nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Default)
* There are some A4 home-printed notices on the local high street promoting "RELEVANT EDUCATION for humanity's transition" and an awful lot of small print. This is obviously a cult. Nonetheless, they probably have a greater grasp on reality than the present Conservative government**. Call me naive, but I don't think borrowing etc. to the extent you crash the pound rather than tax energy companies that have even said they're willing to pay, is quite the way to run an economy. It is all too depressing for words, and that's before we even get to international politics.

* The Meeting of Doom that has occupied almost my every working minute for the past three weeks, plus some extra time and then the general tiredness, was held yesterday and went well. Phew! All I have to do now is write the report, and be very, very clear - as are a number of colleagues including senior ones - that we can never do it like this again. And I am absolutely not going to flog myself to get the report done, either. Other things are important, and I can't keep up the pace. I've been fortunate that after an unimpressive August my health more or less held up in September at a level that I could just about handle it, but it was ridiculous.

* Unfortunately, going into work twice last week - and since I had to be there on Wednesday afternoon a leaving do at which the willpower to keep my mask on failed in the face of champagne - meant I spent Sunday playing "teeth or ENT infection?" which resolved, as it always does in the latter. Happily not too bad, but I'm glad that I asked for some mometasome on repeat prescription at the GP last week. It says much that my sinus surgery while not perfect, did have an effect that I'm not on the stuff every day, and it had dropped of the repeat list. It is only a very minor sniffle, but I would prefer not to have it. There is a new an exciting leaflet with the spray that warns against it in cases of TB or nasal herpes.

* I have Friday off! Booked well in advance of the MoD as a reward. It is forecast to rain, but at the moment not until mid-afternoon, so I am planning to go to town and wander around clothes shops and have a sense of what is around at the moment. And then still have a two-day weekend to do things like write or sew or some art or fandom and have time and energy for it. I would like to be able to use my brain in my free time, please. (Also look into radiators and loft insulation, but one can't have everything.)

* We have passed the equinox. It is getting Dark.

* In advance of the Winter of Discontent, I have acquired a new flannel-and-fleece dressing gown from the Lands End sale. It looks like someone skinned a sheep, and is by far the least stylish garment I own, but it is light and warm and I would have been very glad of it on multiple occasions over the past two years. It is for wearing over clothes collapsed on the sofa in the evening, thus keeping my favourite dressing gown for when I actually have nightclothes on. Alas, I can't cosplay anyone in this.

* On a cheerful note (except for the climate change segments), Frozen Planet II is as magnificent as it should be. I am almost tempted to nominate - but not write - it for Yuletide. Last episode we had both "huddling for warmth" and "she makes a gesture of submission". I look forward to polar bears in a Canadian shack.

* I know I've done this before at some point, but it really is great. Have some cheering Magnificent Seven music.



** Except for the ones who are insider trading, of course, who know exactly what they are doing.
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Default)
I have completed (and passed) the University's Information Security online test. It was as boring as you'd expect. I do have two comments.

(1) I am amused that "not surfing the internet at lunchtime" is of course the wrong answer as to how to avoid data security breaches. Work as no interest in stopping us surfing the web as long as we do it safely.

(2) I am a little puzzled that the test asked what the supervisory authority for data privacy is in Germany. I suppose it could have been a cunning ruse if all the offices in each EU country are called the same thing, except that even so they won't be called it in English. I suspect an C+P error...
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Default)
It is not so much that I have left undone those things which I ought to have done; And I have done those things which I ought not to - I have done absolutely loads of the things that needed to be done and very minimal amounts of the other, but there are still vast quantities of the first category remaining.
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Harriet)
A far too belated rec for a birthday fic from [personal profile] naraht: Marginal Gains. It’s the Yuri on Ice doping fic the fandom needed: fun, well-characterised, and tackling a subject inexplicably absent from the fandom. I see that it has now turned from one chapter to 1/3, and await the next with much excitement. It was particularly well-timed in view of Friday’s McLaren Report II on state-sponsoring doping in Russian sport. As a cross-country ski fan I await with interest the revelations of any names…

I am still failing to find time for fic, but hopefully might manage more of it from the end of the week when I have a fortnight off work.

In other news, I shall be going to a work ‘winter school’ in Barcelona in March for a week. Most exciting! I have never been to mainland Spain and can’t speak a word of Spanish beyond ‘gracias’, which I probably pronounce incorrectly. It is a joint European universities initiative thing, and the theme of this one turns out to be ‘internationalism’, which might explain why I got in since my application leaned heavily on the subject of ‘you should give me a place because post-Brexit, British universities need all the European connections they can get.’ On the downside, I believe it involves networking.
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Harriet)
Autumn leaves blaze bright –
I don’t care. Let me sleep ’til
Next millennium.
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Harriet)
I went to bed. I got up early. I got to work a early (for me). I wrote my paper. Then there was Friday cake. I can’t imagine that I’m going to get anything productive done with the rest of the day, but fortunately I have meetings to attend so I probably won’t have to. It is sunny outside and I am going to go for a walk. I think that I might also buy a Euromillions ticket...

Meanwhile, ahead of my holiday a week on Sunday, Norway not only has nice weather, but is apparently having a price war on traditional Easter products such as hotdogs, Norwegian KitKats*, and oranges**, those essential components of a day tour on the fells.

