Clarrie's Blog

2009-01-16T17:26:00.001Z

koff

Dear People of London

2008-05-03T16:34:00.000+01:00

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh wtf?

that is all

inspiration

2008-01-20T15:09:00.000Z

Went for first proper bike ride in ages today. Well I say proper; because it was so long since I'd been out we only did 15 miles. Didn't cycle much last year due to a combination of CB's bad knees and my OU commitments. CB's knees are much better now. Her doctor told her it was her weight putting too much stress on them, and she has done as she was told and lost weight. She's gone from being big like me (size 24/26) to being a 16/18. She's lost 80 lb in 8 months by careful eating and lots of exercise. And so I see with my own eyes that it can be done.

One thing I have to get back is control, not just of my eating but of other bits of my life. If things go wrong and I feel disorganised and running around getting nowhere fast and everything's too much, then that is liable to trigger me back down into uncontrolled eating too.

So that is what I am working on for now, being controlled and organised instead of panicked, bingeing and chaotic. I have started to revive my gtd processes; I have all my open loops in 'in' and will be processing them tomorrow. The weekly review will return. And I am going to get back to belly dancing this week.

if only ....

2008-01-16T14:17:00.000Z

Last night I watched Michael who cares, he's still a tory Portillo (and yes since you ask, I was still up) being hung in efigy, gassed and nearly asphyxiated. Unfortunately some Hollander saved him from death at the last minute. Actually it was a horrible programme, as Portillo tried to justify his belief in the humane application of the death penalty by investigating the ideal way to kill someone (hypoxia by nitrogen inhalation, it turns out). Still, I did like the bit where the smug bastard told a US death penalty advocate about his wizard wheeze and was a bit taken aback as this man made Portillo look like a wet librul gruaniad reader by explaining that any death penalty method that was painless was pointless. I hate Portillo. He is the epitome of smug tory bastardness. I once went to Halloween Party dressed as him, as he was the scariest most evil thing I could think of.

In other news, I have still been eating breakfast hurrah and will be facing The Scales tomorrow eek.

rare outbreak of efficiency

2008-01-14T14:13:00.000Z

It is totally unheard of for me to book holidays more than a few weeks in advance. Or at least, it used to be. But now we have to juggle the only times we can go away (when school and university holidays coincide, which is not always) with the facts I want to go to summer school, that this is 'our year' for going to Ireland in the summer (we do it alternate summers), that part of my work programme for the whole year is being set up soon and I have a new colleague with school age kids (= competition for prime holiday dates), decisions had to be made. So this morning I emailed my boss and booked holidays in May (half term), July (summer school + ireland) and October (post-exam holiday).¹

My gran died last year, and left a small amount of money for each of her many grandchildren. We decided to spend ours on a really nice holiday, so we've booked a log cabin in a forest in Scotland. I booked that this morning, too.

OK now I'm off back to re-GTD-ing my office. I've thrown out or filed lots of piles of paper, now I have to crank through the paper I've kept.

1. I realise that if you are American this seems like a lot. Actually I get 6 weeks (ie 30 days if I was full time) paid holidays (vacation) a year, plus 8 days bank holidays. This is generous by UK standards but not unusually so.

big blue zoo

2008-01-11T16:27:00.000Z

Heh. Louis the giant pacific octopus loves to play with his Mr Potato Head toy. There's a YouTube vid, natch.

Louis is so clever and so beautiful. Spokesmansaid "Louis is well known for his curiosity and intelligence. We've devised a series of puzzles, games and toys to ensure he's getting the mental stimulation he needs but Mr Potato Head is definitely his favourite at the moment,"

I love visiting aquariums but have mixed feelings about them. I hate zoos and aquariums seem the same. Louis may like his toys but I'm sure he rather be out in the big wide ocean playing with the crabs and sharks.

one week in ...

2008-01-07T11:06:00.000Z

... and I have so far not eaten any pringles at all, let alone for breakfast. All hail Alpen (no added sugar version natch). And and and we have been doing that "getting out in the fresh air" thingmy, variously been to Alderley Edge, Staithes and Teesdale so far this year (combined with visiting far-flung friends). Not walked far at any location but at least it got Owen away from his new Nintendo DS (alright I admit it, it got me away from it too. I am hooked on Zelda and the Phantom Hour Glass. Knitting productivity is suffering).

Oh and of course we saw lovely rocks at these locations, and as there have been insufficient cephalopods lately, here's a belemnite from Staithes (pound coin for scale):

babystep no.1

2008-01-05T21:01:00.001Z

my resolution this year: to take babysteps to where I want to go. First babystep for weight loss is to eat breakfast every day. I’ve let myself drift into some very bad eating habits over the past few months, one of the worst being not eating breakfast and then bingeing on pringles later. So, every morning I will eat proper breakfast food for breakfast.

See more progress on: lose weight

naughty or nice

2007-12-21T05:31:00.000Z

We are off early tomorrow morning to catch the ferryboat, and today I shall be mostly packing and shouting "where's my new camera where where where??" at Amazon. I hope you all have a fantabulous holidays xxx

relief

2007-12-13T14:02:00.000Z

I have my course results at last and passed both (well 3 actually if you include the summer school course); for the geology course and its summer school I got a grade 2 (2:1 equivalent) pass for both and for the nasty course I got a grade 3 (equivalent to desmond). So that is all my Level 2 courses completed, next year I'm off to Level 3 chemistry hurrah eek

all done (nearly)

2007-12-11T13:06:00.000Z

well I was just about to post about how the Xmas knitting is now all done (I even blocked those scarves) but I've just remembered that O's dalek still needs finishing. Ah well, at least I have everything else done, and in time to wrap and distribute to peeps in England before we set off to spend Christmas in Ireland

he doeth protest too much

2007-12-10T15:44:00.000Z

I think we've taken O on too many marches, demos and protest events at an impressionable age. When he gets seriously cross with us, he barricades himself in his room and makes protest signs. After an altercation on Saturday, his bedroom door is covered with "Keep Out! No Groanups!" posters, and he also stuck one up in the living room saying "Then be crule!"

look at the beautiful blue cuttlefish

2007-12-07T16:31:00.000Z

go here and look. S'lovely.

Once the Christmas knitting is out of the way I'm knitting some of Hansigurumi's cephalopoda. Or maybe I'll make some socks (these maybe, or these or these or these or these ...... so many socks, so little knitting time)

Meanwhile, I can't get past Level 48 on the free rice word game, let alone reach Grumblemag's 49. Boo hoo.

my one vanity

2007-12-06T14:28:00.000Z

Well pretty much my only vanity, my only 'girly-thing', is my hair. I don't do much make up, don't wax or pluck, don't have manicures, don't buy many clothes and certainly don't do shopping-as-leisure activity¹. Even with my hair I am well short of the beauty ideal, rarely blow drying and never going near straighteners. But I do like to buy it nice products and now that R has a job (at least until June), I can afford to go to a good hairdressers and even have it coloured. So that's how I've spent my morning, sitting around knitting and listening to podcasts with bits of foil sticking out all over my head. Now my hair is a lovely festive red colour hurrah.

A conversatin with my lovely hairdresser:
her: so are you ready for Xmas?
me: actually I pretty much am, due to my "if I cna't make it or buy it on Amazon you can't have it" policy
her: oh yes CDs and DVDs make great presents
me says: mmmm / me thinks: books, books make great presents that's what i buy from Amazon, the papery things with words in.

Although, my son is a disappointment to me in the reading department. With a pair of bookworms for parents, I fondly imagined he'd grow up an avid reader too. But no. It's not that he can't read - when he has to he reads fluently and confidently for his age, he just doesn't much want to. There's always something he'd rather be doing. But at last, a breakthrough. I've been reading The Hobbit to him for his bedtime story and he has started reading on for a page or two after he's in bed. It's not the easiest book to read and the pictures are few and far between, but he is enjoying it. What with that and having to decipher the backs of his Yu-gi-oh cards, he may just be seeing the value of reading after all.

1. Wool and book shops excepted, natch

an xmas-makes update

2007-12-05T12:53:00.000Z

~~ammonite for T~~ done
~~hat for sis boyf~~ done
~~socks for mum~~ done
~~golf club covers for dad (not actually sure about this one, dad is incredibly fussy and not sure if he'd use them)~~ idea abandoned, bought him a book instead
socks for E (on the needles, 1 finished 1 to go)
dalek for O (all the crochet is finished, I just have to do some modifications to incorporate a dalek sound maker before stuffing it)
~~hat for R (on the needles, to be knit in seekrit when on train trips etc)~~ I finished this but then fecked it up trying to attach iron-on reflective tape, will try and rescue another time, but for Xmas am now making:
socks for R (on the needles, 1 finished 1 to go)
~~felted tea cozies for various peeps (2 made and awaiting felting, more to make if time)~~ abandoned in favour of
cashmerino scarves for various friends all made but need blocking, if I can find time and space
hat for C (to match her scarf)
~~socks~~ ~~and hat for sis~~ (done, actually I redid the hat as I wasn't happy with the chunky yarn, and redid it in cashmerino. Yes I am in love with cashmerino, a very high maintenance passion)

The Great Anniversary Impasse has not yet been resolved.

unlucky 13?

