I Contain Platitudes

[steepholm]

I've not posted in the last few days for lack of matter and fear of repetition, but I'm looking in just to reassure you (I know you were worried) that I and mine are still well. I've actually been pretty busy with work, in fact, both teaching and research.

My teaching I'm doing, not via Zoom but Blackboard Collaborate Ultra - the hipster's choice. As for research, I've been continuing my "deep dive" into British views of Japan (and particularly Japanese children) during the Meiji period. This is all background for my projected book on British children's literature in Japanese popular culture. Not that I quite have a contract for that book yet, but the signs are promising. The reports on my proposal were both positive and constructive - which can't always be said of reader reports. Anyway, if it comes off it will keep me happily occupied for the next year or two.

Although... if it's not possible to travel to Japan it will be a lot harder, and I also wonder selfishly whether the research leave I'm due in autumn next year may fall victim to the inevitable retrenchment at British universities, where recruitment (especially from lucrative overseas students) may well crash if social distancing lasts much longer. No one's said anything of that kind yet, but my paranoia has a pretty good record in the gentle art of soothsaying.

On the domestic front, I'm still rather worried about Jessie. A couple of days ago, I walked into the living room to encounter something resembling a murder scene, with blood spatters on furniture, bookshelves, carpet... (Clearing it up gave me a lot more sympathy than I ever expected to have with axe murderers - the stuff really gets everywhere!) I thought that she must have picked at her eye wound, but in the 48 hours since I've become convinced that the blood is actually coming from her nose, and this morning I was able to obtain photographic proof, as she was sleeping.




Is this part of the healing process, or is something more serious going on?

On a more positive note, I've started growing my own shiso plants, with a view to getting an aromatic salad ingredient and a tasty garnish. But first they must run the gauntlet of my overwatering.


She Sows Shiso

Comments

[cmcmck]

But are they duck billed platitudes? :o)

The long desired trip to Latvia is almost certainly off after having worked up enough courage after many years to do it. :o(

[cyphomandra]

I have not yet cancelled any of the flights, hotel bookings etc I have for three weeks of conferencing and family holiday in Japan in mid September, but I really don’t think they’ll occur. I may try to postpone and make it entirely a holiday in the next year, but who knows?

I’m not sure about cat anatomy but humans have a nasolacrimal duct that drains tears down the nose and could drain blood. Is it just the same side as the surgery?

[steepholm]

It is the same side. That might explain it - thank you!

[strange_complex]

I also wonder selfishly whether the research leave I'm due in autumn next year may fall victim to the inevitable retrenchment at British universities

I have had this thought as well. I'm scheduled for leave from 31 January to 31 July 2021, and while nothing has yet been said I'm steeling myself for it being cancelled. Certainly, our university has already frozen all recruitment, and in Classics about 1/3 of our staff are currently on temporary contracts due to finish this summer. I can easily see those posts being left unfilled for next year, and the rest of us ordered to fill in the gaps. Even though the expertise doesn't really match up, and I don't think that merely cancelling the two semester-long leaves scheduled for next academic year (mine and another colleague's) frees up enough capacity to cover the capacity deficit.

I think you should send that picture of Jessie to your vet and ask their advice.

[steepholm]

Mine is probably a larger department, so perhaps there will be more slack, but I'm trying to look on the dark side, to avoid (or at least mitigate) disappointment.

Jess had a video consultation a couple of days ago, and they didn't seem too concerned, although I didn't have quite such a clear picture to show them.

[strange_complex]

We have ten permanent staff and five temporary, though I don't know that it makes a huge difference. University managers don't seem to have been operating on the basis of slack anywhere for a long time. Anyway, I agree that a bit of healthy pessimism is probably wise.

My attempts to imagine a video consultation with a cat are all comical I'm afraid! But I hope Jess remains well and happy.

[oliphaunts]

hello! opened my dw page for the first time in a while - glad you're alive! and doing well all things considered. that book sounds really interesting. especially after moving to north america (Canada, to be specific), the... seeming ubiquitiy of enid blyton as a childhood reading marker has really quite fallen apart.


also, shiso!!! love it.

[steepholm]

I'm glad you're alive too!