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... the cats get about 10 minutes out of the house before they have to come in; we don't like them being out in the dark.

Since I last wrote an entry, I've discovered I might just possibly not be as stupid as my school teachers all thought I was, since my professor seems to think my essay (with which, I have to tell you, I struggled to the point of tears) meets the grade, and I can continue on to do a Thesis. I mean, I just nearly killed myself producing 8,000 words and I want to do 50,000?! Educational masochism, however, cannot pass this point - PhD is as far as I'm going. Honest.

So that's my excuse for not doing this - I've been too busy doing that. Have also spent a LOT of time playing Titan Quest, and got quietly hooked on CSI: Miami, which has very well concealed arc plots. This may simply have been because on four consecutive occasions, it was the ONLY thing on worth watching whilst keeping the Tig company on the sofa. Tig, at 18, doesn't really go anywhere else much - the food bowl, the litter tray, the occasional stroll in the garden (mostly to drink out of inappropriate rain collectors) and back to the sofa. When I'm that old and frail I intend to do likewise (with the exception of drinking out of things in the garden). Hence, CSI Miami. Jeff still rooles, however, even if he IS doing a soap - or will be when they get round to him, presumably (they seem to have been pre-empted a lot lately, and not for anything especially interesting, either!).

Did I mention the hedgehog? Wandered out of the back door one night to check all the cats were in (they tend to sit in predictable places in the garden, so this is possible) and there it was, looking up at me. "Oh, hello," I said, in surprise. "EEK!" it said (really!, turned on its, er, spines and dashed off to hide behind one of the tubs. Haven't seen him or her since, so they may have been just passing through.

Have lost my work ID, possibly whilst brushing up my Shakespeare. Patrick Stewart's voice carries perfectly to the VERY VERY top/back row of the balcony at the RSC in Stratford-on-Avon. I haven't seen The Tempest before, so wasn't overly distracted by the set, although the occasional pauses whilst everyone posed did make me wonder if someone had forgotten their lines ...

In February, my week in Luton will instead, apparently, be a week in Estonia. The University of Tartu is older than Oxford. Who knew?!

Favourite e-mail of the week: "Please note, Intelligence will not be available between 4:50 and 5:05 this evening ..."
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When I originally booked this week off, I had visions of getting done all the things that need doing around the house - minor decorating jobs, tidying up the garden for the winter, sorting clothing, tidying up the garage, the 'media room' (i.e. the hidden room in the garage containing all the old media stuff that's really been superseded by the internet and needs to be disposed of, as well as a huge collection of long-unwatched off-air TV recordings) and the craft room (the 4th bedroom, which is stuffed to the gills with sewing bits and pieces, mending that needs doing, and two unmade dolls houses, not to mention the one I *did* make which still needs some repairs after being moved!!).

Instead ... I spend hours pouring over reference materials, sorting bits of paper on which I have, over the last few months, jotted disjointed thoughts about my job ... producing at the end not, I'm sure, the piece of academic research I'm *supposed* to be doing, but rather a very practical explanation of where we are and what we're doing, ommitting completely the 'how we got here' and 'what all the other academics think' bits. Ah well, the advantage of paying for education is that they can't throw me out. Yet. I have until the end of this year to produce something they consider good enough to register me for the full PhD!!

I also thought, rather foolishly, that I might jot down lots of interesting things about my week in here, but in fact the academic work (dull to describe, if not to do) and the vague feeling that if I was more organised I'd get more done has instead been interrupted by frequent demands for assistance from Tanith, Phoebe and Mintaka who have to go out *now* and then *come in because it's ****ing freezing!* and need food *now* and *again, now* and what on EARTH do they do when we're out all day? It's amazing they don't all fade away ...

Oh yes, and open the door to numerous postmen clutching parcels from Amazon and related marketplace. Nearly all of whom have managed to arrive JUST as I've nipped into the downstairs loo which is, of course, right next to the front door ...

Had our first carol singers last night, sort of. It was actually the round table float with canned music, but how can one resist putting a few pennies in the can when you're being waved too enthusiastically by a father christmas who must've been freezing to death!!!

Ah well, back to the grind!!

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themis1

March 2025

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