2007-11-26T09:11:00.000Z

Today is mine and R's 13th anniversary. It has not started well. He 'didn't have time' to get me present or even a card because the poor man had to look after O on his own all weekend, while I was off having such a good time granny-sitting C's frail, elderly, bonkers mamma so C could have a weekend away. Poor R. Just because he knew a week in advance I'd be away all weekend and did somehow manage to find time to spend Saturday afternoon on a demo, how can he be expected to get to the shops too? And having through no fault of his own (all my fault obv) failed to get me anything, obv it is entirely reasonable for him to get up at 6am to do some work without so much as a cuddle for me. No I'm sure I'm just being irrational, getting upset by it.

what is 'normal', anyways?

2007-11-15T09:00:00.000Z

I am working my way through my Xmas makes list:

~~ammonite for T~~ done
~~hat for sis boyf~~ done
~~socks for mum~~ done
golf club covers for dad (not actually sure about this one, dad is incredibly fussy and not sure if he'd use them)
socks for E
dalek for O (all the crochet is finished, I just have to do some modifications to incorporate a dalek sound maker before stuffing it)
hat for R (on the needles, to be knit in seekrit when on train trips etc)
felted tea cozies for various peeps (2 made and awaiting felting, more to make if time)
hat for C
~~socks~~ (done) and hat for sis

On Saturday I finished sis's hat in black chunky yarn, then moved onto making the same hat for C but in a light olivey-green aran weight cashmere merino. After a few rounds I felt something wasn't right and stopped work on it. Picked up the work again last night and realised the yarn just didn't want to be a hat, it wanted to be a cute scarf instead.

Perhaps not everyone communes with their yarn but like I say, what's this 'normal' people talk about?

family fitness fun

2007-11-11T22:49:00.000Z

Because of his having a history of heart probs, R's doctor does annual tests on him. This year's tests showed up something not-quite-right with his liver, probably due to excess fat/cholesterol. While waiting for some scan results, R's doc has told him to lose some weight (R is not very over his ideal weight anyways). So, what with that and me being between-courses, we have decided to resume Family Walks. O is not impressed at being forced to walk one whole mile around the Water Park. Just wait till we start on hills .... actually we have a cunning plan to borrow dogs and/or friends to keep him amused and whine-free.

Other exercise plans

for R: he's started going for runs (well some walk some run for now) around the park while O's at rugby practice
for me: me and O have started going to Caribbean aerobics (like normal aerobics except with reggae music, all ages welcome) and I've arranged to go back to belly dancing with a new neighbour, also I'm going to go back to going swimming when O is having his swimming lesson

If I can't get the food right, maybe I can at least get the exercise bit started

I need a rest

2007-11-05T09:49:00.000Z

I feel like I'm running around running around all the time. This wasn't supposed to happen any more, not now my exams are finished, I was supposed to have lots of free time. But it's been Halloween and O's birthday and a pile of housework and work-work to do and friends and family to see, and now I feel tireder than ever. I've had my LOTR box set for over a week and no chance to watch it yet. Bah.

surplus to requirements

2007-10-26T23:55:00.001+01:00

It being half term and my exams being finished, O and I have been away for a few days in a caravan. R couldn't get away from work. C was meant to come with us but in the end she couldn't escape from her various committments. So it was just the two of us. O quickly made friends and from then on only needed me to provide food, dry towels for swimming (indoor pool hurrah) and money for the arcade. Leaving me free to knit, read trashy novels and take the odd stroll down to the sea.

Now I am home alone, O has gone with cubs to Parents Get Lost and R has gone to a conference. The house is a mess yeah right like I am going to spend the weekend cleaning when there's knitting to be done.

3 years down, 2 (or 3) to go

2007-10-15T19:09:00.001+01:00

Yay I’ve finished both my exams for this year and fingers crossed have done enough to pass. Now I have to decide whether to do 1 or 2 courses next year. 2 courses this year has been hard, but then I haven’t enjoyed the content. Perhaps 2 courses will be easier when I actually like the content? Plus I have friends who are university lecturers in the relevant field and can help me out if stuck. And if I take only 1 course next year, it takes me an extra year to finish my degree. On the other hand it will obviously be less expensive, less stressful and have less impact on my family if I only do 1 course next year. So I don’t know what to doooooooooooooooooo …........

See more progress on: finish my degree

praise be to the cephalapoda

2007-10-13T10:27:00.001+01:00

Had my first exam yesterday. Part of the practical section is to recognise a 'mystery fossil' and hurrah it was a piece of an ammonite (at least I hope it was). I like to think the cephalogods have smiled on me for my devotion to them and sent me one of their kind to help in my hour of need. There were several other questions where I at least had A Clue what they were on about (although there were a couple of I Have No Feckin Idea questions too).

Now I have to go and lock myself in the library for the weekend to cram for the Monday exam for the vile course. Ick.

Happy Octopus Day

2007-10-08T09:05:00.000+01:00

In honour of the First Unofficial International Cephalopod Awareness Day, I shall be casting on an ammonite (for my long-suffering earth science tutor)

But that will have to be this evening, after I have spent another day in the library revising for my exams - the first one is this friday aaaargh

meanwhile, please to enjoy some cuttlefish p0rn

a dream come true

2007-09-17T14:46:00.000+01:00

I have to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. I can't quite believe, after all the years of hoping and waiting, it's finally happened. Oh yes. ISIHAC is being recorded in Manchester AND I'VE GOT A TICKET. I'm so so excited. I even think (fingers crossed) Jeremy Hardy might be on the panel. Be still my heart.

rugby's special

2007-09-15T15:23:00.000+01:00

I might not have mentioned it before but I do like rugby, specifically union. It's often perceived as being a very middle-class game and in some parts of England it is. On some levels I think I don't like rugby players but actually what I don't like are ~~tossers~~ England players like this

Many rugby players are actually not bad, in fact all the men in my life are rugby players. In Scotland and Wales (and parts of England and Ireland) it's not just public school rugger-buggers who play. My dad played; as a kid I spent most of my Saturday afternoons on the touchline and one of my greatest heroes was a rugby player. R played all through school. And now O has started playing. We decided to try him on rugby instead of gymnastics. He's been doing gymn lessons for a couple of years now and not enjoying it as much as he used to, plus to be honest he's not really built for it (prop forward yes, gymnast no), also we think it would be good for him to do a team sport.

So it's off down the local rugby club to see if he likes mini-rugby. He went for the first time last Sunday and liked it. R liked it nearly as much, coaching from the touchline, I can see him turning into a rugby dad. Which is good, if it gets me out of cold wet winter mornings on the touchline. I'll settle for knitting in front of the world cup on the telly. And England scored nul points yesterday, even better.

oh bum

2007-09-13T21:28:00.000+01:00

I have made little more progress with the big book since last time I blogged, and the fsking assignment has to be in tomorrow. Must grit teeth. Must finish book. Must do assignment. Must not watch tv. Must not knit. Must not open stash. Must not think about sock wars.

-----BEGIN KNITTER'S GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 1.1

KEL++ Exp++ SPM+>+ Steel++ Bam+++ Pl- Addi? Syn- Nov-- Cot++ Wool+++ Lux++ Hemp? Bam+ Stash++ Scale+(+) Fin-- Ent? FI+ Int- Tex++ Lace+ Felt++ Flat Circ DPN+ Swatch- KIP++ Blog+ EZ? FO++ WIP+ GaugeF+ S? DK+ W+ B- ALT Cr+++ Sp?

------END KNITTER'S GEEK CODE BLOCK------

breathing space

2007-09-07T22:31:00.000+01:00

I have two out of 3 of my assignments out of the way, and only a feck off big book to read before I get the third done. I dutifully trekked off to the library this morning to get on with it. But when I got there it turned out I'd left at home the vital dvd that I needed to work through at the same time. I took this as a sign I should go home, dump my stuff, go to the park and knit socks instead.

just one of the things I don't like ..

2007-09-01T21:48:00.000+01:00

... when people don't say 'thanks'. At work, people email us with problems and we email back with information and advice that helps them do their job better; about one in ten of them emails back to say thanks. And at home, this week I've sent things to a couple of people (one something I knew someone needed, and one at the person's request and I had to go out of my way to get it) and neither has picked up the phone or emailed to say they've arrived or say thanks. It's not that I want people to grovel with gratitude, just a quick email saying 'ta' is all I ask.

bribery, works every time

2007-08-30T22:44:00.000+01:00

R is away this week at a learned conference, so I am trying to get my masses of work I'm behind with, caught up with, I have deadlines coming out of my ears. It's also the last week of the school holidays and O has remembered I promised to take him to Gulliver's World this holidays. So I promised to take him on Friday if I got all my work done, on condition that he let me get on with my work all this week (ie no friends round playing noisily, no constant 'muuuuuuuuuum'-ing, etc). Well half of the equation worked, he has been really good at letting me get on with stuff and not mithering me too much. If only I had actually got on with work in the mither-free time. But that's not his fault, so we are off to Gulliver's tomorrow. If only I could incentivise myself as well as I can incentivise O.

aww

2007-08-24T00:02:00.000+01:00

baby panda

meltdown

2007-08-22T22:58:00.000+01:00

So, I have 3 assignments due in the next 3 weeks, on top of which R is going away for a few days next week for work. So this is a really good time to have a big family gathering sprung on us for this weekend. And an even better time for the washing machine to pack up. All in all an ideal time for me to burst into tears and run roudnt the house panicking about stuff and shouting at everyone, which I find is always a good way to handle a crisis.

oh dear

2007-08-22T15:58:00.000+01:00

How did it get so long since I last posted? Partly because I have been away for quite a lot of the past month (summer school/holidays/conference) and when not away over night, I've had to travel around quite a bit for work. I think my life is feeling a bit crazy at the moment. Or perhaps it is my head that is going a bit crazy? I am not getting much constructive done. My studying is behind, so is my work, my house is a tip and I am usually found sitting knitting/crocheting. Actually crochet is the worst, I find that gets a bit obsessive sometimes. Goes without saying if my head is in a bad way, my eating is too. Which all reminds me, I must ring up for some more anti-crazy pills.

