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[kaberett]

• Duolingo French, today: I realised (again?) that I do in fact know the word that's the other half of double entendre, and it's to hear. I am always charmed when I trip over things that I hadn't connected.
  
• We acquired a cheap electric keyboard from my parents' last weekend, which for one will probably put paid to me sulking about A about how this household Doesn't Have A Piano (because I think my general sense that All Households Should Have At Least An Upright will not carry much water in the face of how little I play the thing, howsoever much I protest that it's UNPLAYABLE, how can he expect me to LIVE like this, I learned on a STEINWAY), but for two means we are now better equipped for Cousin Music Jams, and most importantly and for three I wish to state for the record that I am both Insulted and also deeply Offended by Adam's fondness for its """French horn""" setting.
  
• Minor victories, brainhack edition: I needed some routine blood tests done at the local hospital "around the beginning of March". The weather has been a bit grim, and my Tramper needs some TLC I'm not equipped to provide it, so getting as far as the allotment has been hard... but the allotment is round the back of the hospital and there's a greenhouse on it, so post-bloods this morning I betook myself there, parked up the wheelchair, deposited the Tramper cover over it, and retreated to the relative warm and dry of the greenhouse... where, being Penned In By The Weather, I made good progress on several tedious tasks I ordinarily disdain, and also established how the sun lounger Works, and also had the aforementioned realisation about French loans.
  
• I need to sort myself out A Reference for this counselling certificate. The thing I am mulling over is, I'm not sure I've got someone who can speak to all of (1) my suitability for A Counselling Course, (2) my listening skills, (3) my organisation of study (with respect to e.g. meeting deadlines), (4) my interpersonal skills (including Engaging With People... in a structured environment), and (5) my attendance and punctuality. My therapist is happy to cover most of them, but would sort of like someone else to address 4; my PhD supervisor understandably has no idea about 1, 2 and 4 at least as pertains to this context so I haven't even asked her yet (and not just because I'm scared of what she'll say about deadlines based on my, uh, protracted period of getting to grips with them over the course of this degree). I also kind of get the impression we're collectively overthinking this, given that I need one (1) reference, not from a family member, that I hand over a copy of myself at interview, but whatcha gonna do, eh.
  
• I HAVE FOUND ALMOST MY PREFERRED STYLE OF WOK FOR SALE. Double-handled (i.e. symmetrical, none of this one-long-heavy-handle-destabilising-everything bullshit), round bottomed, proper thin iron. I have spent a lot of time fruitlessly hunting same through Chinatown and anywhere else that sells woks; I know they existed for purchase in this country at some point because my parents have one, with bonus wooden bits on the handles. You can get more or less the right thing from Amazon, which I Disdain and indeed Diskard Utterly, but if you're okay with bare metal handles they also currently exist on eBay! ... shipping from Germany or, alternatively, Tokyo. I continue mildly baffled about this failure of the market.

Comments

[ewt]

I wish to state for the record that I am both Insulted and also deeply Offended by Adam's fondness for its """French horn""" setting.

OH MY GOD

*indignant fuming*

[alexwlchan]

I think my general sense that All Households Should Have At Least An Upright will not carry much water in the face of how little I play the thing, howsoever much I protest that it's UNPLAYABLE, how can he expect me to LIVE like this, I learned on a STEINWAY

This is a topic about which I suspect you and my mother would get along very well. XD

[phi]

and most importantly and for three I wish to state for the record that I am both Insulted and also deeply Offended by Adam's fondness for its """French horn"""

This is ridiculously charming

[davidgillon]

I'm not sure I've got someone who can speak to all of ... (3) my organisation of study (with respect to e.g. meeting deadlines), (4) my interpersonal skills (including Engaging With People... in a structured environment), and (5) my attendance and punctuality.

I suspect they're probably going to hear PhD and take all three as read, on the presumption PhD means working with other people to at least some degree (including meetings with supervisors as a structued one-on-one), the study skills are obvious, and any issues with attendance and punctuality get swallowed up by reasonable adjustments.

[emperor]

I have a proper wok (though with only 1 handle) that sits unused because I am procrastinating removing its protective coating and seasoning it. This has been the case for about 12 months now /o\

[kaberett]

Oh, sympathy! And consider yourself cheered on!

[emperor]

Thanks :) I think the problem is I've not done it before, so I Will Do It Wrong And Wreck It, coupled with there being so many different opinions on how seasoning pans Should be done, so it's a small pile of "argh", and so the pan languishes unused, which is a shame. Le sigh.

[redbird]

Duolingo French grossly overestimates the number of new words I have learned, but that's partly that I'm at a level where a lot of the vocabulary is words I know from repeatedly seeing them on signs and/or menus in Montreal. But I'm having fun, and getting at least a little feel for how to actually pronounce things.

[silveradept]

Many good things for a post.

[lokifan]

I wish to state for the record that I am both Insulted and also deeply Offended by Adam's fondness for its """French horn""" setting.

:cackles: