A slight case of overblogging

You say goodbye?

lnr — Thu, 11 May 2017 12:47:35 GMT

And I say hello!

I've been having a bit of a friends-list tidy, with the intention of removing everyone who either no longer posts anything, or who also posts it to Dreamwidth.

Anyone still left who I've removed in error please let me know.

Time for migration

lnr — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 14:12:23 GMT

Livejournal's new Terms of Service (which I've had to agree to in order to read about them and post this) are not to my taste. I've been here a long time, and have quite an emotional attachment to it, being a permanent member for many years, but from now on I'll be posting on Dreamwidth instead.

For the meantime I think this LJ will stay open, although I'm also copying the old content over there. I've not yet decided whether to crosspost between the two yet. I might be back some time later, but I'm not sure.

If you're over there and I haven't found you yet do drop by and say hello or add me. I'll be gradually removing friends over here as I confirm they're over there (if that makes sense) - if I've already removed you from my LJ friends but your main account is still your LJ one then let me know and I'll re-add. I'll still be reading here to keep in touch.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Thoughts on abortion on International Women's Day

lnr — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 13:24:47 GMT

Larissa Nolan writes in the Irish Times about being a non-religious pro-life supporter in the current climate, and how she finds the rhetoric of some of the pro-choice supporters to be off-putting: The Repeal the Eighth march will backfire

However I find myself utterly baffled, because nearly everything she describes herself as wanting is totally compatible with a pro-choice point of view, and with the repeal of the 8th amendment in Ireland (and the similar laws in Northern Ireland).

"I do not judge anyone who has ever come to the decision that an abortion is the best choice for them at a given time. That is their own business, borne out of their own individual circumstance."

She thinks abortion should be

"a viable last-resort option in a desperate situation"

And details some of those situations:

"women suffering the grief of carrying a baby with a fatal foetal abnormality should not have to travel to end the ordeal."

"if that mother has six other children at home to look after, surely the only right answer is to prioritise her life in the case of an emergency"

But most shocking for me was:

"I understand that there are woman out there who, deep inside, actually do want to go ahead with the pregnancy, despite the emotional, physical and financial struggle of single parenthood – and despite the shame and the social stigma. [...] It is harmful for women not to allow them this."

No-one I know who is pro-choice considers that abortion should be forced upon anyone. What we should be doing is making sure that all women who become pregnant are properly supported in their choice as to what to do next. And that includes making it easier in terms of support for those who want to keep their children in difficult circumstance.

Finally what could be more pro-choice than this:

"It is grossly irresponsible to push your own beliefs and agenda, whatever they may be, on anyone who finds themselves in a crisis pregnancy situation. It is a decision only they can make, as the only ones who have to live with it. It is not you and your political ideology that could be left with a lifetime of psychological damage."

I think overall she makes a very strong case for repealing the 8th amendment.

Complaint about the number 18 bus

lnr — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 09:42:17 GMT

Sometimes cycling to work is Not Fun.

To: cambridge.enquiries@stagecoachbus.com Good morning, As I was cycling to work this morning I was overtaken by the number 18 bus in a manner which was frightening and frankly dangerous. I was cycling along Lensfield Road from the Catholic Church junction towards Trumpington Street, and as I passed the Chemistry Department I became aware of the bus behind me. The bus very closely sat behind me for 50 to 100 metres as I repeatedly checked over my shoulder for safety. Ideally I wanted to be able to signal, in order to turn right at the roundabout, but there was no space to do so safely. In the end I very carefully pulled into the kerb and stopped, and the bus passed me. I'm afraid I was unable to get more details of the bus, but it was a double-decker and turned left at the roundabout with Trumpington Street. Please could you: * identify the driver concerned * ensure that they are properly aware of the need to give cyclists plenty of room, and to wait further back if there is not room to overtake * determine whether this is a general lack in driver awareness * if necessary arrange for more training for this driver or all drivers * let me know what you have done I was very shaken by the manoeuvre, and as I am a confident cyclist I dread to think how much it could have scared someone with less experience. Yours faithfully, Eleanor Blair

Edit: see comments for their response

Work, and reviews

lnr — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 11:41:59 GMT

So, in October 2015 it was suddenly announced that there was to be a review of IT in the Engineering Department. This was met with some hostility, since we had in fact only fairly recently been reviewed by the previous Head of Department, but still, it went ahead, there were lots of surveys and interviews, and although we'd originally been told it would be ready around July it was finally published in October 2016.

The conclusion of the IT Review was that there was a perceived need for some Organisational Change, and they announced in late October that they had employed a Change Manager to produce a business case for the changes, and this would go to the Academic Committee (in a fortnight!) to decide. Obviously this was too short a timescale, and he asked the committee for more time, intending to produce a business case by January. Then in early December we had an email setting out a timetable:

Mid March - briefing paper summarising changes, and open meeting with staff
March 2017 onwards - formal consultation
Mid May onwards - implementation
Mid July onwards - Concluding the change period, and next stages.