PS does anyone know if it's possible to stay logged in on two different google accounts on one computer? I have clarrie@ for blogging and realname@ for igoogle, and it's a right pain logging in and out between the two

here today, gone tomorrow

2007-07-21T01:09:00.000+01:00

tomorrow morning me and my sock knitting and my HP7 and my waterproofs are off to stand in quarries and look at rocks for a week. I should probably read the course book instead of kntting and Harry Pottering on the train tomorrow, butI've kind of gone off rocks. Studying them has been a bit of a let down after looking forward to it for so long. I think there is a chemistry-shaped hole in my brain and I shall be happy to get back to my lovely molecules next year.

birthday countdown starts here ....

2007-07-13T23:42:00.000+01:00

well started last night actually, we went to see the fantabulous Ojos de Brujo, they were amazing, shame about the venue. The Bridgewater Hall is not the best place to experience radical flamenco, you don't just want to watch it you need to dance to it too.

Tomorrow we are not having a party but some people might come round for a drinkette in the afternoon, Sunday I have to catch up on 3 weeks of study and Monday being the nasty day itself my parents are coming up to go out for lunch. Bah to rainy weather and being nearly 40.

a grand day out

2007-07-09T11:06:00.001+01:00

We went to London for the Tour, saw the Prologue on Saturday. The weather was fab for once (even got sunburnt) and the crowds were huge & friendly & enthusiastic. We settled on a spot in Hyde Park so we could watch the big screen as well as the individual riders flashing by. It was an amazing event and I’m so glad we went but there is a big but – we couldn’t get to Greenwich / Kent to see the first stage of the race ‘proper’, so we didn’t get the spectacle of the peloton in full flight.

So I am marking this thing as ‘done’ and putting up a new thing – “see the Tour de France live again”. We’ll be looking at next year’s route to see if it co-incides with likely-looking holiday destinations …. ooh lookey lookey it starts in Brittany …

See more progress on: see the Tour de France live

sick of this

2007-06-25T13:33:00.000+01:00

I went to buy some new shoes last week but the ones I really wanted were too narrow for me - or to put it more honestly, my feet were too fat for them. I eventually got some Dr Marten sandal-type shoes which I do love but am cross my fat feet stopped me getting the ones I really wanted. And much more cross that I am forced to admit that my great fat stomach is making it hard for me to do up the buckles on my new shoes. I will be 40 in less than a month and I don't want to be this fat person any more but I don't know if I have the strength & energy to do what it takes to change.

strange passions

2007-06-08T09:21:00.000+01:00

Socks (sorry sockophobes) - I am developing a dangerous addiction to knitting socks, and an even more dangerous (and expensive) one to buying sock yarn. But it all so lovely and colourful and just a few quid for enough to knit a pair, and socks are such a handy portable knitting project ideal for train journeys, never mind that my stash looks like I am planning to keep the British Army in socks this winter (assuming they like multi-coloured ones) and pandas are going hungry as I buy up all their bamboo in the form of needles. OK so I might have to send O up chimneys to pay my Violet Green bill but that's a small sacrifice compared to the joy of hoarding all those lovely brightly coloured balls of wool, and fondly imagining I will transform them all into lovely socks in time for Christmas.

Thermodynamics - gotta love a discipline that having set up 3 rules, decided there was another more important one so called it the zeroth law. Bless. I am really struggling with one of my courses, so much so that I have actually been happy to see some thermodynamic equations. So much of the course feels like an assemblage of facts describing trends (it's the worst bits of inorganic chemistry magnified), it's nice to have some equations to get ones teeth into. You know where you are with an equation. All together now, heat can't move from a cooler to a hotter.

small miracles

2007-05-21T13:18:00.000+01:00

In the interests of 'looking on the bright side' and trying not to drown under all the stuff in my life that remains undone, some small successes in my life:

I scored 82% on my last assignment, despite doing it in a mad rush and guessing some of the answers, so I might even pass at least one of this year's courses with a grade 2 pass.
On ringing the tutor on my other course in despair, I discovered everyone else feels the same way - it really is hard, not (just) me being idle.
Because 4 needles aren't enough, I have managed to juggle 5 (4 dpns and a cable needle) to start on some cabled footies for bedsocks for Gran.
since I took up knitting I have lost half a stone. You can't eat and knit at the same time.

badges, I love lovely badges!

2007-05-19T17:11:00.000+01:00

O was officially invested as a Beaver Scout last week - they let him off the bit about promising to love god - so I had a handful of badges to sew onto his uniform. It made me feel like a Proper Mum, sewing on badges.

Not to be outdone, I have been invested into the Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique and so far entitled to proudly display the following badges:

the Talking Science badge: yes I talk about science at the slighest provocation, particularly of the chemical or geological variety. Those close to me have learnt never to innocently remark upon some interesting looking rock or building stone, unless they really want an in-depth talk on its geology. This is good tho becuase it deters my mum and my sister (both semi-professional shoppers) from dragging me round shopping centres - vile temples to mamon but often featuring beautiful and interesting decorative stones; also R's whining about being forced to go shopping can be deflect by threats of lectures on depositional environments. R's mother still regrets idly wondering what kind of rock the Giant's Causeway is made of.

the Arts & Crafts badge: I knit nautiloids and will shortly be crocheting a dalek, I think that qualifies me for the arts and crafts it the name of science badge. Also adapting patterns to one's own reuirements invokes fairly high octane maths skills.

the I'm pretty confident around an open flame badge: awarded for proficiency around open flames in laboratory settings. My glass-melting capilliary-tube making bunsen-burner skills were legend at summer school last year.

the Destroyer of Quackery badge: as a devoted follower of The Ben, I spend a lot of time battling quackery, pseudoscience, fuzzy thinking and all forms of whoo-woo. The edge of my logic is rapier sharp (particularly after half a bottle of rioja).

the "will glady kick sexual harasser's ass" badge: well, natch

: the "inordinately fond of invertebrate" badge: oh yes. Yes yes yes. And did I mention the knitted nautiloids?

The “pharma shill” badge: yep, medicine does work.

The “I know what a tadpole is” badge

The “I’m into telescopes astro” badge (LEVEL I): we have a telescope and we look at shiny things in the sky with it. I am hoping to go to Jodrell Bank soon and qualify for Level II

The “I may look like a scientist, but I’m actually also a pirate” badge: aaaaaarh etc

and so O doesn't feel left out ...

the Special Auxiliary Child Member of the Order of the Science Scouts badge: becuase he does like science and maths and enjoys finding out more about how the world works (except the bits with rocks in)

wooly objects of desire

2007-05-15T10:42:00.000+01:00

This is Sublime Angora Merino. It is 80% extra fine merino and 20% angora and it is the softest most gorgeous thing in the whole world. I met it in the wool shop when I realised the yarn I orignally bought for my bolero was too bulky. So I returned it to the shop and asked if they had any angora (as suggested by C). The lovely yarn shop ladies took me over to the Sublime and as soon as I touched it I had to have it. I didn't actually have to give them too much of your actual money for it, because I got a refund on the other stuff and also a bolero doesn't take too much yarn anyway. But as I crochet with it, I love it more and more. It is the colour of clotted cream and it feels like working with cream, it's so smooth and rich and decadent. I really really want to knit a jumper or top or cardigan with the clover colour; there are a couple of items in Big Girl Knits that would be perfect. But there is a lot of me which means it takes a lot of wool to cover me. The cost of the wool would be way, way more than I'd pay for a jumper. But then I'd get hours and hours of pleasure from making it, not even counting the joy of wearing it. I need this wool.

Dear Mr Next PrimeMinister

2007-05-11T02:54:00.000+01:00

O is very happy that Tony Blair is fecking off at last, but is concerned about the policies of his successor, and so would like to know your position on the following:

SATs - do you think it is a good thing for a normally happy school loving 7 year old to have tummy- and head-aches because he's so worried about his SATs and seems to think they won't let him go into class 3 if he doesn't get all the answers right?
car seats - will you end the humiliation caused by forcing self-respecting seven year olds back into sitting in a 'baby seat'
casinos - they look such great fun on Sonic the Hedgehog games but completely unfairly children are banned from them
Kids' Day - it is wholly unfair and unjust that there is a Mothers' Day and a Fathers' Day but no Kids' Day
The War - O has no position on the war as such, but would very much like it to be over so that his parents stop dragging him on demos against it¹

Of all of the above, car seats are his number one policy concern. On being told he would have to go back into one and that it was because The Government said so, he uttered the immortal lines "I wish the government would f*ck off". Whereupon he was sent to his room for as long as it took for us to stop laughing and put our serious swearing-is-very-bad faces back on.

