Moog's meanderings

I woke up this morning feeling awake, well rested and cosy in my bed. Autumn is very much upon us now, I looked out of the bedroom window and noticed that the leaves on a couple of the trees in our road are very definitely turning now. I love this time of year. The birds in the garden are getting through vast quantities of birdseed, I seem to be filling up the feeders all the time!! But it’s nice to see them enjoying our little urban garden.
When we first moved to Brum, I was disappointed at the variety of garden birds. When we lived in Swansea we had a large garden, with some big mature trees at the back. We frequently saw various tits (bluetits, great tits, coal tits, sometimes long tailed tits), finches (chaffinches and greenfinches), as well as a pair of nuthatches and we even had a treecreeper a few times and I saw a couple of goldcrests once or twice. Here it’s mostly sparrows, a few bluetits and the occasional greenfinch. But it’s still nice to see them enjoying the garden and the birdbath (may post a photo later) )

I decided this week that if I was going to have blog, I should really make an effort to update it more than I have been. It might help you to keep up with me, and it might help me to keep up with me!! Also, I log in reasonably often thinking that I will post, but then can’t really decide what to post about, or there are so many things I want to say but just can’t quite seem to articulate them, or it’s all so jumbled up that I don’t know where to start.
So, this is me making an effort to blog more often.
It’s wierd, this week is the first week I have been in the office (at Uni) every day. My beloved Institution has been taking up a lot of my time (and continues to do so to the point that there is not a single week that I will be in the office for a full 5 days between now and Christmas). This is the cause of some concern by certain members of the group, but there we are. I guess we’ll see over time whether or not it becomes a problem. The Institution is currently most frustrating thing in my life (now that I am no longer working in Manufacturing). The fact that I haven’t been off at meetings in London this week means that I have really had a chance to get on with some stuff. Probably not enough to satisfy the monthly report I have to submit to the Funding Company, but there we are. As I said yesterday, I do feel as though I have actually made the first step along the road to learning what this is all about. Until now I think I have been standing at the gate wondering whether or not to actually go in, and being terribly scared that if I did go in I would get lost and wouldn’t know which way to turn. But I think that once that first step is taken, things get easier. Well, let’s hope so!!!
Tonight my brother is coming over for supper. Hubby is away (as usual) and Sister-in-law happens to be away on business this week too, so I thought I’d invite him round. One of the best things about moving up to Brum was that my family are a lot closer. My Grandad lives within a couple of miles, and my Brother and his wife also live within a few miles. It’s great being able to see them regularly and be friends rather then just exchanging occasional random phone calls.

This week I feel as though I am making some progress. It’s not massive, probably stuff that the people funding my research think I should already have been able to do – it’s pretty basic! But it’s progress for me none the less. Maybe this thing could work out after all…
And I have even done my Japanese homework for tonight!! Today is definitely a good day )

I have just got back from the second lesson of my ‘Japanese Entry Stage 3′ course. I can’t believe that I am entering the 3rd year!! I wonder how long my ‘academic year’s resolution’ to do my homework each week will last??

Well, I suppose the question is really: Is Research Right for me? I’ve been working at the Uni for 2 months now (to the day). I don’t really feel as though I have achieved much. I know that 2 months is a fairly short time, but I thought that I would have spent that time getting up to speed on the techie stuff I need to know for the research, but instead I seem to have spent it running around organising things, trying to get around Health & Safety requirements for setting up experimental work in our lab, anything but actually getting familiar with the background to the work I need to do, or starting any of the work itself. I suppose in a way I am a bit afraid. I haven’t done anything technical for ages (since I was an undergrad), and don’t remember being very good at it back then. It’s interesting, but can I actually get a handle on it and pioneer new ways of optimising simulations??? It just doesn’t seem like me.
So, if you have any spare prayers for some guidance in some way, shape or form I’d be very grateful. I need a bit of confidence, and maybe some indication of whether I have done the right thing…

It seems as though it’s been a while since I had a chance to sit at home and do anything. It’s been a little bit hectic since just before Greenbelt, hence why no posts.
Greenbelt was fab! It was wonderful to catch up with Blonde & family, as well as the outlaws who joined us for the whole thing. It was a lovely opportunity to have a bit of space and time to reflect, as well as time to think about how to find that space when back at home again (much harder). I also have to congratulate fishsoup on her discussion/talk thing – very thought provoking.
Work is going ok so far.. I am not sure about this whole working full time thing though, I feel as though having had a few months to myself and get myself a bit sorted out that things are starting to get a bit out of control again… I think that I probably need to give it another month or so to see how it pans out though, things have been a bit strange over the summer because of holidays and things. The question is whether things will settle down when the new term starts or whether they’ll just get manic (or whether anything ever really settles down at all – maybe it’s just that anything in life is riddled with the unexpected, unplanned for complications that we seem to spend so much time coping with). This week I spent Tuesday-Friday at a conference. It was quite interesting, but I was glad to be back in my own bed last night!
Non-Work type stuff (ie The IET). I spent Monday in London at a meeting, and am off again for Monday & Tuesday for 3 meetings. You can tell the holidays are over!! Lots of committee papers to read
I love my profession, and I feel passionately that Engineering should be promoted and supported as the basis for so many other things – the infrastructures on which today’s society is built, the solutions to so many problems in the world (more efficient power generation, getting basic facilities such as water/sanitation to disaster areas, solutions to world environmental issues, etc.), and have done a lot to be involved and promote Engineering and input to the IET and IEE over the last 10 years. Now I need a break. I am tired with the committees, the lengthy processes and procedures, the paperwork, the ‘old school’ attitude. I realise that we need young people to change these things, but we need some fresh blood. I’ve been around too long and hear myself saying things like ‘we’ve tried that before and it didn’t work’. Well, I have one more year left to serve in my current role. As that finishes, I will automatically finish all my other voluntary roles (as they are related to my being in the main role). My plan is to have a complete break from it for a while… I wonder whether I will be asked to stay on to do anything as that time approaches??
Japanese I have decided to continue with ‘Entry Stage 3′. It seems a shame to give up having completed 1 & 2. I will have to try to make an hour a week to do the homework this year…. Hum. If it were January I guess I’d make it a New Year’s resolution. Perhaps we should have Academic Year New Year’s resolutions??
Everything Else Hubby is also home for the weekend – hurrah! We’re going to a BBQ this afternoon. It seems amazing that this particular event was arranged back in late Spring sometime, and now that the day has arrived it is a beautiful sunny September day, and forecast to stay that way! It’s to celebrate the birthday of one of my ex-colleagues who was a good friend while I was working in the mad manufacturing environment and I am looking forward to it.
Wierd problems with our net connection & my laptop abound. I bought a Taize album via the Sony Connect software that goes with my mp3 player. I have never had any problems with this in the past on my previous purchases. This time the download got a little way through then the software crashed. Since then they have re-activated the download but the same thing happened. I have uninstalled the software and installed a different version (as directed by the tech support), won’t do anything. In the mean time, I have started getting an error message from Windows about 10 minutes after I turn on the laptop. This also terminates my Wifi and therefore connection to the outside world. I have reset the laptop to factory settings and am currently re-installing. Hopefully this will fix the problem and I’ll be able to get that album that I have paid for???
Haven’t made it to Church for ages (unless you count Greenbelt) and am feeling a little bit as though I haven’t been at home. I think we need to catch up with local friends and get ‘grounded’ again. Part 1 of this plan is go to the evening service tomorrow… )