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J. Bastow Wilson |
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News |
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People news & opinions Sunday Aug 3: Mass. I found out how boring it is sitting in the car waiting for Them to have their cup of tea after, and commiserated with her. Later, R* did some house painting but all I did was to spread some gravel on the muddy path. Saturday Aug 2: More looking for door handles (R* wants imitation brass; she accuses me of being stuck in the 1970s and there she is stuck in the 1910s), bathroom cabinets, and wotnot. We bought some paving stones, and the back of Unity kept getting grounded. Friday Aug 1: I booked three hours annual leave, for “Inspecting and comparing toilets (personal)”. Also showers, actually, as well as sinks, cork squares, paving stones and stuff for the new en-suite WC/showerroom (not the paving stones, as it happens). A nice baked potato for lunch, from that nice lady at the stall in the Link. Thursday Jul 31: Annika came with a tape to measure my height, but it was too short so Gladys had to help. “Measuring the HoD’s height in the corridor”, I said, “You don’t see this in many departments”. I told Annika about Gladys’ retaliation comment, but she didn’t know the word ‘retaliation’. “You know”, I said, “The Germans bomb British cities so the British bomb German cities in retaliation”. This seemed to get the point home. I’m good with analogies. I had a long ‘phone chat with Violeta Ribarska in Oxford. Wednesday Jul 30: As I left Senate, I found myself walking next to Richard Barker, Prof of Stats, so I asked him why optimise to a residual mean square of 1.0, but it turned out he didn’t know either. He’ll investigate. Tuesday Jul 29: Lecture to 3rd years, some familiar faces from last semester. Ben is in the class, even though he promised not to do the paper. At least I’ll have the opportunity to put in some anti-molecular-’phylogeny’ propaganda. Meetings in the Division of Sciences. Work on AFM’s Old Man paper. Nice lot of red ink; I’m sure he will be pleased. Monday Jul 28: I opened the mangosteens quietly, but they turned out to be rotten. R* kindly says she will take them back and complain. Gladys says Annika’s asking my height was a bit personal, but thinks it was in retaliation for my asking her what hair stylist he uses (crow’s nest stylist, to be more accurate). I said that she’d already retaliated by commenting how often I piss in comparison to how little water I drink. Sunday Jul 27: Raewyn was serving at Mass, so I didn’t have to stand up to pretend I was singing the hymns. Then we looked round at furniture. The horrid pushy salesman in Hervey Norman put us off (neither of us react well to being pushed), but the man in the downmarket Furniture Court was sweet and helpful, so we liked his settees better. Saturday Jul 26: I went to the Executive Residence, to ask Molly the last-minute questions I had asked the others. She had taken my advice and gone to Doubtful Sound rather than Milford. I said I was surprised, I’d thought she would be too stubborn (which was not entirely accepted). But apparently though Lance told her he’d been to Milford and it was wonderful, he wasn’t quite sure whether it had been Milford or Doubtful. She said the car she had hired was something red and Toyota. I accused her of being a typical woman (which was not entirely accepted, she said she knew all about cars, but only American ones). It turned out to be a Corolla. I pointed out this is the biggest-selling car in the world. Shopping on my own, again. I bought some mangosteens. R* has never tried one. Ruth was interested because she’d just seen them on telly. I told her they tasted horrid. Gill’s Kitchen pickled onions are in town again. Thursday Jul 24: I went to a Stats seminar. The speaker was optimising parameters to give a residual mean square of 1.0. I didn’t like to ask the significance of 1.0, because surely all the real statisticians there would know. However, on the way out I asked Sheila Williams, who revealed that she didn’t know either. Annika sent a message to ask me how tall I am. |
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Cat news & opinions Sunday Aug 3: I found Tibby sitting on top of the fridge. Tabby had a long phase of sitting there, but I’ve never seen Tibby there. It’s a good deal for them, because they are allowed on the draining board if they are en route to the top of the fridge (it’s allowed anyway by me, but not by Others). Later, she was back to her favourite box, sprawled out, worn out by the exercise of sitting on the fridge. Saturday Aug 2: Poor Tibby is losing her memory in her old age. 3/4 hour after her lunchtime catmilk she’s forgotten she’s had it. (R* claims she asks for it all the time but that’s not true; she doesn’t ask for it before lunchtime even if she does think that starts at 10 am, and she never asks in the evening until after meat. One has to have dishes in the right order: meat, catmilk, water, catbix.) Friday Aug 1: Socks was waiting for me on the garden-shed verandah. It’s cute how he’s worried about me, and won’t go into the house ‘til he knows I’m safe. Tuesday Jul 29: But draping herself over my left shoulder, that’s different. It’s lucky she’s got a fat tummy to perch on. Monday Jul 28: Tabby gave me one scratch too many getting down from my shoulder back, and I’ve gone off the idea. Sunday Jul 27: Tabby rode on my shoulders as I went into the extension. She wandered round, bemused, as if she had come through the wardrobe into a different world. We tried to call her back into familiar territory, but she was not convinced it wasn’t another wardrobe door into yet another Narnia, and started to disappear down the hole in the floor into the cellar. I had to shove her back into the house, into which she bolted when she saw it was good old home. Saturday Jul 26: We get a commentary immediately we get up these days, Socks is waiting right outside the door of the garden shed that we are living in, and tells us his news and opinions. |
