Life on the lily pads

Does anyone else feel they are constantly hopping from one lily pad to another but never really getting anywhere? It’s a funny time of year - university vacation but with a surprisingly high number of students around; just back from my own holiday and not quite back into the workaday rhythm; lots to do but no obvious top priority. Fiddle about with a document for our MSc dissertation handbook; log a new FOI enquiry; answer several emails; meet some prospective students; go to a meeting that feels a bit unsatisfactory because we are between several peaks.

Preparations for the CDG national conference are nearing completion, and the delegate list is growing all the time. I’m greatly looking forward to the trip, the venue (City Hall), my stay at the Big Sleep and hopefully a visit to the Doctor Who exhibition in Cardiff Bay. (Good practice for when we get one in Glasgow next year). These conferences are always fun, surprising and attract both stalwart regulars and different people every time. I love meeting folk from different sectors and finding out what makes them tick and what turns their hair grey. I love waffling on in a random but hopefully welcoming manner at the start of the day. And in a strange way I love the randomness of changing locations, never knowing how the journey connections will pan out or whether I will be running the last stretch against the clock (that was Leicester).

Started a new book today - The wind-up bird chronicle by Haruki Murakami. It’s odd but pretty intriguing so far. It will tide me over till our book group completes its online vote as to the first title we will read and discuss.

Happy Easter

It’s not a day for work or even for professional development; it’s a day for the LIFE bit of work-life balance. Why is it we feel guilty when we’re working and guity when we’re relaxing? Or is that just me? It’s been a great day so far. Blazing sunshine this morning (yes, really, in spite of the cold wind!) and I potted up two new patio roses and gave my Cordyline a haircut. Went to church and led part of the service. Joyous hymns but too many high notes! Cooked a roast dinner with Easter eggs to follow. Martyn has a Dalek Easter egg that goes ‘Exterminate’ . It’s a thing of wonder. Domestic dabbling this afternoon and some more holiday packing before the evening service. Saving a glass of wine to enjoy when watching TV adaptation of The colour of magic tonight. Martyn and I like to joke that rare unsigned copies of Pratchett books cost double the signed ones. He does get around, bless him.

All rosy in the garden

Saturday - no work, no visitors, no job applications to write. In fact I get to have some free time! Go to the garden centre and buy compost and pots to pot up the patio roses my inlaws gave me. I am a real newbie to gardening - it’s the one thing I do where it really doesn’t matter if I totally screw it up, and that makes it therapeutic. I’m constantly amazed by stuff that manages to grow in spite of my mauling and drowning it.

Also hop on to good old LibraryThing, fabulous web 2.0 amateur cataloguing tool (I can hear you raising your hands in horror). Check out my complete library here. I add a new book to my personal special collection. This is a small but growing collection of first edition children’s books from the 1970s and 1980s. A little indulgence to remind me, in this age of e-everything, that a book is a Precious Thing. My new book is a copy of The golden key by Victorian writer George MacDonald, beautifully illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Sendak is so much more than just Where the wild things are - not that ‘wild things’ isn’t fantastic. I used to work with someone who is an expert on George MacDonald. Incredible how talented librarians are, and how generally interested in life and stuff.

Continue writing and mailing my reception invitations. It’s not really the upfront stuff that makes me nervous; it’s more the thought of keeping tabs on the many and varied activities of the group, scanning the political landscape and so on. Daunting. But it’s a team effort, right?

Warriors of the deep really IS a turkey. The Myrka is a hopeless lumbering thing that can’t seem to even break through polystyrene. The whole thing feels like a home video of kids in a school playground. Sigh. If CDG was a sci-fi monster, I hope it would be something infinitely more charming and effectual.

All aboard

Well, in the spirit of the age, I thought when I became President I should keep a blog. The eagle eyed of you will realise that I am not in fact President yet. Behold the usurper! Here I come a-usurping, among the blogs so green…

I’m reminded of my good friend Mary who once decided she would like to read the Bible in a year. But knowing her own fallibility and the busyness of modern life, she started in September of the preceding year, to give herself a few months’ head start. Since I’m on holiday for the first week of my Presidency, I thought I’d do the same.

If you want this blog to be full of sound advice and profound thoughts, you may be out of luck. It’s a little bit of what’s inside my head at any one time, and as they frequently say here in snowy Scotland, ma heid is mince.

Why the TARDIS? Well I’ve started the whole Doctor Who thing in my ‘Meet the Pres’ article; I thought you would expect it. This evening in fact I was watching an episode of ‘Warriors of the Deep’, which pits Peter Davison’s Doctor, Tegan (fashion victim) and Turlough (fashionably sullen) against the Silurians, Sea Devils and the Myrka. It also features a great pseudo-librarian moment - how not to do student induction - monotonous chant of “There-will-now-be-a-short-orientation”. I once witnessed a librarian presenting in excatly the same style. I won’t tell you where and it certainly wasn’t any of my employers.

I have a weakness for ranting. So much so that at work I have been limited to one rant a day, to be over by 09.10. Today was Tesco day, and I have to ask… dental floss harps: why…? What next? Beard trimming bassoons? Cuticle removing cellos? Where’s Eddie Izzard when you need him?

I have actually done some CDG work today, in between day job, church and shopping. I’m organising a Revalidation event for Scotland - the first one under CDG auspices at least. Had some expressions of interest already. Exciting. And I’ve been printing labels to send out my Presidential reception invites. So many great people I know, and so many I look forward to meeting.

At the joint churches’ Good Friday service tonight I was struck again by the good relationships and sense of fellowship between members of our five very different local churches. It reminds me a bit of the CDG vibe, meeting folk from different sectors, senior managers, students, frontline staff, backroom staff… none of the distionctions matter, we’re all people, we’re part of a single community and we connect.

But it’s high time I gave the fingerbones a wee rest and poured myself a drink.