Bureacracy

Cheltenham Pump Rooms, October 2019

I think I'm pretty much back in control again after that brief chaotic interlude. The tooth is OK, antibiotics finished, pictures, music and documents transferred to the new laptop and a start made on the podcasts and books, all the Buddhists are still happy as far as I know, and the house is behaving itself. I've even spent more time in the garden digging a trench and putting bricks in it between the 'beds' and the 'lawn'. I seem to have successfully employed a different Lady Gardener to help me maintain it - we'll see how that turns out. And there are daffodils coming up, and some snowdrops! It must be nearly Spring.

Things that have happened: I delivered the presentation to the Dietitians, which seemed to go down well although only four people attended apart from the two other Diabetes Dietitians. And I got paid for the session I did in November. Then there has been lots of hot Buddhist action. In the local group we have been delivering an introductory course for newcomers which has attracted more than 20 people, filling our small village hall to bursting. We had a team meeting in which I progressed with my plan for world domination by proposing to invite a lot of senior people from the movement to come to lead a session for our little group. And I went to the second meeting of the study group in Birmingham, via a different route which took 90 minutes during rush hour, so I'm not going that way again.

The most demanding task I have had to tackle this week has been the extraordinary bureaucracy involved in applying for a Blue Badge online on behalf of mum and dad. It was the longest and most complicated form I have ever had to tackle; way more difficult than applying for a divorce online. Each application took about an hour and required scanning and uploading documents and digital photographs, and when we had finished and successfully applied, the acknowledgement email required details that had not been requested within the application and threatened denial of the application if they weren't supplied. This is what the state demands of someone who has a condition requiring a Blue Badge.

See the bricks between the 'beds' and the 'lawn'? January 2020

What I've been reading

Lark Rise to Candleford
by Flora Thompson

"Combining three books in one anthology, this story of three closely related Oxfordshire communities - a hamlet. the nearby village and a small market town - is based on the author's experiences during childhood and youth."

When I was still at school, one of the teachers mentioned a book by two authors called Opie which was all about the games, songs and activities of children. It sounded so interesting that I kept an eye out for it, and later I must have found it in the library. It was as dry as dust - a scholarly, anthropological study written up in the style of academia, and I was thoroughly disappointed. This is the book that I was hoping for. A fictionalised version of the author's life in Oxfordshire in the late nineteenth century with all the colour and detail that was missing in that Opie book. A delight.

Psychopathology of Everyday Life
by Sigmund Freud

"Through a series of case histories, some no longer than a few lines long, Freud explores how it is that normal people make slips of speech, writing, reading and remembering in their everyday life, and reveals what it is that they betray about the existence of a sub-text or subliminal motive to our conscious actions."

The seminal work, translated from the original German in the days when it was assumed the reader would understand French so didn't bother to translate those paragraphs. It does make sense that sometimes words are transposed in speech or writing, and in my case it's usually because my mind has skipped ahead to whatever's next and incorporates a word or part of word too early, or because my typing fingers run away with themselves and type something they prefer instead of the word I want. Freud seems unwilling to accept that there is any such thing as a random mistake; it is all explicable as long as you apply the psychoanalysis. Not that he's perfect; he catalogues instances where his treatment fails, but I find it all so smug, and I don't think it would stand up for a moment against modern science's evidence-based requirements.

The Murder on the Links
by Agatha Christie

narrated by B. J. Harrison

"Poirot has been frantically summoned to France by Monsieur Paul Renauld. Unfortunately, upon arrival, Hastings and Poirot are informed they have arrived too late and Renauld is dead."

My main complaint about classic detective novels is when they are serialised for radio and I simply can't keep up with all the different characters and how they are related to one another and to the murdered individual(s). So I was pleased to be able to follow this one all the way through, possibly because it was a straight narration of the book rather than a radio play. Even if the narrator's French/Belgian accents are hopeless and his English accent is almost as bad.

Hons and Rebels
by Jessica Mitford

"The Mitford family is one of the century's most enigmatic, made notorious by Nancy's novels, Diana's marriage to Sir Oswald Mosley, Unity's infatuation with Hitler, Debo's marriage to a duke and Jessica's passionate commitment to communism."

I don't know what makes this family's stories so riveting. It started with reading Nancy's novels, and I've got a biography of all the family waiting to be read, but Sister D was giving books away and this was one of them. Jessica (Decca) Mitford is the one who eloped with her cousin to the Spanish Civil War, then went to America. When they were briefly living in London she writes that she didn't realise that electricity and gas had to be paid for; she thought it came with the house. The book relates her life mainly in the 1930's, and is frighteningly reminiscent of the times we are living through now, in as much as there's a right wing government which doesn't seem to care much about the populace in the lead up to a world war.

Plague: Black Death and Pestilence in Europe
by William Naphy & Andrew Spicer

"The Black Death first hit Europe in 1347, ripping through towns, villages, and families. Subsequent attacks of the disease, coming almost every decade, so limited the population that it was not until the 18th century that it managed to surpass the levels of the 1340s. In the end, this mysterious disease that had terrorized, terrified, and killed millions, disappeared as inexplicably as it had appeared."

