Authenticity and Radical Honesty

A little while ago, I decided that I was going to try and make my life more authentic. It's been very hard, but my recent move into a more technical role has been part of that. I think I'm closer to the role that suits me, rather than the type of job that I've always thought I 'ought' to be doing or 'ought' to be good at.

The Boy heard an interview with the Dr Brad Blandon. He advocates what he calls radical honesty - to tell the truth at all times. Not from some Kantian imperative, but because it is more psychologically healthy. This includes social 'white lies'. I don't want to give the impression that I'm a total miscreant, but I do lie (hard to believe I know), to myself as well as others. So I've decided to implement radical honesty for a week. I wonder if anyone will notice.

A Letter from Eynsham

Maisie likes to vet my correspondence.

Miss T 'at home'

To celebrate my birthday we had a little 'at home' on Saturday. The cakes were made by Dr Bones' friend Jude. Jude should be made an MBE for services to cake. See yourself, she sells them at Wells Stores in Abingdon.

There was some CHEESE too...with THREE types of the wonderful Dr Karg.

Lorna gave me some amazing flowers from the Eynsham Emporium. As you can see, I didn't have a vase big enough!

Here is Peter enjoying some DRINK - as you can see he dressed exquisitely so he could be awarded more cake!

Here is David enjoying Dr Bones...I think they look like they're at different parties. The Boy thinks that Dr Bones is auditioning for a remake of 'The Lair of the White Worm'.

And here is The Boy with some cake.

A good time was had by all...I'd love to know what Leo was thinking. You can see what he's been doing!

Which Puppy for Anastasia?

Huw has finally caved in, and the delicious Anastasia is going to have a dog! However, she has a problem. Which of these five delightful puppies should she choose (there are two photos of each on the linked page)?

Adam likes the black and tan one; I, naturally, have homed in the slightly hopeless looking black and white one at the bottom.

Post your vote here, and I'm sure Anastasia will let us know which puppy she finally selects.

More on creatures I detest...

A friend of mine read my previous post and emailed me to say "you do know I'm a Tory". Eeek - that means I've snogged TWO Tories, and I thought one was too many...

Cat Torture

Poor Billy - this whole washing business is proving quite awful for all three of us! Only EIGHT more seesions to go (and a new pair of rubber gloves to buy, as Billy ripped the back of one of A.'s last night).

Picture Perfect

Those of you that follow Lorna's blog, will know that my portrait was finished a few days ago. Here it is in place - as you can see, Lorna and I calculated the availiable space to the millimetre!

It's a very powerful piece, and I think that Lorna has managed to catch my 'essence'. She was rather worried about how The Boy would feeling sleeping both underneath as well as next to me. He looks fairly comfortable don't you think?

Or perhaps he's feeling a bit like Adam in the Sistine Chapel?

News from the Asylum

So – day 3 with the Test Team and I feel as if I am being drawn into a strange religious cult. The team seems to live in a state of perpetual anticipation – rather like a tuba player in an orchestra or the characters in Waiting for Godot. They wait and they wait and then suddenly, tonnes of code comes down from the heavens. And of course the code is always late, and because it’s late the test window is squeezed.

As a result the entire team is completely bonkers – the machine room with all the testing kit in it isn’t called The Asylum for nothing!

However, I’ve had more fun in the last few days than I’ve had in ages, wiggling cables; troubleshooting networks; baiting engineers and doing more registry editing than I’ve done in a lifetime! I think I’m going to like it here.

PS If you want to know more about Moby the duckling, like Lorna, he has his own blog.

Creatures I detest...

• Slugs
• Snakes
• Tigers
• Killer whales
• Sharks
• Leopard seals
• Rats
• Wasps
• Insects that bite and sting
• Men who prey on unhappy, lonely women

And I'm not that keen on gerbils or Tories.

Season of Mists...

This is the garden at approx. 07:30 this morning. And no, I have no idea what I was doing up at that hour. The mist was quite lovely, and I half expected to see some spectral figure emerge (an evening with Dr Bones does that to a girl).

The mellow fruitfulnes is being provided by our lemon tree. Just as the gin and tonic season is ending! [If you want to read the Keats poem I'm alluding to, you can find it here, and it's worth it]

Otherwise, I was down in Kent this weekend. As you can see, 'that creature Desmond' doesn't think much of that reading lark.

Once I got back it was the usual weekend stuff - supper with friends, washing the cat and a lovely, long phone call from Huw and Anastasia. I now have to gird my loins, and get ready for a couple of weeks breaking things. I'm tempted to turn up wearing my nice, leopard skin (fake!), pointy boots. Just to start as I mean to go on...

A Poor Crop

OK - I admit it, we neglected the garden this year, and the heavy rain in the late Spring didn't help either.



However, this was our ENTIRE aubergine crop!

Ah well, at least the cavolo nero is going strong (and very tasty) and The Boy has put some purple sprouting broccoli in. What with that, and the SINGLE butternet squash we grew, we have some produce from the garden.

Next year we will DO BETTER. After our trip to Kew I am determined to grow lots and lots of chillies. Plus some more of those lovely golden pear tomatoes, as well as the usual cherry toms, cut 'n' come again salad leaves, courgettes and squash.

Who knows? The mushroom logs may even have a crop 8-)