1. Poor kid is unaware that we can and will always find plenty of things to go on demos for/against

robbing Peter to pay the wool shop

2007-05-06T21:11:00.000+01:00

Yarn buying is a necessity of life, much like book buying. This month I am skinter even than usual, as I have had to pay Mr Branson several hundred pounds I have not yet got back from work. But I'm not letting that stop me from buying yarn, even if it means shuffling money out of the paying-bills-joint-account before going shopping. Yesterday I got some horribly expensive but gorgeous Rowan aran silk to crochet a little bolero, to wear with my posh frock to a weddin, plus some normal wool to knit the sleevless jumper with vest that O wants. Also I have some recycled sari silk yarn on order, to make a bag for a leaving present for an friend.

My current crochet project is about half way through, and I really wish I'd taken it along to the cinema this afternoon, as I sat through Spiderman3 with O. There was probably just about enough light, and it would've passed the time. O loved every minute of course (except the soppy bits). So yes I am obsessed with crochet. I am behind with my studies and in danger of developing RSI but hey it makes me happy.

Actually I think my mood is lifting a bit, and I've got my 43 things routines going again, having let them slide for a while. I am doing small bursts of studying and am on top of my work. Even better, when work was getting all a bit much a couple of weeks ago, I managed to talk to my new boss about it before things went critical. Baby steps as ever.

Sunday afternoon

2007-04-29T15:21:00.000+01:00

It's a lovely sunny day, but I am stuck inside with my microscope while O is outside doing magic tricks for bare chested lesbians.

all by myself

2007-04-09T14:51:00.000+01:00

R & O have gone to Ireland for Easter. I elected not to go this year, so I could stay at home and catch up on my ~~knitting~~ studying. 10 days on my own with just two cats, one hamster and the TMS commentary team for company. It is very weird being in the house by myself over night, very weird indeeed.

reality gap

2007-04-02T13:28:00.000+01:00

what I should have been doing:

working hard on my coursework and getting my assignments done

what I have actually been doing:

learning to crochet, crocheting coin belt, knitting fossils and socks. Although knitting ammonites and belemnites pretty much counts as doing geology, I think.

Oh and playing with my O's new hamster

a Russian Winter White Sapphire imaginatively named Snowy

Manic Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday ...

2007-03-15T18:32:00.000Z

Sometimes I wonder if there is a tinge of mania mixed in with my madness; I don't know, is it possible to be a little bit bipolar? I do go through patches full of manic energy, lots of rushing about and always needing to be doing, like now I have taken up knitting again and I have to be knitting all the time, can't sit still can't just do nothing, need to knit and read and watch tv and surf t'internt all at the same time. And I am extremely techy and irritable, so much so that I look at the calendar and am surprised to find it's not 'that time'.

Oh well at least knitting is productive, I have finished O's tank top and he wants another one in red and orange; also I am going to knit something for R and a cardigan for myself but first I am going to teach myself to knit socks while goggling at tonight's tv-fest.

here's one I made earlier

2007-03-05T21:15:00.000Z

Crafting is the new black, apparantly, all the kewl kids are doing it. I have finally got around to making something with some of the sea glass I pick up on beaches, I mosaiced around a mirror with it. Getting the grout on is far easier than cleaning it off afterwards.

I also want to learn to crochet. I can't quite believe I just said that, but I do, because the cardi I want to knit will need to be edged in crochet if it's going to look how I want. I'm two-thirds of the way up the back of O's tanktop already. Maybe knitting will keep me from eating, who knows?

None of which is getting my course work studied. My bad.

briefly

2007-03-04T20:16:00.000Z

Lost a bit last week and got back to my pre-London weight
I need to give more priority to getting my exercise it, apart from the belly dancing it's slipping already
Have decided to move my GTD weekly review day to Monday, I think it will work better for me
I am at last doing my 29th thing - at the moment I have a sleeveless jumper (for O, black with white star on front) and a scarf (for me, thick wool in peaty colours) on the go

fat end of the wedge

2007-02-26T11:27:00.000Z

All of the meedja are up in arms at this story, that a child could be taken into care because he weighs 14 stone¹. He's lost weight since Christmas so it doesn't seem to be Praeder-Willi syndrome. I do feel for the kid's mum but I also want to shout at her. The child is 8. He only gets to eat what adults give him to eat.

Ms McKeown, 35, told the BBC: "Connor had a mouthful of apple once and he didn't like it. a mouth full? once? he's hardly been encouraged to give them a go

"He refuses to eat fruit, vegetables and salads - ~~he has~~ I buy, prepare and give him processed foods.

"When Connor won't eat anything else, I've got to ~~give him the foods he likes~~ let him understand that that's all that's on offer and he can chose it eat it or not. Perhaps then he will try more than one mouthful of apple."

I know I'm not much of a one to lecture on healthy eating, but I have taken a strong "don't do as I do do as I tell you to" line with O. He doesn't have to clear his plate (urgh I hated that when I was a kid) but he does have to try a mouthful of everything and stay at the table till everyone's finished (it's amazing how often a plate pushed away as being disgusting ends up getting eaten), and he knows we're not going to make him something else if he doesn't eat it. Oh and there are apples in our house most days, also oranges pears bananas grapes persimmons plums apricots pomegranates etc etc, so eating them is not some exotic new experience, it's part of normal life. Now I know I've had it quite easy with O (a child who loves cabbage and brussel sprouts!²) and other parents with similar regimes struggle to get their kids to eat healthily, but that doesn't mean you have to indulge their every whim.

I suspect there's a lot more to this situation than we are being told, and that the child's weight may be a symptom of the reasons why social services are concerned, rather than the cause itself. The mum has free reign to present her side of things but social services are not so free to publish the detail of their concerns. Social workers are not all the pc witchhunt brigade they get painted as - although I might be biased as my mum was one. I'd like to discuss this case with her actually but her and me dad have galivanted off on a 5 week round the world ski-ing trip.

1. 14 stone = 196 lb = 98.9kg
2. Another reason to hate SunnyD is there 'no child is like Max Wild' ad campaign, based on the premise that normal kids don't like fresh fruit and veg so caring parents have to give them vitamins laced with sugar instead.

study Sunday (not)

2007-02-25T14:52:00.000Z

Gah the weekend's nearly over and I still haven't done any studying yet. I am having one of those omg I can't do it gaaaah days or 3. The fact it's that time and that I've been forgetting to take my anti-loonie pills (unisex) and my anti-loonie pills (gurls only) won't be helping much. Or perhaps it is the my just desserts for failing to observe the sabbath.

Talking of dessert, there is a good chance we will be enjoying a delicious edible Devonian marine ecosystem in the near future (seen over on Pharyngula).

Ooh look, molecules

ging gang gooley

2007-02-23T21:27:00.000Z

It seems to be deeply unhip to admit to liking scouts/guides. Most blogs I read or people I talk to, if the subject comes up they take delight in recounting how short a time they were members for, how much they hated it and, for bonus points, what heinous crime they got expelled for.

Me, I loved it. I was a Brownie and then a Guide for years. I loved the badges and the camping trips. OK so I'm not a big fan of some of B-Ps views and there's the god-business, but generally I think it's A Good Thing that organisations exist where young peeps can go and learn new things, meet new kids and new grown ups, find out a bit about responsibility, and maybe even have fun and a bit of an adventure along the way. Oh and YAY for the grown ups who give up their time to run things.

So I am happy that O has joined beavers. The pack/colony was recommended by friends and their Raskha says they can accommodated atheist beavers. Took him for his first meeting last night and it turned out they were having a sleepover, O wanted to stay and had a great time. He's a joiner-inner like me, I think he's going to like it there, so yah booh sucks to the kewl kids who turn their noses up, they don't know how much fun they're missing.

another week another gain

2007-02-23T14:45:00.000Z

Blurgh inspite of my good intentions, a combination of London and TOTM has given me a gain of 3 lb this week. Oh well at least I will be mainly at home for the next few weeks so can get back to trying to learn how to eat like a normal person.

And Friday wouldn't be Friday without my GTD review. In some ways I find the weekly review the hardest part (well apart from actually doing the work) and am still playing around with how I do it. At the moment I

make a cup of tea
process anything outstanding in my in-tray
pull out all my @action files and my project files, open up my email folders and 43things
get out last week's project/review list
look at my diary for the week/s ahead
work through my paper & email folders, checking for things done and things outstanding
synchronise my main diary (sunbird) with my paper diary and the family calendar
list my ongoing projects and note the 'next action', highlighting the things I really need to move on in the coming week
make sure the reminders are put in the proper place in the system - eg putting a bill in my tickler file so it 'pops up' when I need to pay it, noting it on a post-it and sticking it to the right list (eg calls)
put all my folders away again
have another cup of tea

One thing I know I need to work on is my longer term planning. I'm getting pretty good at next actioning stuff but many projects also needs some work on planning them out. That's something I'm going to work on this week.

And because I know how fascintating all this gtdness is, here are some photos to go with it:

More stationery news: I am currently in love with the Paperchase's stripey range.

because she's worth it

2007-02-23T09:45:00.000Z

This year's winners of L'Oreal Unesco awards for women in science announced. Winners include:

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, University of Mauritius, Reduit; organic chemistry
Margaret Brimble (left), University of Auckland, New Zealand; organic and medicinal chemistry
Tatiana Birshtein, Russian Academy of Science, St Petersburg; macromolecular compounds
Ligia Gargallo, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Santiago; physical chemistry
Mildred Dresselhaus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, US; electrical engineering and physics

Margaret Brimble's work involves the synthesis of biologically active molecules from natural products including shellfish toxins and algal blooms. She told Chemistry World that her work synthesising these 'beautiful molecules' was enormously satisfying and that she was surprised and delighted to receive the award, adding that she hoped it would stimulate added interest in science amongst young women in her home country.

be afraid

2007-02-22T17:07:00.000Z

Fisherman have landed a colossal squid in Antarctica. I am stocking up on t-shirts. His squid brethren will be angered and I want to be in their good books when they come looking for him.