So we've kind of been ticking over in complete limbo since then, although one colleague has quit and another is actively applying for jobs. We suddenly got some more rather unexpected news today though - the Change Manager has quit. He's working out his 2 weeks notice, and will hand over the business case next week. You couldn't make it up. I'm trying not to even speculate what the hell this means for us in practice.

Happy New Year

lnr — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 15:18:52 GMT

What is the state of the lnr?

Had a wonderful Christmas at mum and dad's with Steph, Mike and the three Snape/Reader cousins. We had a shopping day out with just me, mum and Steph as a treat for us two - complete with lunch and cocktails. And a lovely long muddy walk over the hill on the other side of the river where we found two actual minecart containing coal and iron ore which very much impressed the Minecraft fans. The theatre trip which was a present for me and Mike ended up cancelled due to one of the other members of the audience being taken ill just before the start of the show, and the performance being too delayed to be able to go on - but we did have a pleasant evening out nevertheless. Pleasant chilled out New Year once we got back - with a very wet walk on New Years Day. We're off to Em's at the weekend to meet the littlest cousin, who is 4 months old, and we're expecting to see Mike's side of the family before the end of the month.

I had my biannual eye-test in late December and got new glasses last Friday - primarily for VDU work but I'm trying wearing them full time since they do seem to make everything a bit clearer (my long-sightedness has increased a little). Mike and Matthew both had eye tests yesterday, and both need new glasses too! Though Mike's will really just be for the computer.

I'm back at work today after Christmas and the New Year. Work continues stressful due to the Review and we're now told if the Plans for Change are approved we'll be told what they actually are in March and then Consulted and there will be Implementation between May and July, and we don't have much idea what they'll actually want to do, or what difference it will make to our jobs, and also can't really make any sort of strategic decisions in the meantime. We plod on and grumble. I'm making the most of it being a normally short day where I don't need to dash home and taking a long lunch break :)

Tomorrow Matthew will be back at Rainbow and we'll start getting back into normal routines. We're finalising the application for his school place which needs to be done by the 15th. Applying for Shelford and Stapleford, which are our catchment and closest schools respectively. The next closest is 2.7 miles away so not really plausible. Both are good schools, and both seem nice from visiting, but given Shelford is a church school and we're not religious I rather suspect we'll be going to Stapleford.

Health wise I'm doing pretty well on the Sertraline, and have an appointment at the parathyroid clinic in February, which hopefully won't have anything too worrying to say (my parathyroid hormones are slightly elevated but nowhere near as bad as before). I've got a dodgy right knee that I really should take to the GP though, and have had a mild headache most of the time for about a fortnight which also probably needs looking at (and frankly I could do to at least stop putting on weight and preferably lose some, and to sort out my bladder control issues too which I assume is post-pregnancy/birth related). I feel like a little bit of a wreck, but at the same time not actually ill :) The mental health people I tried to self-refer to for counselling sent me a letter about a month later saying they'd contact me soon, but I've heard nothing since.

And technology wise I finally got a reconditioned replacement for my Samsung Galaxy s4 mini from the insurers just before Christmas but it's a bit rubbish (poor battery, reboots a lot, won't USB mount, still had some of the previous owner's data on it!?!) so I've sent the insurers an email asking for assurance they've properly destroyed the broken one, and seeing if they can come up with something a bit better. It's fairly moot though as it's only going to be my back up phone from now on, as I've bought a new Samsung Galaxy A3 2016 to replace it. Slightly bigger, rather faster, more recent version of Android, and I'm happy with it so far (it only arrived yesterday to be fair :). I've transferred my number onto the smaller sim in the new phone, so am easily contactable again, and can send text messages without SHOUTING all the time. Our landline is being intermittently very crackly, so the mobile or email or Facebook or Whatsapp are all better ways to reach me.

Despite the fact LJ is now all hosted in Russia I have no immediate plans to move, so you'll still find me here too :)

