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i would lift mine eyes unto the hills if the cloud ever shifted
Mar. 1st, 2026 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wychwoodI've had a nice quiet week and a nice quiet weekend and I still don't want to go to work tomorrow. Alas. However, I have caught up with the ironing (my nemesis) and changed the bed and washed the bedding and done as much other laundry as I could fit onto the racks, done some start-of-month admin chores, visited my mother with flowers for her birthday tomorrow (the family celebration is going to be a joint birthday / Mothers' Day affair next weekend, but I felt I ought to!), and eaten some good garlic bread, so it's going OK. Also, my new clothes all fit, and I have thrown out various ratty items which are now replaced, which is nice! And I'm wearing the new hoodie, which is very cosy.
I had a very strange dog encounter this week. I was coming back from my asthma check-up when I noticed that someone was walking a dog on the other side of the road that was staring at me super-intensely. There were parked cars on that side, and every time it got to the gap between two cars it would turn and STARE. Then I crossed over, and it turned around to stare at me some more. The walker was trying to pull it along, so it started turning around and then lying down so it could keep staring at me. Eventually I passed them, and it just lay there and STARED as I went past. They overtook me again going up to the footbridge, but I could hear him saying "stop turning around!" to the dog after they got out of sight, and when I came down the other side it spotted me and turned around and lay down to stare again. It was honestly hilarious - it wasn't barking or anything like that, so I didn't feel intimidated; I couldn't tell how it felt about me, but it was fixated. Genuinely no idea what was going on in that dog's brain.
Our retired conductor S was back for the rehearsal last week, and it was nice to see him, but also really weird after spending the last couple of months auditioning new people! I felt much more aware than usual of his habits and quirks, instead of them just being the baseline that everyone else is compared to. It's going to be a relatively informal concert, with some fun tunes (I'm a sucker for Rutter's The Lord Bless You And Keep You and I don't mind admitting it). But this week we're starting the Brahms German Requiem, which is epic but awesome, so I'm looking forward to that.
I had a very strange dog encounter this week. I was coming back from my asthma check-up when I noticed that someone was walking a dog on the other side of the road that was staring at me super-intensely. There were parked cars on that side, and every time it got to the gap between two cars it would turn and STARE. Then I crossed over, and it turned around to stare at me some more. The walker was trying to pull it along, so it started turning around and then lying down so it could keep staring at me. Eventually I passed them, and it just lay there and STARED as I went past. They overtook me again going up to the footbridge, but I could hear him saying "stop turning around!" to the dog after they got out of sight, and when I came down the other side it spotted me and turned around and lay down to stare again. It was honestly hilarious - it wasn't barking or anything like that, so I didn't feel intimidated; I couldn't tell how it felt about me, but it was fixated. Genuinely no idea what was going on in that dog's brain.
Our retired conductor S was back for the rehearsal last week, and it was nice to see him, but also really weird after spending the last couple of months auditioning new people! I felt much more aware than usual of his habits and quirks, instead of them just being the baseline that everyone else is compared to. It's going to be a relatively informal concert, with some fun tunes (I'm a sucker for Rutter's The Lord Bless You And Keep You and I don't mind admitting it). But this week we're starting the Brahms German Requiem, which is epic but awesome, so I'm looking forward to that.
to exist in the face of suffering and death and somehow still keep singing
Feb. 24th, 2026 09:31 pmwychwoodLast week was all choir all the time (concert went well, but the Concerts Without A Funny Turn card goes back down to zero, annoyingly) and then I went straight into a weekend of Extreme Socialising because shreena and quizcustodet came up for a visit. Friday night I went out with shreena and A for dinner, delicious food at a Vietnamese restaurant (the marmite-and-peanut-butter-coated cauliflower was especially good!).
Saturday was my birthday treat; the Lego Discovery Centre only lets you in if you have children with you, soshreena and quizcustodet donated me their children and bought me a ticket to go with them *g*. I really enjoyed it; there's a mix of rides (and a big soft-play area) and a little 3D film and also a big open area where you can, you know, play with Lego. There were stations for building specific models, stations that were just buckets of Lego for you to play with, a tiny zipline where you could build little machines and see if they could make it the whole way along, a car-building area with test track, etc etc. I spent probably half an hour or so building a tiny house (with contributions from shreena and their older son J), which was extremely soothing.
