Whatever It Takes

[anteros_lmc]

Apologies, as usual, for being rather absent of late. The last few weeks have been a little challenging. The centre I've worked with for the last fourteen years, and which has been housed by various universities in that time, was finally closed by the institution hosting it and all staff were made redundant. The casualisation of UK higher education continues apace! I have a part time contact at another university, which is helping to keep the wolf from the door but isn't enough to make ends meet, so I've spent the last three weeks scrabbling around for consultancy contracts, projects etc which is infinitely more exhausting than actually doing a job. There's a few possibilities in the pipeline, which will hopefully come to something, but nothing definite yet.

As a result of all this nonsense I've been sadly neglecting our research, however I'm pleased to say that nodbear is forging ahead and the end is now in sight. Just two more chapters to complete and we'll have a full first draft more or less ready for submission. Huzzah!

Huzzah! also to our rugby team Glasgow Warriors who won the Pro12 League in Belfast last weekend. They are the first Scottish team ever to win a major trophy in the professional era which is quite an achievement. Despite lack of funds, we threw caution to the wind, bought our tickets and headed over to Belfast to see the team demolish Munster in fine style. It was an amazing weekend and worth every penny. Also Belfast is a lovely city with the friendliest people you could wish to find anywhere. I'd highly recommend it for a visit!



By the by, while scrutinising our finances the other day, partner worked out that, aside from the essentials, our main household expenditure is cats and rugby! I suppose there are worse things in life to spend your money on :}

Comments

[mylodon.livejournal.com]

I'd put 'rugby' amongst the essentials.

And we were so pleased for your boys.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I'd put 'rugby' amongst the essentials.
We used to put rugby among the essentials until we saw the price hike in our season tickets!

And we were so pleased for your boys.
Talk about winning in style!

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

Was that hike pre or post their Pro 12 victory?

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Post. However the prices have been fixed for the last two or three years and were ridiculously cheap so they were scheduled to rise regardless of whether they won or lost. They're still pretty low in comparison to other clubs though.

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

Cats and rugby... well, it could be a lot worse!

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

And as our cats are named after rugby players, we can kill two birds with one stone! That's probably the wrong metaphor...

[katriona-s.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear that you have such troublesome days with your job. And it seems to be quite... inappropriate to cut the budget for education in such way. Once the system is damaged it would take long time to recover it.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Yes I'm afraid the higher education sector is in a bit of a mess theses days. It's not quite as bad in Scotland but my main contract has been with an English university for the last couple of years. I'm glad to be shot of it in many ways, but I do need to find some more work to keep me going.

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

Fingers crossed that things pick up for you soon.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Thanks m'dear! I've got a few possibilities lined up so hopefully one of them will come off.