Yesterday I sorted out my trousers and jeans (I had a lot from pregnancy and postpregnancy that didn't fit any more). I put them in two piles- one to recycle and one to keep. Guess which pile I threw out?

Just taken four rats to the vet and only come home with two Fortunately the two left behind have been admitted and are not 'gone'

One has developed breathing problems; she's the least handleable of the lot, and I have always just let her be rather than forcing her to put up with me cuddling her. So of course, handling her to get her in the carrier and then being prodded by the vet and so on was really stressful for her. Her feet were definitely on the bluer side of pink by the time we got there, poor little thing. So she's admitted and going in to a high oxygen environment and having antibiotic and mucolytic by injection. I got to say to the vet "She's the least handleable, and I would say she's never bitten, but that was only true until ten minutes ago" I'm not bleeding anymore so it's not that big a bite!

A second is staying with her - this one has a very noisy nose but her lungs are absolutely fine (every so often she sneezes and then is normal sounding for a while, then she gets noisy again). So she'll be getting some anitbiotics too. And oxygen that she doesn't need, but it should be better for the really ill one to have a friend with her to snuggle up with.

And the other two have come home. They both sound fine but they are getting the same antibiotic anyway. The infection is a bug that lives in their lungs all the time, but just flares up and causes problems from time to time - so they might as well have a course of antibiotics to reduce it down in the whole household and hopefully make everyone have fit and healthy lungs for a while

Oh no!

Maizie, I hope your rats are feeling better soon

Feeling a tad shell-shocked at the news that my one of my jobs is being cut by half from September .

Trying to be Micawber-like...and hoping that 'as one door closes...' etc..



Hope your ratties are better soon, Maizie.

Ooof, not good. Keep your chin up, I'm sure you are right and something else (better) will come along x

Sorry to hear this but hope something else becomes available in the meantime.

And the same from me

And me

Me too.

Just spotted this. Fingers crossed something else comes up, as you're reasonably local to me, I'll keep my eyes open

Hope it sorts itself out


My minor aarrgghh for the day...

Today is viol lesson evening at 8pm - 20 miles away in Wales - so need to leave at 7.30. Held up slightly at work so didn't leave until 5.50 which woudl usually get me home at about 6.40 - 6.45. Of course there was a hold up with traffic backed up at some lights (there are only 4 sets on my 34 mile trip back from the office). Took 15 minutes to get through the lights. Throsw in some cows off to milking and I got home at 7.12. Left at 7.48 got to lesson at 8.12 had a remarkably clear run and I kept to the limits - honest

Thanks to all for the kind words.

Still feeling more than a bit scared. I'm struggling financially as it is, so this is hardly the greatest news :-(

Hey ho. Think Micawber, Cyrilla, think Micawber...

You have a good track record, though, don't you? (Or does that not necessarily help?)

Any contingency plans in the book front, supplementary material for the ones already out, etc?

More and Micawber-ish vibes.

My problems are nowhere near as serious as some folks', but having been so chuffed that I had missed the nasty bug going round, (!) I have just spent 3 days mainly in bed, and a poor few days before.

SO-----have had to get an extension on an assignment (makes you late or at least rushed for the next one too), no fiddle / violin practice for days, and when I start to feel better will be spending the time doing the assignment, so still no practice!
Consolation ? My immune system waited till after the concerts to succumb !

Just caught up on this thread - haven't read it for a few days - short of time - so very sorry to be late with commiserations Cyrilla. Any light on the horizon?I do hope so.

Nope . It's all to do with budget problems in a school .

And, I suppose, music is not the top priority that it should be. Well, I suppose one day they will learn what they are missing!

In the current climate, anything apart from numeracy and literacy is liable to deep cuts

I bet they'd never find any evidence that schools who cut music show any improvement in maths and literacy - in fact I'd predict the opposite.

The last time I had to agree a job description, I said I knew it couldn't really be included, but I saw an essential part of my job as the music specialist to make the children happy and to keep them happy. Too touchy-feely to go in the job description, I'm sure. And I did mean happy and not just satisfied. Because good music in school makes them h.a.p.p.y and you know what? Unhappy children can't work! I'm quite quite sure of that.

How can we convince them? (That's "them" them, not "the children" them.

This is not a political statement, but a general observation about how modern society seems to operate. The challenge we all face in our various areas of work, whether commercial, local government, state, education etc., is the bean counter, who like the notorious cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

The modern trend of those who manage (whatever stripe they are) is to look for "simple" and "obvious" solutions. So we get: "experienced person X costs twice as much as inexperienced person Y, therefore 2Y must be more beneficial/productive than one of X" and other similar and equally flawed arguments. Hence, the "we're measured on maths/English results therefore that's what we spend our money on" mentality as opposed to "If we create a rounded happy environment, pupils will thrive and results will improve".

