I'm participating in a study for Health Psychology at the university here. Nothing is actually required of me except going in for a health check three times a year and answering some questionaires. I figured I'd get some feedback and get those all important stats on my fitness level generally. I was still nervous going in this morning, worried, as usual (for no reason in the world) that they would tell me that I was a mess physically (able, with doctor-vision to see that I had popcorn for tea followed by biscuits for breakfast and still prefer full-fat milk...).
But I'm normal. I met a work colleague outside the Psych department and managed to put down and forget the paper with my results. Luckily I remember them:
Blood pressure: 115/74
resting heart rate: 78
peak heart rate (I had to do a step exercise - 3 minutes x 3): 120
recovery rate (after 3 minutes): 105
VO2: 97%
Generally I say that numbers don't matter blah blah blah but hey, with numbers like those I don't mind if they do! I get to go back 1 year from now and repeat the test. So running and gardening seems to have paid off - who'd've thunk?
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
A brief respite for the eyes
My photography skills are very bad, but I thought for the benefit of my family far away I should post some pics from Amsterdam. Also, this blog has been rather text-heavy so here's a break...!
The one below is the lovely flat we rented with our friends - I wish I'd gotten a picture of our little garden patio. The cat was resident in an amazing bakery. The other cat resided like a king in the 'kattenkabinet' - a bizarre museum begun by an eccentric rich guy in memory of his ginger tomcat - very strange and full of mostly very bad art featuring cats... Everyone was a great sport in going with me!! The rest just things around the caught my eye...
Spring breaks
Amsterdam was fantastic. Exactly what was needed to get through the exam period - both at the library and in terms of the growing stack of marking ... I always find it strange to be in a city purely as a tourist. Firstly cause I'm so very much a home-body; not that I prefer to be in my actual home (especially now as we're still in the dingy terrace anticipating the move to our new digs at the end of the month) but because I like to be comfortable and familiar. We got a self-catering place in Jordaan between the Rosengracht and a side-canal. It does go a long way to feeling at home to have a 'home' to go to at night rather than a hotel. If we'd rented bicycles, we'd have fit right in!
The city is so quiet compared to Leeds - and so clean. Take everything with a block of salt, but it felt friendlier and more relaxed. I do think that the fact that there are just less cars on the road makes a huge difference. And the cafe culture! On the corner of our little street there was a little bar/cafe - straight out of some 'olde worlde' black-and-white film - where old men sat playing chess and smoking cigars, drinking innumerable cups of coffee and measures of Belgian beer (La Chouffe). We spent our last night there, playing 4-person chess and drinking beer. It was perfect. Our little flat had a wee garden at the back for a quiet glass of wine in the evenings as well.
Based on that - I could live there. Provided, as I mentioned to my friend over coffee this morning, that I was on permanent vacation. Is it too much to ask??
So now we're back in Leeds. The library is getting gradually quieter as the exam period winds down. Marking, on the other hand, is piling up! But at least it has a very firm deadline for finishing.
The city is so quiet compared to Leeds - and so clean. Take everything with a block of salt, but it felt friendlier and more relaxed. I do think that the fact that there are just less cars on the road makes a huge difference. And the cafe culture! On the corner of our little street there was a little bar/cafe - straight out of some 'olde worlde' black-and-white film - where old men sat playing chess and smoking cigars, drinking innumerable cups of coffee and measures of Belgian beer (La Chouffe). We spent our last night there, playing 4-person chess and drinking beer. It was perfect. Our little flat had a wee garden at the back for a quiet glass of wine in the evenings as well.
Based on that - I could live there. Provided, as I mentioned to my friend over coffee this morning, that I was on permanent vacation. Is it too much to ask??
So now we're back in Leeds. The library is getting gradually quieter as the exam period winds down. Marking, on the other hand, is piling up! But at least it has a very firm deadline for finishing.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Exam Watch
Trends that mystify me in equal measure:
1. January - polo shirt with scarf, no coat, no hat, sunglasses.
2. June - t-shirt, shorts, flip-flops ... woolen cap worn like a limp smurf/dwarf hat.
Things that especially are irritating today:
1. students blithely coming IN the EXIT at the library and then arguing that they are 'already in' when I ask them to go back and go through the barrier.
2. students.
Things that I like:
1. I have finally found a pilates class that I can attend starting next week. Very excited about this as pilates is amazing and really does improve my posture and go a long way to easing the tension I carry around in my shoulders and neck. I think it will go miles in improving my mood at work these next few weeks - during Exam Watch.
2. And our perfectly timed weekend away will also help: Amsterdam in the spring. What could be more perfect? My gran has already warned me that it is a city of drugs and criminals, and fore-warned is fore-armed. We've gotten a self-catering flat in Jordaan with our friends and travelling-mates. It looks divine - it's likely just liveable (I have little faith in the reality depicted in online advertising photos...). But its away from work, away from the city with its binmen on strike, away from the stressed out, rude students, away away away!