More virgin

lnr — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:37:44 GMT

12:21:21
Eleanor Blair:
Hello, I wish to complain that I still have not received this months' bill by email. Despite a chat a week ago, where the agent said my address had been successfully updated (though he could not tell me what from)
[You're chatting with Rafat.]
12:21:40
Rafat:
Hi Eleanor
12:21:56
Eleanor Blair:
Good morning
12:22:04
Rafat:
Good Morning
12:22:26
Rafat:
I am sorry for the bad experience however I will send you a copy bill on your email address.
12:23:00
Eleanor Blair:
Have you any idea what the problem is?
12:23:13
Eleanor Blair:
Is there some setting which I have got wrong which means they're not being sent?
12:23:29
Eleanor Blair:
I can see them online - I just never get a notification
12:23:52
Rafat:
Please do not worry, I will find out the details for that :)
12:23:59
Rafat:
To proceed further I would like to know that whether I am chatting with the registered account holder?
12:24:04
Eleanor Blair:
Yes, you are
12:24:36
Rafat:
Thanks for the information
12:24:43
Rafat:
Please wait while I check your account details
12:25:09
Eleanor Blair:
OK
12:26:52
Rafat:
Thanks for waiting
12:27:34
Rafat:
I confirm that ebilling is active and you must receive a bill on the account email address however please help me with the email address which you want to keep on the account.
12:27:58
Eleanor Blair:
eleanorb@gmail.com - the same address I confirmed last week, and which was set as my contact address in May
12:28:36
Eleanor Blair:
I have never received a bill to that address, and I have checked my spam folders, I do receive other Virgin emails to that address (eg confirming my request for a speed upgrade)
12:29:23
Eleanor Blair:
Can you confirm if there is another address on the account?
12:30:03
Rafat:
Please help me with your current address?
12:31:24
Eleanor Blair:
I just told you. eleanorb@gmail.com
12:31:42
Eleanor Blair:
Or do you mean street address?
12:32:01
Rafat:
Yes please :)
12:32:25
Eleanor Blair:
52 Macaulay Avenue, Great Shelford, CB22 5AE
12:33:04
Rafat:
Perfect!!!
12:33:14
Rafat:
the above address match the records.
12:33:52
Rafat:
the bill dated 6/12/2016 is of £42.06
12:34:18
Rafat:
Please wait while I send you a copy bill on the above email address.
12:34:35
Eleanor Blair:
But why did I not get one already?
12:35:52
Rafat:
the system is updated fine and it is due to some technical error, I request you to have a word with our technical support team for that .
12:36:12
Eleanor Blair:
Can you give me a contact email address for them?
12:36:23
Rafat:
Yes ofcourse :)
12:36:34
Rafat:
To chat with our Technical Support team, please visit:
http://www.virginmedia.com/contact

Select Broadband service and then 'Service Fault' option.
Here you will get an option to chat with our Technical team.
12:36:41
Rafat:
Can I help you with anything else today?
12:36:53
Eleanor Blair:
Thank you. That's all thanks, just give me a second to save this transcript.

Things

lnr — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 13:35:00 GMT

A short list of things

My mum's gall bladder is safely removed, hopefully good riddance
My phone has died again, and is on its way to Giffgaff to hopefully be fixed under warranty
I have a startlingly old-fashioned dumb-phone to keep me in calls and texts in the meantime - usual number
Am considering buying a new phone in the New Year anyway
I've booked the eye test Specsavers have been reminding me about since March - now only £7.50 instead of a tenner :)
I dyed my hair purple, coincidentally the same shade as 10 years ago, in just the week people are comparing old and new photos - it doesn't look quite as bright as it did on bleached hair of course
The Christmas tree is up and we have some lights in the garden too at Matthew's request, and a decorated office door at work
I have printed out the Christmas card list, ready to start writing cards, late as usual
I *think* I just did the last bit of present shopping, I gave in and did it online, couldn't face the shops

Any phone recommendations welcomed - current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S4 mini, and I like the size and the general look and feel and so on. I'd like something with a little bit more power (mostly for Pokemon Go). Looking to spend around £200 again sim-free, or find something on contract for around £15 a month since that's roughly what the Samsung has worked out as over 24 months (including a fiver a month on 500MB of data, and the occasional top-up for calls and texts).

And if you'd like a Christmas card and are not on my usual list then drop me a line with your address!

Cycling redux

lnr — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 16:42:18 GMT

Oh and here's the video we took of Matthew on his bike:

Virgin Media

lnr — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 16:39:22 GMT

Is it just me or is this bafflingly hopeless?