The issue is that short term agendas that managers/politicians have. Everyone focuses on tactical solutions and we need strategic thinking looking at much longer term (10 - 15 years) results.

End of sermon

The school's finances are in such a bad way that a whole TA is going and really I should have gone entirely but I'm being kept on for half a day because what I do for the children is so valued...

But part of the end result is that the choir will disappear totally and the children will now only ever sing hymns along to a CD..

That is sad

Indeed. I am sorry for the loss to the children (and of course the reduced work hours ).

But they clearly value what you do. At least if they are keeping you there, dare one hope that when / if their finances get on a sounder footing, your hours might increase again? This is what happened to me when I was visiting primary schools much earlier in my teaching career.

That is absolutely awful. Here in France there are no school choirs to speak of. No singing in the schools I know round here except a bit of bawling along with a CD - words and music of inferior value. So when you have a good choir set up in an English school it is something really precious. If any of you are in a position to fight back over this sort of thing please do so because I can tell you schools without singing (and we don't even have assemblies) are like football without a ball. I've done my best in the junior school where I work but it's paltry compared to what I was able to do in Surbiton and (even) Vauxhall when I taught there.

Something will turn up Cyrilla - I'm sure. Keep smiling!

Thanks, chaps.

Agreed - it is ultimately the children who will suffer .

The school had their Easter Service (it's a CofE primary) last Friday and it was quite an emotional occasion, really - my last one, my accompanist's last one (she is a total goddess and we've worked together for 20 years but her health isn't great and she decided to give this school up) and the vicar's last one (he's retiring). I shan't go along to any services in the future as I shan't have had any input into the learning of the hymns as I do now and I won't be able to bear listening to them singing to a CD backing (which, incidentally, includes children singing on it - it's not even a 'backing track' - so you can't really hear the real, live children). It was emotional for all these reasons and also because the children sang SO beautifully - I am so, so proud of the sound they make...

Oh, and of course it also means the end to great Y5/Y6 productions at Christmas too .

Aquarelle, you've mentioned before about there being no singing in French schools - a truly awful state of affairs .

Oh, they DO value me, maggie - and, yes, they may well increase my hours again if their finances improve, but I can't see it happening, really - they are in deep financial trouble.

That's so sad, Cyrilla

I know...thanks, Sunrise...

My unerstanding is that the French position stems from one of those periodic bursts of Gallic republicianism that crops up in France. This particular one was in the late C19th and resulted in the church choir schools losing their state support. Within a generation all of the cathedral/church choirs were gone.

My understanding is that this is behind the poor state of choral singing - you haven't got the cathedral and collegiate choirs churning out experienced singers who become conductors etc.

One of my choirs did an exchange with the twin town a few years ago (we're repeating that this year). The French visit was only 4 weeks into the summer term and we'd only had the 4 rehearsals. The French choir had chosen the music, which was Jenkins' The Armed Man. They had been rehearsing it for a year The Armed Man is not a difficult work and we were already up to performing it - they were completely shocked to discover that we'd only had the 4 rehearsals. We attended their normal Friday rehearsal (which wasn't a concert rehearsal) and sight read our way through what they were doing - that really threw them.

We sang Langlais' Messe Solenelle a few years ago and the week of the concert, Mme. Langlais was interviewed on R3. She said that to hear her husband's music performed either liturgically or in concert, she had to come over to the the UK where she knew that his music was performed in cathedrals up and down the land - but not at home in France.

It's very sad.

A screw has fallen out of my oboe and one of the keys is loose. I've hunted everywhere - even emptied the vacuum cleaner - and it's nowhere to be found. It must have fallen out at the concert on Sunday.

I suppose I have to phone Howarths tomorrow morning and wait weeks for spare screws to arrive.

aaaaaaaaaaaaagggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

oh no hope you get it sorted soon katica

Unless by any marvellous good luck Loree screws fit Howarth oboes (the Patricola ones don't), I may have a long wait in store...

Got to leave in 45 mins to go up to the midland, for father in law's funeral- husband has just found out his car doesn't have an MOT- Why oh why is he so disorganised? Girls aren't up - were woken at 7:30am... just being lazy. OH stressed- I am more stressed.... At least my son is up packed and ready........
Breathe......

I think your reaction is quite modest, considering.

Off the wall idea: Do you know anyone else you know have a Howarth oboe that you could borrow the relevant screw for a couple of days?

Memo to self: go and check tightness of screws on my own Howarth oboe.

for you getting it fixed as soon as possible.

It really is one of those crawl under the desk and curl up in a ball days.
I thought I selpt badly on Sunday and Monday nights, but last night I slept dreadfully. From midnight onwards I woke up several times if not actually having a panic attack, at least in a state of high anxiety. Which has yet to go away.