1. January - polo shirt with scarf, no coat, no hat, sunglasses.
2. June - t-shirt, shorts, flip-flops ... woolen cap worn like a limp smurf/dwarf hat.
Things that especially are irritating today:
1. students blithely coming IN the EXIT at the library and then arguing that they are 'already in' when I ask them to go back and go through the barrier.
2. students.
Things that I like:
1. I have finally found a pilates class that I can attend starting next week. Very excited about this as pilates is amazing and really does improve my posture and go a long way to easing the tension I carry around in my shoulders and neck. I think it will go miles in improving my mood at work these next few weeks - during Exam Watch.
2. And our perfectly timed weekend away will also help: Amsterdam in the spring. What could be more perfect? My gran has already warned me that it is a city of drugs and criminals, and fore-warned is fore-armed. We've gotten a self-catering flat in Jordaan with our friends and travelling-mates. It looks divine - it's likely just liveable (I have little faith in the reality depicted in online advertising photos...). But its away from work, away from the city with its binmen on strike, away from the stressed out, rude students, away away away!
Thursday, May 08, 2008
reflecting on the right
Weather: still amazing.
Library: still packed.
Went running for the first time this year without layers - my beautiful MEC top stayed home. And it was still hotter-than-comfortable in the direct sunshine. Beautiful.
Then spent the morning making granola and flipping through my thesis in preparation for writing a conference paper (or cut-and-pasting a conference paper!) tonight for Saturday. Now, I'm gazing longingly outside from my prison/place of employment ... afternoons are the best part of the day. I wish I worked mornings!
In other news, or at least from other news sources, this is pretty terrifying. This country is leaning so far right we may actually tip over and crash into France - who are, in turn, going to fall over into Europe and so forth. Domino effect? Hmm... I don't understand how an educated, privileged person can actually advocate violence to fight violence. This is the world we live in - and people still ask why I don't want children.
I'm being flippant.
And this is a serious topic - our home secretary actually wants to give police the power to 'harrass' people who are perceived to be acting against 'normal' conventions, offending 'normal', law abiding citizens, defrauding the system that 'normal', decent, quiet people have set up to continue their normal, decent, quiet lives. The level of stereotyping going on here is astonishing: ASBOs are only ever a problem of class which is only ever a problem of 'stuff', cars and tellys (the things the government taxes) - indeed, part of the problem here seems to be people getting their hands on material goods that they then cannot afford (in taxes). No one who does pay their car tax or television licence fee gets and ASBO - ever. ASBOs are always given for well-thought-out reasons after careful consideration of the particular circumstances, including the source of the complaint. People who get handed an ASBO are merely rebels against quietness, goodness, decency, the British spirit, a good cuppa - they probably hate Eurovision and think that Marmite tastes of rancid dust. Unsavoury types, y'know?
I do appreciate that there are nasty people out there. Show me an avenue at dusk full of adolescents and I'll take the long way home. They are rude, irritating, disrespectul, ignorant, and possess a sense of entitlement nourished at the teats of the same government that now wants to 'harrass' them. But then, I live and breathe in the hallowed halls of academia and there are nasty, ignorant, priggish, arogant, rude, and horrid people here too. Fewer of them get ASBOs perhaps; most of them would duck out of taxes if they could - indeed, some of them likely make enough money to hire an accountant clever enough to do just that.
So where does that leave us? Cowering in our houses, clinging to 'decency', living quiet lives, and hoping that no one takes offence at us. Thanks but I'll be sitting outside on my stoop, enjoying a cuppa and the weather, griping about the neighbourhood kids, and generally trying to understand.
Library: still packed.
Went running for the first time this year without layers - my beautiful MEC top stayed home. And it was still hotter-than-comfortable in the direct sunshine. Beautiful.
Then spent the morning making granola and flipping through my thesis in preparation for writing a conference paper (or cut-and-pasting a conference paper!) tonight for Saturday. Now, I'm gazing longingly outside from my prison/place of employment ... afternoons are the best part of the day. I wish I worked mornings!
In other news, or at least from other news sources, this is pretty terrifying. This country is leaning so far right we may actually tip over and crash into France - who are, in turn, going to fall over into Europe and so forth. Domino effect? Hmm... I don't understand how an educated, privileged person can actually advocate violence to fight violence. This is the world we live in - and people still ask why I don't want children.
I'm being flippant.
And this is a serious topic - our home secretary actually wants to give police the power to 'harrass' people who are perceived to be acting against 'normal' conventions, offending 'normal', law abiding citizens, defrauding the system that 'normal', decent, quiet people have set up to continue their normal, decent, quiet lives. The level of stereotyping going on here is astonishing: ASBOs are only ever a problem of class which is only ever a problem of 'stuff', cars and tellys (the things the government taxes) - indeed, part of the problem here seems to be people getting their hands on material goods that they then cannot afford (in taxes). No one who does pay their car tax or television licence fee gets and ASBO - ever. ASBOs are always given for well-thought-out reasons after careful consideration of the particular circumstances, including the source of the complaint. People who get handed an ASBO are merely rebels against quietness, goodness, decency, the British spirit, a good cuppa - they probably hate Eurovision and think that Marmite tastes of rancid dust. Unsavoury types, y'know?
