Up late and planning to do nothing whatsoever on this Bank Holiday, apart from perhaps a little light tidying, and wishing you all a very happy (slightly belated) Easter.

The g-d’s friend Greta is off back to Bristol today (if she gets up in time), and I can get back to my solitary life. She turned out to be a much easier flatmate than I had feared ( Read more... )

Despite getting rid of the bulk of the family the other week, I have had number two g-d staying with me, while she sorts out a flat with her boyfriend. Oddly enough, this has been going pretty well. She sets out to work earlier than me, her presence ensures that I get up at a sensible hour, even though I'm not working again, and the place is kept ( Read more... )

The niece turned up, as promised, on New Year's Day, and we had a rather pleasant weekend together, despite slight resurgence of the virus-thing every time I got tired. She is just starting research for her dissertation (orientalist views of Egypt, I think), and I was able to pile her with books (Doughty, Burton, the catalogue from this year's ( Read more... )

The plane trip over was nightmarish, and had me vowing to use the ferry next time. Every time I fly it seems that security has become more elaborate, ludicrous and humiliating; this journey's innovation was a photograph taken at the start of the security process. This is checked against the traveller's face at the boarding gate, presumably to ( Read more... )