Acercándonos

Oct. 2nd, 2025 10:53 pm
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[personal profile] tcpip
Although the trip to South America and Antarctica for Kate and me is two months away, there have been a few progressive and positive changes as that date nears. The first is a very recent decision from Chile that Australian passport holders no longer require a tourist visa for stays up to 90 days. That is quite beneficial, as there are a couple of visits to said country on the itinerary, including the capital, Santiago, and Punta Arenas in Tierra del Fuego. The second was a visit to the Travel Doctor-TMVC for a few various vaccines and boosters in preparation for the trip, of which the Yellow fever vaccine was most notable. I still had my WHO vaccine card from the last time I visited said clinic over twenty years ago for my first trip to Timor-Leste, and have carried it around with my passport ever since!

A third update is a decision by yours truly to flesh out the itinerary for various cities and towns that we're visiting that's not part of the standard tour. Unsurprisingly, this will include over fifty museums, art galleries, theatres, historic buildings and the like, which this lover of art and beauty cannot ignore, no matter what country I visit. Said locales include Santiago, Lima, Cusco, Buenos Aires, Punta Arenas, Ushuaia, Stanley, and Montevideo, so if any readers have recommendations they are very welcome. What I haven't done yet is work out what to do on the several days on the cruise ship from Buenos Aires to Antarctica and return, which I suspect will be quite boring, and I'll end up spending most of my time either in the theatre, gym, or dining. Fortunately, a deck plan is available.

Finally, with some prior learning and a great deal of recent interest, I have spent a good amount of time building my Spanish language skills in recent months to the point that I feel fairly comfortable with B1 CEFR level communication. Most of this has been through Duolingo, as always. However, being of a certain age, I have also joined and enrolled in the Spanish language and literature classes conducted by the Melbourne city University of the Third Age. I must confess I prefer the current French title (which the concept originated in 1973) as "Union Française des Universités de Tous Ages". Still, each body is independent and makes its own rules, and I rather suspect I'm going to enjoy this environment.
wychwood: Ivanova in dress uniform (B5 - Ivanova grey)
[personal profile] wychwood
It's October at last! Sadly my calendar is not actually much better, although I am at least only having to go into the office a normal amount at the moment. We also held the annual new altar server training at church and I have either done or fobbed off onto an appropriate person all the follow-up tasks, except for a one-off training for someone who couldn't make the session and getting my DBS paperwork filled out again. Apparently they expire every three years but no one actually tells you when it happens so it's just, like, up to you to know this and remember to do something about it?? But now I know, and have forms to collect at the weekend.

Apparently I also have to provide three forms of ID, which sounds pretty intense, especially since a) I've been DBSed before (admittedly in 2018) and b) I've been serving here for over thirty years, but hopefully I do actually have enough documents for the purpose. It's easier now that I'm the one paying the bills and council tax on my residence (living with my parents, I really didn't have much!), but most of that's email these days, not paper, so it starts getting complicated again.

Yesterday was a dead loss, and today wasn't much better, but I did eventually get the initial monthly reports out to all the teams, which is something even if a good day would normally see them sent out before noon rather than after my official finishing time for the day. And yesterday I went out after work for my eye screening, except the bus didn't show up (or was at least 4 minutes early) and the next one was twenty minutes later and meant I'd be at least fifteen minutes late, so I had to cancel the appointment and rebook for later in the month (in a week when I was already out four week-nights, to make a full set of five!!). Tonight is choir, which I'm hoping will be less of a wash out; my lift made it back home in time to collect me, after saying this morning that I'd have to take the train, so I'm taking that as a good sign.

I'm feeling very burned out at the moment, but also I can't take any annual leave this month because there's urgent testing for the next three weeks, so I'm back to turning down everything I can and trying to go to bed on time instead of revenge procrastinating to make myself feel like I'm in control of something...

