Strong Verbs Are Just Better

Done yesterday:
- assembled a plant stand and installed the trailing petunias (which, like everything else except the rosemary, was not coping with the direct sun on the balcony rail - although it doesn't really get more than 6hrs, it's clearly Too Direct and Too Strong for a lot of my plants, even ones that should love that) and one pot of basil and one of mint.
- 2 hr coworking session via zoom, which i administered. Notetaking, reading.
- Called Shiny for what I expected to be an hour or so catch up in which I showed them my FURNITURE and caught upon their work drama. Ended up being about 4 hours, including me telling them all about current research reading both medieval (romance of the rose) and contemporary (theories of censorship), and assorted D&M social-personal navel gazing on both our parts.
- spent the evening drafting and posting the long thread about Garth Greenwell's Chaucer references

Done today:
- Dithered, then went to the shop. Aimed to acquire a plant pot, coathangers, and extension leads. Acquired those, and also bread, hair mousse, wine, lip balm, a lid for the frying pan, polenta in a tube, panacotta, milk, chicken, dried tarragon, frozen potato balls with cheese, ice cream, and a whole nother plant. No pot for said plant, all the correct size ones sold out.
- Came home to mail: a book i'd ordered (the one in the accidental Karen-ing earlier this week), a book for review, and mail from Ms10.
- Read two pomodoro's worth of the book I had ordered, and one of a secondary source I've been working on for a while
- Reorganised the balcony and vaccuumed both it and the dining room. Washed the balcony ledges.
- Made tarragon chicken tray bake
- Meditation
- email triage. Didn't struggle TOO long with ... it's some kind of dysregulated emotional response to emails esp since I can't see people in person to run ideas past them. Emails kick the "I HAVE DONE SOMETHING WRONG" button and then swiss brusqueness makes it worse.
- Actually managed to listen to some podcats without getting TOO distracted.

I am about to go and do more of that, in fact. Ideally I will also do my day's Duolingo BEFORE bed, and leave the phone on the dresser instead of in bed with me.

I am feeling pretty good about everything. This may be because now I have FURNITURE.

I have done two significantly non-quarantined things today: FURNITURE and BUYING AN ICE CREAM.

Done Wednesday:
- a bunch of reading, in three different work-related directions
- reached minimum tidying of house in advance of FURNITURE
- talked to Shiny for quite a while
- made a cake. It sank prodigiously. Or they did, I actually made two bar tins worth of cake; should have made one sheet pan.
- went for a run
- as per yesterday's post, back and forth with bookseller. Who ended up refunding me, even though the book is probably en route still! I have accidentally committed a Karen. I forgot American retail is trained to be obsequious.

Done today:
- was up and showered by 7
- did the morning's necessary clearing (stripped bed, moved mattress) and some extra (eg: vaccuumed a lot of dust bunnies)
- sat by for FIVE AND A BIT HOURS while varying numbers of handymen, ranging from one to five over that time, assembled almost all my furniture. There was drilling and banging and many questions in German and more people than i've dealt with for MONTHS and I was in "endless screaming at twitter dot com" mode in my brain the whole time.
- - There were three fuckups: One; i ordered only one doorknob instead of three for the wardrobe doors; two, turns out while I bought the smallest Hemnes bedframe and the smallest double mattress, the smallest Hemnes frame is bigger than the smallest mattress; and three, ikea brought me two of one piece of my desk rather than one of each piece. I have signed off on this error and the correct piece should materialise, and be assembled... at some point.
- when the furniture men left I just wanted to cry, but I did not. I put laundry on, and went and bought an ice cream
- local gelateria only has three kinds of gluten-free ice cream, but dark chocolate mousse with coconut mousse is not a bad combo. Negotiated gluten in german, even if this did mean I asked which 'colours' are gluten-free
- walked through the village centre, patted a cat, and went into two stores in search of a nice flowerpot. I did not find a nice flowerpot. I did end up in the cemetery, which is full of flowers: they mow around the plots but let wildflowers grow in the rest.
- Came home, hung laundry (someone has had what looks like the same load in the tumble dryer for days???), and bit-by-bit put most of my stuff in correct places. Wardrobe is bigger than expected, but yet I fill it, and have spilled over into the chest of drawers. There are more books on my TBR trolley than my actual shelves, but I'm fretting anyway about maybe not having enough space (brain, stop it; most of the books you have at home will go back to the office in september, chill).
- Made risotto, and set up a zoom coworking sesh for tomorrow, and a time to call Shiny again.