16:11:05 Eleanor Blair:Hi there,
[You're chatting with Ayub.]
16:11:19 Ayub:Hi Eleanor!
16:11:25 Ayub:How can I help you today/
16:11:26 Eleanor Blair:I've realised that although I can see my bills online I never seem to get an email notification
16:11:43 Eleanor Blair:I've checked my spam folders, and there's nothing relevant
16:12:09 Eleanor Blair:I have an email telling me I requested the upgrade to 70Mbps - so emails go get through - but nothing for my bills
16:13:11 Ayub:Let me check the account details for you and let you know. Can you please confirm if I am chatting with the registered account holder?
16:13:19 Eleanor Blair:Yes I am the account holder
16:13:47 Ayub:Thanks for the confirmation!
16:14:00 Ayub:Please stay connected while I check the account details and get back to you.
16:14:11 Eleanor Blair:OK
16:16:56 Ayub:Thanks for the confirmation!
16:17:13 Ayub:Thanks for your patience**
16:17:40 Ayub:I would like to inform you that the free upgrade to 70mb is already been added to your account.
16:18:13 Eleanor Blair:I am aware of this, I can look at my bills online, I just don't get email notifications.
16:18:36 Eleanor Blair:I want to know what address you send them to, or if I've somehow turned them off and if so can you turn them back on.
16:19:45 Ayub:Can you please help me with your email address?
16:19:52 Eleanor Blair: [my gmail address]
16:21:11 Ayub:Thanks!
16:21:20 Eleanor Blair:Apparently my Virgin Media Mail address is [virgin address] - but I don't use this, the gmail one is set as my contact address, and I think the virgin one is set to forward to gmail too.
16:22:01 Eleanor Blair:I've just tested and I can send email from work to my virgin media address and it reaches me at gmail.
16:22:37 Ayub:I have added this email address on your account now which is [my gmail address]
16:22:48 Ayub:You will get notification on this email address.
16:23:00 Ayub:Is there anything else I can help you with?
16:23:12 Eleanor Blair:Why did I not previously, when that was set as my contact address in May?
16:24:50 Ayub:I would like to inform you that on your account this email address was not set that is why you were not getting notification, however I have set the new email address as you requested.
16:25:31 Eleanor Blair:Ok, thanks, but do you have any idea *why* it was not set? Given I have a message from May thanking me for setting it up?
16:26:47 Eleanor Blair:Oh well, I don't suppose it really matters so long as I get bills in future.
16:27:01 Eleanor Blair:Is it possible to send me a confirmation email reflecting this change?
16:29:58 Ayub:I am sorry we do not have access to send email however I can confirm that there was another email address and now I have changed as you gave me the new email address.
16:30:25 Eleanor Blair:Can you confirm what the old email address was?
16:31:05 Eleanor Blair:I'm not aware of giving you any other address than my gmail one and the virginmedia one you allocated me, and I have not been receiving the bills to either of those.
16:31:48 Ayub:I am sorry I have deleted the old one so I am unable to confirm now but it was by your name.
16:32:04 Ayub:Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with?
16:32:57 Eleanor Blair:Not right now, thank you, I'll be in touch again if I don't receive a notification for December's bill

Exciting new things

lnr — Tue, 29 Nov 2016 14:29:54 GMT

On Saturday Matthew learned to ride his bike! He's been having a go on his pedal bike periodically since June, and was feeling a lot better balanced when holding him recently, so on Saturday we tried letting go for more than a brief second, and he was off! He had several goes on the way to the park and on the way back he happily rode several hundred metres all by himself. Absolutely brilliant.

And on Sunday Mike and I went to an *actual gig*. Terrorvision at Koko in Camden. This involved Matthew's first time with a babysitter - which was in the form of a sleepover at his former childminders, and being dropped off at home afterwards. We had an absolutely brilliant time - they played the whole of the Regular Urban Survivors album (it was a 25th anniversary tour) and then another set with loads of favourites, including Pretend Best Friend, Alice What's the Matter, and finished with Oblivion. Despite a dodgy knee I bounced my socks (well, tartan tights) off. And they finished 5 minutes before my alarm for the "We must go now or we'll miss the train", which was just perfect timing really. Tax the Heat as support were pretty good too, and we arrived before they started, so all in all it couldn't have gone much better. And despite tears when we left him Matthew had a lovely time at Hania's too - so it's all good.

Yay!

Things

lnr — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 21:38:07 GMT

Sertraline dose at 50mg a day confirmed by rather nice Dr O'Leary, who wants me to come back in a fortnight to check I'm OK, and has given me a leaflet on the local (self referral) therapy options. I mentioned that I'd heard depression and low thyroid function are sometimes linked, and he said that since I *am* responding to the Sertraline that's not very likely to be the cause of it in my case, but that he may as well test. He said he'd also check calcium levels, so I mentioned the parathyroid issues from a few years back and he's also going to check parathyroid levels. So back in a week for blood tests with the nurse too. Since it's half term I'll take Matthew, will do him good to see non-scary needles not hurting mummy.

Matthew's pre-school photo proofs were finally available yesterday, and on review one of them was nice enough to get prints done. Though I've gone the route of ordering a digital image from the photographers with a licence for personal use (though they retain the copyright), and ordering some prints from Photobox. I should get round to getting some other prints done too as it's a while since we did any.

And the IT Review at work is officially published today! The day after we met the person who will be in charge of managing the changes needed to implement it, without anyone saying a word about the fact that's what was going to happen. Proposing a reorganisation which should be neutral as to staff numbers, but it all has to go through the University's organisational change management processes and more due consultation and so on and so forth. So we're still very wait-and-see and still fairly cynical, but it's not as bad as it could have been. It's online here: http://www.hr.eng.cam.ac.uk/2016-it-review (not sure if that link is valid outside the University).

And I've just spend a pleasant evening pootling about with Mike in our little Minecraft work playing with making my redstone powered secret doors work better. Now at least you can always get *out* of the secret room :)

Dear Eleanor

lnr — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 09:29:58 GMT

Stagecoach replied:

Thank you for your e-mail below.

