Thursday 27th May

Well folks, I reckon that was summer! I don't know how it is with you, but right now we're back to cold, well chilly at least in comparison, and this afternoon we had a hail storm. Only lasted what, 5 minutes, but it was bouncing off every surface it could possibly hit. Unbelievable.
Still, I'm more and more convinced that this is all down to that damn volcano - I know it's died down, but we've been having some really very attractive sunsets (I'm not around to see the sunrise!) very pink and streaky, which has inspired me to start up a little project. Life can't be all Latin and miracles, trust me. Anyhow, I'm making a mixed media picture, I've been wanting to do something truly mixed media for a while, and this seems an ideal opportunity. When I've finished it, and if I think it's actually worth putting on general view, I'll put a picture up, and maybe even a whole how I did this blog, since its been a while since I did this. I've bought a little fabric, renewed some of my paint tubes - it's been so long since I painted anything that many of them have dried up, yikes! I need to do things like this, I'm one of those people who needs to express the creative urge regardless of whether that urge produces anything wholly decent as such. I suppose I should be busy turning out bookmarks, but frankly the shops' been shut since my last huge essay deadline date, and over the past few months I'd say that it's not exactly been selling stuff like hot cakes. Since it's expensive to run - the Ebay fees are just horrendous, I thought I'll leave it until later in the year, when sales usually pick up.
What else have I been up to? Suffering in the knees is what. I'm grasping this bull by the horns by trying to loose a bit of weight, exercising, and no it's not going wonderfully well. I've been doing the exercises that the physio gave me for about two and a half weeks, and not one jot of benefit have I yet to see, which is a touch worrying. Normally these work like hotcakes, with things picking up within a matter of days, but not this time. We must just keep our fingers crossed that a) it doesn't get worse and b) it's not something other than muscular or ligament damage. I have a nasty sneeking suspicion that it's going to prove that way, and technically yes, I should go to the doctor, but I don't like doctors, never will, and I'd rather suffer for a while longer until I really can't put it off anymore. At least until I can prove by some weight loss that I am trying to do something about it myself.

As for the weight, well, as I said I've commenced dieting. I don't know what it is about diets, but the moment you start one, you get instant wild hunger pangs. I had a fabulous lunch, measured out on the scales, two ounces of red lentils, 1 oz of walnuts, handful of rocket, tomato, all done according to the recipe, and it was delicious. I can't tell you often enough that it really was tasty, and will be a pleasure to eat again, even if I wasn't dieting. It was filling. I mean, lentils for the lords sake, take a wee bit of eating. Walnuts need to be masticated. I thought well this will keep me going until supper. But come tea time, what did I want?? Food. I was hungry. I did stick to the diet, which provides snacks, I had plain wholewheat toast, with a teaspoon of peanut butter. As laid out in the plan. However, whilst they say one slice of toast with peanut butter, I had four. Yep. Disgraceful isn't it? I'm not too freaked by this, if I'd have raided the deep freeze for the icecream I know is there, then I would have been cross with myself, but no butter was consumed, and I did stick to the teaspoon full of peanut butter on each slice. Small falls like this are only to be expected, and you can but struggle on, safe in the knowledge that if you stick to whats on the diet sheet, the odds are you are still probably eating less than what you were eating prior to commencing.
The dinner was pasta with bacon and spinach, and I'm sorry to say whilst I like bacon, and I love spinach, I didn't take to this as well as I did the lentil recipe. Tomorrow is Spaghetti Primavera, that should be good. Lunch is a baked potato with beans. Got the beans, not sure I've got any baking potato's - that's another diet based issue, the cost of the bloody thing. You are constantly food shopping too. You have to have so much food to produce meals that are high fibre, low fat types, because you have to have the variety so you don't get bored and devour whatever fatty food is to hand or run screaming to the shop for half a dozen packets of cheesy whatnots. Gross isn't it?

Weds 19th, sort of, because it's after 12 so really its thurs 20th!