That is, I feel, Enough Things.

Done yesterday:

- German class. Didn't do too well, for various reasons.
- Some work on the paper draft, including a work session with MF in the afternoon
- sulking and navel gazing
- some reading
- made pesto, asparagus and Stuff pasta

Done today:
- a tiny bit of work on phd>book draft, lots of spacing out
- went for a run, found the shift to C25K wk 3 a step up but not impossible or even a right-at-my-limits challenge
- ate leftovers, acted like blobfish
- a small amount of sulking and navel gazing, 50% the same suspects as yesterday, 50% angst and impostor syndrome about giving A Trans Reading paper.
- around 3pm brain kicked in and i started focusing properly on the paper draft. I did stop to go for a run, but abandoned the rest of my to-do list and kept ploughing on until 9pm. I had trained myself OUT of this working pattern* during my MPhil, but after months of pandemic brain fog, I'll take it.
- draft still needs cutting down a bit, but I'll go in to work tomorrow and print it out and see about cutting it on Friday morning.

* I mean the late-afternoon-to-evening thing. Last minute conf papers were a thing until my PhD, although... they didn't normally feel like this, the 'time isn't real until there's no time left' thing. At least during the PhD I trained myself into thinking the last day before the conference is The Last Day, so now I have editing time.

Somewhat better today. Overslept this morning, but ho hum.

Done today:
- ordered furniture from IKEA (second batch), and booked assembly for both batches. This took a long time, and will not eventuate until 20 May, because apparently everyone in Switzerland is refurbing their living space via ikea delivery right now.
- didn't die when i tallied up the total $ spent on furnishing this flat, although. o_0
- called parents, got them to agree to post my Box O Stuff on. Got general update - aside from being a bit lonely Ms10 is doing well, enjoying "home" schooling and insisting on minimal parent involvement therein. I have been sent a video of Peachie playing with a toy turtle.
- took the bin out, checked mail, have a mysterious letter about the water meters that I will figure out later
- ordered some coasters. In the absence of tasteful ones that match my desired aesthetic, i ordered amusing ones online. Three sets of. I will be FULLY PREPARED for a housewarming party of AT LEAST TEN PEOPLE come june
- did some more work on the Fiesole paper, and registered for conference
- made banana and coconut muffins
- grocery list and food-i-am-going-to-make list
- some more reading on American Chaucers. i'm into an interesting section about women lecturers / elocutionists on the public lecture circuit in the early 20th century

I probably only spent half an hour today being angry about Ill Informed COVID Takes (... people are REALLY resistant to the fact that evidence points away from children being vectors, because EVERYONE KNOWS children are germ factories).

Still haven't unpacked sewing machine or sewn masks.

Tomorrow. 9am PRIVATE german class. Unfortunately I have been assigned a teacher I don't much like. Groceries. More work.$

ed: forgot my greatest achievement today, which was: rearranged the bathroom so I can fit the spare towels in the cabinet, and thus freed up a tote bag. Oh, and I vacuumed.

I am in what those around me say is a predictable post-submission slump. I. It's like I'm in anxiety withdrawal. Unless I have, like, a class RIGHT TODAY, it's very hard to convince my brain we should be awake and doing things. (Exception seems to be talking in radiantfracture's journal about Gawain of an evening: but, despite the citations, that qualitatively FEELS like a fan conversation, Gawain always does to me.)

Anyway I want to sleep all the time. It's like I'm sick, except I'm not. I'm physically stiff and sore, but not ill.

As distraction: Friday Five

1) Has the weather where you are finally started acting like spring is here? Yes! I got back from chicago and spring had happened! This week's temperatures were a bit variable, but definitely spring.

2) Do you have any special spring activities or outings planned? Uh... no. I kind of want to replant my balcony garden, but is there a point when I've only got three months left in the flat?

