New Schedule, Mysterious Mysteries

The longer D. works towards this PhD, the more it seems as if the whole thing really is about strategy: planning is a huge part of the exercise, and there’s quite a set pattern to the whole thing. His classmates, though, are doing a different kind of PhD, in that theirs is more about thinking through a problem, whereas D’s is … well, describing human behavior. It’s quite different, and is a different aspect of the “P” in “Doctor of Philosophy.”

So, this is the strategy, for the forthcoming semester: work like a dog. Not very elegant, but it’ll get the job done, and that’s what’s important. What does that look like? Well, both for himself and for everyone else:

This leaves us one day during the weekend to go out and visit museums or whatever, and the other day to spend reading – we’re not planning the weekends, except to say that at least one of the days (Saturday) will be set aside for rest. The other, we’ll see about.

Recently we figured out that the library’s section of Crime and True Crime books are actually Mysteries and …well, probably non-fictional crime novels. T’s been happily making her way through the Georgette Heyer mysteries, which are deeply amusing, and written circa 1953. Of course, none of the mysteries we find in books are half as much fun as the ones we have on our own… We’ve been here now for two solid years, and much to our chagrin, things STILL trip us up. When will it end?!

The most recent confusion we call Mysteries of the Tesco:

Aside from the mystery that is Sweet Corn and Super Sweet Sweetcorn is the conundrum of over-the-counter codeine and no hydrocortisone without a prescription.

Voiceover: Have a bit of an opiate habit? We can help. Have a little eczema in the bend of your arm? Please see a doctor for this serious medical condition.

Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration, but the fact remains, you just can’t get hydrocortisone in more than 1% strength at our neighborhood chemist, whereas in the U.S. in any drugstore, it’s 2.5% over the counter, and you see a doctor ONLY if you need more strength than that. And of course, in the States, it’s unthinkable for doctors to just hand codeine pills to people without a prescription, despite the fact that a chemist here will only give you twenty-four pills at a time. (Of course, if you’re wily and go to the chemist on the next block, you could probably get many more. If you have an honest face, you could probably make that work all day. But, no one does that. Really.)

T., who suffers from random patches of eczema, and who loathes going to the doctor for any reason hasn’t yet convinced herself that she needs to go… and is making do with what Dr. Sutherland calls “baby cortisone.” We’ll see how long she manages being both stubborn and itchy.

On the crowded shelves at Tesco (the big ones, at least) you will find everything you need, by some name or other. If you’re looking for bleach, though, you’ll have to look carefully. There are plenty of brands – but the most common you’ll see is called Thick Bleach. Thick bleach, we finally discovered, isn’t actually bleach at all. It has Sodium Hypochlorite in common with other bleaches, but it also contains grease-fighting surfactants, stabilizers, and thickeners.

In other words, it’s not just bleach at all, it’s actually classified as a detergent. It will not give your jeans that white-stripes look. Keep looking, shoppers. It’s THIN bleach you want, the stuff that’s just… will-make-things-snow-white-and-eat-through-fabric-if-you-leave-it-too-long bleach. Anything else is just pleasantly abrasive laundry soap. And now you know.

The dust has settled, and University Avenue and its environs has quieted again after two full weeks of introducing the Uni students to the joys of school (which needed to be done with six foot speakers and panel trucks from Dominoes Pizza and Irn Bru). Classes begin in earnest tomorrow, and the Choral Society kicks off its fall rehearsal schedule for Handel’s Saul oratorio.

Sadly, for all of those parents sending their Favorite Darlings first week of Uni Care Packages, they may not arrive during the first week, much less the first semester of school this year. The Royal Mail is having its (seemingly yearly) strike, and has been striking randomly since early July. At present, the Mail has a backlog of letters and packages because local offices are having rotating strikes, which means that the mail is delivered about every other day. (It’s like rolling blackouts, if you lived through them in California. Someone is getting annoyed every day, even if it’s not you.) A letter sent to us from New York by priority mail arrived only a month and a half after it was sent. We ordered a part for the computer (!) and paid extra for it to be rush delivered. Unfortunately, someone (from that company named for the largest river in South America) had a brainblink, and sent it Special Delivery through the Royal Mail, instead of through DHL. Special Delivery means that it takes three days, provided you’re willing to hire a car and go down to their depot to pick it up! It’s kind of a mess, and we hope all sides come to some consensus soon.

– D & T

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