Thursday 15 November 2012

(just for the record)

Thoughts While Knitting


1.
The Scottish Professor
has just returned from
the first holiday of his retirement.
His wife chose the Seychelles
because there are no bogs, no midges
and she has never been there on fieldtrips.

2.
The Lady Professor
is taking 50 students
to the Wildwood Trust.
Wolves! Lynx! Bison!

3.
Pierre the Palaeontologist
has had a new species named after him.
Melaneremia schrevei
Isn't that amazing!

4.
I wish the Admissions Tutor
would give up eating peaches.
Out of a tin.
With a fork.

5.
The ice scientist is coming to
give a prestigious lecture.
I hope there is a spare seat because
I'm going to sneak in the back.

6.
It must be unseasonably mild:
the famous red fleece top
has not made an appearance yet.
It is a proxy for climate change.

7.
Did I ever mention that
the academic who is 40+
was on Time Team?
Digging big holes is his speciality.

8.
The young academic
has just got his first big grant.
I always said it wouldn't be long
before he was Head of Department.

9.
The tall Scottish PhD student
is standing still in the sunshine,
He has just called his family
to tell them he has passed his viva
and he can't stop smiling.
Never plain Mr again.

10.
Lots of PhD vivas coming up...
there may be a visit
to 'The Happy Man' in my future.
Or two.

11.
Gareth has not made scones recently.
I must mention it to him.

12.
The newest little Quaternary Scientist
is due in 16 weeks time.
I need to knit faster.

17 comments:

  1. a dozen points that caught me up on your days. I love coming to your lists and so happy the little scientist is coming in 16 weeks!

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  2. I love your work posts best i think.

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  3. Your blog is my absolute favourite one I read, thank you.
    I live in The Netherlands and naturally have to speak Dutch all day long, so I yearn for 'proper' English so I do not lose touch with the language I love and care about so passionately. Helps with my homesickness too!
    December coming up, and the terrible absence of Christmas Spirit here increases the 'missing' so keep those quotes coming please!!!
    Suzanne.

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  4. How I love these posts. The sheer variety of observations make for a thoroughly good read.

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  5. Lovely list. You were a bit hard on the Admissions Tutor, though. Tinned peaches are a) nicer than tinned mandarin oranges, b) very drippy - fingers would be catastrophic, so a fork is necessary.

    Baked beans out of a tin, another matter. Spoons: definitely better than forks or fingers.

    I may be giving too much away here.....

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  6. "Do I dare to eat a peach?" T.S. Eliot

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  7. Liz in Missouri (USA)November 15, 2012

    Happy thoughts for what appears to be a pleasant day. Love the cable you are creating there with garter and stockinette combined.

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  8. The Admissions Tutor might be very pleased to receive an elegant thrifted china peach plate on her next birthday?

    Lovely post, Alice!

    Andrea

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  9. You are not only an excellent wordsmith, but you can knit excellently too! Oh, how I envy you.

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  10. Two comments here: 1. Wow, Pierre, congratulations! A primate too, not some rubbish little plant or bacteria. 2. A colleague of mine regularly used to eat cold baby carrots straight out of a tin with a fork. He was known to dip them into a tin of creamed rice pudding too. Can't see the problem with tinned peaches after that!

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  11. just for the records are my favourite x hope you are all better now x

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  12. Just wondering if the Admissions Tutor reads this blog? Could solve the problem.

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  13. What a pretty cable!

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  14. Recognized that pattern - lovely but not a quick knit. When my husband had his viva some departmental crisis called away his supervisor and the internal examiner right at the end and they rushed off without actually saying he'd passed! They came back about an hour later and said 'Oh sorry,, we thought you'd realise.'

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