Is it heresy to suggest that their tentacles remind me of His Noodly Appendage? Are squid perhaps his ~~earthly~~ aquatic form? Is the future invertebrate?

my bad

2007-02-22T16:05:00.001Z

oh dear. Today I had to go into town on some routine errands, remembered I still hadn’t spent my Xmas money from my parents so went to look for some boots. Ended up buying two pairs, these gorgeous turquoise ones at full price and some very cute brown suede ones in the sale.

And then I bought some books. Yeah cos what this house needs is more books sfxgroaningbookshelvessfx and especially now my geology courses are underway, I really need extra works of fiction to distract me.

See more progress on: buy less

all priests over-75 five a side indoor football contest

2007-02-21T17:22:00.000Z

well nearly. Two of the Arran Islands are to have a five a side soccer¹ match to decide which is the real Craggy Island. John Aldridge seems a particularly fitting choice. May the best feckers win.

1. Yes they do call it 'soccer' in Ireland, as 'football' means Gaelic football.

procrastination central

2007-02-21T16:53:00.000Z

because I have so much work and study to catch up on that I get all panicked when I think about starting, here's a nice picture of the last 25 books I read

how squid am I?

2007-02-21T09:09:00.000Z

Results: You are almost certainly part giant squid. Your mother may have had a watery fling that your father didn't know about.

How to tell if you are part squid at squidsquid.com

London Lurgy

2007-02-20T13:46:00.000Z

We had a good time in London, though we didn't get to see the giant squid - by the time we got there all the tours were booked up. But we did do lots of other stuff. Was pretty tired when I got home and have been betting more tired since, I think I have picked up some London germs. I just want to sleep.

Eating was not good but not disasterous. Lots of pizza but not lots of crisps or ice cream. I've had a bit of a gain but hopefully that will be gone by Friday, if only because I'm too tired too eat. We saw this man at Speakers' Corner on Sunday, bringing a warning from left-pond. Luckily we were on our way to have a go on the pedaloes so I worked off maybe half a slice of pizza.

Happy Wednesday

2007-02-14T09:14:00.000Z

I'm off to see the giant squid.

oops

2007-02-13T00:18:00.000Z

I have got meself all worked up about something going on locally and tonight was the only time I had to work on it, so I got all caught up in it and didn't get to belly dancing, preferring to stay in and fire off emails to secure my place on the moral high ground. Now I'm all wound up and won't sleep and have been forced to resort to the only booze in the house, a bottle of Triassic-era Tia Maria. No exercise + sweet sticky drinks = bad fat gurl.

stick it where the sun don't shine

2007-02-12T10:41:00.000Z

The ever fabulous (& future Mr Clarrie) Ben Goldacre has written a magnificent article about Gillian McKeith and by extension a subject close to my heart, the pseudo-science of the whole woo wooo diet industry.

She talks endlessly about chlorophyll, for example: how it's "high in oxygen" and will "oxygenate your blood" - but chlorophyll will only make oxygen in the presence of light. It's dark in your intestines, and even if you stuck a searchlight up your bum to prove a point, you probably wouldn't absorb much oxygen in there, because you don't have gills in your gut. In fact, neither do fish. In fact, forgive me, but I don't think you really want oxygen up there, because methane fart gas mixed with oxygen is a potentially explosive combination.

....

These new nutritionists have a major commercial problem with evidence. There's nothing very professional or proprietary about "eat your greens", so they have had to push things further: but unfortunately for the nutritionists, the technical, confusing, overcomplicated, tinkering interventions that they promote are very frequently not supported by convincing evidence.

And that's not for lack of looking. This is not about the medical hegemony neglecting to address the holistic needs of the people. In many cases, the research has been done, and we know that the more specific claims of nutritionists are actively wrong.

....

the most significant "lifestyle" cause of death and disease is social class. ... This phenomenal disparity in life expectancy - the difference between a lengthy and rich retirement, and a very truncated one indeed - is not because the people in Hampstead are careful to eat a handful of Brazil nuts every day
....

I encourage you to read the whole article, and the rest of The Ben's columns on 'Dr' Gillian, and keep it in mind when the next nutrition guru pops up on your tv flogging miracle diets and super foods and vital supplements. One of the main reasons I don't go to WW meetings any more is the tendency of the leaders to spout whatever cr@p they've read in the Daily Mail in place of basic decent nutrition. And I was that mean ol' spoilsport who complained to WW when they ran an article on their website about astrology and dieting.

We know what we have to do - eat less cr@p, eat more fruit and veg, drink less booze, do more exercise. Sounds simple to those people who live like that already but for those of us who struggle it's a long hard road. But no amount of blue green algae¹ or horny goatweed is going to make that road any shorter, just more expensive.

1. I know someone who's doing a PhD researching the toxins in algae

on not getting things done

2007-02-09T10:19:00.000Z

Well my widgets remain beautifully organised but unfortunately somewhat uncranked. I have several projects that I keep pushing back and pushing back. I need to get them moving else I will be in serious trouble but seem unable to overcome my ostrich-itis about them. These are not things that will take a seriously long time, but they are things I have allowed myself to become scared of.

Doing my weekly gtd review has helped a bit. I have realised that I have progressed many things well, so I am not in fact a total failure. I am hoping this perspective will help get me over the hump and back cranking my widgets come Monday morning. I have re-arranged my working patterns so that instead of smearing my part-time work over a full week, I work only on 3 days a week. I thought this would make it easier to concentrate on doing the right things on the right days - work on work days, study on non-work days. So far it's not working out that well but I will keep going at it.

Weight-wise, I have lost another 1.5 lb this week whoo etc. I have eaten sensibly/normally 5 days out of 7, making a change from bingeing 5 days out of 7. I'm still tracking my food on WW site but not worrying about staying within points - I think I need another few weeks of adjusting back to eating normally before starting to cut back more. Maybe when I stop losing weight, it will be time to try and stick to my points. I've done most of the exercise I aimed for - belly dance and aquarobics but not pilates (not my fault, class was cancelled).

The current cornerstones of my healthy(er) eating are smoothies (the lazy girl's way to eat fruit, whizzed up with low fat pro-biotic yoghurt & sugar-free cranberry juice), houmous (home made, way nicer than shop bought houmous which is often foul) , pitta bread (to eat houmous with)p & oatcakes. I am trying to be organised - making a batch of houmous at the weekend, and when I make smoothies I make enough for 2 or 3 at a time, not running out of itta bread or oatcakes, that kind of thing.

Next week is a bit worrying - me & O are having a half-term trip to That London and will mostly be eating out. I need to think about how I can handle that sensibly.

older than kylie

2007-02-07T10:00:00.000Z

aargh I will be 40 this year omg omg how did that happen wtf aaargh

that is all.

gah

2007-02-06T15:07:00.001Z

Pringles. Curses to you evil Pringles.

want that one

2007-02-05T09:36:00.000Z

My hero Ben "fuck off acadmic ninja" Goldacre has a book coming out whoot whoot hurrah. You should buy it, then he'll have more money to buy me presents (eg a lovely periodic table table for our living room) when he sees the light and marries me.

(Note to self: add 'work out how to stop blogger putting boxes around pictures' to next actions list)

new toys

2007-02-04T11:51:00.000Z

Hurray my boxes of OU stuff have arrived. Including a fantabulous microscope and boxes of rocks and fossils.

I'm a bit worried about ~~juggling~~ managing two courses at the same time, and making sure I spend enough time on each and don't get behind on either. The microscope, and the maps, create some logistical problems - can't take them with me to the library or on the train. Last year I relied alot on being able to go to the library to study (no tv, no internet, no food). I will have to try and arrange things so that I use time at home for the maps 'n' microscopes course, and do the other one in the library. Oh except that this course has lots of online activities too. Gah. Must get that 43things thing happening ...

I was walking down the road the other day

2007-02-03T21:46:00.000Z

Man walks up to me, says how far is it to the railway station? Ted Chippington, what a star. Who says the 80s were all bad?

not just me, then

2007-02-02T11:28:00.000Z

Article in this week's New Scientist says

Out-of-control binge eating is a widespread eating disorder in the US, and more common than anorexia and bulimia combined, according to the first national survey of such disorders. Binge eating afflicts 3.5% of US women and 2.0% of men at some point in their lives

Not that that makes me feel much better but it's nice to know one is not alone. It's also good that binge eating is being reconised alongside other eating disorders.

Anyway my beginner's efforts to deal with this cr@p have lost me two pounds this week hurrah etc. Next actions for next week: eating = keep on working on eating normally, (recording what I've eaten but not worrying about staying in points allowance) and also drink 1 litre of water a day; exercise = do 3 exercise events again this week.

I started this post on Friday evening but had to break off to watch tv with O - our new Friday night tradition is to let O stay up past his bed time to watch Nick Baker's Weird Creatures on 5. O is going to write to Nick to ask if he needs a kid assistant.