Yep, and again here I am late at night, blogging. Well it seems to be a habit of mine. Anyhow weirdness of weirdness, today I got a notice that I've been selected for potential jury service. For the next two years, I can be summoned at three weeks notice, I have to let them know when I'm planning on being away, and serve on a jury. I've actually done this before, and frankly I have to say that I feel it's somewhat unfair that I can have my life thrown into this degree of uncertainty - they didn't hold me in abeyance for two years the last time! I just got a letter, went and served - none of this you will tell us where you are if you're planning on going away from home, in advance - not that I've got anything against jury service, but I think it would be a bit better if they shared it out a bit more fairly. What's wrong with the idea that if you've done it once, that's it, you've done your bit and thanks for that. Let's share out the duty and those people who, when I say I've done this, go Oh God, I've not, I'd love to - well why not let them? When I did it last time a woman told me once you're summoned, you get summoned again and again. What a pain. Why couldn't it have been your premium bond's come up?!
It is like winning the lottery, only not, if you see what I mean. If my number has to come up, on this not exactly common lottery-type event, why couldn't it have been the actual lottery? What's to bet I get summoned say in the first week of next term, or three weeks before an essay is due or something. Yep, that'll be it. My number will well and truly come up three weeks before I'm due to hand my dissertation in. Still mind you I can at least ensure that that isn't in a state of disarray three weeks before the hand in date!
So what else has been happening - Abby came to visit this weekend, and along with the trips around museums, I seem to have destroyed my knees. Every day they started getting a bit weird, but ever since she's gone home & I've been left to get on with normal life, it's like they've crumbled to some strange powdery state. I feel like a little old woman staggering around with my stick and on full dose painkillers. I shall have to take them to the doctor for physio I think. Mind you, having said that, I've been doing the exercises I got when I fell a couple of years back regularly for about the last three weeks, I've even constructed a support pillow for the back of the knee out of popping plastic and packaging tape. It doesn't seem to be doing a bit of good. However it was great to see Abby, and I don't think we stopped talking the whole weekend. We went to see some great places as well, the Tennement House, the Burrel Collection, and St Mungo's. St Mungo's is the Catholic Cathedral of Glasgow, and we saw a rather fascinating end of a service given for some sort of priory organisation that reminded me somewhat of the unsavory groups out of Dan Brown's little fantasies - a number of older men in smart suits wearing tunics over the top of these apparently constructed from white sheets. And a number of them could have done with the larger version too, they pulled across the jackets and seats of their suits in a most unfortunate fashion! I suppose I should add that I have no idea who these people were, but they were accompanied by six masons of what was clearly a very high degree to judge by the badges, iconography and medals they were wearing, not to mention the fact that these guys were in tail suits. Full morning dress, bar the top hats. Extraordinary. The cathedral itself was rather interesting, with a number of wall placques that are well worth a look. And the necropolis is fascinating, and at some point I'll get the photo's off my phone and put them on Facebook.

I'm off to a mapping workshop soon. They organise this sort of thing for post grads at the university, and this is in pursuit of my quest to be able to put spots on a map of antique Europe, where the miracles actually take place. I'd like a nice colour coded set of spots saying here were ten, here were twenty - here was a single miracle in say 595. You know the sort of thing. I think it will look very fancy in my dissertation, but it's not as simple as saying you get a map and put spots on it. This is going to be a seriously intensive course, I've had to download stuff, log on to digimap, which appears to be a system whereby you can access lots of ordinance survey maps - it's all very interesting. I like maps, there's something about them that whenever I see a map I end up gazing at it as if it was vibrating and turning purple. I particularly enjoy maps of old places that I used to live, it sort of takes me back I guess. But any old map will do, if I can't find one of where I used to live I'll settle for mysterious places. I have a road atlas of America, which I find absolutely - well, rivetting. I look at all those place names and marvel. It's not as if I particularly want to go there and actually see these places for myself - although I wouldn't turn it down, but I like actually looking at the map itself. What I'd really like to get hold of is a sort of A6 sized map of the UK, a hardbacked book type version, of the type of map that you used to have to have when you, ahem, ok, I was at school. I'd like to be able to get on a train or a coach and follow it, so I could see what that mysterious building twenty miles in the distance is, or what those hills are called. I think the only solution to this is to get one of these new Iphones, with a satnav on it. However, I'm keeping a very firm hold on this idea, no way am I doing this until I have work.
Which brings me to the fact that I still don't have any work. Pain in the neck or what? Oh well, I keep on trying.

