(no subject)

Well that was fun. Yesterday I basically got told that if I do any more personal email or anything on work time they're going to fire me. ( rant )

Anyway: from now on I'll only be able to check email/LJ at lunchtimes, and on Fridays (my day off -- I insisted on only doing a 4-day week, for my SANITY). So if anybody wants to contact me about anything time-critical, please SMS me instead. (And bear in mind that I still can't always answer immediately.) If you don't have my phone number and you want it, email me and I'll send it to you.

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I thought my karate lesson last night was going to be awful -- last lesson before the grading, overwhelming heat, and I was exhausted from crying about work -- but actually it was quite good, if sweaty. Still don't think I stand much chance of passing the grading but I don't think I can put it off any longer.

After that I went to the Carlton -- couldn't face the twice-as-long walk to get to a pub with worse beer when everybody else was just going to leave soon after I got there to see a film that I had no interest in seeing. As it happened lots of people turned up there, including iwj and ceb who I hadn't seen for ages; and I spent half the evening playing on the Spot-the-difference machine with emperor, senji, claroscuro and ceb. Silly but good value for money IMHO, we only spent the equivalent of a couple of pints between us and it was more fun than beer.

This morning I dropped sion_a off at work, then went to the Citizens Advice Bureau to have a chat with them about training as a volunteer. It does sound like it'd be really interesting, but I'm worried that I won't be able to commit to enough time for them. However, I've provisionally signed up for the next lot of training, which starts in January; I have no idea what I'll be doing by then, but if I'm still able to do it then I will. We'll see.

Lots of other things I'd like to say about Stuff and Things, but it's all just too awkward. :-(

Libraries gave us power

Got to the University Library and managed to get a temporary (~2 week) reader's card so I can do this test from the OED. In fact, managed to do 2/3 of the test while I was there, but the last 1/3 needs a book that I'd have to order from the stacks, and ( faff )

Pleased to discover that I could still manage to find books in a big scary university library. I know that sounds pathetic given that I spent 4 years at Oxford, but it's been so long and I'd been feeling very panicky about it ... partly because of a general feeling that I can't remember how to think, let alone study, any more.

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Now sitting in the computer room wearing nothing but underwear because it's TOO HOT. Going to the Pr0tland tonight to see the Broken Family Band (indie-ish alt-country, local band, got their first album and it's very good, saw them live at the Folk Festival and they were ace, would have bought the new album but they'd run out of it at the CD stall at the Folk Festival) so that should be fun. Would have liked to do B-Movie but time, money and sleep prevent it. Ah well, maybe next time.