Firstly, I must apologise that you have encountered an issue with the number 10 service on Saturday 15th October 2016.

Unfortunately, the service in question was unable to operate due to a passenger being very ill on the bus which, resulted in the driver being unable to continue due to health and safety reasons.

With regards to MyBusTripp App, this is a third party app and we have not responsibility as to the information which is or is not provided. Stagecoach has just started a new app with live information. To down load this please go to your app store and type in stagecoach app.

As the disruption to the service were circumstances beyond our control I an unable to honour your request for compensation on this occasion.

Please accept my sincere apologise for the disruption in the service and I hope any future travels on our services are trouble free.

I'm not sure how I was supposed to know about their app (it's not obviously advertised anywhere), and they don't say whether it's any better at distinguishing not-running buses from no-live-data buses.

Dear Stagecoach

lnr — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 15:01:25 GMT

Subject: Missing number 10 bus on Saturday

Dear Stagecoach,

On Saturday we attempted to get a bus from Bottisham to the City Centre after a day out at Anglesey Abbey, intending to then get a Citi 7 home to Great Shelford. We were rather early for the 16:04 service outside Bottisham village college, but were happy to wait for 20 minutes for the bus as there was a bench and it was a pleasant day, if starting to get cold. We used the MyBusTrip app to double check the time it was due, and saw that there was no live running information available, but were not duly concerned.

Some time after 16:04 we concluded the bus was probably not coming, and called the Traveline number on the bus stop, only to be told that they had no information other than the live running information in the app, and that I'd need to talk to Stagecoach to find out if the bus was actually running late or cancelled, but that you would not be open until Monday.

As this is an hourly service and we were already getting cold we gave up and called a taxi. We expected to pay £12.20 for two dayrider plus tickets. Instead I spent about 50p on two phonecalls and £28 in taxi fare, and have been completely put off from attempting days out by bus ever again.

Please could you inform me:

- what happened to the number 10 bus
- why the MyBusTrip app cannot tell the difference between a cancelled service and a running service with no live running data
- how people are supposed to find out about cancelled services at the weekend
- whether you would be willing to compensate us for the additional cost to our day out

I look forward to hearing from you,

Eleanor Blair

We did actually have a lovely day out, but it was *rather* more expensive that we'd anticipated. And the thai curry we ordered for takeaway when we got home was reasonably tasty, but a little late, a lot cold and very overpriced too.

Out of Sertraline error, redo from start

lnr — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 09:13:26 GMT

Stopped Sertraline 22nd Sept, mood crash 6th October, and continued bad over weekend, so on Monday I booked an appointment online for Thursday morning. Or I thought I did, got to the GP today to find I must have failed to click the button, not on system. But they're doing me a prescription for the meds and have rebooked me for a week's time - and the medical centre pharmacist rang me up to double check too. Of course after I left it occurred to me it didn't actually have to be with that *particular* doctor (the GP who I've been seeing about my depression retired over the summer, so I don't have a new regular one yet), but a week is probably OK to give the meds time to start to have an effect maybe? I can always ring up if I need one sooner.

Otherwise Matthew has *completely* settled into pre-school and never cries when I leave him any more, and I still find this astonishing every time I leave :) We've been having fun threading conkers on strings, and doing lots of painting and playdough. Work is quiet, *still* waiting to hear the results of the IT review, which the Academic Committee finally saw last week. I'm listening to more music which is good, playing pokemon which gets me out of the house for a nice walk round the village in the evening, looking forward to seeing a couple of NCT group friends tomorrow and one of Matthew's pre-school friends is having a halloween party soon which should be fun too.

All gone!

lnr — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 10:53:42 GMT

Took my last Sertraline last night. I slowed the tapering down a bit over the summer, but I've been on 50mg every other day since we got back from holiday and I'm doing OK - hopefully will continue to do so! I'll be watching out for wobbliness the next few weeks.

Matthew is settling into pre-school and work have confirmed they don't actually need to do the full flexible working request thing in order to change my hours. It's a bit of a mad dash, and I won't get my Thursday mornings off to myself which I was kinda looking forward to, but I think it will work. Two days in a row now we've had Matthew let me leave without clinging and tears, so I've been very impressed. We had a lovely time at the park afterwards yesterday, though we're doing a lot of quiet telly watching in the afternoons as he's pretty tired.