Friday 7th May

Yet again I'm going to start this by saying that I'm tired, but this time it's entirely my own fault, as I stayed up most of the night listening to the election. I'd love to be able to tell you what I finally fell asleep listening to, but alas, I don't remember. By the time I nodded off it had all become one great blur... my neighbours must be about ready to slaughter me, but I turned the radio down to a tiny little noise, so hopefully it didn't disturb them too much.
Well, when I woke up of course, I was feeling this is another fine mess we've gotten ourselves into, but to be honest, I don't actually feel like that. I'm sort of hoping that the party bosses are actually out there taking notice of all of this, because it was sort of the result we wanted I think - except for what the hell happened to the Lib Dem vote?? Poof and it's all gone! Extraordinary. And it can't all be explained by tactical voting either, or I guess we'd have Gordo back in number 10 and ordering up a new range of cabinet ministers, rather than no doubt hovering by the phone and wondering if anyone's going to call.
Mind you one thing has occurred to me and that is a short spell in a coalition would serve to give the LibDems the necessary experience to be able to be a realistic proposal as a government - way back when, I remember lots of people saying oh you can't vote for them, they've got no experience. It's rubbish of course, it can't take much more experience to run a government, and I don't recall anyone hurling that one at the Hiss-Spits, when the only experienced members of government they have are the one's who got all that experience under Thatcher. It's also quite extraordinary how many people are just riveted by the whole business, everyone I've met today is wanting to chat about what's been happening.
On a personal level, I would definitely go for a total revamp of the electoral system, which would result in no single party being able to dominate politics again in the way that the hiss-spits and Labour have for the past what, thirty years? I have grave doubts that the hiss-spits will ever agree to this, but I also have extreme reservations about Gordo's offer this afternoon of 'emergency legislation.' I don't want emergency legislation, I want something that's been carefully thought out, and well planned thanks! Not something rammed into place within a couple of weeks, so that when a minority hiss-spit govt collapses, there's a new system in place that will guarantee that they never ever obtain power, or a sniff of power ever again. I want them to work together, properly, treating each other with respect. I don't want Ken Clark in front of his rhododendrons telling me that the financial chaos is Labours' fault when it patently was not. He may think that if he says this often enough, that I'm going to start believing him, but I can tell him that I'm not, and I'm getting mighty fed up with this endless repetition that's been going on. If there's a natural political home for Bankers, it's there behind the rhododendrons with good old Ken. What is it about that man that makes him look self-satisfied and pompous before he's opened his mouth and said a word?
And what on earth are they going to do about whatsisname? I can't remember his name but he has one of the most unpleasant natural faces I've ever seen, and they apparently are going to make him Chancellor of the Exchequer. If they've got an inch of sense they'll ditch him and make the offer of the Chancellorship to Vince Cable, who if ever there was a case of the right man for the job emerging, then surely it's this. If Gordo gets a crack at this, which I very much doubt, then that's what he should do. Darling hasn't exactly been a raving success has he?

But lord, I didn't mean to go on. I'm sure you've all got your own ideas of who should be where, and doing what. One thing they have to do and very very fast is sort out what happened at the polling stations, asap. We can't have that happening again, my God it was better organised in Afghanistan by all accounts. It makes you ashamed to be British to see that going on. And how fantastic to have a Green! I thought that was brilliant. Maybe we'll get a few more of them with a PR system. That would be worth having a blasted BNP, we can get Ken Clark to sit on them, in combo say with Prescott who'll be looking for something to occupy him in his retirement.
You see? Doolally with exhaustion. I'm off to bed!

