Gillian Polack's Blog, page 293
September 30, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-09-30T18:15:00
This is one of those days when I could be witty or I could pay bills. The first is beyond me and the second I really don't want to do.
I have tangled myself in the Sydney bus system no less than three times already (I need to remember that 501 is just as good as 500, but that they leave from different places) and managed to buy groceries. Coriander/lemon rice for dinner. Also tea with spices. And I have something to eat for Sunday lunch - the Writers' Centre isn't that close to anywhere with food, and every time I've taught there, students have hung around during lunchtime and plied me with questions. Which is great. But it does mean I need something portable and straightforward for lunch. Something that I can bring from Canberra, so I don't have to spend precious Sydneytime shopping for sandwich ingredients.
Maybe if I pack some clothes, I will find wit waiting at the bottom of a drawer? No. That's hard work. Instead, I'm going to do a bit of study and maybe a few words of novel, since my research has to be in travel condition, too. The trick with a big project, I suspect, is in never quite letting go, in getting a bit done every day, however unpropitious the day seems for research. This is the closest I get to wisdom today and the word 'unpropitious' is the closest I get to wit. I have a virus and no amount of work or packing or messages completed is going to make it go away. The wit will return when the virus goes - there's a rule that commands this.
I have tangled myself in the Sydney bus system no less than three times already (I need to remember that 501 is just as good as 500, but that they leave from different places) and managed to buy groceries. Coriander/lemon rice for dinner. Also tea with spices. And I have something to eat for Sunday lunch - the Writers' Centre isn't that close to anywhere with food, and every time I've taught there, students have hung around during lunchtime and plied me with questions. Which is great. But it does mean I need something portable and straightforward for lunch. Something that I can bring from Canberra, so I don't have to spend precious Sydneytime shopping for sandwich ingredients.
Maybe if I pack some clothes, I will find wit waiting at the bottom of a drawer? No. That's hard work. Instead, I'm going to do a bit of study and maybe a few words of novel, since my research has to be in travel condition, too. The trick with a big project, I suspect, is in never quite letting go, in getting a bit done every day, however unpropitious the day seems for research. This is the closest I get to wisdom today and the word 'unpropitious' is the closest I get to wit. I have a virus and no amount of work or packing or messages completed is going to make it go away. The wit will return when the virus goes - there's a rule that commands this.
gillpolack @ 2010-09-30T12:00:00
If anyone can get Drummoynewards Monday night, I would love to see you. I haven't emailed friends to ask if they want to see me because until now I didn't know my schedule.
I can also do brunch in town on Tuesday morning (near Central!).
The rest of my time is pretty full. I keep wanting to apologise for this, but it's the first time I've seen my cousins since I took ill and I'm getting to teach a subject I love at one of my favourite teaching venues. No apologies, then. Just this once.
Email me if Monday evening or Tuesday morning suits.
I can also do brunch in town on Tuesday morning (near Central!).
The rest of my time is pretty full. I keep wanting to apologise for this, but it's the first time I've seen my cousins since I took ill and I'm getting to teach a subject I love at one of my favourite teaching venues. No apologies, then. Just this once.
Email me if Monday evening or Tuesday morning suits.
September 29, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-09-29T22:01:00
My useful piece of information of the day is that there is actually a plant called Badasse frutescente. It appears to be of the pea family. If anyone knows anything about it, I'd love to find out more.
Yes, this is genuine research. Truly.
PS I found a picture! http://www.afleurdepau.com/Flore/cbla.htm Look under Dorycnie à cinq feuilles
Yes, this is genuine research. Truly.
PS I found a picture! http://www.afleurdepau.com/Flore/cbla.htm Look under Dorycnie à cinq feuilles
NSW Writers Centre, this weekend
Good news. The workshop I'm taking on Sunday (on using history in fiction, focussed on worldbuilding) is going ahead. There's space, should you still want to attend and haven't quite got round to it. Just visit the NSW Writers' Centre website (click here) and go for it.
It's not going to be a huge class, so it looks as if we ought to be able to discuss some quite specific needs writers have. It's also going to be a lot of fun.
Today my own worldbuilding is all about the Avignon Papacy, though my novel is mostly set in the interregnum period before it. The sad thing about this is that I remember the Great Schism and even bits about the Conciliar Movement, but I can't remember a single Pope joke. Yesterday I was looking at Templar commanderies in the south of France and I don't think I ever knew any Templar jokes. So, no Pope jokes or Templar jokes on Sunday. This is, of course, a matter of great sorrow to me.
It's not going to be a huge class, so it looks as if we ought to be able to discuss some quite specific needs writers have. It's also going to be a lot of fun.
Today my own worldbuilding is all about the Avignon Papacy, though my novel is mostly set in the interregnum period before it. The sad thing about this is that I remember the Great Schism and even bits about the Conciliar Movement, but I can't remember a single Pope joke. Yesterday I was looking at Templar commanderies in the south of France and I don't think I ever knew any Templar jokes. So, no Pope jokes or Templar jokes on Sunday. This is, of course, a matter of great sorrow to me.
September 28, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-09-28T16:11:00
I can see! Two minutes ago I wondered why the world was getting hazier and hazier. I washed my eyes with tapwater and lo, things are much better. The haze might have something to do with the five different sets of drops my eyes were generously given, in today's hospital visit.
