Aubergine is not a good vegetable for soup.
I’ve been very excited, today - I’ve been to the tiny village in Shropshire that my Granddad’s granddad came from. It was lovely - very small, and with about twice as many 20th century houses in as older ones. The church is very odd, because the plain brick makes it look like a 20th century building - and probably catholic at that - but it’s actually 18th century!
I took lots of photos of cottages and things - pretty much any building that looked like it might pre-date WWI, and discovered a row of cottages that were built in 1857, and the village school which was built in 1856 (someone throwing money about in the 1850s, apparently…). And I talked to a couple who live there, who said I should go when the post office is open, and talk to Sue who knows everything about everyone, and Dean, who’s writing a book. And they were terribly friendly and nice, and I came away feeling all warm and welcome and fluffy and nice.
That’s two villages that I’m from - Cockshutt, and Haskayne. I’ve been to both, and whilst both are in country that’s a little too flat to be beautiful, I think I could get used to village life. Plus, compared with Liverpool, houses seem to be very cheap there…
Well daisy is now officially funnier than me; both in the funny ha-ha and funny peculiar ways. Most of the time it’s unattended humor. When she tells me to go away, or says No to the wrong question.
Today she was singing the tune of twinkle twinkle with the words “Mummy daddy, mummy, dad…” Which was very cute, when she interrupted her self to go ‘Dink’ (which means drink), it turns out she was holding a drink and had been for around half an hour, still. It was a shock to find it there.
Daisy’s word count is massive, we stopped counting ages a go, and new words are coming all the time, some times she picks up words seemingly first time. A while back when we went to stay at Ruth’s mum’s daisy wasn’t took keen on sleeping in a strange place, so Ruth told here the story of Noah; she only got the story once, that night, but ever since, heavy rain out side gets a cry of noie.
Sentences are her new trick, most of them involve where daddy has gone, “Daddy away in work”, and as she delighted in telling the man in Tesco, “Daddy away in car”.
Oh and she’s dead cute too. But I would say that wouldn’t I. Here are some pictures to prove it.
see I told you so.
Just to give you a flavor of todays weather…
We drove into this Today; As we weaved around the edge of wales and Cheshire the clouds just sat on the horizon, looking dark and nasty, Until we got to this point. Then all the water just fell out of them. Not a day for a convertible car, I would much rather have our trusty skoda in a rain cloud like this. The bloke we saw on the motorbike looked very wet.
Today we went for a little day trip to Shrewsbury; mainly because it is south of Liverpool, and we’re rapidly approaching north of Liverpool saturation, So we decided to go south.
Initially Wales was in the running, but the weather forecast was funny and I didn’t fancy walking down the pier at llandudno in a fierce rain storm, so we looked in land. Llandudno is nice but again we’ve been quite a bit, and besides we would have just spent all day in that bookshop.
Baby swans
Shrewsbury was nice; it did rain quite a bit, but it was nice. Down by the river we saw some baby swans, something I having lived such a sheltered life had never seen before. Then we did the regimental museum in the castle, which our copy of the rough guide to England describes as dull. I would alter that a bit, to dull, dry and warm, which can be quite important when it really starts to rain.
On the way home we took a slight detour to Cockshutt, the ancestral ’seat’ for some of Ruth’s family. The family rumour mill (now confirmed as speculation) has it that
the old Vicarage in cockshutt
there where some goings on between a ’son of the manor’ and one of Ruth’s great great somethings, which resulted in them being sent away to Liverpool to have the illegitimate child. More likely is they moved from rural poverty to industrial poverty around the time everybody else did.
Cockshutt seems like a pleasant little village, with a church, pub and post office. So we took some pictures Ruth did some random stranger talking, and discovered that Dean is the man to talk to about the history of Cockshutt; we didn’t but at least we know.
Ruth is now scouring the internet to see if we can get anything else about Cockshutt. So far we know that some people have a grant to write the history of the village. So we’re writing them a letter.
Well this Monday was definitely better than last.
