playing "hail the conquering hero comes!" on a Jew's harp
Wednesday, 11 August 2010 06:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freckles_and_doubtI am triumphant! I have been restored to the bosom of Winona, I have all my own logins back so I don't have to keep typing passwords on a borrowed laptop, and all is gas and gaiters! See, I committed a more than usually twittish tactical error in planning this trip: when ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
starmadeshadow heroically offered to collect me from Heathrow, she also offered to supply me with a SA/UK adaptor. I happily agreed, but completely neglected to mention that Winona, owing to the inscrutable ways of Packard Bell, has a jolly proprietary sort of power adaptor thingy which uses, unusually, a three-pin plug, and when I staggered off the plane the one starmadeshadow had for me was two-pin. Owing to my unseemly internet addiction, Winona ran out of charge at 8.12am sharp on Tuesday morning, and I had no way of feeding her. I've been using a loaner laptop for my internet fixes since then, owing to the great kindness and extreme efficiency of Scroob and Armin.
I don't actually know if there is such a thing as a three-pin adaptor SA to UK: certainly Heathrow recks it not, despite me going into every single shop that looked as though it might once have vaguely thought about stocking adaptors. There are adaptors UK to SA in droves, mostly plastered with dire warnings about vuvuzelas (metaphorically speaking), but the other way is a strange, mythical beast unknown to UK electrical science. However! twitching and desperate, I found a giant PC shop down the road from the hotel, and acquired a slightly intimidating netbook power adaptor pack, which includes a gadget for charging from a car cigarette lighter such as the Mermaid doesn't actually possess, plus a range of netbook connectors, like assorted ammo, which I'm seriously considering mounting in a bandolier contraption while I crawl through the jungles of Glasgow with Winona in my teeth. Academia, it's a competitive space. The nice man who helped me in the shop turned out to be the manager, which was handy, since he accidentally underquoted me by about a third when finding me the pack, and cheerfully gave it to me at the lower price. I do like the Scots, they've been uniformly chatty and friendly since I arrived.
You may thus derive from context the fact that I'm in Glasgow after a very happy-making two days in London; I am ensconced on my bed in this slightly groovy little hotel room, catching up on Teh Internets and rejoicing in my signal victory over my techno-jinx. It was luvverly to see you London lot, and enjoy the princely Scroob-hospitality, and see everyone last night. (egadfly, sorry you didn't make it - still recovering from Poland?). Tomorrow I give my paper in the third session, which seems ideally placed: early enough that I can enjoy the rest of the conference without fearful anticipation, but not too early so I can still gauge some other papers and see how I fit into the ethos. I'm bizarrely looking forward to this. This may have something to do with having had to describe the paper to a bunch of people who incautiously asked me about it over the last couple of days: this is even more polysyllabic than usual if gin is involved.
Moments like this, I both like being an academic, and actually feel like one. Of course, I'm going to immediately destroy the illusion by going through my new Munchkin De-Ranged pack and then playing Echo Bazaar (some bastard stole my Counterfeit Head of John the Baptist! outraged!), but it's the thought that counts.
starmadeshadow heroically offered to collect me from Heathrow, she also offered to supply me with a SA/UK adaptor. I happily agreed, but completely neglected to mention that Winona, owing to the inscrutable ways of Packard Bell, has a jolly proprietary sort of power adaptor thingy which uses, unusually, a three-pin plug, and when I staggered off the plane the one starmadeshadow had for me was two-pin. Owing to my unseemly internet addiction, Winona ran out of charge at 8.12am sharp on Tuesday morning, and I had no way of feeding her. I've been using a loaner laptop for my internet fixes since then, owing to the great kindness and extreme efficiency of Scroob and Armin.I don't actually know if there is such a thing as a three-pin adaptor SA to UK: certainly Heathrow recks it not, despite me going into every single shop that looked as though it might once have vaguely thought about stocking adaptors. There are adaptors UK to SA in droves, mostly plastered with dire warnings about vuvuzelas (metaphorically speaking), but the other way is a strange, mythical beast unknown to UK electrical science. However! twitching and desperate, I found a giant PC shop down the road from the hotel, and acquired a slightly intimidating netbook power adaptor pack, which includes a gadget for charging from a car cigarette lighter such as the Mermaid doesn't actually possess, plus a range of netbook connectors, like assorted ammo, which I'm seriously considering mounting in a bandolier contraption while I crawl through the jungles of Glasgow with Winona in my teeth. Academia, it's a competitive space. The nice man who helped me in the shop turned out to be the manager, which was handy, since he accidentally underquoted me by about a third when finding me the pack, and cheerfully gave it to me at the lower price. I do like the Scots, they've been uniformly chatty and friendly since I arrived.
You may thus derive from context the fact that I'm in Glasgow after a very happy-making two days in London; I am ensconced on my bed in this slightly groovy little hotel room, catching up on Teh Internets and rejoicing in my signal victory over my techno-jinx. It was luvverly to see you London lot, and enjoy the princely Scroob-hospitality, and see everyone last night. (
egadfly, sorry you didn't make it - still recovering from Poland?). Tomorrow I give my paper in the third session, which seems ideally placed: early enough that I can enjoy the rest of the conference without fearful anticipation, but not too early so I can still gauge some other papers and see how I fit into the ethos. I'm bizarrely looking forward to this. This may have something to do with having had to describe the paper to a bunch of people who incautiously asked me about it over the last couple of days: this is even more polysyllabic than usual if gin is involved. Moments like this, I both like being an academic, and actually feel like one. Of course, I'm going to immediately destroy the illusion by going through my new Munchkin De-Ranged pack and then playing Echo Bazaar (some bastard stole my Counterfeit Head of John the Baptist! outraged!), but it's the thought that counts.
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no subject
Date: Wednesday, 11 August 2010 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, 12 August 2010 07:46 pm (UTC)Och aye the noo
Date: Thursday, 12 August 2010 01:17 pm (UTC)Re: Och aye the noo
Date: Thursday, 12 August 2010 07:45 pm (UTC)