And then on Sunday we went to ( Cadbury World )
All-in-all a pretty good weekend, but an inevitably exhausting one. I am now attempting to live a deeply regulated life to try and get back to normal and untrash my sleep cycle, etc etc, so we'll see how that goes...
shreena and quizcustodet came up for a visit. Friday night I went out with shreena and A for dinner, delicious food at a Vietnamese restaurant (the marmite-and-peanut-butter-coated cauliflower was especially good!).Saturday was my birthday treat; the Lego Discovery Centre only lets you in if you have children with you, so
shreena and quizcustodet donated me their children and bought me a ticket to go with them *g*. I really enjoyed it; there's a mix of rides (and a big soft-play area) and a little 3D film and also a big open area where you can, you know, play with Lego. There were stations for building specific models, stations that were just buckets of Lego for you to play with, a tiny zipline where you could build little machines and see if they could make it the whole way along, a car-building area with test track, etc etc. I spent probably half an hour or so building a tiny house (with contributions from shreena and their older son J), which was extremely soothing.And then on Sunday we went to ( Cadbury World )
All-in-all a pretty good weekend, but an inevitably exhausting one. I am now attempting to live a deeply regulated life to try and get back to normal and untrash my sleep cycle, etc etc, so we'll see how that goes...
january booklog
Feb. 22nd, 2026 10:39 pmwychwood( 1. Hogfather - Terry Pratchett ) Pratchett at his best balances the comedy with really meaningful moments, and this is definitely one of those.
( 2. The Book Eaters - Sunyi Dean ) Definitely not my jam.
( 3. Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us - Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman ) Very light, sometimes questionable, but packed full of fun anecdotes (and a surprisingly good examination-in-passing of how scientific research works).
( 4. Ocean - Colin Butfield and David Attenborough ) Not life-changing, but well worth a read.
( 5. Common Goal, 6. Role Model, and 7. The Long Game - Rachel Reid ) I wasn't keen on CG, but I liked the other two a lot - and I'm looking forward to the seventh book coming out later this year! More Ilya and Shane: give it to me.
( 8. The Fifth Form at St Dominic's - Talbot Baines Reed ) Worth a read! But it's not going to shoot up my list of favourite school stories.
( 9. Time to Shine - Rachel Reid ) Not brilliant, but sweet.
( 10. Identity - Nora Roberts ) Mostly you know what you're getting with Roberts! This was very heavy on the wealth porn, but despite all my mockery I did enjoy reading it.
( 11. Persuasion - Jane Austen ) A delightful story as always.
( 12. Strange Pictures - Uketsu ) Short, weird, and interestingly different.
( 13. The Snow Tiger - Desmond Bagley ) This has aged much better than I expected; I was genuinely gripped.
( 14. Swallowdale - Arthur Ransome ) These are just such good books.
( 15. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Marie Kondo ) Interesting to read the original after all the cultural osmosis, but actually I disagree with her quite a lot! I'm not sorry I read it, though.
( 16. Sassinak - Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon ) I did still quite enjoy this, but it was a distinct let-down from my much-better remembered version!
( 2. The Book Eaters - Sunyi Dean ) Definitely not my jam.
( 3. Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us - Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman ) Very light, sometimes questionable, but packed full of fun anecdotes (and a surprisingly good examination-in-passing of how scientific research works).
( 4. Ocean - Colin Butfield and David Attenborough ) Not life-changing, but well worth a read.
( 5. Common Goal, 6. Role Model, and 7. The Long Game - Rachel Reid ) I wasn't keen on CG, but I liked the other two a lot - and I'm looking forward to the seventh book coming out later this year! More Ilya and Shane: give it to me.
( 8. The Fifth Form at St Dominic's - Talbot Baines Reed ) Worth a read! But it's not going to shoot up my list of favourite school stories.
( 9. Time to Shine - Rachel Reid ) Not brilliant, but sweet.
( 10. Identity - Nora Roberts ) Mostly you know what you're getting with Roberts! This was very heavy on the wealth porn, but despite all my mockery I did enjoy reading it.
( 11. Persuasion - Jane Austen ) A delightful story as always.
( 12. Strange Pictures - Uketsu ) Short, weird, and interestingly different.
( 13. The Snow Tiger - Desmond Bagley ) This has aged much better than I expected; I was genuinely gripped.
( 14. Swallowdale - Arthur Ransome ) These are just such good books.
( 15. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Marie Kondo ) Interesting to read the original after all the cultural osmosis, but actually I disagree with her quite a lot! I'm not sorry I read it, though.
( 16. Sassinak - Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon ) I did still quite enjoy this, but it was a distinct let-down from my much-better remembered version!
Education privilege
Feb. 22nd, 2026 12:04 pmlivI want to talk about the education privilege meme that's been doing the rounds. On the one hand I love old-school memes that encourage lots of cool people on my d-roll to talk about their experiences growing up. But at the same time, I'm kind of frowning at this particular iteration.
( thinky thoughts )
Anyway, hopefully this is an adequate substitute for the meme and you don't need me to tell you in detail how absurdly precocious I was in reading and maths.
( thinky thoughts )
Anyway, hopefully this is an adequate substitute for the meme and you don't need me to tell you in detail how absurdly precocious I was in reading and maths.