Things I do that normal people don't (# 263): stand around admiring the ammonite and belemnite fossils in the Jurassic limestones on the walls of the new Arndale centre. Must take my camera next time I go to town.

slippage

2007-02-01T23:24:00.000Z

Ack, there was a (minor) binge this morning. But hey it was just the one family sized bag of crisps rather than 2 tubes of pringles and some cakes. Progress, of sorts. Koff. Anyway I have been to Pilates tonight yay me.

More important news: JK Rowling ruins my life. Well my summer, at least. Why can't she bring the book out the week before, to co-incide with my birthday like she did last time? Why does she have to do it the day I go to summer school? Tsk no consideration these millionaire authors.

4 years

2007-02-01T09:38:00.000Z

I have not smoked for 4 years, 9 hours, 37 minutes and 58 seconds.
36,535 cigarettes not smoked
£9,133.75 not paid to evil death dealing tobacco company capitalists.
Life saved to continue fight capitalism: 18 weeks, 20 hours, 35 minutes.

sell out

2007-01-29T15:09:00.000Z

My MSOffice-free computer experiment has been only half successful. I have had to revert to Word & Excel. I share too many layout-heavy documents with word users, that Open Office probbaly could cope with if I had the time and patience to fiddle about with templates and the like, but I don't. Similarly with spreadsheets, I can barely work excel so any extra level of complexity is beyond me when it comes to dealing with spreadsheets.

I haven't, tho, been sucked back into Outlook. I used to be a 'heavy user' - as well as email, I used the calendar and tasks and synched it all with my phone. But I love Thunderbird, I think it's an ace email client. The associated calendar, Sunbird, is fairly rudimentary but as I've gone analogue in my new GTD-ism, I can cope with that for now. So not a complete sell-out.

We had a good weekend, quite busy - on Saturday we went swimming, to see a puppet show and out for pizza with friends, on Sunday I went cycling and R took O and some friends to run about in the outdoors for a few hours. Now back to work boo hoo and still trying to eat normally too. It is not going too bad, although I'm thinking that maybe buying a big box of dried dates wasn't such a good idea ... just becausee it's fruit doesn't mean it's all good ...

weekly review

2007-01-26T11:55:00.000Z

oh not more gtd dronings? Yep, fraid so. The weekly review is a key gtd thing, and a generally good idea. So I'm ~~hoping~~ planning to do it each Friday, which ties in nicely with my weighing myself schedule too, then I can review my eating and WL week at the same time. I've dusted down my 43 things list to use as a collection bucket for some of my personal projects (particularly those of the 'someday/maybe' variety), and gone through adding next actions to the things I want to move on (oh and put it in my side bar too hurrah for java script thingummies). Then I've dropped those next actions into my @actions system and made folders for the projects that need them.

I haven't weighed myself today, as I only did it a couple of days ago, but Friday will be my regular weighing day. Eating has gone OK the past 3 days, I have been over my points but I'm not that bothered about that for now. The important thing is I have been eating real food (fruit and veg and pulses omg) and drinking water & green tea (instead of 6 cans of Diet Dr Pepper a day). So far, so good, so keep on going. Tomorrow morning I'll have a swim while O has his swimming lesson, I have a bike ride arranged for Sunday and I've arranged to take friend along to belly dancing so I have to stay for 2 hours instead of 1.

And my OU books have started to arrive hurrah!

lang may your lum reek

2007-01-25T23:15:00.000Z

Happy Burns' Night

I happened to find myself in a pub (on a colleague's leaving do) and they gave out free wee drams.

book snob? moi?

2007-01-24T22:16:00.000Z

Hearing on t'wireless that a third of British adults have lied about reading a 'high-brow' book to appear more intelligent. Being unable to resist my natural urge to show off, I rushed to find out more. Today really is a good day for smugness, as I find I really have read the top ten books on the list. Hah.

Top Ten Books we other people apparantly lie about reading:

1. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R Tolkien
Well of course I've read it, and the Hobbit. Several times. And yes that is several times before the fillums came out. Another year or 2 and O will be having the Hobbit for his bed time story. Interesting tho that everyone apparantly wants people to think they've read it, before the fillums came out most people pointed and laffed at you if you admitted reading Tolkein. Geekchic really has arrived.

2. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
Yep, read this one too, only a couple of years ago. It was a bit of a marathon, and more of a 'because it's there' read than something I adored, but I kind of enjoyed it. Although I can't believe most people tell everyone else they've read it?

3. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Read the book, seen the fillum, got the single. It was one of my a-level set texts as it happens. I remember thinking I wouldn't enjoy, then not being able to put it down. Haven't read it for years, tho. I'm really more of a Janeite than a Bronte fan - can't be doing with all that running round the moors in your nightie. I still say Heathcliffe was Mr Earnshaw's bastard, why else would he bring some weird kid back from Liverpool one day? I also have this interesting theory about Thomas Hardy's .... oh you've just seen someone over there you know and have to rush off? oh OK

4. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus - John Gray
OK I confess, I've only read about half of this twaddle. Because it's twaddle. If you were trying to impress me at a party by telling me you'd read this, you'd fail. Now if you told me you'd read How Mumb-Jumbo Conquered the World, that would impress me.

5. 1984 - George Orwell
You mean everyone else didn't spend their teenage years reading Orwell and Huxley and getting all angsty about dystopian futures? Shallow bastards, probably out having fun while us sensitive souls worried about jackboots and human faces in our bedrooms. Mind you, the more I read about the role of Stalin in the Spanish Civil war, the more I realise why Eric Arthur hated Stalinist communism quite so bitterly.

6. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone - J.K Rowling
Got my copy of number 7 reserved already. Hurryuphurryuphurryuphurryup

7. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Read it, love it. Used to be my favourite Dickens' but that's now between Bleak House & Little Dorrit

8. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Yep, but see above for general comments on Brontes.

9. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
Read it, it's awful. Dreadful pish. Carboard cutout characters in plot-by-numbers 'thriller'. I am certain I shall never see a Dan Brown book lovelier than a tree. Even an old dead dutch elm disease infected rotten blasted stump.

10.Diary of Anne Frank - Anne Frank
Another "you mean everyone else didn't spend their teenage years crying over this?" one. Seriously, you must have read it?

not again

2007-01-24T14:14:00.000Z

So I got back on the dreaded scales and the dreaded numbers were as dreadful as I'd dreaded i.e. highest ever (& over the 18 stone barrier). This is Very Very Bad and Something Must Be Done. I don't feel like I have the energy for it but will push on and hope some energy turns up. I've logged back into WW esource to log my points (because it's a handy tool for recording eating and exercise, and points are easier to work with than calories) and committed to going to aquarobics tonight. And as ever, in case of emergency, buy books.

Actually I must stop buying books, already this month I have spent more on books than most people do in a year and I have a bedside shelf full of ones waiting for me, pluses boxes of stuff on the way from the OU. But this was essential book buying, I needed some books to help me help O with his maths. I don't actually care (much) about whether or not he can do the maths, what upsets me is how easily discouraged he is in the face of new, hard-looking things. I don't want his brain telling him what mine's told me all my life - I can't do it, I'm rubbish, I'll fail, I'll be in trouble, I have to do it perfectly or there's no point, that kind of crappy old yaddah yaddah. So I've got him some books, me some books, and a book for a friend's new baby. Oh and a book for me and O's half-term trip to London - we pretty much know which sights we're going to see and now we know where to eat, too.

So that's the 'spend less' and the 'eat less' resolutions blown already this year, but at least the 'use less plastic bags' one is going strong. I wandered round town with my carbon-neutral, as used by Dick 'n' Dom, omg I look like I hug trees and knit my own muesli, unicorn grocery jute bag, smuggly telling shop assistants "I've got my own bag, thanks, I don't need a plastic one".

Then I came home to wait for the plumber and pimp my blog - thanks so much to phydeaux3 for the labels cloud code.

fluffy clouds

2007-01-24T00:51:00.000Z

well as you can see I've been playing with the kewl new blogger. Next action: make my labels show as a fluffy cloud rather than a nasty list.

one more thing

2007-01-23T13:31:00.000Z

one of my new favourite things is Freecycle. You've got stuff you don't need anymore, someone else wants stuff, they come and collect stuff from you. Hurrah, less consumerism and less stuff in landfill. When I gtd-ed my office I found a pile of stuff I've offloaded on freecycle. I've got some great stuff from there too, best of all a new bed¹ for O which he loves (we were going to buy one but then it showed up for free yay). Go on, try it, it's like ebay but for free.

1. We bought the mattress new, tho. Ickety ick to used mattresses.

health kick

2007-01-23T12:42:00.000Z

R had his annual check up at the doctors and was told his cholesterol is too high, he has some liver enzymes that shouldn't be there and he's put on weight. So basically he needs to drink less, eat better and exercise more. And it's not just him, is it? My eating continues bad, although today I have made myself a lovely fruit smoothie - probably the first time this year I have consumed fruit other than bananas.

I went back to belly dancing this week (C gave me a gorgeous coin belt for Christmas so I had to try it out) and am actually going to try and do 2 hours a week instead of just 1. I have offered to take a friend along to the beginners' class with me, so then I will have to go. Also I am going to go back to aquarobics and re-start pilates. I have to put these in place now as regular habits - if I don't do it now then when I re-start my studies I will think I don't have enough time to exercise too.

Finally getting serious? Dunno. Hope so. OK I know hoping isn't enough. I have my exercise plan drafted out. Now I have to work on the eating. Not just for my physical health but my mental health too, I've been really irritable for the past few weeks (months?) and I know I would feel better if I wasn't consuming so much cr@p.