It takes time to adjust to new surroundings, and last week was just a bit of a shock really. I have to admit I was worried about today, what with a whole weekend having gone by and me not really having settled in, but in the end I think it went ok.
The whole thing was helped on by a morning of meetings, which actually is quite a good way to start a Monday morning, especially when you are new; and now I have some work to get stuck into and a PC that actually works at what I need to do, the day went quite well.
Having work is the most important part I think (after knowing where the toilets are!) It gives your mind something to focus on, as opposed to just worrying about strange surroundings. Also actually doing starts to remove the anxiety about whether or not you can do, which is something I always get hung up about. If any one ever asks me that question about what are your weaknesses again, I will have to say self doubt.
So I’m happier this week. yippie! mind you it could be the chocolate high
I had a birthday surprise, a trip to Cadbury World! And dispute there being no chocolate river, or any (visible) umpalumpas, we had a loads of fun.
It’s a hard thing to live upto a chocolate factory tour, after all everybody loves chocolate and everybody’s seen at least one of the Charlie and Chocolate Factory Films. The tour is basically an attempt to tell you how Cadbury’s came about, and how chocolate is made, and it does both of them.
When you look back you don’t get an awful lot of chocolate, but the factory smells so chocolaty, I think you absorb some through your skin, so by the end when you emerge into the shop (all good tours end in the shop) you don’t go (to) mad buying chocolate, I got myself a new mug for work.
the best bit for me was the advert room, with all the old adverts on, and the children’s discovery room which is quite cool too (probably more so if you’re a child). Oh and the cafe does the worlds best hot chocolate, and they have the worlds biggest Cadbury’s shop (not however selling the world’s biggest Cadbury’s chocolate bar)
I’m a bit less flooply about the whole new job thing now. I’m still floopy but a lot less so, the whole fish out of water thing is definitely part of it, and that is starting to subside now, what with me actually managing to write some code today.
Of course it’s all going to change very soon, it looks like we are as a team about to move buildings. This is both a good and a bad thing, it’s a bad thing because we are moving out of the lovely grade II* listed building into another one of Liverpool 60’s office blocks. However it’s a good thing because the whole team will be in one office not one and a little alcove which is where I am at the moment; and the whole moving office thing will shuffle things about a bit, one of the things I’m a bit worried about in the new office is being off in a corner, with not much chance to bond. Hopefully an office move will remove that problem.
Since Kevin now has a shiny new camera, we can give you some new pictures of Daisy! Hurrah!
It turns out changing jobs is a bigger wrench than I gave it credit. It’s been a long day, mainly because on your first day there is very little to do beyond reading, and that can make the day go on. Of course in your more silent moments you think about how much of your life has just changed; which can make you a ‘bit’ sad, and you think was all the upheaval worth it, but looking back you do have the rose tinted glasses on; and you have to remind yourself of that.
All that said, I don’t want you thinking I don’t like my new job, it’s just very soon. It turns out I need a short period of mourning first for the passing of the other job I had the whole of my adult life*. People did ask if I was going to have a break between them, and given how much holiday I’d taken I did think I needed the rest. But maybe I needed the gap to come to terms with moving on (not that I would have, because I would have just been on holiday), or maybe I just need to go to my new job for more than one day*, and get to know new people, and do new stuff.
*I’m in a emphasis kind of place, I need to remind myself that’s all
So I’ve wasted no time, and transformed my leaving present of vouchers for George Henry Lee, into a shiny new digital camera, and learned a few things along the way.
I’m now the proud owner of a Sony Cybershot DSC-600 (Nice name Sony!), and after a day ? It rocks! Now remember I’m comparing it to a quite old nobrand digital camera, which while good, did have some issues; but the Sony just goes way beyond what I was expecting to get.
One of the reasons for that is the price, which dropped ?20 on the website overnight, and then price in the shop was another ?23 cheaper again. This meant that the camera coupled with a usually quite expensive 512mb memory stick, actually cost me ?10.95 above and beyond my leaving vouchers! I got an outstanding Sony camera for ?10.