*Kvikk Lunsj, as explained here. They are indeed very nice, and I assume that the slightly higher salt content actually makes them better for you if you're eating them on an active trip.

**The skins of which are, in one area, ritually discarded on the branches of a particular tree to the extent that it is called Appelsintreet on the Ordnance Survey (equivalent) map. Littering as culture!

ETA: At 3:20pm on Friday afternoon I have received a meeting from someone I am meeting at 4pm on Monday, and who I managed to fit in as my fourth meeting of the day, mentioning briefly what we are actually going to be talking about and saying cheerily that hopefully I will be able to reflect on these subjects in advance of the meeting. Well no, I won't. I will print off the generic document we have, and I will answer everything else off the top of my head, because I am sure as hell not spending the weekend on it.
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Harriet)
Dear person elsewhere in the university who emailed me mid-afternoon,

I am not surprised that this thing has happened, since it is exactly what I warned you about in my email a couple of weeks ago, in which I also provided a solution. I admit that this was a solution that involved you/your office doing some tedious work, but you were the people who needed the [thing], and since it didn't already exist we couldn't magic it up out of no-where. Especially as despite this being the end of an at least 6-months long project, you hadn't given any thought to this absolutely vital aspect of it until just before the deadline. You decided that my solution was too much work and you'd just ignore the problem for now and deal with it later. I have your email saying that, by the way.

Apparently this hasn't worked. This does not, however, mean that in response to your email attempting to make it my problem I'm going to do the work for you here. We haven't the time and we haven't the need. This is your work, and if you won't do it then it's your problem. I have now given you a second solution (with identified pitfalls) and await your response with interest. I can assure you that the alternative is not going to be that my boss (who you copied in) says "OK, Nineveh will do this work". I await with interest your response to my reply saying, at slightly greater length, "I told you so, we're not doing it, eff off."

*

I'm glad it's Friday. Please can I have a week on a sunny island with nothing to do, where I can get some sleep and get rid of this underlying bug that won't go away and that is making my eyes hate me?

In the absence of that, tomorrow I head to Birmingham for the day, having acquired a last-minute (returned) ticket to the matinee of Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty. If I make it in time I might go to look at the Central Library. But I feel that I'm more likely to be in time to pop to the museum and art gallery for a quick look at Lucifer and the pre-Raphaelites, especially if it is raining.

It is half-term next week. Sadly, I don't get any time off work, but it does mean that the journey into work is quicker due to reduced traffic. Since this term has been a disaster in terms of getting to work for 9 rather than half-past, hopefully it will be an incentive to attempt to improve that. Also, my parents are coming at the end of the week, which is always nice.

I think that England might be about to win the cricket. *jinx* ETA: Apparently not. That's what happens when you drop a catch.
nineveh_uk: Screenshot of Wimsey and Bunter from the 1987 television production. (wimsey and bunter)
* It is week 7 at work, which is really week 8 because we have a week 0. The building water supply is contaminated with Serious Germs. The taps are taped up. We can use the toilets + anti-bacterial hand gel (no, thank you) or go to another building. Not next door, they've now got the same problem... What joy it is. On the plus side, my unexpected last hour of the day yesterday spent getting running round trying to arrange things to get someone whose visa'd passport had been stolen back into the country this lunchtime ended up working, so that was good. Since this person wasn't actually one of our employees, I am expecting a small box of chocolates to turn up in return. Mostly, though, my work thoughts are occupied in hoping to avoid Intestinal Doom, for which the incubation period is now extended.

* Is this a mid-life crisis? I appear to re-visiting my teenage years. The vampire musical watching turned into re-reading Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, and that was all very well (I still hate Lestat, a man who deserves to be murdered many times over, and since he is a vampire, can be), but then at the weekend I bought a pair of trousers, and… There is nothing wrong with these trousers. They are excellent trousers and I shall wear them on Christmas day and for going to the theatre when I can’t be bothered with a dress and so on, which is what I bought them for. They are black with that sort of damask effect that is about at the moment, and they fit nicely and suit me well.

It’s just that I realised when trying them on again at home that I could cosplay a vampire count in them. Especially when added to the black blouse with big sleeves and beads on it (Laura Ashley late 90s) and dark red velvet waistcoat (Dorothy Perkins mid 90s) that lurk at the bottom of a suitcase in case I find myself needing a random fancy dress costume. At least I don't own a Dracula wig.

* Speaking of clothing... Does your suit jacket constrict your movements when you want to leap mighty buildings in a single bound, exercise your licence to kill while drinking a martini, dance cheek to cheek, or merely play the violin? A high armscye is the answer! I suspect that it also contributes to why Peter Wimsey can't pick up a napkin with a couple of broken ribs. On a more mundane level, you can see this effect in action on your non-Savile Row clothes by comparing e.g. the greater arm-movement you get in a tight leather jacket compared to an elasticated T-shirt with low arm-holes.

* In a fortnight's time I shall be on annual leave for Christmas! This is both good and bad... There is quite a lot to do before Christmas. I am suffering from tree indecision. After my last real tree bit the dust after 2014, failing to survive the next year, I resolved I would buy an artificial one, which is really more convenient when you're going to be away from home for nearly a fortnight. And yet I have not done so. The problem is, the artificial ones don't smell. I did the artful bunch of painted twigs last year, that isn't the same, either.

* The OTW seems to be making a fascinating hash of things.

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