Apocalypse when?

Back to work after a nice weekend with visiting friend. Ate lots of carbs, drank lots of wine, watched lots of Olympics. Loaned and returned books: we are on a quest to find things that are positive and life-affirming, but it seems my whole collection fails this mission. ‘I see you have lots of F. Scott Fitzgerald’, says she. ‘Er, yes, that would be alcoholism, relationship and mental breakdown laced with the excesses of the Jazz Age’. We’ll keep trying.

Olympics: Nicole wossname thoroughly deserved her gold medal in the cycling road race. Made Headington Hill look like a gentle undulation, then there was the torrential rain… so many reasons why I’m not an elite athlete… Breakfast much improved by two golds in the swimming, even if our boys missed out on the diving. Hey they all looked fab to me. Really quite clever at somersaulting backwards off stupidly high places.

Last night I watched Apocalypto, Mel Gibson’s latest language-no-one-actually-speaks, bloodthirsty offering. Was quite good actually. It exposed my woeful sense of history though as I was puzzled to see Europeans turning up in nifty boats at the end. I thought the Mayans and Aztecs and those dudes were like thousands of years BC, back when we were mostly saying ‘ug’. Apparently they were still around in the 16th century. How have I missed this vital information? Could we not have skipped a few terms of spinning jennies and checked this out instead? Also I want my money back from Sid Meier as he always made theese civilisations out to be reasonably peace-loving.

Talking of Ug, I hope you’re familiar with Raymond Briggs’s Ug, boy genius of the stone age and his search for soft trousers. Marvellous. Poor boy castigated for questioning mum and dad about the value of sleeping under rock duvets when there are warm furry dead things lying about… Twas ever thus with progress.

Bad librarian: no biscuit

I see I have been playing hooky for a whole week. Mea maxima culpa. I am a bit of a tease in the Web 2.0 world – a Facebook chat here, a few Flickr photos there – more commitment issues than the Doctor. Incidentally, I have been shamed into posting again by a Nameless CDG Member who reads it entirely for the DW content. Nice to know I have a role in life…

So, what have I been up to in the last week?

• Working. I do have to do some occasionally. It’s all heads down as we panic and rush to achieve silly numbers of tasks within unrealistic deadlines. Wrestling with HTML on the new library web pages.
• Attending the CILIP Equal Opportunities Panel. Lots of talk about the forthcoming positive action scheme. Shame the pilot will be in London – could be years before it filters up to Scotland. And round here I pretty much count as an ethnic minority.
• Reading: Diana Wynne Jones – Deep Secret (great fantasy convention setting); RED magazine (for the train journey); Charlotte Mendelson – When We Were Bad (for Book Group).
• Getting rejected from a job interview I went for. Boo. They kept me hanging on for a full week. I was special but not special enough, it would appear, despite my attempts to connect with them on a higher plane by discussing Murakami.
• Horseriding with colleagues – this was the IS Ride-out #4. I was assigned to the affable Max, who put up with my blatant incompetence charmingly and stopped for only a few snack breaks.
• Watching Prince Caspian. Georgie Henley couldn’t be more perfect as Lucy. Susan’s lips are alarming. Eddie Izzard as Reepicheep stole all our hearts.
• Watching the Doctor Who finale. What could be better than David Tennant? MORE David Tennant. NAKED David Tennant.  Alternate reality Doctor with no commitment issues. I am a cheesy whatsit and I loved the team round the Tardis console (only they should have let Jackie drive). Davros fantastic and looking evilly hot in his leather doo-dab. Red Dalek rocked. Altogether satisfying end to a surprisingly strong season.
• Watching Doctor Who #4 in The Invasion of Time. Worst ever Sontaran with bucket for a helmet and holes for his un-made-up eyes to see through. Not enough Leela (action wise not flesh wise!) and totally implausible romantic end.
• Watching the tennis. Federer vs Nadal. Nice. Add them to the two David Tennants and it’s fantasy soup. Oh dear, better be careful I don’t get filtered for bringing the world of blogging into disrepute.
• Trying to catch my breath after the first trimester of Presidency, quick scan to see what’s coming up and what I should be doing.

This afternoon I get to set objectives with my line manager. Rather hoping they bear some actual relation to my job and are not just baubles plucked from the Principal’s Christmas tree. They have to be SMART. Which as far as I’m concerned is just one step away from SWOT and PEST and a mere hop, skip and jump from a hey nonny no. Where’s Blackadder when you need him?

Riding in taxis with boas

Hollywood Librarian Scottish premiere last night. I set out dressed to impress: 5 inch heels, feather boa and antique gloves. Yes, and a top and skirt before rumours really start flying. The taxi driver was intrigued and I ended up telling him all about the film and the profession. Was disappointed that no red carpet was put out (not even a PBS reading rug…)

The film was interesting and absorbing. To be honest I’m not really sure what I was expecting – had gone with a fairly open mind. The old film footage was fun but there was too much of it – we’d got the point fairly early on. Although it was nice to be reminded of that lovely film The Station Agent. The interviews were interesting but were definitely biased towards public libraries – we didn’t really get a sense of the cut and thrust of different sectors, nor of any transferability. The story of the Salinas closures and political campaign was well told and made its point. I also found the prisoners’ contributions interesting.

My overriding sense, to be quite truthful, is to wonder why I don’t love my job in the way those librarians all loved theirs. Am I in the wrong sector, the wrong profession, the wrong country? Or have I just not learned to recognise the inspirational moments and to find the heartwarming story amidst the everyday grind?