Work is just...aaarrrgggh! I know why, my manager knows why, though I doubt he realises that it's become such a problem (to be fair, I've not really realised it until today - and today is most likely only so bad because I'm so tired. I know tired->stress->poor sleep->more tired->and so on)
Essentially I'm doing a 100% of your time job alongside, well, at the moment it's not that bad but last week it was certainly a 100% of your time job. Amazingly enough, I'm only prepared to do 7.5 hours a day, so stuff doesn't get done.

Right now I'm trying so hard to get people to understand something that is blatantly obvious. We have three paper documents that needs to be typeset in to multiple languages. Most versions in most languages are fine. There are two though that I've been provided in pdf format. The first thing to do is import the source doc in to the software - and it won't take these two particular pdfs, because they are in wonky weirdy script languages.
Basically, if the source doc was a Word version, it would be fine.
The 'owner' of the document keeps coming back to me saying 'we have a pdf copy' and I keep saying 'I need a Word copy' and they reply 'But the last study has a pdf copy you could use' and I reply 'which won't import in to our software, we need a Word copy' and they provide me with a different pdf version to try. The last study would have to have sent it out to the translation company, but now we can do it in house - provided we have a usable source document!
Of course, which two countries have urgent need for their regulatory people to see the forms? That's right, these two where they can only give me pdf versions. So, can't they provide me the source version they must already have from the previous use - actually, probably yes, but apparently it's more fun to just drive me round the bend telling me the same thing when I can't see how I can make it clearer that what they are provided is not acceptable if they want it by tomorrow. I have to sent it out to translation, and that will cost them money and take at least a week - just as it did in the previous set-up.

The other work I'm doing is not complicated, but it is something where a report isn't behaving as expected. It may be simple to fix, it may be unfixable. But I need a day poking round the reporting database having an explore and a play and seeing what's what. And I don't have any time for doing that sort of thing.

And all the other stuff is 'far off' because it's due in June, but nobody seems to be able to count backwards from June to see how soon that actually is and we need to get on with it now, oh, and guess who's needed to do the first task?

And this afternoon I have to give training. Stupid, stupid, stupid at least two years out of date training, but nobody is going to bother to update the slides because new processes are due sometime in 2013. I was one of four trainers but the others have all moved on so I am now the only one left, having to give this stupid training every six weeks.
At least it is over the phone...except the landlines in this house are cordless. And the batteries give up after about 45 mins. And the training will be about an hour and a quarter. So part way through, I'm going to have to dial out, change handset, and resume the meeting. That'll be good. I guess I need to buy a cheap phone that doesn't rely on batteries for future use (except hopefully soon the stupid training will go away and I won't have to do it anymore, and/or we'll start using the audio function on conferencing software, which we keep 'planning to use in future' but it doesn't happen).

In the meantime, I can't believe it's only half past ten. I'll just carry on sitting here, waiting for the bombardment of emails and messenger things when the US/Canada arrive (and, of course, that is too late to get India doing any work until tomorrow...) Still shaking, breathing is wrong, want to curl up somewhere and sleep but too much to do and no contactable manager to say "I need to stop Right Now before my head blows up"

Edit: Long, but somewhat helpful to get it out of my head

Heaps of sympathy to Maizie, and Clari Nicki! and katica.

Deep breaths, and a . You can only soldier on.

Hugs for all who need them. Maizie, it really sounds like you need a break...

My little argh is that dissertation writing and a migraine don't go well together. Thought it had gone when I woke up this morning but the pain is creeping back in so I'll have to turn off the laptop again. I just want this academic year to be over!

There there honey

No, unfortunately. I live in Costa Rica. I think I am probably the first owner of a Howarth oboe here. Though a friend tells me he just came across someone else with one, but not an XL.

I spoke to Neil at Howarths and he was lovely. He's going to sort out another rod for me (it's actually a short rod, not a screw) and some emergency adjustment screws. It will be a while before they arrive but quicker than waiting for my UK trip in August. I just hope that the guy here who has done maintenance work on my old oboe in the past can set the rod properly. They tell me it's something I need a technician for - Howarth make minute adjustments on every oboe they make, so it's not just a case of exchanging parts. it will all work out...

The car did get fixed. My car wasn't at my house, but luckily the flutes weren't in the car at the time. I'd never leave them in there anyway.

People who can't accept that I'm happy where I am right now and don't want to be anything more....I've just spent 18 months where the nicer times were in the minority, I'm finally in a job I love and that suits where I currently want to be and I'm still up against people that think I should want more

nick_flute
and to Floss, Maizie, Clari_Nicki


A very annoying and increasingly common sign of our times, which prizes ambition and defines it rather narrowly... I hope you can just leave them to their frustrations.

Argh, just found out that the annoying little squeak on one note of my piano is the thin end of a rather expensive wedge. Looks like my piano is going to need a fairly major overhaul in the not too distant future. Boo!

I know exactly what you mean

Keep the faith....

Commiserations!!!