All entries for November 2006

..so much for the University's green credentials.

You may, possibly, have been wondering where I’ve been but the fact is nowhere. I’ve not had any particularly frustrating things to rant about nor fantastic things to rave about… until now..

Well, actually, there was one thing last week – the Poppy debate. I’ll say no more than “Oi!, you sad git religious nuts – keep yer hands off my poppy” (ooh er missus, again). THEY ARE RED – like the ones in Flanders and blood, the last thing we need is some zealot trying to hijack them and diminish the meaning. Its Rememberance Day Stupid, that is looking back and remembering not foolishly wishing the World were some-place that it isn’t and (unfortunately) never likely going to become. If you want to stop wars then perhaps you should think about the causes of conflict, Mmmm…and that would be…the people who practise Religion?.... but that’s not really my Rant. No?

No, its blo**y car parking. I was for a period earlier today Buster Bloodvessel. By the time I managed to get parked my heart was racing, I was almost hyperventilating and my thoughts were seething with loathing for Them. If had met anyone with responsibility for the car parking mess that is Warwick University (and don’t give that “you should see it at other places” that’s irrelevant) I’d have taken their knees off, at the neck.

After a meeting off-site I timed my journey in to arrive around 12:10 to maximise the chance of a space – I was even prepared to pay! In fact I had even stopped off on the way in to burn-off some time, pick up some lunch and get some change. Two trips up and down car park 8 were unproductive – thats one thing: we should prohibit people returning to their cars unless they are going to move them- I then tried Car Park 15 – nice big one this, there should be space, two round trips later .. No, not a sniff of one. Why isn’t there a car park full sign at the entry barrier? – its an off the shelf solution, shouldn’t be beyond the wit of man, there may even be a brain-cell in UH that could be mustered to deal with this.

Another idea… get the Department of ECT involved. I’m sure Prof. BambleWeeney could solve this one… I must try and remember to apply term-time rule #1: If you have to be off-site in the morning, don’t bother coming into work in the afternoon!

In the end, I had to park over at Arden and walk back in the rain, having wasted 20 minutes of my time and YOUR MONEY. I wonder how much CO2 I pumped out as a result of all this (not just from my hyperventilation)- so much for the University’s green credentials!

Neil Davis : 14 Nov 2006 19:11 |  Comments (5) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

I didn't kill the cat after all

What a topsy turvy day. I went to work later than normal and came home unexpectedly early. I prepared a lecture that I didn’t give and got a delivery that I wasn’t expecting.

It all started with me giving the wrong cat 0.09ml of Insulin. How on earth did I do that? I’ve been giving the right cat daily injections for the last 4 years, thats about 1500 shots and I haven’t once, not even remotely, tried to give it to any cat but the right cat (we have 3 cats).

I stayed at home an extra hour to check that he didn’t go hypo-glycemic, tried to give him sweet things that he’d normally go wild about but, of course, today was showing absolutely no interest in. So I went to work.

Had a meeting over in the Medical School and, somehow, the issue of medical errors came up. “Funny you should mention that” says I… upshot was that as soon as the meeting was over I jumped in the car and came home.

When I got home, I made a few calls and cancelled my afternoon lecture, promising to put my slides and extended notes on the course web page. Then found out- via that wonder of wonders, the good old WWW * – that the lovely Viewsonic LCD that I ordered 2 days ago had been put on the local delivery van, my carefully planned 3 day delivery had just become 2 days. So, two hours later I was setting up my new screen and editing the final slides of my lecture on it.

*So Tim, I heard your concerns about the future of your invention on Radio4 this morning, RELAX, everything will be fine.

Anyway, MDW came home in a good mood after I told her that I didn’t kill the cat after all.

Neil Davis : 02 Nov 2006 22:29 |  Tags: Diary |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem