Helen Chick
20% of the year just disappeared, and while I can account for it all, I’m still left wondering where it went. It was meant to take much longer. If the next 20% does the same thing I am in big trouble. The endpoint of my sojourn in Tassie has hit with an abruptness that is scary: I feel as if I should still have another month remaining, or at least a week, but instead I am heading off today (since it’s the wrong side of midnight right now).
I have packed … mostly. My UTas office needs some attention so that it can be restored to its pristine state (see “It won’t last …” and “Situation back to normal”), but, unlike my Melbourne office, this should not take too long. Ironically — and somewhat annoyingly — I received an email this week to say that the Level 7 offices in Melbourne —which include mine — are being inspected on Friday … and as it happens I’ll be around, instead of far away where I’d be safe from (a) hearing people cast aspersions and (b) being expected to do anything about it! Bother!
I also believe I am organised for the next stage of sabbatical … mostly. I have some British pounds, and I finally decided where I am going to go for the first few days before I get down to work in Oxford. I have even booked a car and some accommodation. I suspect, though, that I need to do a little more planning and decision-making, preferably before I leave.
Despite the fact that the time flew, I accomplished many of the things I wanted to get done … mostly. The paper I am working on currently, however, is putting up resistance. It’s one of the worst writing wrestling matches I’ve ever experienced, and I’m still not convinced I am going to win. I’d hoped to have it finished before I leave but there’s no chance of it.
My tax return is NOT done … mostly. I thought about it … a bit … but I guess “thinking about it” is not going to keep Mr Tax Man happy. I’m hoping I can knock it off one evening while I am in Melbourne.
Right now, my most urgent need is for Bass Strait to be a mill-pond tonight for the ferry crossing, like it was on the way down. I’m not good at dealing with too much motion on the ocean.
What? Gone already? Hmmmmm… well, we’ll always have Handsome Caves!
And I go on the record to state that I was… er… wrong in my Bank Note analysis… According to Wikipedia “Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK to have issued a plastic banknote. This is the Northern Bank’s Year 2000 commemorative £5 banknote, which was printed in Australia.”
However, the discovery of my wrongness is but a speck compared to the madness of “Banknotes of the pound sterling” (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_pound_sterling ) That’s just crazy!