At the end of all the drops and after very close experiences with far too many machines and implements of prodding, the uber-experte declared that my eyesight is now stable. Also that it's likely to remain so. And that I'm doing pretty well, really.
My eyesight can be preserved for many years, the not-quite-uber-but-still-senior doctor said. I do, however, need to see a specialist for as long as the specialist requires.
It's all much better than anyone thought in late January, when I lost bunches of vision. More has returned than expected and there's a good chance (if the rest of my body doesn't try to throw such a spectacular fit again) that it won't re-occur.
Now if I can get the all-clear for all the other things that went wrong in January (heart and kidneys and etc) I shall be dancing in the streets. Still, it's pretty good to know that as soon as I get new glasses (which will be when I discover a spare $800 - I am, as the specialists love to point out, *extremely* myopic) I shall at least be able to see the streets properly. My first port of call will be the optometrist who discovered what was wrong, to get a script for those new glasses.
I had a budget for the new glasses - they were just waiting for my eyes to be declared stable - they've been essential for ages - it's just that the budget got derailed recently, by still other circumstances beyond my control. Hopefully it will be un-derailed soon. Not knowing the number of a bus or if a person walking up to me is someone I know can be a bit of a pain.
From now until late October I have many more appointments and tests. The eyes, though, are clear! Well, they will be, as soon as those yellow drops are gone.
At the end of all the drops and after very close experiences with far too many machines and implements of prodding, the uber-experte declared that my eyesight is now stable. Also that it's likely to remain so. And that I'm doing pretty well, really.
My eyesight can be preserved for many years, the not-quite-uber-but-still-senior doctor said. I do, however, need to see a specialist for as long as the specialist requires.
It's all much better than anyone thought in late January, when I lost bunches of vision. More has returned than expected and there's a good chance (if the rest of my body doesn't try to throw such a spectacular fit again) that it won't re-occur.
Now if I can get the all-clear for all the other things that went wrong in January (heart and kidneys and etc) I shall be dancing in the streets. Still, it's pretty good to know that as soon as I get new glasses (which will be when I discover a spare $800 - I am, as the specialists love to point out, *extremely* myopic) I shall at least be able to see the streets properly. My first port of call will be the optometrist who discovered what was wrong, to get a script for those new glasses.
I had a budget for the new glasses - they were just waiting for my eyes to be declared stable - they've been essential for ages - it's just that the budget got derailed recently, by still other circumstances beyond my control. Hopefully it will be un-derailed soon. Not knowing the number of a bus or if a person walking up to me is someone I know can be a bit of a pain.
From now until late October I have many more appointments and tests. The eyes, though, are clear! Well, they will be, as soon as those yellow drops are gone.
September 27, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-09-27T14:51:00
The weather is changing and I'm dealing with it using coffee. Also by complaining. I've decided that I am outstandingly talented in complaining about incipient weather shifts. I checked with Melbournites and it's already raining there, so I might have to stop whingeing in a few hours.
This morning I was reading cartularies and was rather relieved that my Latin still goes the distance (just). This afternoon I intend to read the Miracle of William (and I do hope that the ass's hind leg play...
This morning I was reading cartularies and was rather relieved that my Latin still goes the distance (just). This afternoon I intend to read the Miracle of William (and I do hope that the ass's hind leg play...
September 26, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-09-26T18:59:00
Happiness is an afernoon listening to jazz in good company followed by a good dose of nineteenth century French books. My favourite of the books was put out by M. Fort, aine* of St-Pons, upon the request of the Prefect following advice from the Commission of Weights and Measures. The book was published in Thermidor an XIII. The Napoleonic weights and measures stuck, but fortunately the datings system didn't. 'Thermidor' is a frightfully ugly name for a month, I've always thought.
What this ...
What this ...
September 25, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-09-25T19:57:00
I'm back in the Middle Ages right now and looking at a single section of the Miracles of Nostre Dame. I've never actually examined it before, which is a bit bizarre. It's for the novel, which is even more bizarre. This afternoon I was looking at climate change in the Herault, for the same purpose. All my worlds are in collision. Well, maybe not quite all.
What I had forgotten (because the Miracles were really too late for me in my earlier incarnations) was that the William tale (and all the...
What I had forgotten (because the Miracles were really too late for me in my earlier incarnations) was that the William tale (and all the...
September 24, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-09-24T22:58:00
My typing is much better when I'm a little tipsy. The RSI doesn't get so much in the way.
Tonight was one of my nights with friends. We watched our 30s shorts (and are probably graduating to George Reeves and Tv superman next time) and two Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies.
I have stuff to do this evening and intend to watch Due South until I remember what that stuff is. Basil Rathbone and Due South belong to the same day, somehow.
Tonight was one of my nights with friends. We watched our 30s shorts (and are probably graduating to George Reeves and Tv superman next time) and two Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies.
I have stuff to do this evening and intend to watch Due South until I remember what that stuff is. Basil Rathbone and Due South belong to the same day, somehow.
September 23, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-09-23T19:31:00
I did my messages! Small miracles. Also, my day was redeemed because Paul Ewins sent me the little namething for my Ditmar. A day cannot be completely bad when you get to stick your name on a big block of Ditmar.
Also, I have some really, really cool round-table interviews coming up on Bibliobuffet. Watch this space.
Also, I have some really, really cool round-table interviews coming up on Bibliobuffet. Watch this space.