3) Have you started wearing different clothing appropriate to spring? Not really, but I CAN wear fewer layers, and that was useful on Monday when I realised I had not done laundry for three weeks and my chicago bag didn't contain clean work-appropriate clothes.

4) What signs of spring are manifesting around you? Well, it's warmer. There are flowers in the lawns in the parks. Sunset is notably later (that's really daylight savings at work, but it FEELS like spring).

5) Are there special foods you enjoy preparing and/or eating in the spring? Not as a ritualistic thing, but I did buy asparagus once before easter and will probably do so again soon. And I'm looking forward to my first ice cream of the season: probably this weekend, while doing laundry.

(site note monksandbones i haven't replied to your last comments, which, hah. i laughted a cynical laugh. Am not annoyed with you or anything. Limited emotion brain resources.)

Picture the scene. There I was, alone in my office, with the afternoon sun finally reaching my chair and delighting me with its warms. I had the door open, but my office is in a cul-de-sac, so little of the usual comings-and-goings in the department actually filters through to my attention unless i'm distracted. Now, I had been very distracted for most of today, but just then, at 15.31 pm, I was absorbed in commenting on a students' essay proposal (a task made thoroughly fascinating by the fact that it wasn't the piece of thesis writing I had intended to be doing today).

Into this placid scene of academic seclusion arrives colleague H, appearing on my threshold with sudden exuberance.

'AMY!' she says, startling me out of my teacherly reverie. 'Are you interested in breastfeeding?'

Reader, I confess myself utterly flummoxed. Suddenly faced with the abstract notion of breastfeeding, I was utterly unable to provide it with any sensible context. Discarding the patently bizarre ('.. right now', '... during your professional career' or possibly '... as a means of earning spare income') I was left with the odd, but plausible: vis, this must be a singularly misplaced attempt to find a home for the copy of Your Baby and Child that had taken up residence on the departmental take-a-book shelf.

'NO!' exclaim I, utterly wrongfooted by this deviation from usual Swiss reserve and indeed workplace behaviour -

Just as colleague H finishes her sentence: '... in the middle ages?'

Rapid recalibration. 'Oh. No, I'm not, but Officemate is.'

'Does she know there's a lecture at 4pm today?'

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was that.

YOU GUYS YOU GUYS I HAVE A *PLAN*. A wobbly baby fledgling of a plan, but one which doesn't rely on such things as my chances of getting a government job in Sydney, or me just slogging away at my job for another couple of years until I can comfortably up and leave it.

Firstly, note that, although I want to keep up with the medievalism, I keep coming back to the idea of doing *something* on Evelyn Dickinson and/or Louisa MacDonald. 19th century / early 20th century lesbian-like relationships are GROSSLY under-studied. [Says my mother: "don't you think that's for a reason? Says I: "yes. Systematic homophobia."] Evelyn's novels, so far as I can tell, are... odd. I will need to track down the rest of them and read them *properly* but they're odd. On the basis of the one I read, her depiction of romance and sexuality was *odd*. Her lead female characters had little to no personal investment therein. Plus there was the political side - a novel about a upper middle class british girl investigating NSW labor politics? That's just weird.

K tracked me down a reference: Evelyn wrote a review in a Sydney literary journal, of My Brilliant Career. If she wrote one, she may have written others. If she reviewed Miles Franklin's work, did she ever meet Miles? Did she know Miles was female? If Louisa MacDonald never met Louisa Lawson, but Evelyn was known to be more forthright, more masculine, and (from what I gather) maybe more hardline in her politics, and Evelyn was a writer... did Evelyn know the Lawsons? I'm starting to get a sense of a loose network of female Australian authors and feminist activists, and I want to know where and how Evelyn fits in with them.

I saw Awesome on Monday, and she pointed out that if I did an MPhil in Aus. lit and a PHD in medieval, I'd have two completely different streams of literature for my research fields. This might not give me an advantage at one of the big Sydney unis, but it sure would if I were applying for jobs in one of the regional unis. Oh hai, I can teach English literature up to 1500 and also I work on turn-of-the-twentieth-century Australian women's literature. Two fields in one academic!