And we just had a lovely weekend in the Forest of Dean - Matthew loved playing with granny and grandad (favourite games involved rather a lot of running round the living room). On Saturday we visited Dewstowe Gardens which has some amazing grottos/tunnels, and the Caldicot Castle which was full of medieval re-enactors. We watched some dancing and Matthew was thrilled to have a go at archery (with help from mummy too). We didn't manage to hit the target but we did get a couple of arrows to go impressively far. The bow was bigger than he was! And on Sunday we had a lovely explore of Puzzlewood, before Mike and I sneaked off for a wedding anniversary lunch at the pub and Matthew took granny and grandad to the park and out for an icecream. Sounds like they had a lovely time :)

I'm sure there was something else I was going to talk about but I've completely forgotten it :)

A week passes :)

lnr — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 13:12:31 GMT

So, in Matthew's first week of pre-school he cried *after* I left on Tuesday, not at all on Wednesday (and greeted me with "I didn't cry this day" when I picked him up), and when I tried to leave on Thursday, but in each case he got over it more quickly and really enjoyed himself - going for a lie down on the sofa apparently helped. Today he cried again when I tried to leave, but I preempted it a little by suggesting he go straight for a lie down, and he let me go without more protest :)

Friday we had a nice mummy day with Kreepie Krawlies and lunch at the deli, and on Saturday we visited the village fair (Fun Weekend) at Little Shelford and Matthew spent some of his pennies on the stalls and wasn't interested at all in the falconry display but did want to know when the new playground equipment they're raising money for was going to arrive (is it here now?). It was a bit soggy but the rain had let off a bit by then so we had quite a nice time. Sunday was glorious though and we spent most of it up at Wandlebury and the Gog cafe, and picked lots of blackberries on the Roman Road.

First day of playgroup

lnr — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 21:15:06 GMT

Matthew went to Rainbow! We went there on foot/balance bike, and arrived 10 minutes or so early so hung around outside and said hello to a few familiar people. Once we went in we found where to hang his bag and coat, where to put his snack and lunch, and who to sign in with, and I stayed and played until 9:30 before gently extracting myself to say bye bye with a kiss.

I pottered off for a restorative cuppa at the Deli, then hit the new charity shop (in the former bike shop) and bought a greetings card, a battered 7in single, a Roald Dahl book, a Thomas floor jigsaw and a practically brand new pair of lace up DM shoes - for a sum total of £12. Then I went home and pottered about sorting out photos from my phone (very overdue), and had some lunch.

Around 12 I got a notification on my phone of a voicemail - our signal is very erratic! It was Rainbow calling to say he'd been quite upset (and cross) for a while, but that he'd now gone to sleep, and they'd see how he was when he woke. I rang them back and he'd woken up again and was just about to settle down for his lunch. He had a much happier afternoon and when I walked over to pick him up he ran over with a big grin when he saw me, but was happy to try and play more and show me what he'd been doing and said he was going to come and play again tomorrow. We shall see how he is in the morning! He said the best bit was the toy digger in the garden.

We picked up an icecream on the way home for a snack, and enjoyed some telly and his new jigsaw and some dancing to my new record (which skips a bit), and had pizza and garlic bread for tea, before mummy and daddy watched some ancient Doctor Who (there's no cycling on today until too late) and then played some Minecraft. Matthew had got us back into it rather :)

More childcare

lnr — Mon, 05 Sep 2016 14:12:21 GMT

So in my last post I said I thought I'd *finally* found someone for the short term to look after Matthew after pre-school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from next week. (I've got the rest of this week off for settling in purposes). And she was coming to meet us on Friday. Guess who didn't show up on Friday and hasn't replied to my email since? She always did seem a bit reluctant (and expensive). I guess she really *didn't* want it.

Instead I've had a chat to the pre-school and to work, and I've put in a flexible working application to change my hours temporarily from 7.5 each on Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday to 7.5 Monday and 5 each on Tues/Weds/Thurs, and hopefully work will agree since it's the same number of hours just re-arranged a bit. He'll be doing three full days of pre-school instead of 2.5 and I'll drop him off and pick him up, so at least he doesn't have any more people to get used to!

Now work just have to *agree* to it, but my colleagues are OK with me just getting on and working that pattern in the meantime, given I'm employed as an Officer and it's generally the policy that we work the necessary hours to get the job done and I can actually do some aspects of my job better for being in on more days anyway. Hopefully HR will be fine, and it'll just be a case of hammering out details.

Cautiously looking forward to his first day tomorrow!

Other things

lnr — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 15:45:29 GMT

Amy's graduation/birthday party was lovely - friends, cocktails, cake, dancing to cheesy 80s nonsense with like minded people, dressing up and getting to be a goth for the evening :) I took lots and lots of photos of the dance floor which are mostly awful, though one or two look like they have really cool filters applied. I failed to get any decent photos of my with my Siouxsie wig on which don't contain other people's small children, but did take a selfie with my own purple hair and one which Matthew photo-bombed. Nailed it?

Right now I have a box of dates brought back from Algeria by Hania. She had to cut them from the branches for me to fit the box, and they're still on little twigs. They are *amazing*.

