I nearly got up on time this morning. I got up an hour later, instead, after dreaming of PopCap games, which I was playing last night. I made a cuppa, but had no breakfast because there wasn’t enough milk for cereal (someone didn’t buy any more when he went to the shop yesterday) and there wasn’t any bread (because someone keeps eating it), although there was a bun left (because I wasn’t quite so gluttonous as someone else), so I made that into a pate, cucumber and home-made cranberry sauce butty and made a bit of salad to have as my dinner (lunch) at Uni, seeing as I had to go there for a meeting to discuss a paper.

After that, I went back to bed, and dreamt that I lived in a house that was overrun with wildlife, including dead and rotted mice (Dusty was rubbish at mousing) and there was mouse poo everywhere, and there were hedgehogs (which say, in a creaky voice, “iiiiiih!”) and there was a grey squirrel, which I picked up whilst wearing gardening gloves and put firmly outside.

Then I got up and showered and got ready, and printed out the paper I was to discuss, that I hadn’t read yet. Looked at the clock, and discovered that if I left any later, I’d be late for the meeting! Shocking. So I left for the meeting, getting petrol on the way. I got a fright at one point, along the A14, because I looked in my rear-view mirror, and there was this police car right behind me, its lights flashing away. I jumped a mile, sped up a bit to get past the lorry and the van I was overtaking and pulled back in. It shot off ahead, not after me at all, because I hadn’t been speeding!

I got to Uni just before 1 o’clock, and went to use the pay and display machine, but it wouldn’t read my card. Downright refused to, it did. Cheeky thing. A woman came up behind me, and I told her what was happening. She tried hers, just in case, and she said it sometimes happens that they don’t work, and we went to try another one. I said I was late enough already, and she said that it only ever happens when you’re late. It’s going to happen to me a lot, then!

I couldn’t remember what room number my meeting was in, so I had to go to a computer room to access either my email or my Google calendar to see. The nearest one (might be Lab A) had a few computers free, but none of them worked. I had to find another one, so I went to Lab G, I think it is. There were free, working machines in there, so I eventually found out where my room was, although I wasn’t certain how to get to it from there, what with it being on floor 5A. You have to be careful which staircase you use to get to floors 5A and 5B. I was on floor 4, so I went up a flight of stairs in the nearest staircase, which took me to 5. I went a bit further up just to see which floor was above, but it was 6, so I exited the stairwell on 5. I came into the space where you get stairs up to 5A and down to 5B - success at finding the floor! Next thing to do was find the room itself, or at least a sign with suitable numbers written on it and a handy arrow. I did find one, so I followed it, and the next and the next - very handy, although then I decided to find an empty seminar room to quickly scan at least the introduction and the conclusion of the paper - I never said I’d had time to read it yet, did I?!

I went in a room along a different corridor, scanned set parts of paper, thought sod it, I’ll really have to go; looked at the time; it was about 10 past. Shit! I thought, I’m awfully late! Turned out it wasn’t a problem that I was late and that I hadn’t read it anyway. I doubt I’d have understood it if I had read it, so that was ok, and after all that room-hunting, we went down to Louisa’s office anyway. We went through the paper together, with Louisa explaining bits and pieces of LFG to me - what do I know about LFG? I really should read the book I have about it. Next meeting (which will be next term), we’re going to discuss the PFM paper that she did in parallel to this one. They’re two parts of the same work, really. I have a much better chance of understanding that one.

After that, I had a mocha with chocolate sprinkles and a Wensleydale and cranberry sarnie (not bad, but not what I was supposed to be eating!) with Kakia, one of Louisa’s students, who I knew from our MAs, who satisfied her chocolate craving with a chocolate eclair and a cup of hot chocolate with chocolate sprinkles. Then, I went back to the first computer room I went to today and emailed Giorgos, telling him in my own way where I was. Then I texted him to make sure he knew I’d emailed him. He called me sarcastic and bossy. We’re off to the SU bar.