Another of dad's books, and very readable but ultimately unmemorable. I thought I'd be more interested than I was - it turns out, surprisingly, that I'm just not particularly interested in plague.

Out of control

Rio de Janeiro Botanical Gardens, April 2019

Everything is briefly but totally out of control. My email Inbox, which I try to keep below about 40 items maximum, is at 73 and counting. I haven't sat at my desk for nearly a week, and when I have it's been to try and set up the new laptop with everything I need in the configuration that I need it. And now that I have most of a day to address the situation I have developed toothache that has kept me awake most of the night, and, separately, a possible lost filling (it's hard to tell, it's at the back and I can't see it very well, or even know what I'm looking for).

Those are my current home-based woes, then. In addition, at work I rashly volunteered to deliver a development session to the department of my fellow Dietitians all about technologies for Type 1 diabetes, and because I was going to base it on the talk I gave recently to the students I didn't think it would take that long to write. And it hasn't taken that long, but what I didn't consider is that my reduction in hours has left me with almost no time outside clinics, and three weeks time is actually only a few hours of available working hours. So I've had to do a bit of that at home too.

[The payment for the session I delivered in November has still not come through, although at last I have completed the relevant forms, and not been required to attend for an interview to determine whether I am legally able to work in the UK. Then they queried the forms because I hadn't completed the 'emergency contact' section for a session that has already been delivered. I should be paid by the end of this month.]

And now I've started writing this blog I realise that it is actually much more important to address the accumulation in my Inbox - I've already phoned the dentist for an emergency appointment, and the new laptop is doing all the email and browsing nicely. Transferring the pictures has been problematic and I haven't started on any of the other files or programmes yet, although I have dipped a toe in Microsoft's free cloud-based Office Suite and OpenDrive in order to try and do the presentation for work. It all takes so much time.

I should have a bit more free time on Saturday when I'm not at the dentist or cleaning the toilet or making vegan brownies because some Buddhists are coming over for a team meeting. I still haven't finished the presentation for the Dietitians and I'm supposed to be delivering it on Tuesday, and Sunday is reserved for another Buddhist event where the brownies will be finished. There's been lots of Buddhism this week - on Monday evening I went to the first meeting of my Study Group, which is displacing my Monday badminton for the next three months.

And it's now Saturday and the dentist has given me some antibiotics and booked me in for the filling in a month and the toilet is cleaned and the Buddhists loved the brownies and I'm about to get stuck in and finish the presentation for the Dietitians and deal with some more of the email and then a bit of ironing and housework. But first, I'll just publish this.

So, a little bit out of control. But in a very good way.

New year, new laptop

Paraty, Brazil, April 2019

At last I have been able to expend the small amount of brain power that it takes to buy a new laptop for myself. It really came about as dad has become more active and started emailing again, using mum's identity. Apart from being confusing for the recipient it was a welcome development, and I managed to set up a different login for dad but they are still competing for the same PC. It occurred to me that dad could use my old laptop, even though it's a bit slow for multi-tasking and the operating system is no longer supported.

The new laptop is working well so far, although I haven't transferred everything across yet, and I am encountering the usual transition issues with the location of the Ctrl, Delete, End, Home and cursor keys. Finding and setting up software for picture and video editing, Skype, iTunes (or equivalent), TeamViewer for remote control, transferring from my camera and the choice of word processor, spreadsheet and presentation package is going to take place quite slowly mainly because it is excruciatingly boring. I tried copying 14,073 pictures to a memory stick, but it didn't go well, so I'm transferring them a bit at a time.

The most distressing item in the 'Other News' section is that the Pub Next Door has closed, seemingly without notice to staff or suppliers. I met one of the suppliers outside the gates, and that's where I got my information from, as well as one article in the local paper about a couple who were going to have their wedding reception there. It's owned by a brewery so probably only a matter of time before a replacement landlord is found and installed, but very disconcerting to have a dark, silent building on the corner rather than the buzz of conversation, and a shame for the family who've had to give it up after about 10 years, not to mention the staff out of work. And I want to have access to the outside garden at some point, so I'll have to find out who's in charge.

On a cheerier note I had a day in Birmingham courtesy of my clarinet losing a spring before the concert in December. Luckily it was the least used key on the instrument so sticking it down with a blue plaster saved the day, but it meant a full service for the first time in its lifetime - about 40 years. I made the most of the day by giving blood, browsing bookshops, having lunch at my favourite Cafe Soya and going to see a film. I haven't tried playing the clarinet again yet, but I'm looking forward to a transformed  instrument.

It's possible I won't be playing it with the group next term though, because of all the holidays and activities I have planned, at least two of which coincide with next term's rehearsals. Some of my holidays are with the Buddhists and some with Lola II and Mr M, but there are two ski trips as well. There aren't many free weekends left in the first half of the year. It looks as though 2020 may be even better for me than 2019.