Meeting frenzies, missing calendars and a night out

Have spent all morning frantically attempting to arrange the Student Induction meetings over the summer without screaming and diving through a window. I’m going to start a campaign to ensure that all my key people go on holiday at the same time so I can shoehorn them into meetings together at other times without reaching for the whisky. It’s the only way forward. Neither has it been made any easier by the fact that halfway through the long and complex process, the computer decided to update itself and my calendar has now vanished. Entirely. Missing. Kaput. So my tiny post-it notes in delicate shades of orange and pink are now the only things lying between me and complete insanity. My theory is that my calendar is so peed off that it’s packed its bags and is currently at Heathrow Terminal 5 attempting to flee the country. Ha! It won’t be able to go far then.

In the midst of all this, I’ve also been researching whether Student Care Services can set up a Facebook account so we can encourage more students to attend the events we put on. I’m all for it – heck, that’s where our client base is. We just have to persuade management it’s the way to go. Talking of management, we’ve spent a jolly half-hour or so filling in a staff survey which we had to keep saving as the darn thing kept timing out –even though the intro said it wouldn’t time out (heck, is that even a verb? Who knows …) until 90 minutes had passed. Well, wrong! In addition, when we all attempted to submit it by pressing the “Submit” button, that caused it to time out too. Sigh. Apparently, too many people are filling it in and the system can’t cope. There’s something to be said for paper after all.

This lunchtime, I strolled round the campus in an attempt to enjoy the blossom (a glorious purple tree rather took my fancy) and discover some perspective. And the means of tackling the afternoon. Which, however, was significantly improved by the fact that Steph in the Health Centre (whose medical wisdom is acknowledged in Thorn in the Flesh is getting married next year, hurrah! Oh, I do love a wedding. It gives us gals something to shriek about, which is always a good thing. Well done, Steph! Can’t wait to see the ring.

Oh, and thanks to Rosy at the Vulpes Libris review site who has asked me for an opinion piece on self-publishing. Ah, you know me – I have more opinions than there are stars in the sky, and if you don’t like them then I have others. As they say. So I’ve sent her the initial article and we’ll see how it goes.

Tonight, I’m up to London to see Bryony, an old school friend – so am looking forward to that hugely and am also longing for pizza and chocolate. Must be the kind of day I’ve had.

And here’s a poem:

Expectation

A wheely-bin waits
by the bus stop.
I wonder where

it's going. I hope
it has the right fare.


Today’s nice things:

1. Steph’s good news
2. Lunchtime walking
3. Seeing Bryony.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website
Goldenford Publishers