The clever dumb balance was then restored on the way home; when I didn’t shut the car boot properly in the car park and we scratched it against the roof when we went down one of the ramps, that has actually left me a bit depressed, because it’s like the time I fixed the toilet only to brake the sink, or as it turns out the other day where I thought I had turned the freezer up, only to later turn it off instead of down.
Still I’m sure I’ll get over it, I’m in between jobs at the moment and my head is a bit spinny (that’s my excuse for now anyway)
So what did we learn?
- George Henry Lee is cheaper in the shop than on the internet, not the other way around
- Don’t let Kevin do anything responsible
when he’s got a new toyever.
current mood: completely floopy
Kevin is known, amongst his friends, to get agitated about the oddest things. This morning, he frowned at a not-particularly sharp pencil that Daisy was holding, and said “Don’t walk with the pencil, Daisy.”
Quite how he expected her to get it from where she was to where the paper was, I’m not sure. “Don’t run with the pencil,” might have been understandable (though it has to be said, it’s a pencil, not a stanley knife, and she had it in her hand, not her mouth). He does fret, though doesn’t he?
I, of course, laughed at him.
I’ve left JMU now, we did have the awkward leaving gathering in the middle of the floor, where loads of people came (Friday afternoon, nice stroll to the fifth floor). Stuart did the leaving speech thing, which he does much better than Jim. Summing up my 9 years ;he counts the placement year and the bit in-between, which I suppose you should if your being honest as to how long you’ve been there, it turns out a good summary of my career at JMU can be told in 5 stories
- I had an incredibly badly written placement CV, but they gave me the job anyway
- In my interview for my ‘real’ job, I was asked to identify earl gray tea bags from a line up and I got it wrong!, but they gave me the job anyway.
- Stuart and I had a phase of going the ‘gym’ which in reality was the bar above the gym, playing pool
- Stuart claims I poisoned him the time I introduced him to Vodka and Red bull in the 147 in town.
- during my life at JMU I didn’t take things like stationary, I took the head of CWIS.
It was quite emotional, and yes I did have to hold it back (I am bloke!). I do think I will miss the place, but now is the weekend to look forward. I have new job on Monday must get excited! I will get all university sick in a week or two.
oh and I got loads of gift vouchers, so tomorrow I can go replace my busted digital camera, thanks everyone!
*Jmu World was the name of the news section of the website for quite a long time, you had to be there really.
Today is my last day working for Liverpool John Moores University (ahhhhh), but on Monday I start work for Liverpool City Council (yippieee), and while I like the idea of it; It is not true that I will only work for places with Liverpool in the title.
It does feel all a bit anticlimactic really, I mean yes I’m sure they are going to have the gathering gaggle of people in the middle of the floor, followed by a few awkward words from Jim, and then people will expect me to say something profound and/or heartfelt, but I am sure I should feel a bit more emotional than I do.
Maybe it just hasn’t sunken in yet; Next week when its been a few days and I haven’t heard the words blackboard or Athens uttered in anger then it will sink in. I’m under no illusion that working for the council will come with it’s own set of unique politics, but at least they will be new politics.
Ruth is a bit worried that I don’t seem at all excited by the prospect of my new job, and in truth so am I, but as I’ve said, it’s probably because it hasn’t actually dawned on me yet that as of today I won’t work in the university any more.
Liverpoool Central library, Archive room
Today I’ve crossed the line, from the public section of the records office, to the “archive search room”.I thought I would just be entering into the world of more valuable microfilm, but no, I’ve just gotten the actual admissions register for bluecoat school, in 1868! Its quite scary really, No white gloves but still these are the historical documents
I did actually find what i was looking for with my first attempt, and now i am waiting for the next ‘archive collection’,which is when one of the librarian disappears through a small door for a number of minutes before returning with the documents.
Oh and you can only use pencils in this room.
this entry was written in pencil
Google, have launched Google trends; you give it a search term and it shows you the history of how many people have been searching for it. Probably good if you are in to selling stuff at certain times of the year, but much more fun to compare companies and football clubs.
