Return to Siberia

First day in and as reported to me yesterday by Helen the heating groundfloor Reggie is still knackered. Worse than that the penguin family that are inhabiting the library right now seem to have invited a nuclear outfit of polar bears to join them. If a Walrus moves in too then I'm off.

Wake late so car to South Parkway and then train to Reggie. No sign of the Ushanka.

The heating (or lack of... if you prefer) engineers appeal to us to let them do some welding. We're up for it, we could crowd round and get some heat and apparently it's needed to complete the heating repair. A risk assessment holds it up. The suggestion that the risk assessment should read, welder = sparks = fire risk = be wary when you do it ain't good enough. Fairy Nuff. The Walrus may arrive anytime tomorrow. We arrange for everyone else to be elsewhere while I hold the fort. With any luck the heating will be fixed tonight and I'll be in a version of the tropics..... Not gonna put the 'Toucan perch available' sign up just yet.

Work wise, a tickle from the pre-crimbo sexual health gig we did (how can you compete with a Durex stand?) brings work and cold cure advice that matches my usual advice (currently being put into practice with some Bushmill's 1608). The folk at Halton sort some stuff for me as a result. Do a little blog wrangling. FoI is busy. Chat to the Queen of Mortality (usual sick level of conversation which amuses the pair of us) who helps me sort a nice man from the Beeb. Sorts the request. MEN raise their head above the parapet and the Liberals get in on the act to. Some blog advice to Sue. Chat to the other end of the St Halton gig too. So good to chat to some fine folk while sorting stuff.

Meanwhile back at home Monst sorts the decs and does a stunning clean up job on downstairs just leaving the kitchen to me. Shove on some Seasick Steve and sort it.

Sc

FoI, DPA, searching, errors, slow network, RSS hassles, the whole shebang seems to be giving me grief right now. Fling in the dead Archos that requires a visit to Curry's where I witness bad A-level fallout (been there, done that, went to Northern Ireland - best thing I coulda done). Some side effects from yesterday's training session. Ring Katherine about that. Search issue is that acute I remember the thing in question and run it at home!

Home via supermarket, don't see any abominable snowmen down by the peas and carrots. Bit disappointed by that but I do gather the required ginger but avoid the beer.

Gonna Send My Soul to Jesus With a Song By Johnny Cash

Sexual Health, Religion and Ethnicity, always a heady mix for a lit search, you have the pruruient delight of considering the sensible and downright daft and everything in between within different ethical cultures. Throw into the mix its for someone I like and it's a nice bit of light relief on a Wednesday afternoon that has proved problematic to say the least. So the problems in no particular order are:

Fucking librarians - although not in relation to the lit search above, in relation to them upsetting Tracy

Fluoridation

IT (the devices not the department)

Fucking librarians - I'm still upset with them and they've not upset me

Throw into the mix that ostrich like I refuse to look into something that hasn't happened yet but begin to gear up for it in case it does (a clear case of 'Sometimes you remember, sometimes you forget, it doesn't matter much, it hasn't happened yet' if ever I've had one)

Delights of Team Brief today, Rachel and Nicola visit for it. They add to the fun. Helen has her first period of protracted time with us. Hope it was OK.

Lemmy's Mum was a Librarian

Voicemail tag - I get some voicemail from someone, I call them and leave voicemail, they call me and leave voicemail so I leave voicemail in return. Would I give anything for the voicemail system to have the conversation and then let us know what the hell it had decided.... it'd be so much simpler! Delve into the BMA site guided ably by someone from the library looking for resolutions from their Annual Representative Meeting, so much easier when you're told where they live! Once you find it though what simple thing to search.

FoI stuff happens, couple of searches happen. Odd nurse practitioner search, I keep it extremely tight, first time I've had a search result that only returns full text without me specifying it. OK it was only four articles but I sent them along with the search to the user. Freaky!

Assimilation happens which provides me with ample excuse to call Sally and Christina. Good to talk to them both.

Sort the Christmas goose, pick it up on the 23^rd. Congratulating myself on sorting that I then hit a problem on returning home, I have a puncture. Now the Touran fails to supply a spare, instead there is a bottle of gunk and a compressor. So risking life and limb and squatting inches from the traffic I fill the tyre with the gunk and use the compressor. The compressor should work in 6 minutes, it' don't. Luckily I'm close to home. Call the RAC (my membership has lapsed and is renewed, sort it so I get a tow in the morning to the nearest Kwic Fit). Deep joy, I'm gonna be late at Arrowe, need to call them first thing to warn them.