Thanks to Auntie Doris, who has just been on the receiving end of an enormous whingeing screed of streams of consciousness from me, the rest of you don’t need to read me whining and moaning. She does have her uses, you know!

What else to tell you? The temperature in my office got up to 30° today, so I gave up and went to the gym instead - I thought if I’m getting sweaty and bad-tempered I may as well be sweaty and bad-tempered whilst actually achieving something, as I’m not convinced my brain ever got out of 1st gear. While I was there I watched the final set of the Williams-Dementieva Wimbledon semi-final (hooray for machines with TV), what a fantastic match that was. I’m glad I’d finished by the second semi though (Williams-Safina) which sounded from the scoreline like it was so one-sided as to be utterly uncompetitive. I predict a Williams winner

I’m having another thesis-related existential crisis (it seems to happen every chapter), though having managed to draw a couple of spider diagrams today I have (for now) decided I know what my thesis is about. This is today though, tomorrow is an entirely different day and I may well have forgotten the point of it by then. I’m getting quite frustrated with it - the stuff I’m writing for journals etc feels like it’s so much better than the stuff I’m writing for the thesis. It’ll be good when it’s all over! By the way, if anyone is in a praying/good vibes/candle-lighting/etc mood, next week a decision will be made about whether or not I can have an extension. I’m working on the assumption that it shouldn’t be a problem (according to my department) but until I hear for sure I will remain a bit anxious about it. If I don’t get it I am, to put it mildly, screwed. If I do get it, then I will feel much less stressed about taking time out to apply for jobs (I’ve got a few applications which need to be in in the next week or so).

Ooh, good (ish) news - I have an interview in a couple of weeks for one of the Open Uni courses I applied to tutor on. As I understand it it’s pretty competitive, but it would be good experience if I could get it. I’ve also (at last) completed my nursing study hours (did I tell you that already, I can’t remember. Actually I think I probably did) so am just waiting for my friend to send the reference back and then I can see about getting some nursing work. Unfortunately I discovered the other day that the nurse bank for Greater Glasgow isn’t recruiting for community nurses at all, but just for certain acute specialities (that I don’t have any experience in, or any desire to work in), which got me a bit despondent, but I’m thinking instead about applying to NHS24 (the Scotland equivalent of NHS Direct south of the border - it’s a nurse-led phone service). Not that I’m desperate to do that either, but it could be something to keep me going for a while till something more suitable turns up.

Tomorrow we are treating ourselves, as what with poorly cars and writers’ block and no jobs etc we could do with a treat, and are going to the Dr Who exhibition at the Kelvingrove Museum. Can’t wait! (will take photos, unsurprisingly).

Various

Life has been distinctly unblogworthy of late - that was going to change this weekend as we were due to go to York for a friend’s birthday party, but having foregone our Saturday lie-in this morning we got ourselves all packed and ready only to discover that Dudley (the Saab) wasn’t too well - a belt has snapped (I know *that* feeling!) and something else has jammed, and can’t be looked at until Monday at the earliest, and last-minute train fares were far too expensive, so I had my lie-in this afternoon instead, and instead of going to York the main excitement was going to our local Lidl for the first time (it opened 2 days ago). When I moved here and found that the local supermarket was a Somerfield I was a bit disappointed as I was used to the marginally more up-market Sainsburys/Tescos. Our Somerfield though closed 3-4 months ago and has only now re-emerged as a Lidl, and I’m now at the point where I feel that Somerfield is the height of sophistication in comparison, though to give Lidl its due, I do really appreciate that I can get pasta for 25p rather than £1.something and (hopefully - haven’t tried it yet but just about to) some reasonable-tasting wine for under a fiver.

What about other news? Work-wise, now that I’ve looked at the comments of the peer reviewers I’m at a bit of a loss to know where to start. They only have minimal suggestions for the substance of the article (that’s good), but also want to know a ton of information about my methodology. Having already just about hit the word limit for the article, I’m not entirely sure how to also include information that took 10K words when I wrote my methodology chapter. Sigh, I’m sure it will all work out, but it will require some creativity.

Also work-wise, I have seen a few jobs to apply for (one in the same town as a job HD has applied for, but mostly not, which is a bit of a stress). Today I saw one in Shetland. Which is kind of tempting, though I suspect the weather would be a bit “character-building”.

