I keep getting profoundly irritated by the radio news items about the cancelled British Airways strike; the representatives of BA keep talking ruefully about how many families would've been disappointed by problems with their travel plans (in order to guilt trip the workers they're presumably ripping off). Why do they keep saying 'families'? Presumably all kinds of people have travel plans, so why don't they just say people? Is it to make it sound badder of striking workers to be disappointing families as opposed to people? Because families are somehow better? It just sounds like corporate emotional blackmail to me.

And another thing - why are they putting caffeine in my paracetamol? I don't need it and I don't want it, but that's all the petrol station had. Losers.

Also, my computer is running so bloody slowly I want to throw it out of a window.

Also, the other night I watched Hugh Furry-Whippingstool making xmas things, but he disappointed me by making jokes about farting. Grow up Hugh for goodness sake.

There was a truism in our family when I was a child that my sister was the 'finder', meaning that she seemed to know where stuff was. No doubt she was observant, had a good memory and could recall the location of things. Conversely, I was a loser. I couldn't even keep track of my own possessions, let alone anyone else's.

I think I've grown up with an expectation that other people will know better than I do where things are. I have cringeworthy memories of making a nuisance of myself getting in a flap because I couldn't find things, and crossly demanding that other people tell me where they are. So that's the background...

Last week, I had quite a bloody job finding Kirsch for my Friday night fondue (which was bloody awesome btw - thank you Jeremy for FB fondue burner advice). No one in Morrisons had ever heard of it. The man in Sainsbury's booze section said they'd stopped ordering (WTF?). In vain I tried the Co-op where no one had heard of it. In the end I got it at LIDL on Thursday evening. I already said all this on Facebook, didn't I. Oh well.

Anyway I went to look for the Kirsch on Friday while preparing for the fondue, couldn't find it ANYWHERE, got in a flap, posted on Facebook and other Internet fora, and also stupidly sent an email to L the cleaner thinking maybe she'd seen it around somewhere. As soon as I'd done that I started panicking, wondering if she might imagine I was accusing her of something. As it was, the (people on the) Internet helped me find it (in the car boot, where I'd already looked but not well enough). I'm crossing my fingers L the C will not think I am suspicious/deranged and disappear, because I think my life has improved markedly since she has started.

What I have learnt:
It's okay to make a vague request for help to find something from the Internet. People won't feel obliged, because it's a general request. And actually it seems to work.

Never ever again email to ask the cleaner if she knows where where stuff is, because she's not on call, and it's probably very annoying.

Yet another one has now been and gone - the 6th one, and the fifth in the same house in Wickwar. It was lots of fun and this time I got a bit more drawing done than in previous years, although so much time passes between occasions upon which I draw these days that I feel I must have regressed.

Thank you to everyone who came, and especially thank you to Jenni, Selina and Jason for lots of help in the kitchen - Jason also did a great job on pudding duty, Richard for doing the frustrating job of untangling the fairy lights and also for hunting down retro pop culture reference material, and Jay for organising the comic arrangement.

Not long now.

Please send me a text to my mobile phone your ETA on Friday, and update me if it looks like changing.

REMEMBER TO BRING A TOWEL!

See you soon.

I feel I've got out of the habit of livejournal recently. I think part of it is Facebook, which has more people I know on it and is also far more suitable than an actual 'blog for daily drivelly trivia exchanges. So I'm less likely to leave daily drivelly trivia lying around here, which is probably no bad thing.

The other thing is I'm doing a lot more real live social interaction than I used to, and I expect that's a function of having stayed in one place long enough to give myself a chance to get to know a critical mass of people. Add in to that it's a busy time of year for work. Maybe some time I will have a lot less need for talking constantly to the Internet.

The new house cleaner has visited twice so far and seems to be getting established. She has prompted me to get a new vacuum cleaner, which is waiting here for her. I am very happy so far - just the routine of it is helping me be a little more organised.

