Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Still feeling pretty rubbish what with a bad ear and, thanks to yesterday's bouldering, a slight finger injury, I spent my bank holiday at home, zipping my way through Cassandra Clare's City of Bones, which I enjoyed far more than expected.

Amother gentle morning pottering around at home and talking to H, who was round to sort us out ahead of Christmas. It now looks like our plans have settled: now that my uncle is out of hospital, he'll probably come down the day before but without my granny — the general feeling is that it's better for her to stay in London than it is to subject her to the uncertainties of something that may or may not happen depending on other people's States of health etc.

After a quick trip to Go Outdoors with pater, who was after a new pair of shoes, I managed to get my act together and go bouldering for a couple of hours at the university. They'd put up some fun new route — including something that included a perfectly sized knee-bar — and the place was lively without being too busy.

Better day than yesterday, with the rest of the gang picking up the support problems that I've been wrangling with over the long (very long) weekend. My morning run went well, with no sign of the muscle tightness that has been bothering me since resuming the discipline after my blisters healed, and the pool wasn't too busy what with people starting to return to work. But on the downside, I seem to have picked up an ear infection that means that I can't hear anything off to my left. There isn't any pain, just the feeling that my ear is full of water. If things aren't any better tomorrow, I'll see if I can make an appointment with the doctor.

ETA: My ear seems to be showing signs of recovery, so I suspect it may have been caused by my earplug leaking while I was at the pool. Or, just possibly, it might be a delayed defensive reaction to sitting on M's right on Friday...

My run first thing was definitely easier than yesterday's, which was definitely hampered by the after effects of Thursday's exuberant bike ride. During the day I managed to polish off the last of The Magician King which I loved — I especially adored the sections in the farmhouse in Provence — and in the evening I sloped off to meet the Usual Suspects at the Wellhouse to catch up on the gossip. And what do you know, I'm back home in time to catch the start of Doctor Who.

Excelsior!

A morning of frantically trying to fit work around a long and rather dispiriting meeting during which I was moved to quote from NASA's delightfully wonderful report on the (non-)acceptance of their ETA10 in the late 1980s:

Attachment 12 shows that during the first nine days of this test many Fortran codes failed to compile; of those that compiled, many ran very slowly, and of those that completed, many gave incorrect results.

Barton, J.T., (1991), A History of the ETA-10Q Acceptance Tests at NAS, NASA, 3

With the morning over, I met up with H&P&J for lunch at St George's and a pleasant afternoon's mooch around town in search of belts and climbing shoes and other obvious essentials.

After a seriously late start — I woke up three hours later than usual — I decided to have a lazy day and spent most of my time cramming down Elizabeth Bear's delightful Shakespearian fantasy Hell and Earth, listening to the radio and generally goofing off. I managed to fit in a shortish bike ride in late afternoon, but other than that, a bit of a write-off.

Wandering towards the comic book store by way of the quay, I bumped in to M&N, who were also out for a Saturday wander. After hanging around on the tow path for a while, we eventually adjourned to the Port Royal beer garden where we passed the afternoon watching the river and setting the world to rights.

According to a post on one of our internal newsgroups, last week saw National Siesta Day. I feel inspired. I think I'll replace my traditional postprandial double espresso with 15 minutes face down in a fiche reader — the Menagerie's favoured method for sleeping on the job — catching some downtime...

A combination of superb weather and a visit from the Defence Select Committee contrived to create the perfect day for lunch in town. Now all I have to do is get myself back into the right frame of mind for work. I think it might take me a while...

Best film to watch on a rainy Sunday afternoon spent at home with your folks? North by Northwest, of course.