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Pandemic 127-131: well, that was a Week
Jul. 24th, 2020 08:35 pmA Week has happened, and I am kersplat. Have been kersplat since Tuesday, really.
Work: In keeping with my regression to the irresponsible undergrad I never really was, I wrote an entire conference paper on Monday. I finished my 'word vomit' hand written not-really-draft in the morning, then wrote it up (3400 words at that stage) in the afternoon. Cut it down at 8 on Monday morning and the seminar/study day/thing started at 9. NOT my finest hour.
The study day itself was a success, though! I think.
I ... had some interesting responses to the conference paper, but I can't figure out how to process them yet.
Subsequently I have been wrung out and not got anything else written. Some reading, some admin, that sort of thing, but neither phd nor postdoc writing. Oh, and I sat in on a zoom rehearsal of the Lords of Misrule, the York medieval drama troupe.
Social: had another Date with J on Monday evening, which probably contributed to my being wrung out. Date nice! Vegan-ish restaurant in the city after swimming.
Tuesday afternoon I called Shiny and it turns out I was so wrung out I had... nothing to say, except to describe cats I had met / seen on Zoom. (Study day had pet show and tell time.) Happily I got to call them again on Thursday, and normal human conversations were had.
Called Dad on Thursday, too, and caused him great confusion, since it turns out I have never actually CALLED his whatsapp, and so he did not know how to answer it and put it on speaker. He seems in good spirits although not having an award-winning streak of Knowing What He's Doing (forgot to pick up Ms11 - who turned 11 last week - from school). Ms 11 made him a unicorn cupcake for his birthday. I gave him "Cunk on Britain", which I am amused to note he is pronouncing 'coonk', presumably to avoid unfortunate assonances that Ms Cunk absolutely intended. Also gave him and Ms 11 a joint gift of Fluxx, because such things are important. Unclear how Dad feels about being forced to play games (he enjoys some games, when dragged into them; he never, ever, enjoys starting games).
Health: Lost a chunk of Tuesday and most of Wednesday to a Mysterious Malaise that, waking from an unexpected nap in a fit of coughing, I briefly feared was The Malady Du Jour. Cancelled my trip to Basel accordingly; but as anyone could predict, I was absolutely fine by Thursday. Diagnosis: psychosomatic symptoms associated with overwhelm from daring to do FOUR human-interaction things in FOUR days (i thought it was three but perhaps playreading counts).
Household: I put up many postcards! More than I have had up since Sydney. On the solid backs of the kallax cabinet-cubes and drawer-cubes, assorted art cards; australian modernist art on the side of the kallax, under the print of Cazneaux's bridge photo.
On the front of the three cabinet-cubes, two Tolkien postcards, two abstract art postcards from the Art Gallery of WA, a Miffy art card, an art card with an engraving of seven dwarves, and a notecard that's been blu-tacked down of GIANT COLOURED PENCILS glued together and then carved, as seen in the Newcastle Regional Art Gallery in, I think, 2009.
On the hall closet doors: surrounding the heritage map-poster of Newtown, city of sydney archive postcards, various vintage photos of Sydney. Surrounding the heritage map-poster of the city centre, art, various (but mostly modernist) of the Bridge and harbour. I haven't decided what goes with the poster that's a collage of Marrickville bus signs and old Marrickvillia. I have also realised that I need a card or ideally print of Adelaide Parry's The Bridge to go with my Cazneaux print and the Preston, Cossington-Smith, Trail, and Cazneaux cards of same. Wouldn't mind upgrading the Preston to a print, in fact. Annoyingly they AGNSW don't seem to sell the small-size prints that match my existing Cazneaux anymore. (Didn't predict that I'd end up collecting modernist art of The Big Coathanger, but here we are.)
At any rate, I got all those up and felt very smug, and yet, I have so many more postcards! And I found a bunch I bought in the UK in 2019! I may have to make a choice between 'tasteful decor' and 'wilderness of postcards'.
I did hang up the sketch of K done by Stella The Human (not Stella the Cat): I hung it with actual NAILS. Measuring was involved! I think I will endeavour to surround it with the best of my *free* postcard collection. I was thinking of buying diploma display frames (the ones with no border) and collaging them onto A4 or A3 and hanging them, but while I might get away with two nails I doubt I can COVER that wall with nails, and I'm not sure about sticky picture hooks. I could just collage the art postcards onto thick A4 card and then poster-tape them up.
In garden news, the oregano is so determined to go to seed that I gave up and made myself a bouquet of fragrant herbs. Fine, be like that, herbs. The mint is also bolting - the ones from the windowboxes. The peppermint that I bought from the supermarket, for its part, is doing its best to turn into a vine - tiny leaves, looong spindly stems, curling around the plant stand.
Otherwise, today was relatively uneventful. Laundry and grocery shopping happened. Monthly account-balancing (as usual I was somewhat out. I think I'm underestimating the amount I get charged for int'l conversion fees). Ordered further instalment of vegetable boxen, to start 13 Aug. Also ordered new bra and new sportsbra, and booked a private German lesson. I have all my classes booked ahead until this point in August, in fact, although I get a refund if I cancel with more than 7 days notice. I'm determined to plough through A2 at a quick clip (current estimate says I should be done with A2.1 by mid-October, and thus with A2 by the end of the year).
Work: In keeping with my regression to the irresponsible undergrad I never really was, I wrote an entire conference paper on Monday. I finished my 'word vomit' hand written not-really-draft in the morning, then wrote it up (3400 words at that stage) in the afternoon. Cut it down at 8 on Monday morning and the seminar/study day/thing started at 9. NOT my finest hour.
The study day itself was a success, though! I think.
I ... had some interesting responses to the conference paper, but I can't figure out how to process them yet.
Subsequently I have been wrung out and not got anything else written. Some reading, some admin, that sort of thing, but neither phd nor postdoc writing. Oh, and I sat in on a zoom rehearsal of the Lords of Misrule, the York medieval drama troupe.
Social: had another Date with J on Monday evening, which probably contributed to my being wrung out. Date nice! Vegan-ish restaurant in the city after swimming.
Tuesday afternoon I called Shiny and it turns out I was so wrung out I had... nothing to say, except to describe cats I had met / seen on Zoom. (Study day had pet show and tell time.) Happily I got to call them again on Thursday, and normal human conversations were had.
Called Dad on Thursday, too, and caused him great confusion, since it turns out I have never actually CALLED his whatsapp, and so he did not know how to answer it and put it on speaker. He seems in good spirits although not having an award-winning streak of Knowing What He's Doing (forgot to pick up Ms11 - who turned 11 last week - from school). Ms 11 made him a unicorn cupcake for his birthday. I gave him "Cunk on Britain", which I am amused to note he is pronouncing 'coonk', presumably to avoid unfortunate assonances that Ms Cunk absolutely intended. Also gave him and Ms 11 a joint gift of Fluxx, because such things are important. Unclear how Dad feels about being forced to play games (he enjoys some games, when dragged into them; he never, ever, enjoys starting games).
Health: Lost a chunk of Tuesday and most of Wednesday to a Mysterious Malaise that, waking from an unexpected nap in a fit of coughing, I briefly feared was The Malady Du Jour. Cancelled my trip to Basel accordingly; but as anyone could predict, I was absolutely fine by Thursday. Diagnosis: psychosomatic symptoms associated with overwhelm from daring to do FOUR human-interaction things in FOUR days (i thought it was three but perhaps playreading counts).
Household: I put up many postcards! More than I have had up since Sydney. On the solid backs of the kallax cabinet-cubes and drawer-cubes, assorted art cards; australian modernist art on the side of the kallax, under the print of Cazneaux's bridge photo.
On the front of the three cabinet-cubes, two Tolkien postcards, two abstract art postcards from the Art Gallery of WA, a Miffy art card, an art card with an engraving of seven dwarves, and a notecard that's been blu-tacked down of GIANT COLOURED PENCILS glued together and then carved, as seen in the Newcastle Regional Art Gallery in, I think, 2009.
On the hall closet doors: surrounding the heritage map-poster of Newtown, city of sydney archive postcards, various vintage photos of Sydney. Surrounding the heritage map-poster of the city centre, art, various (but mostly modernist) of the Bridge and harbour. I haven't decided what goes with the poster that's a collage of Marrickville bus signs and old Marrickvillia. I have also realised that I need a card or ideally print of Adelaide Parry's The Bridge to go with my Cazneaux print and the Preston, Cossington-Smith, Trail, and Cazneaux cards of same. Wouldn't mind upgrading the Preston to a print, in fact. Annoyingly they AGNSW don't seem to sell the small-size prints that match my existing Cazneaux anymore. (Didn't predict that I'd end up collecting modernist art of The Big Coathanger, but here we are.)
At any rate, I got all those up and felt very smug, and yet, I have so many more postcards! And I found a bunch I bought in the UK in 2019! I may have to make a choice between 'tasteful decor' and 'wilderness of postcards'.
I did hang up the sketch of K done by Stella The Human (not Stella the Cat): I hung it with actual NAILS. Measuring was involved! I think I will endeavour to surround it with the best of my *free* postcard collection. I was thinking of buying diploma display frames (the ones with no border) and collaging them onto A4 or A3 and hanging them, but while I might get away with two nails I doubt I can COVER that wall with nails, and I'm not sure about sticky picture hooks. I could just collage the art postcards onto thick A4 card and then poster-tape them up.
In garden news, the oregano is so determined to go to seed that I gave up and made myself a bouquet of fragrant herbs. Fine, be like that, herbs. The mint is also bolting - the ones from the windowboxes. The peppermint that I bought from the supermarket, for its part, is doing its best to turn into a vine - tiny leaves, looong spindly stems, curling around the plant stand.
Otherwise, today was relatively uneventful. Laundry and grocery shopping happened. Monthly account-balancing (as usual I was somewhat out. I think I'm underestimating the amount I get charged for int'l conversion fees). Ordered further instalment of vegetable boxen, to start 13 Aug. Also ordered new bra and new sportsbra, and booked a private German lesson. I have all my classes booked ahead until this point in August, in fact, although I get a refund if I cancel with more than 7 days notice. I'm determined to plough through A2 at a quick clip (current estimate says I should be done with A2.1 by mid-October, and thus with A2 by the end of the year).