The MCR happens at the end of this week, somewhat smaller this year. I think most of all I'm looking forward to seeing some of my friends who I've not seen since the summer, which seems like ages ago but really it isn't that long ago. Today I intended to come home early and make fudge for the MCR, but instead I stayed at work late, because I was on a roll, and finished off sorting out my presentation slides for the conference next week. It's all hectic - back from the MCR, conference straight after, and then I have to return early from it to assess student presentations next Thurs. I'm having a fondue do here on Friday 11th. A visit from SSG&T for a few days from the 20th. Various parties and things before it's xmas, which I will be spending in Wiltshire. Must remember to order the brace of ducks.

Food - I believe there will be no vegetarians this year, unless anyone has had a lifestyle change I'm unaware of.

Things I know I need to avoid from past experience - beef, celery, members of the brassica family - anything I've forgotten?

For some reason, my work was having a special entertainment and everyone was filling a theatre or auditorium, but I wanted to hang out quietly with my father and my niece who were visiting. We were all staying in a flat that was somewhere above and behind the stage. Just as the show was starting, I think a woman with long red hair and glasses and wearing a pink ruffly dress a bit like this one:
was about to sing. I lead my relatives to clamber over the rows of seats trying to disturb people as little as possible (difficult) and then up a ladder on the right hand side of the stage, through some curtains and up lots of stairs. When we reached the flat I was exhausted and sat down to regain my strength. I knew that next I had to find some olives and salted cashew nuts and red wine. And that's it.

I had vivid dreams for the past two nights. Vivid, but rather run of the mill. The night before last, I dreamt my colleague was very despondent, sitting on the floor arms around her knees and sulking, because she couldn't get a plumber to fix her plumbing. I tried to help fix it, but succeeded in breaking it a bit more. So I felt kind of incompetent and useless.

Last night's dream I'd gone somewhere, maybe London, and checked into a hotel. I was there to meet my friend at 4pm to go to the cinema, but in the hotel lobby a class was about to start on making icing decorations for the tops of cakes. There were beautiful little coloured discs of something, and tiny pots of shiny stuff laid out on a table. I wrestled with myself - I don't often have a need to decorate cakes. But it looked like fun. But I was meant to meet my friend. But I knew I was going to stay for the icing class because I wanted to. Selfish and unreliable.

It's booked, as I said previously. As far as I know, people who are coming are:

Selina
Jay
Jenni
Richard
Jason
Moto
Terry
Percyprune
Damian
Me

That's ten which is down on previous years. To try to make up for the shortfall I think we should make this one BYO booze. I think if I do that and budget very carefully we should be able to manage without increasing the per person cost, but it's going to be rather tight on the food budget. Would anyone be devastated if it went up by a fiver (to £65)?

If anyone knows anyone else who is planning to come, please let me know very soon!

Katherine: Did you hear John and Edward have been accused of starting an outbreak of nits in (some television programme premises)?

Jon: I like them even more now I know they're dirty.


I only know who John and Edward are because PB made me watch an episode of whatever it is they're in once, and they were singing that Britney Spears song.

Anyway, youngsters easily get nits and how dirty they are has nothing to do with it.

...nouns turned into adjectives via the addition of a Y to name a recipe. Eg, 'cheesy potato bake', 'tomatoey spiced chickpeas', 'chocolatey walnut squares'. Yuck. You'd think this was one of those irrational dislikes that might evaporate with age, but it still hasn't.

What makes it even more annoying is all three of those examples sound like they'd taste nice, but I'd be at least partially put off by the linguistic issue.

Stupid Bristol Temple Meads is stupid because it has a dearth of anything civilised nearby. Stupid Googlemaps (which is great really so I oughtn't complain) gives some very confusing messages when used for hunting for relevant civilised things, eg tea/coffee shops. That aren't Starbucks, because Starbucks sux0rz.