- Liverpool Council vs Liverpool John Moores
- The Council Wins: just and not in august but that’s clearing
- Tranmere vs Accrington Stanley
- Stanley have overtaken us; given how we finished 18th and they won there league its’ to be expected
It’s all a bit vague because what ever piece of software we load our family tree into gives you a different number, but Genes Reunited which is the site we currently use for keeping the tree upto date now says we have 500 names in the tree (it actually says 530 on the front page).
To celebrate this little milestone, we are going to print out new copies of the tree, the only question is how. Gene’s Reuniteds tree software is refusing to print a tree that big, and the software I’ve downloaded, while very good, can’t get the tree down to less than 8×9 pieces of A4; I think we need to clear some wall space.
Given how I’ve sold it over the years, wouldn’t you just love to have my job? Well now you can. The advert for my replacement has gone out.
It’s not exactly my job, because this time they are actually going for a programmer, so some of the non programmy admin is going else where in the department. They pay isn’t what I’m on (33k’ish if you want to know) so I wouldn’t apply for it, but that shouldn’t stop you.
I was listening to Woman’s Hour today, and the whole theme started to get me riled. There’s been much media discussion recently about alleged “selfishness” surrounding women who choose to have their children later, or not at all. It’s the word that drives me to distraction - “selfish” creates very distinct connotations, of hard, heartless, unpleasant women, who should a) soften up and become apron-wearing 1950s housewives, before b) having a minimum of two children, preferably twins, to make up for lost time.
The baby boomer women were told they could have it all. They were told that everything men had always had should be theirs, and you can’t go through two literature degrees without absorbing a certain level of feminist feeling. It is absolutely true that nothing should be forbidden me - I have as much as right as Kevin does to a career, to an education, to anything that he can have, in fact.
What they weren’t told was that there aren’t enough hours in the day. If they also want what their mothers had, compromises must be struck. Women shouldn’t have to choose between a family and a career, because men are never asked to make that choice. However, you can’t work a forty hour week in a high-powered office job in the City, and still be standing at the school gates at 3.30pm to ask how school was today. It’s not a philosophical problem, it’s a logistical one. And it’s a problem for women, because we were told we could have the intellectual, professional, financial liberation that men had, without giving anything up in return. Funny enough, most men didn’t want the liberation of staying at home with the children, and being men, if they did, they’d have taken it, I’m sure.
And that’s why the baby boomer women look back with such regret - those who gave up work to bring up their children regret the loss of their careers. Those who, in one sense or another, gave up their children to pursue their careers regret the loss of their children.
I feel much more fortunate than that. I always knew I couldn’t have it all. If I wanted to be the sort of mum I instinctively felt that children need, some or all of my career aspirations would have to be compromised. It wasn’t a shock, it wasn’t a disappointment, it was a perfectly reasonable decision-making process.
This, the staying at home, the slightly constrained financial situation, the fantastically close relationship to my daughter, the spontaneous trips to the park, the hours I’ve spent sitting with my Grandma, this is the package I chose for myself. I had all the information, and the choice was an informed one. I have no regrets.
I also think I have more confidence in myself than the baby boomers did - or maybe the options are more flexible now. In either case, I believe that I am perfectly capable of embarking on a new career, in whatever I like, if and when the fancy takes me. I am intelligent, well-educated, and of ever broadening experience. I can do whatever I like.
Feminism gave women choices, in places where men have never had to choose. Making that choice can be heart-wrenching, so don’t you DARE call me selfish. Don’t you DARE suggest that I should have had my children sooner, or should have gone back to work after I had them, or should have had more, or should have had fewer. I made my choices, and other women make theirs - for pity’s sake, leave them alone.
I’ve been taking my last holiday before my new job this week, so I thought it would be as good a time as any to sort out the yard so daisy could have some outside to play in this summer. And after two’ish days of hard work (did I mention I work in an office all day), it’s finished.
Daisy is currently asleep, but when she wakes up, it’s paddling pool and football weather!
