Winter has arrived in the southern hemisphere. It’s not UK-cold, but given that there is a gap in our bedroom wall to the outside, and no heating, or insulation, or double glazing, one wouldn’t want it to be much colder; and there have been a couple of ground frosts this week already. We are grateful for our wood-burning stove, definitely worth the work to get it going, even if it does mean that we permanently smell of campfire.
Here’s a round up of a few snippets which I’ve been gathering up, and haven’t got round to doing anything more creative with…
(UK) “There is some stat that 80% of office moves end up with the office nearer the house of the most senior person to work in that office…” (Comment on someone else’s blog) I’ve yet to verify this, but if anyone can add any concrete information, I’d be interested to find out.
(Argentina) Adolescent male arrives at our door “My aunt says can you give her a lift to Quebracho this afternoon” (background info; his aunt is actually his great-aunt, sweet old lady, who I quite often take with me to and from Quebracho village). “No” I say, “Our car is being fixed, so I’m going by bus today”. “Oh” he says “So will you come and pick her up?” Now I know Spanish isn’t my first language, but I didn’t think it was that bad….
(UK) “On any academic committee, if you try to engage them with the big issues, they look blank but as soon as it’s going to affect their bit of their course, they’re furious and the politics start”. Gill Evans, Cambridge Professor of history, quoted in the independent 10-12-09. I dug this one up for something I was writing a while ago, and didn’t actually use the quote in the end, but I think it is making a well-transferrable point.
(Argentina) Talking about an English teacher; “She has to work thirty hours a week, and travel between different schools, and for all that she only gets four thousand pesos a month…” I tried really hard to look sympathetic, I promise I did, but I was battling against the double images of trying to imagine any teacher in the UK thinking that 30 hours was a long week, combined with the fact that this poor lady’s insufficient salary is more than double my own monthly living allowance.
They’re all queer save thou and I, and even thou’s a bit at times…