What else? I was going to go out tonight, to somewhere near Stokes Croft, but I'm not going now because I can't figure out where to park and I feel too scared to wander about Stokes Croft at night by myself, because it creeps me out. Another dilemma is that Saturday night's Fag-oween party is also at Stokes Croft. I know all the fearless cool kids skip around there all the time, well that's fine, but I can't and won't. I'm not spending my leisure time paralysed with irrational fear because that's not fun or leisurely. SO please have the parties somewhere non-scary kthx.

My poem! Didn't you like my poem?

Today I've been plagued by a feeling of something in my eye. I've complained about it to practically everyone I've come into contact with. It's still there. I veered towards thinking it was some sort of allergic something to do with autumn. Now I'm wondering if maybe there was a slight moisturiser mishap this morning.

I'm just back from seeing a film with some people across town. It was The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Well, it was imaginative (as you'd expect) and I guess nicely made, but actually it creeped me out too much. My mind is far too much like that already, and the last thing I need is more input of that nature. That kind of thing is exactly why I've always been too scared to try LSD.

Dear refectory,

Pickled onions in the ragout - an interesting idea. Did you pick that one up from Masterchef?

Balloon boy is so last week.

I didn't watch the chief sleazy gnome of the British racist party on Question Time last night - Question Time is not something I'd routinely watch, and in my opinion sleazy gnome is too revolting for viewing right before bedtime. Additionally, I know my more diligent peers will have watched the spectacle and will be unpacking it on my Internest for the next day or two. I am lazy about keeping up with news and I like it filtered for me. So apparently he made a dick of himself, but I doubt that will lose him any support. The fact that a load of middle class people think he's an idiot isn't going to affect how he's seen by anyone likely to support him; they're not who he's trying to appeal to. I still find the fact that he was on the programme at all quite depressing, because it's a bit like throwing someone (well, throwing a sleazy gnome) to the lions, and I can't see how that can make anyone look good (ie, including the lions).

Also, the post office. I have a thing I want to post, but I presume we're meant to hold off until things return to normal in case of all chaos and things getting lost. Posting things feels like a bit of a stab in the dark these days - you have no idea whether or when anything will get there. Should I start training some pigeons? Are you posting things or holding off?

In better news, Carol bought me a bag of dolly mixture yesterday.

Mostly work and other usual things. I have mostly got over my recent minor work related and other annoyances. I meant to write something somewhere about a fabulous after school workshop I went to last Thursday about identifying the problematic underpinning one's scholarship, and I'll get around to that soon I hope.

Weekends come and go. I had a family visitation on the 10th - a lovely visit to a National Trust house and a picnic in the autumn sunshine. The weekend just gone, PB came with sound recording equipment and an earwig so that we could record the soundtrack for our small project. I'd managed to find two actors to play the main roles, and I think they did marvellously well. It was a fun afternoon with lots of laughing and tea.

I have some calls to make. I had a message with a number for someone to phone to discuss my housekeeping needs! What a lovely thought. Now I must get around to making the call. I have another call to make - a driving instructor. I'm planning to book a couple of driving lessons so I can refamiliarise myself with a manual transmission system. I've not driven a non-automatic car for probably more than 14 years, and hardly ever at all really. I want to replace my car soon, and I'm fed up with being restricted to what's available in automatic at the time. I also need to phone the mindfulness course people I was supposed to be enrolling for a course with and explaining that I can't really manage their times this term, but maybe next term.

Next weekend I'm planning to go to a show on Saturday night and Sunday is the vintage fashion fair. The following weekend looks like it'll involve a halloween flavoured club crawl (!). The one after that I'm off to Up North for a walking/bonfire weekend.

So that's what's happening.

Just to confirm - I've booked the usual venue for the weekend of December 4th-6th - nine of us have committed to attend, which probably isn't quite enough, but I've no doubt more will pop up (presumably eg Damian).

But as far as I know I have: Girly + Jay, Moto, Jinty, Tortipede, Jason, Terry, Percyprune and me. Please let me know of anyone else you know is intending to come. Further details soon.


I've been busy and haven't updated much lately - I'll do a personal update later tonight.