Gnocchi Fest, Fair Verona, and More

Sep. 29th, 2025 10:25 pm
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Last Sunday was the 50th anniversary of the "Spaghetti House Siege", and my home was probably the only place in the world that held a "linner" (lunch-dinner) recalling the event. Instead of spaghetti, I delved into my moderate Italian heritage and held a "gnocchi fest", which is certainly my favourite food. During the day myself, Kate, Mel, Terry, Martin, Nitul, and Simon attended and later in the evening Marc joined in as well, with Mayday the rat deciding to keep company (Mayhem waddled home in preference). Prepared for the possibility of a few more attendees and, as is my wont, I over-catered, which is hardly a problem. My big surprise was the dessert gnocchi with pannacotta gelato. Anyway, it was insanely delicious, the company and conversation superb, the French sparkling and Sicilian lemon cordial flowed, and really, I just touched the surface of this amazingly versatile dish.

Also thematically Italian, the previous day Kate and I ventured to the Astor, Melbourne's glorious art deco cinema, for the 30th anniversary screening of Baz Luhrmann's 1996 "Romeo + Juliet" with a live choir. I could have done without the choir, which really detracted, a lot, rather than added to the experience. The film has held up well, taking the Shakespeare classic and putting it into a 1990s American business-gangster setting with several cute hat-tips to the original, but importantly, directly using the script. It's aged pretty well; it captures violence and tragedy, for which the famous romance is a plot device and a cautionary tale. Actually, it's still a bit weird how popular culture to this day thinks Romeo and Juliet is a romance; at least six people die in three days!

In more improvised dramatic arts, Kate experienced her first session of an RPG, namely "Call of Cthulhu", which always works well for single-person introductory play. I have also been working my way through an ElfQuest article in honour of a current campaign I'm running and in recognition of Chaosium's re-release of the classic game. An excellent source on the themes of this long-running comic (since 1978!) has the evocative title by Madeline Ffitch, "How a Comic Book About Feral Elves Got Me Through Middle School". Finally, the weekend also saw me complete yet another essay for my doctoral studies on Climate Change denialism, this time taking to task one of the very few academic climatologists who has contrarian views, through some very interesting selective data choices. Apropos this, I made a little announcement at the gnocchi dinner party, which will be revealed publicly soon; every so often, one must make significant life changes, and the time is now.
wychwood: You are very mad. I like it. Please carry on. (gen - very mad)
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Interminable September progresses slowly towards its end! The concert went OK - I pre-emptively sat for the bit I went faint in last time, and was fine. I have eaten fourteen portions of the pasta I made. I have also done 13.5 hours of visa checking so far; the queues have been enormous. On the other hand, the days do go by very fast - either I'm in a tent checking visas or I'm in the office trying to deal with all the small fires that have erupted while I was in the tent.

I've been less bothered this year by the fact that all the students were born in years I remember clearly from adulthood, but I have found myself repeatedly discombobulated by checking passports that expire in 2034, like what sort of ridiculous future space-year is that.

In the middle of all this, we've just been informed that we are no longer allowed to use the form-making software we use for various things. "Switch to Approved Alternative; it's really very easy to use!" they tell us, as though there hasn't been considerable pressure over the last year or two to move everything to Approved Alternative already, so that the only things left on there are things that can't be moved for reason of various technical limitations with Approved Alternative. That's great that it's allegedly easy to use, colleague! But will it allow people who are not already students to upload documentation for their assorted applications, because so far no one has been able to make it do that!!

I bought a travel pass for the week, since I'm travelling enough days that it pays for itself, and so far the best bit is that you don't have to wait for paper to download before you go to the ticket barrier. Particularly because the reception in the station building is terrible.