Next action is weigh myself, find out the worst. Eek.

exceptions to the rule

2007-01-22T13:37:00.000Z

My motto is "never do today what you can put off till tomorrow", but I make an exception for stationery shopping. I feel about stationery like normal women are supposed to feel about shoes - somewhere out there is the one, the magic item, that will make me organised and productive and beautiful and sexy. Getting into GTD has given me a fantastic excuse for indulging my passion. I have lovely new intrays and files and folders and best off all, brand new today, a lovely box for keeping my 43folders in (thanks to 43folders wiki for the tip - there is no room in my tiny office for another filing cabinet so a box for my folders is great).

The 2 things I like best about GTD are:

he tells you how to set up a simple system to organise your stuff. All my systems break down because they are too complicated or things drop through the cracks. I think this new system might work for me, I particularly like the whole tickler file thing, I feel like I might finally be managing my paper.
the emphasis on next actions. For someone who prevaricates and panics and procrastinates like I do, focusing on the next thing I have to physically do makes sense. It also chimes in with stuff I worked on during CBT sessions in the past.

The book has a quote which I love, so I have made it into a motivational poster incorporating my spiritual beliefs:

It is easier to act yourself into a better way of feeling than to feel yourself ino a better way of action

O.H. Mowrer

catching up

2007-01-20T21:01:00.000Z

Christmas was great, it was really nice to spend the day with all of my family, plus we went to visit friends who moved to Brum last year. Owen got totally spoilt with mounds of presents, including Marvin's Mind Blowing Magic. He spent New Year's Eve performing street magic for friends and neighbours.

All back to work and school now boo and also waiting for the course materials to arrive to start my next OU courses. In preparation for which I have signed up to the cult of Getting Things Done. I've read the holy book, I've set up the sacred 43folders and now I'm ready to start cranking those blessed widgets. I'm going for a mainly anologue implementation to start with (square cut folders, A4 paper, post-its), we'll see how it goes.

Eating is double plus ungood right now, bingeing like feck. Next action: read "Overcoming Binge Eating"

a sad post

2007-01-09T22:01:00.000Z

Not that Xmas was sad, actually it was great and I may even get round to blogging it (Oh yeah and resolutions) at a later date. But tonight I feel sad and old and maybe finally a grown up. K is the same age as me, more or less, and one of my oldest and dearest friends. On Friday night his mum died. It was completely unexpected and a huge shock. She was only 60. She was a brilliant woman, the centre of their family who held it all together. She was always kind and welcoming to me when I used to visit. Tonight on the train I was happened to be listening to HMHB and it took right back 20 or so years to when I first visited their home. And I remembered her and felt for K, who was very close to his mum. And I felt a bit sorry for myself, too; I am 40 this year and my contemporaries' parents have started dying. Does this make me a grown up at last?

Anyway I got home and cracked open the best whisky and gave him a ring. And now I'm going to sit and drink some more of the best whisky and raise a glass to K's mum.

I'm not overweight, I'm an eco-warrior

2006-12-24T00:14:00.000Z

Apparantly, being a lard arse is good for the planet. Pass the pringles, I shall be a one woman carbon sink. That should get my carbondaq account in credit.

happy holidays

2006-12-23T08:34:00.000Z

I have spent the last week doing very little - after several weeks of being constantly busy and running round the country for work, I had that 'I'm comin down with something' feeling. At least for the first time ever I am ready for Christmas, hurrah for on-line shopping. But we do have to go into town this afternoon, O wants to skate at Picadilly Gardens. And the new permanent ice-rink is nearly finished, so maybe he will get to fulfill his 'Dancing on Ice' dreams.

In other 'my son's a gay' news: we spent yesterday morning baking biscuits and listening to Abba's greatest hits. We had a friend's 4 year old with us; at one point O was choreographing dance routines for them.

Tomorrow we are off to my parents' for Christmas. This will be the first time we've been to them on the day itself since Owen was born - on the years we're not in Ireland, we have Christmas at home and then go to my parents' on Boxing day. But this year I thought it would be nice to see them on the day, my mum is very happy and has invited my sister & boyf and my aunt & uncle too, so we will have a house full and it will be fun.

If I don't blog again before then, I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas (and may you not have to listen to 'Wonderful Christmas Time' as often as I do, it being O's new favourite seasonal song that keeps supplanting the traditional Trojan Christmas on the cd player).

I rock

2006-12-16T01:34:00.000Z

Got my course results - passed my residential school (10 points) with a grade 2 pass and my main 60 point course with a grade 1 (ie distinction), scored 91% on my final exam. Go me. Am now verr' drunk having just got in from office xmas outing.

theology 101

2006-12-12T11:53:00.000Z

O had joined the school choir to take part in the Christmas musical 'Hosannah Rock' (he now says he does believe in god, or perhaps he doesn't, so he is going to be an agnostic for now).

In the spirit of primary school nativities everywhere, all the children are getting 'a part' but it seems all the good parts have gone to the juniors, leaving the infants to dress up as a motley collection of farm animals. Yesterday O was allocated a pig costume. For some unfathomable reason he is devasted about this (although not, one suspects, as devastated as little Mohammed's parents are going to be when they hear he's being a pig too). He wants me to go and see the head to find out if he can be a sheep instead, but I am a mean mum and told him he should ask himself if he can change costumes. O is terrified of getting in trouble, I have been trying to reassure him that the worst that can happen is she says 'no'.

I also remarked that pigs were unlikelly to have been found in a Bethlehem stable because Jewish people don't eat pork, and perhaps he could say that to the head. We got out the bible to check for references to pigs at the birth of Jesus. Unfortunately it fell open at the parable of the prodigal son¹, which in the Good News version has an illustration of him swineherding. So much for the 'no pigs in biblical Palestine' line of argument.

1. One of my least favourite bible stories. I never liked it even when I was a god botherer. Killing the fatted calf to celebrate the bad boy's return while ignoring good one who stayed at home and did the right thing, never seemed like a good message to send out to me. Same with the lost sheep, all that being happier about one sinner who repents than 99 who never did anything to repent. Bah.

in the name of research

2006-11-28T20:56:00.000Z

In my new MS-office-free world, Thunderbird has introduced me (at long last) to RSS feeds. One of my regular reads is "Adventures in Ethics and Science" - she's a philosopher with a PhD in physical chemsitry, what's not to love?

Whence I read about this experiment investigating the speed of a meme, being conducted by a graduate student. As I understand ¹ that 'graduate student' is left pondish for PhD student, and PhD students being a subject close to my own heart, I thought I'd join in too. Go on, click the link to Scott's post, do the things he asks and help another poor student become a doctor.

Other news: eating bad. Bad bad bad. But I have a new book on my bedside table and I am going to work on it. I wish my course books for next year would hurry up and come, so I could have something to do to occupy me. I've been so used to having studying to do, I don't know what to do with myself between courses.

1. aka as I found out from wikipedia

half hearted

2006-11-20T10:33:00.000Z

Things have generally been OK this week. Oh except for Tuesday when I was away from home and feeling like crap and ate two packets of hula hoops in contravention of my 'no crisps' rule. And last night I broke the 'no booze' rule - Rob & I finished the holiday whisky while watching "Return of the King" on teevee. But there was only the merest sniffter left. Also there were rather more cals/points in Hugh F-W'sstuffed squash than I anticipated. I've been bellydancing and swimming this week, and I tried to go to pilates but the instructor was ill; also took O and some mates to the park on Sunday.

My mood has been a bit low for a few days, tho, which I need to keep an eye on. Maybe I'm still on a come-down from being so busy for the last few months. In the run up to my exam and then the holiday I had to put lots of effort into keeping my energy high, so I could throw myself into getting everything done. Now I just want to throw myself onto the settee and watch repeats of "The Practice". Except ITV3 have stopped showing the Practice boo hoo hooo.

dedication

2006-11-14T09:10:00.000Z

I went belly dancing last night, and as a result missed the first IACGMOOH, because my personal trainer said I had to go. My personal trainer is on at me to take more excercise generally and won't let me use the lift, I have to go up the stairs instead. My personal trainer is 7 and calls me mum.

blah blah blah

2006-11-13T11:23:00.000Z

Oh flick feck arse. I hate all this dieting cr@p. But also I hate being a bleb so back on the path of rightousness I attempt to go. Weighed self this morning, as expected am heaviest ever, weighing more than Liza Minnelli. Plan of sorts:

no alchohol for 2 weeks
no crisps
exercise: Monday = bellydance, Thursday = pilates, Saturday = swimming

tis a start. Today I shall be mostly taking my mind off crisps by playing with my computers - wireless network tends to play up so arrival of shiny new laptop is a good time to reinstall it from scratch. Also am trying an MSOffice-free experiment on new machine, have got open office installed, now need to try playing with it to get Thunderbird and Lightning (very very frightening) to work too. Then I'm getting a feck off big external hard drive to back up all my puters on.

anyone wanna babysit?

2006-11-09T14:26:00.000Z

Being how we's old and dull me and R hardly ever go out together. Now we have 2 nights out in as many weeks and no-one to babysit since our regular babysitters went to college or turned into single parents bah. And it's on school nights so sleepover not a good option but it'll probably come to that. We've to two lots of comic genius to see - Mark Thomas on the 15th and then Jeremy Hardy on the 30th. I've quoted this before but it's well worth posting again ....

