Thursday 21 August 2008

Half Past Full Moon

This sunflower has sprung up in the little guerilla garden on the trail to work.

Hands over ears Sleepy. (Eyes I s'pose really). I wanted to add to my thoughts about Titus, that I had completely omitted to mention how utterly, utterly brilliant Russell Roberts was as Titus Andronicus. You rock Russell.

And 1,2,3, we're back in the room.
The week has been frenetic.
One thing that awes me is competence. I mean, often, it's not just competence, it's brilliance, but unless you know the field, then all you can tell is that they're competent.
Which rather makes me feel stupid for the first paragraph, but hey, I've seen a lot of Wagger-Dagger, much of it by the RSC.

This frenetic week, I have watched Kevin hook up a friend's electronics in the same way that I might sort out my books. He made it all seem so easy. He explained things that I dimly remembered from Physics lessons that I barely understood at the time, in a way that showed he was fully conversant with the ideas. And yesterday and today, I have watched and listened as he swung into action, called in as the engineer, to fix a problem on one of the huge machines they design and build.
And yes, I am awed.

At work, we now have two Japanese volunteers and are expecting two more. We got them originally to model good working practice to one of the French students, and as anticipated, they arrived, almost straight off the 'plane, one whose luggage had been lost, they were shown the task and they set to it like a lean, mean, bush-whacking machines.
Apologies for that Sleepy.
The young French woman, although perfectly nice, has been asked to leave. She lay on the ground while the Japanese girls did the job. (Sorry again.) Imagine being sacked from your volunteer job.
Ho-hum.

I discovered a new oddity on Wednesday.
I went to buy petrol. I pulled up in what seemed like the shortest queue. You may or may not remember, that Richmond is located in some kind of petroleum sales time-warp and we can't self-serve. Sorry.
'You're on the wrong side,' said the assistant,
'But the woman in front of me was on this side,' I said, 'duh,' I thought,
'But her gas cap was on this side,'
'And..why does this affect anything?'
'Your gas cap is on the other side,'
'Right,'
'So you need to go round the other side,'
'That's why the gas pump has that very long hose on it, so that you can reach either side of the car...'
I lost. She held all the cards. Well, apart from common sense.

In one of the cities near here, Surrey, another two women have been shot. A man shot and killed his wife and has hospitalised his daughter. He has been charged with second degree murder. Kevin pointed out that in Canada, to go out and buy a gun and have it in your home, is kinda...intent really. But hey, they were only women.

5 comments:

Sleepy said...

If you 'volunteer' can you be sacked?
Also, is it possible for the French to volunteer for anything?

*Wanders off muttering about cheese and monkeys*

Schneewittchen said...

I know. Different approach to volunteering here, it's a kind of badge of honour. I guess la Française is more of the European frame of mind and just feels relieved. Well, I hope she does.

Whenever I'm tempted to think all the French are like a certain person at Mayhem, I remind myself that there was also Laurent.

Sleepy said...

Ahh... Laurent. Bless!

I still think I should have had a turn on the German Assistant.
G-d, she looked enthusiastic, if a little mental!

Kateryna said...

grr ... I posted then got an error message!


I am going to go lay down.

viva la french

Schneewittchen said...

Sleepy, I wish you had too, might've sorted her out.
Still, might freak her out if she found out what happened to her male stalker.

Kat, drives me nuts too when that happens. I find I can never recapture my original eloquence - well, in my mind anyroad.