Chores

Here we are, blog addicts, another post for your perusal which is probably going to tell you absolutely nothing. Because without university guiding my life, I waft from nothing much to lazing about with a serving of idleness in the middle.

Obviously that's not true. While I'm studying and revising, I do virtually nothing else of substance, so it all has to wait until exams are over, when I attack my list of Things To Do, which is a page long on this occasion.

For the last two days, I have been walking around town, and I plan to do more of that. I have been to the vegetable shop (of course) because it's my turn to do all the cooking, had my hair cut, and even done some difficult shopping in places that usually cause immense challenges without my personal fashion consultant, Lola II. At last I have bought a coat! The answer was to try an outdoor goods shop rather than a department store, and while it isn't fashionable enough for tea with the Queen, it will do for a cold wet walk to a dietetic department in a godforsaken northern town.

There have been other more trivial tasks that I have achieved - the point of lists is the mix of easy and difficult, 'takes a minute' interspersed with 'settle down for half a day'. Lots of laundry, replacing blown light bulbs, taking some clothes to the charity shop. More challenging is renewing the buildings and contents insurance for the house, designing a new airing cupboard, and some follow-on work from university.

My research project, about the effect of visual impairment on food choices, is written up and the assignment was delivered on time to the Bioscience Office for marking. There are other tasks associated with this project, however. I have completed the Ethics Committee forms saying what the outcomes were and where the data will be securely kept, but I offered each volunteer the option of receiving a summary of the results, and the organisations who gave me permission to approach volunteers also need to be given the summary. So I'd better write it.

As well as that, my supervisor thinks that the topic is original enough for the British Dietetic Association to be interested in it for their Conference. Unfortunately, the date that an abstract had to be submitted to the committee was before the university coursework deadline, which meant that I sent her a copy of my abstract, she had to tweak it to meet the Conference abstract requirements and submit it herself. All without actually having done the work or read the final version. She managed it, and did a pretty good job of making up a suitable conclusion, but in her submission she not only got my email address wrong but even spelled my name wrong. And not my surname, which is often spelled wrong, but my first name. So I've been trying to put that right.

I am also preparing for my exile to GNT (godforsaken northern town) by trying to find accommodation that is not in the hospital, and a badminton club that will have me while I'm there. Mr A is preparing for our snowboard trip by investigating lift passes and board and boot hire, while I book another practice session at the Snowdome, and sort out euros and airport parking as well. Other jobs include writing Christmas thank-you letters, reviewing a Clinical Biochemistry book for OUP, and wiring in the wall lights that I bought a very long time ago but have never got round to installing because I will need to turn off the electricity and Mr A is working on his computer all the time and never seems to go out during the day.

I also need to buy socks and clean the kitchen floor. I'm not sure that I'll manage both of those. And the house insurance is proving very tricky, to the point that we are now uninsured. That's today's main task, and I hate it.