Finally, this made me laugh today, it reminded me of me and HD. Well, the “lack of hot abs” mainly reminded me of me, if I’m honest, but anyway:

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Noise pollution

At work the area outside my office building is being dug up (and has been for seemingly ages), and so for some time I have been working with a backdrop of drilling, which I have usually been able to zone out. Over the last week though, the workmen have multiplied, and as well as the ones on the ground more have appeared on the roof of my building. I’m on the top floor, so when they’re walking around with their hobnailed boots it sounds like a herd of wildebeest migrating overhead. Today they started drilling.

By lunchtime I was nearly crying I was so frustrated as it was absolutely impossible to work, or even think - it really sounded like they and their pneumatic drills were in the room with me. I thought I was being melodramatic, but I went for a coffee with a friend who has an office on the same floor as me, and she said the same thing. Unsurprisingly, we will both be working from home tomorrow.

In other news, I heard today that the article I wrote a few months ago (based on the paper I gave at Helsinki) has been accepted for publication by the reviewers and editors, subject to some revisions. This has been a really big boost to my confidence, particularly as the comments were pretty much what I expected and in line with my own evaluations of my work. They are also similar to the kinds of things my supervisors say about my thesis, so it at least also gives me some confidence in their advice as well. I need to do the revisions by the end of August, and providing that’s OK it looks like I shall have something published in an edited volume at some point next year. I’ve also had some positive comments about the draft article I finished last week, so all in all I’m feeling like I’m on the right track, more or less.

The end is in sight

Or the beginning, depending on how you look at it! I’ve finally today (after ages procrastinating, which I’m sure will come as a huge shock to everyone) finished writing up my reflections on the 35 hours of study (which at times felt like 35 years) that I’ve done over the last few weeks in order to qualify for re-entry onto the nursing register. Now all I need to do is magic £76 out of thin air to pay for it, and persuade my friend to write me a reference (she’s just about the only person I can think of who fits the bill: qualified nurse, known me over a year, has had contact with me in the last 6 months. Never mind that our contact over the last 6 months has been primarily playing Scrabble on facebook, they don’t need to know that! Hopefully she’ll agree).

In other news, as several people here will have noticed, I have joined twitter. I know I was dubious and sceptical (I’m still not entirely undubious or unsceptical), but given that a. it seems to be being used more and more in academia and I think might be useful for networking, especially given that lots of people I’m interested in aren’t UK-based, and b. Moldova is having a rerun of their elections in July and Twitter played a huge role in mobilising people to protest after the April elections, so I want to watch what is happening there, it seemed like a good idea on the whole. At the moment it seems like the good bit of facebook that they ditched after the last upgrade (the friends’ status updates page), though that’s probably because I am mostly following friends so far. I also think that writing in 140 characters or fewer will be very good for me - I’ll struggle to keep my thesis below 100K words, so if I can get into the habit of not being so pompous and verbose then that will be a good discipline I suspect

Zombies

This made me laugh yesterday. A lot!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Mystery bloodletting and random matters arising

A couple of evenings ago I cut my finger whilst chopping veg for dinner. This was unusual as although it was quite a hefty cut I didn’t feel a thing, and only realised that I’d done anything at all when I noticed all the blood on the chopping board. Anyway, I cleaned it up, put a plaster on it and carried on. Then yesterday while I was at work (and by which time the cut had actually become quite hurty) I noticed something strange, which hadn’t registered before. The cut was on my pointy finger, but was on my right hand, i.e. the hand with which I hold the knife, by the handle. I’m still puzzling how on earth I managed to cut it, as presumably it would require some nifty hand movements, and yet I was completely oblivious until after the fact! (it’s feeling much better now by the way, in case anyone was worrying!).

In other news, after considering volunteering at Greenbelt, we have decided instead to have a year off the festival this year. It’s sad that we won’t see lots of lovely people, but I think it will do us both good to do something different for a year. Apart from the social side of things, I have to admit that I was starting to feel a bit jaded and ‘comfortable’ with it all, and apart from a couple of contributors I was feeling like I could take or leave a lot of the lineup (PS Tractor Girl, I’ve tried to send you a message on facebook this evening to tell you that, but facebook isn’t loading for me this evening - will try again at work tomorrow. We’ll have to make sure to meet up somewhere up north sometime soon!).