I do appreciate that there are nasty people out there. Show me an avenue at dusk full of adolescents and I'll take the long way home. They are rude, irritating, disrespectul, ignorant, and possess a sense of entitlement nourished at the teats of the same government that now wants to 'harrass' them. But then, I live and breathe in the hallowed halls of academia and there are nasty, ignorant, priggish, arogant, rude, and horrid people here too. Fewer of them get ASBOs perhaps; most of them would duck out of taxes if they could - indeed, some of them likely make enough money to hire an accountant clever enough to do just that.
So where does that leave us? Cowering in our houses, clinging to 'decency', living quiet lives, and hoping that no one takes offence at us. Thanks but I'll be sitting outside on my stoop, enjoying a cuppa and the weather, griping about the neighbourhood kids, and generally trying to understand.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Sunshine and taxes
The library is in a state of high panic today - it's giving me a splitting headache. Which is too bad as I was in an elated mood all morning - well, nearly all morning. It is the first perfectly beautiful day of the spring. At least, I hope it is the first - rather than the only - perfect day of the spring. I walked into the city bright and early, clutching my carefully collected tax forms and ID. Naturally, I had to make the walk twice because the only paper they needed was one that I hadn't brought. But I managed to maintain my good mood all the way home and all the way back. With luck - actually no, I'm sure I'm due a refund! - I'll get some money back at some point...
For reasons unbeknownst to me, the powers-that-be of the library have decided that all of our security staff/facility assistants needed to attend training TODAY. It is the first day of revision week, the library is heaving, there are books stacked all over the place ... Thankfully, I'm only here til 6pm.
We had a really lovely time on Sunday at the festival - though the weather did its best to ruin it. It rained all day... in the end though it was quite fun as it felt like the blue-rinse crowd's answer to Glastonbury: expensive, organic food, really really good beer, and a brass band playing away all afternoon... Our shoes were muddy, our bellys full, and it looked like some kind of school trip as all 11 of us filed off the bus in Northallerton. We got some really amazing cheese, a mustard (can't leave a market without at least one condiment!), and some white chocolate with chilli - amazing. Pork sandwiches, sausages, and burgers, some really lovely ales and stouts made up our picnic/all-day-grazing. There's another one in York at the end of the month ... My mouth is watering already...
For reasons unbeknownst to me, the powers-that-be of the library have decided that all of our security staff/facility assistants needed to attend training TODAY. It is the first day of revision week, the library is heaving, there are books stacked all over the place ... Thankfully, I'm only here til 6pm.
We had a really lovely time on Sunday at the festival - though the weather did its best to ruin it. It rained all day... in the end though it was quite fun as it felt like the blue-rinse crowd's answer to Glastonbury: expensive, organic food, really really good beer, and a brass band playing away all afternoon... Our shoes were muddy, our bellys full, and it looked like some kind of school trip as all 11 of us filed off the bus in Northallerton. We got some really amazing cheese, a mustard (can't leave a market without at least one condiment!), and some white chocolate with chilli - amazing. Pork sandwiches, sausages, and burgers, some really lovely ales and stouts made up our picnic/all-day-grazing. There's another one in York at the end of the month ... My mouth is watering already...
Saturday, May 03, 2008
May Days
There are 2 bank holidays in May - this weekend and at the end of the month. Then, of course, in true British fashion, there isn't another one until the end of August. Why do I identify this as a national curiousity? Well, national curiosities are on my mind today (yes, I've been reading The Guardian), such as: why have two bank holidays in a single month followed by a veritable drought of free time during the loveliest months of the year (hopefully...)? Or why worry about binge-drinking students when the same anxious government cuts funding, cuts employment opportunities, and royally screws the economy, thus ensuring that when they graduate, students immediately resort to drink?
Or, how does this become the Lord Mayor of London?
The positive spin has this tow-haired, ignorant relic of the private school system and patriarchal privilege making such a hash of the next four years that the Conservative party will sink out of sight for the national elections. The reality of it is likely closer to a functioning democracy voting for the person they actually believe represents their views. Which is to say, secure the crockery, we're shifting to the right.
***
Tomorrow is our annual pilgrimage out to Leyburn for the real beginning of the summer: the Dales' Festival of Food and Drink. This year it's perfectly timed to mark the end of teaching - and thus, sadly, the end of one source of income! Ah, the life of the over-educated and woefully underemployed...
Or, how does this become the Lord Mayor of London?
The positive spin has this tow-haired, ignorant relic of the private school system and patriarchal privilege making such a hash of the next four years that the Conservative party will sink out of sight for the national elections. The reality of it is likely closer to a functioning democracy voting for the person they actually believe represents their views. Which is to say, secure the crockery, we're shifting to the right.
***
Tomorrow is our annual pilgrimage out to Leyburn for the real beginning of the summer: the Dales' Festival of Food and Drink. This year it's perfectly timed to mark the end of teaching - and thus, sadly, the end of one source of income! Ah, the life of the over-educated and woefully underemployed...