Sunday 2nd May

I'm off to bed in a minute, as soon as I've done this, I've had a long and somewhat exhausting day. Why? AskSam is why - its a new database system I've downloaded, and getting to grips with it is - well I'm sure you know. Any type of programming, they tell you oh it's so easy, oh it works so well, oh it's supermarvellous.. and I've no doubt that it will be, once I've learnt how to use it.
The basic idea is that I have to have a database in which to store records of miracles, the records of which I can then do marvellous things with that will be the making of my dissertation. After consultation with the tutor of RRSH - who's particularly good at this kind of thing, I'm constructing a trial database, to make sure the bloody thing works properly before I start stacking records into it. Hence the flapping about with AskSam, which I think is actually askSam.com, but never mind that - the thing is askSam is a database system designed to work with text. You can store masses of words in it, and it counts them, it can use boolean operators etc, and I'm sort of hoping that by using this, I can avoid the whole coding issue. Coding is a particular hate of mine, ok, you can turn yes, no and not stated into code relatively easily - either that or have 3 columns, but you try devising a code for stuff like the use of oil in miracles. Death, prior, during or after the miracles has occurred - you'd be amazed how many apparently successful recipients of miracles drop dead six months later. For the earlier database I used Excel, which works, provided you code appropriately or use hundreds of columns, but I'm thinking - no coding, no headache! Still I'm not sure. I know no one else who's used this, and the bloody thing has crashed on me twice in the last 8 hours. It can crash as much as it likes right now, it has one record in it, but if it crashed when I've got it stacked with records - ha. No way. I should point out here that I'm using the trial version, and probably not terribly well at the moment, let's not cast aspersions on what's probably a perfectly good product. Still come on here Tess, I've had it for 24 hours so far, and I've got the database, and an entry form to put the data on to - it's looks a bit tatty at the moment, but I can tidy that up should I decide to go with it. And the other thing about this is that I can also use it to construct a searchable database of quotes, a particularly attractive thing to have when it comes to writing up.

So what else have I been doing this week? Well I can now tell the full and unexpurgated story of the interview for a 'job' I had this week. I found this 'job' on the jobshop website, so phoned them up - it's a simple little sales job for a jewellery shop in fairly central Glasgow. I phoned them up and that seemed to go ok, and had to go along to see them on - lord I've forgotten what day of the week it was now, my heads so full of askSam! Thursday I think. Anyhow this shop wasn't where I thought it was, but in a far more dubious part of town. And can I tell you when I saw it, my first instinct was to turn tail and run, the fascia was all rundown, the window was only what half stocked - and when I got inside! This is not a shop that sells new stock, it sells old stock, it's not a pawnshop, I don't think there's any returning of stuff, but the other rather peculiar thing was there didn't seem to be much to sell. Let's just say my spidey senses were tingling. The place was no bigger than one of the cupboards in my flat ( bar work, waiting, that kind of thing. When I conceived of this whole thing in the first place, back in the dim and distant, securely employed past, I did my usual thing of telling myself that its a big city and tenement flats have very large 'cupboards' that are made out of what were the old Victorian bedspaces - check out the Tenement Flat museum site, they're bound to have pictures!) I mean literally this place could have been installed in my clothes cupboard. Anyhow having gone in here, and met the people who were running it, who I should say seemed perfectly legit as far as I could tell - had an 'interview' of all of about 7 minutes. He then says oh I'll either phone you on Sunday or not bother to phone if you've not got the job. Frankly that was ok by me, because I thought he's not going to offer me any part of this job, so what the hell. And of course he didn't, and I'm extremely relieved. After all, what the - well I was going to say what the hell would I do then, but there's no what the hell about it, I would have politely declined. And I'm sure that he must have known that, because he didn't offer me anything. I'm not in the least upset about it, beyond that I was foolish enough to actually go for this in the first place, but then it's what I'm looking for. A few days or so regular, non-demanding work that'll bring me in a bit of income. One that's not going to distract me too far from my miracle collecting. In fact I'd more than happily sit on a till in a supermarket for 8 hours of the day, if there were any supermarkets looking for staff - alas, Glasgow is deeply entrenched in recession, Scotland itself has only just emerged in this current sector about 3 months behind the rest of the UK. So there are just not that many jobs around, and the one's that are, are more suited to the young, thin and glamorous - ie there'd be plenty of work. Well it's a big city alright, only not so much work. Still, this past week has got me a bit more in the swing of it, and even this little interview has to a certain extent demonstrated that I need to brush up a bit on my interview techniques. Can't say I did that good a job of selling myself as the ideal assistant, but that's probably more down to be somewhat gobsmacked at what I'd walked into! Something will turn up. It always does, and in the meantime, yes... askSam!