And relax?

lnr — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 13:47:50 GMT

It's been a funny old summer. Since I last posted we've spent 5 weeks without a childminder - one of those was on a fabulous family holiday to celebrate mum's birthday, but the others we've muddled through with Mike taking some days off and me taking others - ending up with me working just one day last week! During that time I've been increasingly desperately looking for childcare for when Matthew starts pre-school next week. This week he is back at Hania's for today and tomorrow and I think I may have *finally* found someone, though she's expensive and definitely only wants to do this for the short term as that many fixed hours makes an awkward dent in her availability for full-time jobs. We meet her on Friday anyway :)

Anyway, despite that stress, we did indeed have a brilliant week away at the start of August - we were staying in an amazing hobbity house in Somerset, within view of Glastonbury Tor. We had some lovely days out at the beach and Wookey Hole and we visited Em in her lovely house and had afternoon tea in the garden. We had a fab lunch out on Mum's birthday and a BBQ in the garden in the evening - there were lots of presents and cards and singing of happy birthday and both light up LED balloons and giant ones spelling 60 and it was a really lovely day. Mike and I took some long walks after Matthew was in bed and saw owls and deer and BADGERS in the lanes around the house. And we all enjoyed the hot tub in the garden and the swimming pool for guest use just up the lane.

The exciting news since then though is that I'm once again an auntie, with a brand new baby niece. Her name is Lillian Grace (after great-grannies on both James and Em's side) and she's beautiful, and I hope to get a chance to gurgle at her over Skype before very long. I suspect we shall be visiting Somerset again before too many months have gone!

Other than that the summer has contained lots of parks - especially Coleridge Rec with its splash pad and "wolf slide" and the ever popular ice cream van. Mike and Matthew had a trip to the zoo, but I don't think Matthew and I have managed anything more exotic than an afternoon at Funky Funhouse and a visit to the children's fair on Parker's Piece. There's been lots of sunshine and we even put up the tent as a den in the garden and had a barbecue on the firepit this weekend for the first time in a vary long time!

I'm taking Tuesday and Wednesday off next week to help settle Matthew in to Rainbow. He'll be going 9-3 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (when we're both at work) and 9-12 on Thursdays - so I'm going to have to find a way to amuse myself those mornings. I'm thinking of some refresher driving lessons so we can consider occasionally hiring a car. If we get all organised with childcare we're hoping to have a weekend over in Lydney to visit Evan and Gina before the end of September - and then possibly up to Mirfield at the beginning of October for a bike ride if we're lucky.

I'm *so* looking forward to once we're actually settled into a new routine with this term, and then I can relax? Yeah, right :)

Phew

lnr — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 13:21:38 GMT

It is *amazing* how much more relaxed I feel now our mail server is working again!

Boring technical detail:

Monday
Network has huge problems at weekend
Mail server's actual mail delivery (exim) and imap location (dovecot) is on an external disk, mounted via iscsi
External disk ends up mounted read-only so mail hangs horribly
Reboot machine
Machine is a virtual machine - normally these come up pretty quickly, but in this case there's a big timeout related to the iscsi disk and it takes ages
We think it's hung so we go look at the virtual hosts
The actual main virtual machine maintainer is busy with other things, so we try muddle through
It doesn't seem to be running on any of the virtual hosts, so we pick one and start it
All seems well briefly, then things start going horribly wrong
Turns out we ran two of it at the same time and it has trashed /var - time to reinstall
Reinstall base system using kickstart, and then I try get the actual mail servers running
We have a copy of /etc from the old machine, so I rsync this across to the new one
Start to get services back up, then reboot, machine reboots in emergency mode
The network falling down again for a couple of hours in the middle of this did *not* help
Give up and go home
Tuesday
Log in at emergency boot screen and look through the journal
I've definitely upset it with that rsync - now it can't mount half its file systems at all
Unpicking whatever damage I've just done is going to be difficult
Start over and reinstall base system again
Decide to mount disc over NFS this time rather than iscsi
Mount disc, set up servers (yesterday's notes really help)
Dovecot seems to be working OK now!
Fix some symlinks so mail will actually deliver (oops I'd caused lots of bounces)
Realise disc is mounted NFS 4
Change it to mount the disk NFS 3 - it's all nearly sorted, but there's something weird going on, try a reboot
Machine doesn't come back up. Oh.
John helps get it partially up with some fiddling of boot options and chroot (this is magic to me)
Fix fstab to not try mount the disk until the network is up - reboot now succeeds
Both exim and dovecot now start up happily, mail is being delivered and people can log in
Trouble is once you've logged in mail clients stall "waiting for server" if you try view a folder
Network maintenance is due at 5pm so shut down and go home
Wednesday
Boot machine up, wonder why dovecot didn't start, til I remember we disabled it on purpose
Fiddle with dovecot options, fiddle with NFS options
Turn on debug logging, but it doesn't help much
Bizarrely I can *sometimes* view folders and messages, but even then it's very very very slow
We narrow it down to almost certainly being a locking issue
Resort to strace - which reveals it's stalling on fctrl() calls
Tell dovecot to use flock and mount the disk nolock - suddenly everything is working again!
Hurray!

