The ER -- The Track Clinic at the University of Milton North

[SupermassiveLBD]

While everyone else is getting their thinking caps on

That looks really good Maud - is the multi coloured perspex/glass sculpture part of the Summer Exhibition?

May have to factor in another trip to London !

Golly it all seems rather a lot to take in.

That picture reminds me of the ''before'' segment of an indigestion remedy commercial. Or Spiro's volcano. But I do rather like it .

Strikes me as maybe a little Blake-esque, though admittedly I'm making that call on the few pictures I've seen of his work whilst searching for Mr North's Urizen tattoo!

Yes, Spiro, it's in the courtyard.

Mind you, this has all backfired on me. Bloke has said how much he enjoyed it (I only decided to go this morning and he at first said he was too busy to come) and how this confirms that we can never leave London because then we wouldn't have these things on our doorstep.

There go my plans to escape to the country.

Well Maud, I am green with that you're lucky enough to live in London. I mentally curse my parents on a regular basis for moving away when I was a toddler, and myself for not being more sorted when I was in my late teens/early twenties & getting myself back there.

I usually spend half my Sunday afternoon lusting over London properties in the Sunday Times 'Homes' section.

Well that just goes to show, Spiro, as I am that you live near (or even at?) the coast!

I must admit I always enjoy my stays in the Metrollops. I don't know if I could stand the pace on a permanent basis however.

::adjusts lorgnette::

Who are you calling trollops, Massive?

We are actually sandwiched between the coast (seafront is 1.8km away) and the edge of the south downs, and only just over an hour from London so can't really complain. But if I ever won the lottery I would definitely be looking for a pied a terre in the city (alongside keeping Small in choc hobnobs while she designs my uber-pad down here!) !

Ah if only, eh?
And talking of dreams, I have better go try and get some

Night night, all.

Ditto - night, night all!

Morning!

Maud it sounds like you had a lovely evening. I have to say I like where we moved to, I got to point of hating being in London but we are close enough that a half hour train ride brings us to the centre but we have open fields and woods around us here and can park when we get home . I suspect the small boys will resent it when they are teenagers but we have enough family and friends who still live there for them to get their fill.

With regard to Garden Girl becoming an artichoke, please disuade her! It is a long old slog (so think of the fees!) and at the end it's a badly paid profession with long hours. Tell her to become a barrister!

Apologies for the missing 's'

Morning all!

Ah yes, Small, the fees. ::Reconciled to working until I'm 90*:: But it's an equally long slog to become a barrister (are pupillages still unpaid?) and the barristers I know are, shall we say, a very mixed bunch. Some are delightful, others a somewhat less enticing advertisement for the profession.

This morning I shall mostly be doing what I failed to do yesterday.

• ie for the next 3 years

How delightful with your RA preview, Maud. I loved your comment baout getting to wear heels and mascara :)

Spiro, what's the theme for DD's party?

I am You know how long I'd waited to see Colin Firth's FWS? Well I watched the 'first' episode the other day and thought that this morning, whilst both kids are at school, I would treat myself to episode 2. I never just sit down whilst they're at school but thought I deserved it after half-term! Anyway, I got all comfy and settled in and was about 10 mins in before I started to get confused as it made no sense. I persevered and got halfway through before I thought "hang on, this is BIZARRE" - some of the characters were acting like they didn't even know each other and Lizzie was being all nice and polite to Mr Wickham despite knowing what a cad he is. I was about to come on and ask you lot if it was told in flashback or something but then I noticed... the discs were in the wrong order in the box and I'd actually watched the first episode of Disc 2, not Disc 1. So I watched episode 4 first and then went on to episode 2, never having seen episode 1. No wonder it didn't make sense - what an idiot :o It's annoying though - talk about major spoilers!

But a barrister earns in two days what I earned in a week as a salaried partner- I know, I have a good friend who is a barrister (also a judge and she earns even more for that). So yes it's a hard slog but at least she gets paid at the end. And I know it's not all about then money but at the moment it is .

Perhaps you could persuade her into accountancy?

Oh Twigs! How disappointing. No matter, you will still enjoy it, just start again from the beginning like you've never seen it before.

My dad wanted me to be a barrister but I wasn't in the slightest bit interested. I have a friend who left her current job in order to be one. She did 2 years of studying but it was so stressful that she couldn't handle it so she had to give up as it was making her ill, poor thing. And she was a tough girl, too...

Right, off to watch the real Ep 1 :) What a shame about the wet FWS though - would've been much nicer after a build-up, instead of seeing it within the first 20 minutes :)

Or she could work for MI5, apparently there are lots of perks to the job.

An accountant? Sadly - as friends from uni who trained as accountants are now running large corporations and taking their salary home in wheelbarrows - my view of accountancy was formed by the Monty Python line about "I'm a chartered accountant and consequently too boring to be of any interest".

I still think that if I were starting again I should go into the law (I was on the brink of doing it but backed out when I realised that I would be ::gasps:: 30 when I qualified). But even so, there is also the issue about the company one would have to keep.

::fancies herself in horsehair wig::

At the moment, she wants to work in fashion. Perhaps she could be a makeup artist?

Yes and you really ought to go along too Maud, to make sure that she was being treated well.

MissTwigs wants to be fashion designer too (as well as a theatre director, rock star and vet :) ). I am going to take her to the V&A at some point, to look at the 'costumes through the ages' thing in the hopes of actually engaging her interest in something other than the bloody computer

I was very lucky that I ended up doing exactly what I'd always wanted to do, even though it turned out that I wasn't really the right person for it after all. It's so funny though, when I first got in touch with the beeb, I wrote to them syaing that I wanted to work for them and they said "ok - where do you want to work?" They offered me a few things which I wasn't interested in so they said "ok, we'll find you something else then" and in the end I said "I'd like to do that please and they said "ok, you can start on Monday". It's amazing to think that one could've been so choosy - you would never get that these days! I took it completely for granted at the time...

Auntie clearly recognised your huge talent, Twiggy. And talking of talent.

Oh, I love that pic, Maud, with the profile outlined against the pale wall there. To say nothing of the cheeky little smile I think I see.

When I was little I wanted to write books, and the idea of being a SAHM filled me with dread. Fate has a strange sense of humour.

Ah oui. Il y a beaucoup de sauce et d'ooh la la dans cette photo.