room 101

Saturday, July 22, 2006

The worst thing in the world is whinging. I can deal with just about anything else except whinging.

She's over her lurg (which she's kindly transmitted to me: hurrah) so there really is no reason for it.

Permanent link - 0 comments

and another thing

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

I just figured out how to get a Galaxy Quest reference into one of my Antigone lectures. Cool.

Permanent link - 0 comments

d'une part...

This from an obituary of the academic Philip Thody in French Studies (October 1999):

Modern technology was not something he took to easily either [...] After one Visiting Professorship he received a formal certificate testifying to his ability to cause a computer breakdown of a type and seriousness previously known in Western Australia.

Ahem. Am willing to bet the local university helpdesk didn't find his predicament quite so charmingly disingenuous.

Have had a hell day with Becca so am cowering in here typing nonsense while Jack (who got home early) tries to convince her to eat; shrieks of 'Nooooooo haaaam thank youuuuuuu!' occasionally pierce the study door.

Permanent link - 0 comments

two wise old night-owls calling 'come home soooo-oooon'

Reports of Becca's recovery may have been somewhat premature.

Bright was the day and high our hearts as I bundled her into the car and took her to visit our good friends Brian and wee Rosie, where she whined, grizzled, and clung to me like a little lithophyte, refusing even raspberry jam muffins; I eventually acceded to her demands to be taken home, and have just spent a good half hour trying to settle her in bed (Pants, Pamol and 'Moon River' have so far been deployed; am starting to run out of aces).

It's been a challenging morning...

Permanent link - 0 comments

come around

As a leaving present a dear friend in the UK got me a t-shirt bearing the following legend: 'Do NOT Start With Me: You Will NOT Win'. I don't know what sort of a stroppy bee-yatch (sp?) my friends take me for* -- I try to be nice, honest I do -- but at the moment I feel I should swap it for one that says 'Anything For A Quiet Life'. Becca's been sick again so sleep has been in short supply, especially as she announced her return to health at 3.30 this morning by running into our bedroom noisily demanding breakfast (she'd eaten practically nothing the previous day) and then taking some convincing that breakfast lay some hours away. Just as well I have all these lectures still to write, and the first one to deliver in less than two weeks. I seem to remember this phenomenon from my PhD -- fairly wallowing in the research while deferring the actual writing by reading that just one more article that would, in academic terms, really tie the room together.

Need I even mention that I'm typing this one-handed?

*Is it scary that I mainly wear it to bed? Or just TMI?

Permanent link - 0 comments

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Well, here's my next knitting project!

Permanent link - 0 comments

Friday, July 07, 2006

Jack's sister, who lives in Geneva, recently went on holiday to Egypt, and posted us some souvenirs of her trip. Which was kind of her, and besides, nothing says 'revenge is a dish best served cold' than waiting until your elder brother is all grown up and has offspring of his own, and then sending them a stuffed toy camel that sings in Arabic when you press its hump.

Permanent link - 0 comments

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

La généralisation de la culture va certainement multiplier, dans les temps à venir, le nombre déjà important des ouvriers de la pensée ... le nombre des auteurs comiques ne changera pas.

As culture becomes more widespread, the already considerable number of serious thinkers will surely increase ... the number of comic writers won't.

Jean Anouilh

Permanent link - 0 comments