Good point well made, Mr. Duncan. As you clearly say, it states in Leviticus Chapter 18 Verse 22 that homosexuality is an abomination. Which reminds me—there are a couple of things I need guidance on. Firstly, If I wanted to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7, how much could I expect to make from such a deal? Also, my colleague Pete insists on working on the sabbath. Exodus clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or is it OK to get some outside help? Lastly, does the whole city really have to be together to stone my brother John for planting different crops side by side. And when I burn my mother for wearing garments made from two different threads, do I torch her whole or just a bit?

Jeremy Hardy
(thanks to the The Unofficial Jeremy Hardy Page for this)

And then deep deep joy, the HMHB fans email drops into my inbox to tell me they're playing in Manchester next February! Yay hay, see you there Nigel. I think I'll wear a black tour jacket over my Dukla Prague away kit and, if it's cold, keep warm with me Joy Division overgloves

spend spend spend

2006-11-08T15:51:00.000Z

Now that R has a proper job (at least until next summer) we is not poor all the time anymore hurrah but the downside is I now have to pay for my OU courses myself boo hoo. So today I shelled out for next year's courses - geology and extra geology.

I need to book the summer school too but that will have to wait because I spent the rest of the money on a new laptop instead. Our old one is all old and slow and cranky with a battery life of about 10 minutes, the new one is all shiny and speedy and lovely and long lasting, and my new best friend. Tax bill, what tax bill?

back

2006-11-07T13:46:00.000Z

Well I've been back for over a week but life just keeps happening and getting in the way of important computer stuff.

Our holiday was great, NE Scotland is beautiful and the fishing village we stayed in was lovely. Other lovely places include Hopeman (top quality rockpooling) and Pennan (spot the Local Hero phone box)

We had far better weather than we had any right to expect in October, the first couple of days were glorious. It wasn't so good after that there was still lots to do; we went to the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses - it was amazing to see the lenses and reflectors close up, I'd never really thought about what they're like

and to the MacDuff Marine Aquarium - which is small but perfectly formed. It's really interesting that all of their fish etc are indigineous, and the staff are really lovely and helpful and interesting

Owen's favourite thing of all was the ice-rink, we went twice (plus once to the swimming pool). One thing we didn't get to do was go on a boat trip to look for whales and dolphins and sharks - they weren't sailing because of the weather. We did see a seal close up in the harbour tho, awwww. Oh and visited "the world's leading malt whisky specialist" to get a pressie for R - tho he had to slum it with a bottle of GlenKeith rather than one of the malts with a 3 or even 4 figure price tag.

So, a great holiday but too much driving (C doesn't drive so it was all down to me). Going up was OK as we did it in 3 hops (Manc-Durham / Durham-Dundee / Dundee-Portsoy) but the drive back down all the way from Portsoy to Durham in one day was too much really. Then when we got back it we had to get ready for O's birthday, he was 7 last Saturday. He was very happy with the roller blades we gave him, he is very keen on honing his skating skills to perfection. He didn't have a party this year, we had a few kids for a sleepover and cinema trip instead, plus a surprise visit to the chocolate fountain.

Weightwise things are quite bad, I suspect I am now at my heaviest ever. I have been bingeing quite badly. I think I am going to spend some time working on my bingeing behaviour and try once again to get that under control, and also to increase my exercise, but I'm not going to go on an actual diet for now.

holiday shopping

2006-10-18T17:46:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow, me & O are off to pick up C, then on to NE Scotland for a half term post exam holiday. I have been working on holiday preparations, today I went into Waterstones for an OS map and emerged with:

Imperium by Ryszard Kapuscinski
A History of Modern Russia: From Nicholas II to Putin by Robert Service
- I've read a bit about Russia, including Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps by Anne Applebaum (fascinating but harrowing) and I've read Imperium before but I can't find my copy (Ryszard Kapuscinski is one of my favourite writers); currently I'm working my way through Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag-Montefiore

Fire Sale by Sara Paretsky
- hurrah hurrah for a new V.I. Warshawski novel

OS Map of our holiday area
- it is very strange going to Abroad and finding out they don't have a national ordnance survey and no official national OS maps.

Top Trumps Sharks
the Puffin Monster Joke Book
- Hopefully these will keep O amused for part of the long car drives ahead (we also have a travel Guess Who? set yay). He has just discovered Top Trumps at his mate's house and came back raving about. I used to love Top Trumps too.

Now the only things I need (which I will hopefully be able to get when we get there) are a book of local walks and a book about the local geology.

I am told some people think you have to buy clothes and have your hair done and stuff in preparation for holidays but that is just wrong. The most important thing is to make sure your holiday reading is sorted. Then your holiday listening. Everything else takes care of itself.

getting angry

2006-10-16T12:02:00.000+01:00

Now my exam is out of the way¹ I can lift my head back out of my books and look around. And risk getting angry about stuff I read in the papers. Like all this cr@p about veils and crosses. Obviously as a card-carrying atheist I think no-one should get themselves up in a religious stylee. However to focus the debate so narrowly is to entirely miss the big picture. Only the tiniest fraction of British Muslim women wear the veil; if the 'Muslim community' is isolated from the 'main stream', lets think a tiny bit about who is isolating whom? Who is it who moves out when Asian people move into an area? Who is it who don't want to send their kids to schools with significant numbers of non-white pupils? White people that's who. And while we're at it, who's radicalising who? All this cr@p in the papers lately is making me angry as feck and I'm a white British atheist. If I was remotely of the Islamic persuasion I would, these days, only go out wearing a full veil and one of these t-shirts and carrying a copy of The Chemistry Of Explosives under my arm.

Oh and don't get me started on Madonna ...

1. Trying not to think about it now, too late to worry about what I wrote, gotta wait 2 months for the results waaaahaaaaahhhaaaaahahahahahahah

questions questions

2006-10-06T13:49:00.000+01:00

Have I had my blood test results? Yesh and both glucose and cholesterol were normal. Which is thanks entirely to a fluke of my excellent genetic inheritance - someome with my appalling diet thoroughly deserves diabetes and heart disease.

How long have I been belly dancing? I started going about two and a half years ago, becuase I needed to do some weight-bearing excercise and it beats the cr@p out of aerobics classes.

How is the rate of an S_N1 reaction affected by (i)the nucleophilicity of the nucleophile, and (ii)the structure of the substrate? waah I dunno help I have an exam on this stuff in less than one week

Diet what diet?

who are you and what have you done with my hair?

2006-09-26T12:11:00.000+01:00

There is a strange woman in my mirror. This morning I went for a haircut, and for the first time in years spent more than a tenner on it. I asked a neighbour with good hair where she goes, and went there. The cut is good, but then the stylist decided to dry it straight "just for a change". And then she got the straighters on it. So now I have the ubiqitous straightened layers with wispy ends look that I generally pride myself on not having. The number of women who iron their hair flat¹ these days is scary.

D**t news: there is no diet. Not this week anyway, the past two days have been a disaster. I have been to bellydancing, tho.

1. darn it why can't I find a still of Tracy Turnblad ironing her hair?

oh bollox

2006-09-22T13:00:00.000+01:00

Gained a pound this week. Bah bah bah. Because I had two bouts of bingeing and did no excercise. Done it all wrong this week, need to do it less wrong next week. Angry with myself.

Other news: we might be getting a hamster yay. O is on an incentive programme to stop sucking his fingers. If he gets enough stickers on his chart over the next 6 weeks he gets a hamster. He actually wanted a dog but we negotiated him down. I'm very excited. We had a hamster when I was a kid, they are so cute. Plus I've always wanted rotastak. Our poor Peanuts had to slum it in a wire cage, but I've been reading that plastic ones are better for keeping cats at bay so I've been looking up rotastak on ebay. I don't think R has noticed I actually want this hamster more than O. Perhaps he could make a sticker chart for me and if I lose a pound a week in the next 6 weeks I get a really fancy hamster palace.

2006-09-19T13:35:00.000+01:00

Being under massive pressure of work and study, I react like any normal person ie spend inordinate amount of time prowling stationery shops looking for the perfect note book or pen or desk tidy or file or post-it, something that is the holy grail of stationery and will miraculously transform me into a super-organised straight-A student. Still haven't found it, but did find some fancy pens ideal for drawing curly arrow mechanisms and a lovely new Black'n'Red notebook.

Had my blood taken this morning (eventually, after 3 goes) and she decided to test for lipids too. So now I have a week to wait to find out how much damage I've done to myself with my crappy eating.

2006-09-18T18:12:00.000+01:00

It's that time again, yes the students are back so I took refuge in a student free zone today ie the university library. It was nice and quiet, although I suppose later in the week it will be temporarily busy with first years being shown around ("this is the library where we keep the books - you know, the big papery things with words in - do try and remember where it is so you know where to come during that last week before exams panic and sit round with your mates talking and txting and thinking that's revision").

I have a mass of studying to do myself, the last assignment of the course is due in on Friday and extensions are not allowed. I expect I will be stalking my tutor, sneaking up his drive late Friday night to put it through the letter box. At one point I decided not to go to bellydancing tonight so I could get some more work done but then my back started twinging. Plus I remembered I have an appointment for a fasting glucose test tomorrow morning. I know I will entirely deserve diabetes if I have it, but I need to keep making healthy choices about food and exercise - becuase if I don't got it now I soon will if I don't change.