China National Day Events

Sep. 25th, 2025 09:20 pm
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In the past three evenings, I have found myself attending three China National Day events, even though all these celebrations are a week early, as the National Day is actually October 1st. The first was organised by a consortium of Chinese community organisations and was attended by some five hundred people, all crammed into a reception centre in Tottenham. As I have mentioned previously, the Chinese in Victoria really know how to hold amazing functions, and this was no exception, with a truly impressive program of dancers, singers, and performances. There were, of course, speeches by several guests, including the chair of the National Day Celebration Committee, the Consul-General, the Multicultural Commissioner, a few state members of parliament, and myself, courtesy of my role as president of the Victorian branch of the Australia-China Friendship Society. It seemed to be received well, as I injected a bit of passion into the idea that multiculturalism requires respect and understanding, along with celebrating the economic and technological successes of the country; Lǜ shuǐ qīngshān jiùshì jīnshān yín shān ("Green mountains and clear waters are worth more than mountains of gold and silver").

The following evening was an event in East Melbourne hosted by the Consulate and attended not only by various leaders of Chinese organisations in Victoria, but also by political leaders from Victoria, again with about five hundred people in attendance. The Consul-General, Fang Xinwen, gave a speech that was as diplomatic as it was poignant, expressing the country's commitment to economic leadership and being a global citizen. The premier, Jacina Allen, having just returned from a very successful trip to China, spoke of the objectives for tourism, trade, education, technology, and especially the need to develop people-to-people connections. Speeches were also given by the state leader of the opposition, and by the Federal member for Chisolm, Dr Carina Garland.

Then, the evening after, a smaller (about 60 people) but incredibly enthusiastic dinner was hosted by the Fujian Association of Victoria in Docklands for a visiting delegation from said province. The head of the delegation, the Deputy Director-General of the Foreign Affairs Office, gave an impressive speech in content and the fact that it was lengthy and entirely off-the-cuff. The nature of this gathering afforded a lot more time for socialising and networking, which I thoroughly enjoyed, especially given that it was now the third evening in a row that I had spent with some of the attendees. A real personal highlight for me was meeting Dr Guo Xiaoping, president of Quanzhou University of Information Engineering. We are already engaged in some correspondence on a project of personal interest, but further elaboration on that will have to wait for another time.
wychwood: Sinclair won't yield (B5 - Sinclair not to yield)
[personal profile] wychwood
72. Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone - Benjamin Stevenson ) A great gimmick, but I didn't like the protagonist enough to stay with it.


73. Gathering Moss - Robin Wall Kimmerer ) I do have some arguments with this book, but it's honestly fascinating.


74. Buried Deep and Other Stories - Naomi Novik ) A delightful set of stories - including one in her new world, which I'm looking forward to seeing once it's out!


75. The Private Lives of the Saints - Janina Ramirez ) Power, politics, and prayer; early mediaeval saints were very powerful people, and could be used in many ways in life and death, and Ramirez did an interesting job of looking at some examples of that.


76. Life on Earth - David Attenborough ) There's a reason these series (books) are such classics.


77. Lake of Souls - Ann Leckie ) Leckie does so many different things, and I like almost all of them.


78. Saturnalia - Lindsey Davis ) I think it's probably me, but I just did not enjoy this.


79. The Cricket Term - Antonia Forest ) I have a complicated relationship with these books, but I do enjoy them.


80. A City on Mars - Kelly and Zach Weinersmith ) I knew that Elon Musk's alleged Mars colony was in no way a viable prospect in this decade, but I hadn't understood quite how much work is absolutely still needed. A must-read for anyone who thinks living in space would be cool.


81. The Moonlight Market - Joanne Harris ) Sort of... disappointing? Harris is a pretty big name, but I've not been terribly impressed thus far.


82. The Far Pavilions - MM Kaye ) This was lush and beautiful and astonishingly compelling for something this long.


83. All Systems Red - Martha Wells ) A good start to one of my favourite series.


84. Evelina - Fanny Burney ) Politeness should not require people to put up with violent assaults! It's OK to say "no" and stick to it!!


