall out bright orange is at least easy to find.

I have to admit that I laughed quite a lot, but had it been necessary - as threatened at one point - for her to wait 4 months until she wasn't pregnant and could have a non-urgent general anaesthetic, I would have been a lot more sympathetic.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

I don't know, being able to spend the last few months of pregnancy being selectively deaf to everyone else's demands might have its advantages.

I use the foam ones, which are a handily visible orange, for cutting out next door's music, the telly through the floor or the humming of the computer in the room next door but snoring members of family in a tent require the wax ones, which you are supposed to warm in your hands and then squidge to the precise size of your ear canal assuming that you know this in advance. It is therapeutically satisfying in the manner of playing with plasticine but tricky in the middle of the night in a tent while holding a torch.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Well done on the report so far, and good luck with the rest. And I'm sorry to hear about your sister.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The final edit is progressing, it is just fitting it round everything else.... And at the end I will have carried off a high-profile project successfully, which is something.

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

I had to work on Saturday, when I was visiting my sister, but this didn’t get in the way as much as it might on account of her spending all morning and most of the afternoon in A&E having a bit of broken ear plug removed from her ear

I initially read this as "a bit of broken plug" and was very confused about what your sister could have been doing.

Good luck with the giant report! It sounds deeply unpleasant.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I would not put it past my sister to get a bit of broken plug stuck in her ear. For an intelligent person she can be an idiot, for a sporty person, incredibly cack-handed.