Kit and caboodle

My friend Kit has moved to Cambridge! I bumped into him out of the blue at lunchtime, turns out he's at Queens' (i.e. 2 mins' walk from my work) doing a PGCE.

We'd sort of lost touch (largely because he still claims he doesn't know how to do email -- I will have to teach him, and maybe sort of accidentally introduce him to LiveJournal at the same time) & I knew he'd been thinking of coming here but I (rightly) figured that if he did I'd bump into him sooner or later. At 6'8½" he's pretty difficult to miss.

Lovely to see him again though. And anybody who's willing to kneel down in the middle of the street just to be the right height to give me a hug (he's only a couple of inches shorter than me when he's kneeling) gets my vote.

Congratulations on a slightly productive day of faff

I wish my most productive hours of the day weren't always taken up by work. As it is I frequently find that in the afternoon I'm full of energy and wanting to Get Things Done ... but by then I've done all the stuff I can find to do at work (and I have actually done quite a lot today!) and I want to Get Things Done at home: just odds and sods of Things like tidying the house, selling stuff on eBay, washing clothes, etc.

However, I have managed to use this afternoon's random burst of energy to: pay some of my rentmortgage; pay my credit card bill; send off for a DD form so I can pay off the balance of my HSBC card by DD every month; check my other credit card statement; and send an email to chase up the Richard Thompson CD I ordered a month ago from EIL. If I was at home right now I reckon I'd have about enough energy to tidy my room and put a wash on as well, but as it is, by the time I get there I'll be feeling flaked out & good for nothing except random pottering around.

Hopefully, however, I will have the energy to make a 'congratulations' card for my little sister, since the shops are utterly bereft of anything attractive or useful. I was astounded today to discover the granularity of congratulations cards -- not only the standard new job, new baby, new house, passing driving test, graduation, exams, etc., not only the slightly more specific (but doubtless useful) "congratulations on your ordination", but even "congratulations on losing weight" and "congratulations on giving up smoking". Whatever happened to the idea of selecting a generally-applicable card and actually writing something ourselves to tailor it to the individual case?

Anyway, I know it's unlikely, but if any of you were thinking of sending me a "Congratulations on paying off your credit card bill" card, or a "congratulations on remembering to make lunch before going to work" card, for goodness' sake save the money and buy yourself a beer.

Mayfield primary school

After seeing the advert in ucam.adverts.giveaway I really want to do something to help Mayfield Primary School get up and running again. Unfortunately, I don't think I have any of the stuff they're likely to need (more information about donations is available in the Cambridge News) -- I feel as though I should have, because I have such a lot of stuff kicking around the house, but it's just not the right sort of stuff really.

On the other hand if any of you do have anything which would be useful to the school & which you're happy to part with, I'm willing to volunteer the use of my car for picking up and dropping off, within reason (and 'reason' includes Oxford and London, as I have plenty of other good excuses to go to either & I'm free next w/e & it's only a 1.5hr drive). I mean, I already have this gas-guzzling environment-buggering nightmare, I may as well at least try to use it for the Forces of Good.

Since I really don't have any Stuff to contribute I'm planning to make a cash donation, it won't be very big as I don't have very much but I guess anything helps. If anybody else feels moved to do the same & wants to co-ordinate with me so we can write them just one cheque, give me a shout by email, please. (Email preferred for stuff-offering as well.)

Catching up

Okay, I knew I'd be good for nothing by the time I got home anyway, but I wasn't counting on only getting home after a pint of Old Peculier and a half of Old Rosie. Feeling very headachey now. Still it was good to talk to Kit properly rather than just a hasty hello-goodbye in the middle of town. And he's still very lovely.

Sigh. How am I ever supposed to catch up if I'm forever going backwards?