I still have a few bits of housekeeping to sort out. And this all needs to be properly documented and in some cases packaged, and added to kickstarter post-install scripts. But it's good to be back. And boy have I learned a lot in 3.5 days!

Race for Life

lnr — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 11:34:01 GMT

So I signed up to race a 5K in aid of Cancer Research, and a team of us at work are also raising money for Bloodwise, who work with blood cancers in particular. If you'd like to you can donate to via text message:

or sponsor me online at:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lnrblair (for Cancer Research)

or our team at:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Rachel-Rocks (for Bloodwise)

We're running to support our colleague Rachel F who is still being treated for Leukaemia (though she hopes to be back at work soon) but also in my case for Rachel C aka rmc28 (who is thankfully in recovery!), and for all my family and friends who have ever been affected by any sort of cancer. I don't much like the PINK of Race for Life, or the combative tone of "fighting" cancer, but I thoroughly support the idea of research towards better treatments and support for those who are suffering.

I've not really done any sort of running before, but I've managed 5K while out doing a bit of practising, so hopefully I can do it on the day :)

A week in Wales

lnr — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 20:35:53 GMT

Friday: travel to Betws-y-Coed and settle into our cottage.
Saturday: walk up the river Llugwy past Swallow Falls, bus back, visit to playground after tea.
Sunday: day out in Conwy. Beach and pirates and castle. Missed last bus so taxi home.
Monday: train up Snowdon into the clouds and walk back down the Miners path. Fish and chips for tea.
Tuesday: walk up to Llyn Elsi above the village and visit to the miniature railway at the station.
Wednesday: day out in Llandudno - soft play, pier amusements, sandcastles on the beach, icecream.
Thursday: soggy boggy hike over the hill from Pont-y-Pant back to the Llugwy at Ty Hwll. Out for pizza in the evening.

And tomorrow we will go home. We've had a lovely time and done far more hiking than I thought - and surprisingly dry during it considering how much it has rained! Lots of visits to the rocks by the river, and lots of ice creams too. We'll miss the hills most of all though.

On the EU referendum

lnr — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 16:06:05 GMT

An old friend of mine called Dom spent his lunchbreak today writing a cartoon about the EU referendum, which I thought summed it up quite well, regardless of which side you're on. I asked if it was OK to post a transcription, and he agreed.

Transcription:

I live in the UK and my country is having this weird debate right now...
[image of UK map, and Dom with a UK flag]

There's this crazy monster bureaucracy called the EU and it's enormously expensive and makes laws that cause all sorts of trouble
[image of rampaging dinosaur]

So some people reckon we should leave it (obvious, you'd think)
[image of Leave campaigners]

But there's a catch... No nation is history has ever benefited from isolation
[image of Easter Island head]

So there's another bunch of people who believe we should remain because the benefits vastly outweigh the costs
[image of Remain campaigners]

So this debate must be fascinating, right? History in the making and all that? Well... nope. The two sides have spent the whole debate lying, making stuff up, and trying to scare the public. It's pretty sad.
[image of angry red faced person, Boris Johnson with a LOL placard, Darth Vader with an EU flag]

If these politicians could all just be ignored that would be great, but I still have to decide which way to vote...
[image of ballot paper with options Remain, Leave and Wut?! - with Wut?! crossed]

So for the last month I've been reading as much about the issues as I can
As far as I can see it comes down to these factors
[image of coffee and a computer]

* As an institution the EU is simply not good
[image of a row of mostly white men in suits, one of whom appears to be passed out]

* Leaving will definitely hurt our economy, but not because the EU makes us wealthy so much as because international perceptions of our EU membership are overwhelmingly positive
[images of Obama and a money bag]

* Trade deals aren't the issue. Even if new deals cost more it wouldn't be much
[image of money being exchanged between two hands ]

* None of the problems of immigration will be solved by leaving. We don't have too much immigration, just a lack of policy for helping the communities it affects
[image of a queue of people and a No Entry sign]

* Neither remaining nor leaving will stop TTIP, "save" the NHS or mean the end of bad laws
[image of an ambulance]

* Neither remaining nor leaving will prevent a recession if the Euro fails
[image of map of Italy with a parachute]

In the end the only thing I'm completely confident of is that the vast majority of the votes cast next week will be for the wrong reasons - people voting Remain because they think all the Leave supporters are racist UKIP supporters, or people voting Leave because they don't accept that in the modern world no nation is independent and national pride is not hurt by working together

In the end I've decided to vote Remain, but it's definitely not because they won the debate...
It's because making a huge change based on a debate like this would be CRAZY!
[image of emoticon not smiling, with tongue out]

In conclusion: This should not have been a referendum
[image of Kermit looking despairing with hand on face]