This is sound advice.

TODAY, it occurred to me that I wouldn't need to go to Sydney to do an MPhil in Aus lit. I could do it here! I wouldn't need to be taking huge chunks of time off for research trips - just a week here or there in the NSW State Archives. I reckon I could do this part-time while working. It might send me crackers - part-time thesis on top of full time work???? - but it might also give me SOMETHING TO DO WITH MY GODDAMN BRAIN.

ZE PLAN IS TO READ AS MUCH OF EVELYN'S STUFF AS I CAN GET HOLD OF WITHOUT INTER-LIBRARY LOANS. Wait and see what happens with the current recruitment at work, find out where I'm going to be next year. Start looking for a supervisor in whichever city that is. Start mid-year next year, if I can.

OMG A PLAN.

One-Step-Up Boss thought he'd contribute to the Keeping Highly Entertained effort by giving me things to read. Including a book entitled 'Blog On: Creating Engaging Online Content'.

... thanks, boss.

This entertaining conversation between myself, my boss the Elegant Dutchwoman and the head Chef, henceforth known as Mad Scotswoman.

Highly looks up from reception computer and greets a waiting Student, just as the phone rings.

Highly: Just a moment, while I answer this. Hello, Obvious College Reception, this is Highly Speaking, how may I help you?
Phone, with a crackle for mobile transmission: Hello, Highly, this is Elegant Dutchwoman, calling for Mad Scotswoman. *sounds of students clattering around dining hall* There's quite a few boys here, have you sold any meal tickets?
Highly: Yes, one.
Elegant Dutchwoman, to Mad Scotswoman: Just one.
Mad Scotswoman: Who was it?
Elegant Dutchwoman: Who was it?
Highly: It was Generic Pymble Number Fifty-Five.
Elegant Dutchwoman: It was Generic Pymble Number Fifty-Five.
Mad Scotswoman: Ah, GPN55. *more clattering and banging*
Elegant Dutchwoman: Who else was there?
Highly: No one.
Mad Scotswoman: Well, there's Generic Pymble Number Seventy-Four.
Elegant Dutchwoman: GPN74. Write that down.
Highly writes down GPN74.
Mad Scotswoman: And I there's Generic Pymble Number One Hundred and Nine. Is that GPN109?
Elegant Dutchwoman: Yes, that's GPN109, write that down, Highly.
Highly writes that down.
Elegant Dutchwoman: There was someone else, who was it?
Mad Scotswoman, very reluctantly: Noo... well... there was kayloulee... with Highly's boyfriend.
Highly: He's not my boyfriend anymore!
Elegant Dutchwoman: He's not her boyfriend anymore.
Mad Scotswoman: He's not her boyfriend anymore?
Highly: He's not my boyfriend anymore, and he often comes to lunch with K without eating anything.
Elegant Dutchwoman: He's not her boyfriend anymore and he often comes to lunch without eating anything.
Mad Scotswoman: Oh.
Elegant Dutchwoman: Write those down!
Highly stares at the things she's already written down, and decides that's enough. Phone hangs up.

Waiting Student: I take it he's not your boyfriend anymore?

Had an AWESOME time at work tonight. Or maybe I only think that because the chief barwoman and baristress made me a mocha, and now i'm on a caffeine high.
Also, I think I've finally managed to get the hang of the doing-five-things-at-once thing. The way it goes at Swanky Restaurant Number Three is that on quiet nights I get assigned the bar, and on busy nights I'm assigned to run drinks and generally assist the chief barwoman. Thing is, I'm *also* supposed to be keeping an eye on the rest of the shop and subbing in wherever I'm needed- seating, taking orders, running food, clearing, as backup to the people who will have been specifically assigned any of these tasks. This was mindboggling, to say the least, for the first few weeks. But in the last week or so I've had a couple of two-person shifts, quiet ones where I've had to do some of *everything*, and can keep track of how it all happens and at what pace. That really makes the difference when you get in to find you're keeping up with three other waitstaff and ninety customers. NINETY.
Anyway. I seemed to manage it without breaking anything, and to keep the glasses washed and polished at the same time. We did run out of forks in the first hour, but that wasn't my fault.


