The Lazy Blogger!

It just goes to show that either, when you work with computers, you can't get enough of them even in your time off, or, like me apparently, you avoid them like the plague! The laptop lives open on the table and serves as phone book, weather forecaster, mailbox, shop (all types), calendar and even alarm clock and kitchen timer, but diary??? Thanks to my friends for the prompt to get blogging!
I'm typing with slightly sore left-hand fingers after 2 hours cello practice. What, I hear someone say? Only two hours? Yes, well, you try working all day, then come home, get dinner and change mental gear for a good practice session! I've been pretending to be a gamba, playing the Telemann Paris suites - number two to be precise. The quartet I play with, Minerva, is performing it next week for the Lyceum Club in Adelaide, who have been kind enough to ask us to play for them on several occasions now. I'm looking forward to it, but there are a few excitments for cellists pretending to be gambas that are more like leaps of faith than anything else.
Practice is also made interesting by my cat, Katya. Katya, when a small kitten, would sit on a chair with paws crossed like amusic teacher, listening intenetly. She must have decided that I wasn't going to improve, so now when I get out the cello, she first of all tries to stop me playing by jumping onto my lap, grabbing at the bow, meowing piteously at my knee - and when that fails, digging claws into whatever part of me she can find that is least covered by clothing. That usually works.
If that fails - for example, when there's a chamber group playing - she goes in a huff to the bedroom and puts her head under the pillow. I am not making this up. She gets a bit jealous of the laptop, too, even though it's on the table, not my lap.
Anyway, that's enough for tonight. I'll give Katya a cuddle to make up for hte practice.

Saturday afternoon

It may seem to be stating the obvious, but 10-and-a-half hours’ time difference between me and home can make communicating difficult. Using Skype over the internet is terrific from a cost point of view, but coordinating people is tricky! I’m sure I’ve woken people by mistake with text messages at ungodly hours, and I know I’ve been woken by the same. Still I guess that’s something we have to accept.
Having a blog diary which doesn’t have a work focus is also a bit tricky when nearly everything I’ve done so far has been work. Today (Saturday) I actually posted Christmas mail and postcards, which meant a visit to the Post Office. It’s been a long time since Post Offices were open on Saturdays in Australia, so that was a novelty to start with. Then there was the queue, which extended out into the street and comprised a motley assortment of rugged-up people laden with oddly shaped parcels and letters. Although it took a bit of time, everyone was very patient and understanding, patting the deaf lady’s hearing dog and playing with the bored toddlers. A group of teenagers collecting for charity in the High Street had all donned Christmas hats and were singing carols – not all together in a group as you’d expect, but whichever carol they fancied, and they were wandering about shaking their collection buckets while singing lustily. It didn’t make for good music, but it got people smiling and reaching into their purses!
Yesterday I had to go to Oxford St on the way to my work appointment in Cavendish Square. I was right in my earlier assessment. The crowds are down. Nearly all the shops have some sort of sale on in an attempt to attract people. Selfishly, I rather enjoyed being able to walk at a decent pace along Oxford St without being knocked about by the crowd, but it must be hard on the retailers.
This morning I watched the antics of a group of grey squirrels in the garden. They may not be the most popular creatures as they’re so much more aggressive that their lovely native cousins, the red squirrel, but I enjoyed seeing them bound over the roofs at the bottom of the garden, leap onto the fence, landing like thistledown and then scampering after one another in the hope of stealing whatever food the leader had managed to find. In the cold weather their coats are magnificent.
I’ve also been marvelling at the logic of a rail transport system that has two single tickets end up being markedly cheaper than a return ticket booked on exactly the same trains. I’m heading to Bristol and Birmingham in the course of the next few days, and have bought single tickets for each stage of each journey. Interestingly, buses, though a bit cheaper than advance purchase rail tickets, indicate that the journey times are appreciably longer. I like trains, anyway.

Wedesday afternoon

This is the last day of the London Online conference. Professional comments aren't going to be found here - this is the fun side of things. I've had a good few days since I last emailed.

Monday morning I'd scheduled a meeting with a colleague, but since I had my bags with me, being en route to the Online conference hotel, it had to be somewhere easy to get to and where I could manage the luggage. So I arranged to meet her in the crypt of St Martin's in the Fields, where I'd be doing some brass rubbing. A most civilised way of conducting a meeting. Amazingly I was the only person doing a rubbing. several tourists came and looked intently at me as though I were a museum object and made loud comments, not realising that I could understand them (they were French and German). They thought it was pretty and interesting, but didn't understand the tradition. After the meeting, I caught the bus through to the conference hotel - always an adventure with luggage. Still jet-lagged, it was an early night.

Tuesday morning - first day of the conference - so was a good girl and spent the day either in session or doing a quick whip around the exhibition. Another early night.

Wednesday - it looked as though it was set to be a glorious day - clear sky was revealed as dawn gradually broke. Now, it should have been a Warning! Clear skies in northern winters usually mean FROST! I found this out by nearly going for six on the icy footpath - indeed I saw someone else take a tumble. It all vanished as soon as the sun came up, but it wasn't something I'd encountered in London before.

Wednesday I left the conference at about 4pm to go to visit Fional and Catriona in their new flat. They're a bit closer to the Elephant & Castle tube station than they were, but nontheless I got a bus from the tube, even for one stop. It was very cold again once the sun went down, which it does at about quarter to 4. F & C were in good form, eager to show me their new flat - now one year old, but since they spent so much time abroad this year, still feeling new to them. It's very comfortable and they're obviously pleased with it. We had a delightful evening looking at photos, catching up on news of each other and mutual acquaintances, and it was only when I started visibly fading that they threw me out. Two bus routes led directly back to the hotel, so in the hope of seeing the Christmas lights I plumped for the relative warmth of the upper deck of buses rather than the hothouse of the tube. I wasn't disappointed. Regent St lights this year are in the form of giant stars, suspended over the street like giant star-shaped sheets of tiny silver lights. The theme seems to be tiny silver lights for most of the decorations, which definitely links it all together and gives cohesion to the visual feast. I hope to get out one evening with the camera and try to take some pictures. The windows of Fortnum and Mason tell a fairy story and are magnificently done, as usual. The Norway spruce has been erected in Trafalgar Square, but the lights aren't on, yet.

It seems to me that the crowds are down on recent years. Is this due to the economic crisis that's on everyone's lips, or is it that I was expecting a greater crush? Or is it the very cold weather keeping people off the streets? Certainly, I haven't tried to walk down Oxford St yet (an acid test), but Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square seemed positively peaceful compared with my recollection of the Christmas season. If it gets worse - that it, more people - I'll correct myself.

I'll be heading back to Helen's tonight, and after a busy day tomorrow I'm looking forward to a free weekend! Nothing's planned, but I'm sure we'll come up with something interesting.

More later.

First post.

Much excitement - I've finally got around to creating my own blog. It's simply because I got tired of being timed out by web mail services - perhaps as much due to long periods of thought while writing. Nonetheless, I'll put notes here to share with friends / colleagues about what's happening. Comments are welcome. Polite ones, please! :-)