Today I have mainly been V2.0

Great idea !

Money well spent I am sure , we spent 54 pounds on having the tiniest hamster ever put to sleep the other day. Poor little chap was trying to suck the outside of his water bottle and was diabolically thirsty. As it’s a bit hard injecting insulin into the tiny little fella it was better to give him a bit of gas !!

Finding out that I am not about to be made redundant, which is more than I can say for a number of my colleagues. Some of them have been shat on, just in time for Christmas.

Feeling smug this evening as I did all of my Christmas shopping today and even found time for a lunchtime goat curry.

Tonight I will drink beer.

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Glad for you, that’s a dreadful thing to find out just before Christmas for your colleagues

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He’s fine now thanks. Whining a bit but he’s eaten a full dinner and tried to sneak out to the pub with me.

Insurance is a bit of a quandary to me. We always insure our horses for life as bill can be horrendous, but dogs only for the first 3 or 4 years. By then they are less likely to do damage from running full pelt off a bridge with a 40ft drop (as has happened, another story). Being Collies, anything that is going to go wrong will have shown up by then and this has proved true for 7 dogs. Barley’s 10 and this is his first visit to the vets bar jabs and a nip to the bollocks. So he has plenty of credit available.

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Gadding around Santiago:
I did the real touristy thing and booked a city guide. I had a good breakfast which elbowed my hangover out of the way. Spent the rest of the day being driven around the city with several stops for coffee, photo opportunities etc. No earthquakes today which was nice! :open_mouth: finished it with big fuck off lump of cow and wine. Sometimes work isn’t so bad! :grin:

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Working this morning, got some names to read out at graduation

Good luck with that. I had particular difficulties with some of the more traditional Thai names so I don’t envy you. Get on the gin early to loosen up your tongue.

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Been practising, it’s a Postgrad ceremony, so mainly international, it’s the Chinese ones I struggle with. It’s always a joy to see the happy graduates and their families

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I have a very helpful Chinese colleague who goes through the list with me and helps me rewrite the names phonetically. Sadly, I have no Thai colleagues.

This. I’m sure I’ve said this before; I love attending graduation ceremonies and speaking to the students and their families afterwards. The sacrifices made by some of the families are very humbling. I have no time for colleagues who refuse to attend and are vociferous about their non-attendance. Guaranteed way to earn yourself unpleasant teaching/admin duties in my vindictive, grudge-bearing admin regime.

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…happy graduates and their families… on the Gin?

Yes, I used to enjoy them when I was working. Was on the other side Wednesday for no. 1 daughter’s MSc do at Newcastle. Nice, but disappointed to see the uni charging so much. Boyfriend even had to pay £10 to sit in a room with a few others to see the video relay. FFS with £9k tuition fees then at least the celebratory send-off should be on the house (not just there, it annoyed me at my place of work too).

charging means they are more likely to turn up. We used to be free for the ones we hold on campus but we found loads didn’t show up which left a logistical nightmare. Now we charge, and we have a very low number of no shows.

:face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

That kind of rank stupidity is almost guaranteed to piss people off. Is is no wonder that a common response to an alumni approach is ‘Go Away’.

I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t know if/what my lot charge but I do know that we don’t have a video replay to another room. That is an absolute disgrace. I was stunned to see that you could have a cheap glass of fizz for free, but tea, coffee and OJ were charged for at the post-graduation reception last year. We had a word about the message this conveyed about the University. I was pleased to see that everything was free for the Graduates and the family (or more likely combined in a more expensive ticket price that I’m not aware of).

I’m looking forward to packing it in. The modern University is not for the likes of me…

Revenue first, last and everywhere in between, just like any other business.

It is a University…:roll_eyes:

Exactly !

Yes, I was glad to get out for similar reasons

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that was good, no slip ups from me - lots of happy smiling people.

Now off to that there London to avail ourselves of a freebie hotel stay. Plan to have a mooch around the British Museum, then pub, then dinner.

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Setting up the school fair, buying a Christmas tree and wrapping presents.

Now off to watch Bristol Bears v La Rochelle :rugby_football::beer:

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