There were fireworks tonight. Manic!Manager was on, so the firework show was accompanied by much "AMY, LOOK! FIREWORKS!" and "Oy, Table 10, check out the fireworks!". A few of the customers were a little scared, I think. Come the Grand Finale Firework Attack, she lost her head entirely and raced out the front of the shop, yelling "All my staff out side NOW. Customers can leave your money on the bench, we're off to watch the fireworks!"
Then she gave the outside front table a heart attack by breaking into loud cheering at the end of the fireworks.


*boingboingbounce*


There's just three of us on tomorrow night, Christmas Eve in Nelson Bay. This is a silly state of affairs, but Manic!Manager already asked the boss for extra staff and nothing doing. We will have matching Santa hats and be closing off orders after 7.30. So hopefully I'll be home before eleven, since I'm staying in Joel's room for the next week or so, and he'll be up at six on Christmas Day. Lucky guy, he has to work christmas...
But then, I'm on double shift on boxing day. Which, after Christmas Eve and then the manic organisational nighmare which passes for Christmas Day in our family (fortunately, numbers for the church lunch have dropped to thirty), should be LOTS of fun. Come home Christmas afternoon and I've been assigned the Task of cooking desserts for family lunch on boxing day... which I won't be here to eat, since I start at 12. Dad's going to run me out there on the bike, so's we can squeeze through the Boxing Day Bottleneck on Nelson Bay Road, and he'll have to come back for me in the evening. Dunno what i'll do with myself in the middle of the day- Manic!Manager did suggest I hide out at her place for a few hours, so I might do that.


*bouncebounceboing* ok, i'm starting to come down off this high now...


and instead, I shall offer you my

Enlightened Advice On Eating At Swanky Seafood Restaurants Without Spending A Whole Week's Paycheck


*BYO wine. Seriously, this will be cheaper than even buying soft drink at a Swanky Restaurant. $3 corkage per person isn't even equal to the cost of ONE glass of soft drink.
*Eat lunch rather than dinner. At Swanky Restaurant Number Three, we have a separate light lunch menu, where you can order a "lunch platter", which has most of the ingredients of the large and hideously expensive dinner platters, but, unlike them, does not contain enough food to feed a small african nation for a week. The lunch version will set you back about thirty dollars, which is an acceptable price to pay for a swanky meal, as opposed the usual price, which is roughly equal to the GDP of a small african nation.
*If ordering the full platter, eat a platter for one between two or three people.
*Order breads for starters, rather than entree dishes.
*If eating a dish for dinner which is ALSO on the entree menu (for example, calamari), order an entree size.
*If in Australia, order something with Balmain Bay Bugs or Morton Bay Bugs rather than lobster. Cheaper, possibly not QUITE as nice, but still a nice Swanky Treat Meal.
*Although we do do some good desserts, and good coffee (at least, when I'm not making the coffee we do good coffee), you could always skip that course, pay your bill (*coughandtipyourwaitressescough*) and go for a walk before coming back and buying icecream from the gelato place downstairs. Better for your pocket and your waistline.


some snarky observations:

*if you arrive early in the evening, you get your meal quicker. Amazing, isn't it?
*if your party booking lurk in the restuarant until midnight or later, we will want to stab you. Likewise when you turn up with four extra people, and we were allready booked full. (hoo boy, do I now feel sorry for the staff at the restaurant in Glebe upon which medievalists descend after the public lectures. Remind me to leave them a tip next time I end up there talking in french to my teacher about the woes of my love life until 11.30 at night.)
*no, this isn't Sydney. No, you WON'T get a walk-in table at 9pm. For that matter, you probably won't get a booked table that late either.
*what string of logic leads you to believe there will be any vacant tables at 7.30pm on a saturday night in one of the only three Swanky Restaurants in town?
*likewise, if you have ten people in your family, how have you not yet figured out that it is a good idea to book when you go out?
*also, a Seafood Restaurant doesn't sell spit roast. Shocking, I know.



and with that, i am all bounced out and am going to sleep in my own bed for the last time in a week or so.