Sauntering Vaguely Downward

I had an extremely busy day but by far the best bit was getting to put out a (carefully, deliberately set) fire with a foam fire extinguisher, as part of my fire warden training.

When I told Keiki, he replied, "Get you, tough guy!" Yep. That's right. I'm a tough guy.

Not posting anything substantial for a couple of months has left me with that paralysis you get from not writing, when there’s too much to say and it’s difficult to coordinate. I’m getting round this by slapping together some headings and pasting in content. Please do not feel obliged to respond to any or all of this. Not that you ever should, but in this particular instance it really is all over the place. Sorry.

Coping mechanisms + pet ownership
Dealing with the grief of losing Telstar was tough over the past month. My workload was absolutely bonkers for the last four weeks of term, with the actual lecturing compounded by marking, transition to online delivery and assessment as the impact of Omicron became clearer, colleagues being off sick, and the level of demand for my admin duties and fellowship (more on this another time). I reinstalled “Neko Atsume” on my phone, which I haven’t played in years, and for some reason the daily check on my cat garden and appearance of adorable cartoon cats helped me to process his loss. I don’t know why and am not sure I want to dwell on it too much; the point is that it worked at a time when I had to have my emotions pretty firmly compartmentalised to get through the end of the semester.

Now that we’re getting a little distance from his sudden departure, I’m more willing to entertain conversations with the children about what pets we’ll get in the new year. There are discussions about stick insects, reptiles, birds, and small mammals, none of which I’ve ever kept before myself. None of them were options when we had a feline with prodigious hunting prowess; he would doubtless have killed them within 24 hours of their arrival. So although kittens are also under consideration, it seems like it would be a good moment perhaps to take a break from cat ownership and try out some pets that the children would like to have.

Cooking
As I’ve doubtless mentioned before, I’m not a huge fan of cooking. I do like the slow cooker, although I came to realise after making my umpteenth tinned-bean-based stew that I should probably add some more recipes to my repertoire. I asked for a slow cooker recipe book for Christmas and got a great one (“Slow Cooked” by Miss South), which I’m now planning my way through. Earlier in the month I checked out the new Great British Bake Off “A Bake for All Seasons” and we made a few things from that which turned out very well, including the Pecan Pie, Winter No-Knead Loaf (wholemeal bread) and Prue’s Malt Loaf (extremely good for the digestion).

Film & Television
While the children have been off school, we’ve taken to watching films together. We watched all of the Jumanji films completely out of order. The bloke and I had never seen any of them, including the original 1990s Robin Williams version. First we watched the third film: “Jumanji: The Next Level”, which was quite confusing when you didn’t know any of the back story, though it did have some funny bits. Then we watched the original, which was Keiki’s favourite because it was actually a board game and according to him that made a lot more sense. Finally, we watched “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle”, which was Humuhumu’s favourite because of the slapstick humour, dad jokes, and most of all, Bethany and Martha. I’m with her there.

We’ve fallen asleep in front of (re-)watched several Disney films with them. I also highly recommend the series of Olaf shorts in which he parodies quite a few of them.

The bloke and I watched “Hawkeye” which we both enjoyed despite our very patchy knowledge of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. ( Possible spoilers ) Anyway, my primary point here is YELENA FOREVER and when do we get another Black Widow film that is just Yelena being sarcastic about everything? Yes, yes, I know the first film featured a lot of that and so did Hawkeye but I really cannot see myself getting tired of it.

I need to go and make mac n’ cheese in the slow cooker so it is ready for supper. To be continued tomorrow.

Last week, I spent a lot of time in the microscopy labs with cha_mel_eon, and on my own, photographing the growth of silver nitrate crystals on glass slides in various liquid media. It was a real treat.




Me


Tool (confocal microscope)


Result

It's been so long since I had to wear a lab coat. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy it.

To celebrate the end of exams and what, for some of the students, is very nearly the end of their undergraduate careers, we got to have a practical flight test experience today in a Piper PA-28 Warrior II, a delightful little aircraft that resembles an old Buick in more ways than one.
Flight path data from today.


Me with the plane.


My view from the plane.


My project student flying the plane!


She's a natural. :)


After pulling 2g. Everything is fine. Just keep your eyes on that horizon.

Trying to keep a proper flight log of the tests whilst balancing the urge to gawp out the window and excitedly take photos of everything proved pretty much impossible, so I was grateful we weren't being assessed. I had a blast. What a treat to have this as a first flight after 16 months of being grounded.

This morning, I did an undergraduate viva, in physics, with another lecturer (Professor level), and a fourth-year masters student.

Both assessors are women. Student is a woman. I think this may well be the very first professional assessment experience I have had in my entire working career where everyone involved was a woman AND it *wasn't* some sort of "Women in STEM" event.

And then this afternoon,cha_mel_eon made her first official Artist-in-Residence visit to my department, and I got to show her cool pieces of kit and bits of metal, and we talked about space and art and it was absolutely lovely.

It were a good day. :)