Another excursion

At the weekend HD and I went on a little jaunt to the Highlands. We started off with lunch at Fort William before heading off for Ben Nevis, the original plan being that he would walk up it and I would sit in the bar at the bottom and do lots of work (that I had brought with me). About 20 minutes after dropping him off at the bottom of the mountain however he phoned to say that he didn’t seem to have his walking legs with him, so he made his way to the bar and after a quick rest we decided to head back to Glen Coe to have a more gentle explore around somewhere a bit less strenuous. So we went to the Visitors’ Centre at Glen Coe and did a very gentle and short walk round there, and then decided to go to Oban. Neither of us had been there before, and had no idea what it was like, but it turned out to be rather pretty. HD thought as we walked into town from the car park that it reminded him a bit of Whitby, and once we got to the harbour I thought it reminded me a bit of Stornoway. We took a walk up to McCaig’s tower, where there are fabulous views over the town and across to the island of Kerrera (and beyond that to the mountains of the Isle of Mull). What a sweet place, I liked it a lot. Photos are here.

Of technology

We are still dongle-reliant for internet at home, it’s getting very frustrating. In the meantime, today at work my PC suddenly died. The guy from IT (who took hours to come and see it) thought it was the motherboard that had gone (I’m still not entirely sure what that is, but think that it going would be serious). He took it away to try and diagnose the problem and hopefully retrieve my data. 10 minutes later he phoned back to say it was all sorted - it transpired it wasn’t the motherboard (phew) but some part of the power mechanism, and he just swapped it for another one (from a computer whose motherboard had died) and it is good as new.

Mind you, it probably wouldn’t have been a bad thing for him to have taken longer. I got SO MUCH work done today! (can’t think why!!!)

Weighty matters

I’ve not been happy about my weight, and my expanding girth, for some time, but to be honest I think I’ve rather been in denial about it all. A not-particularly-successful attempt (mainly due to being not-particularly-enthusiastic and not-particularly-diligent) at losing weight at the start of the year saw a few pounds come off, but as of this morning they’d all come back on again, and the last straw was when I thought I’d wear a summer dress that I’ve not worn for a couple of years and always was on the loose side, to find that although I could still get it on and do the zip up, it was like a straitjacket. So I have bitten the bullet and joined WeightWatchers online, and have warned HD that I am probably going to get quite boring and anal about points and measurements and whathaveyou. Although the dress thing was disappointing, it probably is just the kick up the (lardy) arse I needed - I am now thoroughly fed up of being disgusted by my body and want to start liking it again. I’m not going to go mad, I have a sensible target, and I do realise that losing weight by itself won’t sort out any esteem issues I have (having lost weight before I remember being really surprised at how the issues remained; at least this time forewarned is forearmed). But I want to stop being out of breath and be able to go uphill without being miserable, and feel fit and energised. And to be able to get back into my clothes!

Today I have gone 1.5 points over my limit, which probably isn’t great, but when I consider all the snacks I would usually have had but didn’t because I was thinking about points I think that’s OK. A bit disappointing that I couldn’t have another glass of wine, as the one I bought today is rather nice. It also has something of an apt name - I promise I’m not making this up, it’s an Aussie red wine called “The Procrastinator” (1.5 points for 150 mls, and quite delicious).

Volunteering

Jacqui at Miss-Guided wrote yesterday about the importance of volunteering. As I commented earlier there, today in church one of our wardens (a youthful 80-something I think) was praised for being South Lanarkshire’s Volunteer of the Year 2009 for his work caring for people with Alzheimer’s (work he’s done following his own wife’s death in 1998). I chatted to him briefly after the service and he was so enthusiastic about the work he does, he absolutely loves it and it was actually really sobering to think how little I do at half his age. I have volunteered in the past, but right now am very focused on me, me, me - getting the thesis finished, finding work, making ends meet, the usual stuff - but this has inspired me to think about what I could do. I ought to look into giving blood again, as I’ve not done that for years. And when we’re settled wherever we end up, I’ll have to take a look at what’s around the place. It’s good to look beyond yourself/myself (I’m talking to myself, really).