85. Batman: Wayne Family Adventures vol 1 - CRC Payne and Starbite ) An absolute delight; looking forward to reading more of this!

am i the weird one here

Sep. 19th, 2025 07:29 pm
wychwood: New Burbage (don't bother) (S&A - New Burbage (don't bother))
[personal profile] wychwood
I was reading an article about, more or less, how to tackle the discrepancies between what you want (short-term) and what you want (long-term) when I stumbled across the line "Everyone has once-worn clothes strewn on the furniture.". I've seen people talk about it as a "problem" sometimes before, but - is that really a common thing that people do?? I am now madly curious.
Poll #33636 floordrobes and other clothing distribution methods
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 32


Do you routinely have part-worn clothes around?

View Answers

Never. Clothes are on my body or in the laundry.
1 (3.2%)

Maybe one or two items
15 (48.4%)

Half a dozen outfits in various stages of wear at any given time
13 (41.9%)

My entire clothing stock is spread around my living space in a quantum superposition of dry laundry not put away and various stages of wear
2 (6.5%)

Do you think it's totally normal to have multiple part-worn items lying around the bedroom etc?

View Answers

Absolutely
11 (34.4%)

It's not ideal but mostly, yes
13 (40.6%)

I wouldn't say normal, but people do it
5 (15.6%)

Why... why would you do that
3 (9.4%)

What's worst

View Answers

Washing clothes every wear
15 (48.4%)

Wearing clothes for multiple days
1 (3.2%)

Not tweaking your outfit every day for the exact circumstances
1 (3.2%)

Clothes
14 (45.2%)


(I wear most of my clothes once before washing them; jumpers and trousers mostly go for a week before washing; at any given time I have both home and outside trousers in use and I might have a jumper around that I'm wearing intermittently, but that's the maximum "part-worn clothes lying around" I get).

The Frustration of Sickness

Sep. 19th, 2025 06:36 pm
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A kind friend recently remarked that I write in a universal voice. That is true, albeit not by conscious intent, although it allows me to have a journal that is both public and personal without falling to the superficial culture with its self-indulgence and sycophancy. Instead, I prefer to take those selective slices of the classics which have accessible meaning and relevance: "Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto" ("I am human and nothing human in alien to me", Publius Terentius Afer). It does serve a challege to us all - are we capable of truly understanding the experiences of others or, to quote Conrad (and nicely adopted by the punk-funk group "The Gang of Four"), do we live, as we dream, alone? Our existential experiences: life, love, hope, guilt, fear, sickness, death, shared by all but in very different degrees and often, we can express with sadness, wickedly imposed by people upon others.

The past few days, I have been struck by a minor malaise. In my convalescence, however, I thought about how even a minor illness can be so disruptive. "This sickness does infect the very life-blood of our enterprise", said Shakespeare (Henry IV, Part I). As a busy person, I was frustrated by a number of events that had to be cancelled or modified. A Chinese arts and culture delegation from Shenzen had to be guided through the National Gallery by the Vice-President of the ACFS instead of myself. An HPC presentation to research team leaders at work had to be handballed, and other meetings were cancelled, and, alas, dinner and other social plans with friends also suffered this fate. Operational work, research essays, and studies have likewise been delayed. Needless to say, my usual fitness regimen had been suspended as well.

The only way to deal with such illnesses is rest and nutrition, followed by gradual recuperation. In this regard, I have been truly blessed by the presence of Kate R., who put her professional nursing skills to good use for this patient. As for the feeling of frustration, that is often resolved by shifting focus to something that one can control. Even in a semi-delirious state, I managed to work my way through the new Duolingo chess skill tree, along with keeping up with Spanish lessons. However, most of my sparse waking time was spent in passive entertainment in the form of the series "Arrested Development". I first encountered this show almost twenty years ago and, despite a few efforts, I'd hitherto never even managed to complete the first season. The hilariously dysfunctional family with its internecine manipulations and suspicions suits my absurd and ironic sense of humour: "there's always money in the banana stand".
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