Alien Spouse

Chaotic Cacophany.

When I woke up this morning I had a headache, but I got ready for work and dragged myself to campus (well, Doc C drove me most of the way really).

When I arrived my heart sank because outside the front door to my building were a number of huge and serious-looking machines, one of which was clearly a wood chipper. My actual office is about ten feet away from the main entrance, so it sounded like trees were being chainsawed and then chipped just over my right shoulder. It did smell lovely, so that was something.

Over the summer there is a new dorm building going up, so I have had a building site right outside the window for a couple of months now. I swear that they have been stepping things up so that the site not only has the usual mixers, forklifts, trucks, beeping reversing alerts, cranes, sledgehammers,power-saws, power-sanders and workmen with preternaturally loud voices, but also what sounds like a bass drum, a lonely wolf and a small rave from 1993. This is directly behind me.

But that's not all - My building is also playing host to the summer school for a local middle school, and so there are young teenagers screeching through the hallways every hour or so. It's odd to hear "GIRL POWER!" being bellowed by what is quite clearly an adolescent male but teenage boys away from the nurturing influence of their parental units are very loud; they also smell, especially when they get caught in the rain. Ooh, as a special treat for today the kids have been getting into the lift in large groups and then jumping in unison, so I can hear the high pitched whine of the lift-doors opening and closing in distress.

Essentially I've been sitting in a surround sound hell for my entire working day, and I already had a headache before any of that started. Is it really any wonder that when people ask me how my summer is going I'm just growling at them?

One Two, One Two, This is Just A Test.

This morning I was testing out a new microphone in the office, and I had just started recording when a group of students walked past. Much like the Brian De Palma film "Blow Out" (1981) I inadvertently recorded a conversation. Unlike "Blow Out" it wasn't evidence of a murder, but a more mundane student discussion about their intention to skip class tomorrow.

The microphone worked just as it should and I got a crystal clear recording, which I think would make a particularly excellent ring tone for disillusioned academics.

New Year's Eve 2011 - In Brief.

We started the day with a plan, which was to go to the Science because I have intended to visit it on every trip to Boston and we've just never been able to fit it in.  

This time we went!  And we got all the way into the foyer! Before we saw the giant queue of people who'd had the same idea as us, and so we turned round and left again!  What we hadn't anticipated was that the Science Museum would be linked to Boston's First Night festivities, so that the first 500 people with a First Night badge got in for free!  Damn it!

So then what should we do instead?  Hmmm... We walked through the park to a cinema complex, and watched "Black Swan" because it looked like it would appeal to our taste for both depressing dramas and spectacular costuming.  It was very good, I described it as "The Red Shoes" (1948) for a new generation of girls yearning to be tortured dancers and Doc C agreed but preferred "Black Swan" for it's more visceral approach.  I suppose that is the difference between Aronofsky and Powell/Pressburger, not to mention 62 years of changes to cinematic conventions.  I do hope that Natalie Portman gets the Oscar nomination that the internet has been mumbling about for her performance as Nina Sayers.

After that beautiful downer we walked down Newberry Avenue and browsed the shops on our way to having cocktails and curry for dinner.  Clearly the curry houses of Boston are where all the best people watching and listening can be done, because on this occaision a woman announced in ringing tones to the waiter that "Well, you see, I am European...", which, according to her at any rate, meant that Americans wouldn't know spicy food if it slapped them, so how hot should she request her curry be prepared?  The waiter was understandably flummoxed by this line of questioning, and I have become very fond of saying in a suitably dramatic manner "Well, you see, I am Euro-Pee-Aaaan..." before asking Doc C a question about anything at all.

As has become quite the tradtion in recent years we visited Bob's flat for the midnight celebration of gourmet snacks and television coverage of the fireworks displays.  Being old and sensible we were back at the B&B by 1 at the latest, because we started the long drive back home the next day and 8 hours in a Mini would have been no fun if either of us were hungover and/or sleep-deprived.

Christmas Day 2011 - In Brief.

I just realised I wrote nothing at all about how we spent Christmas Day itself, which seems odd and shall be corrected immediately.  We had a very relaxed day, we mainly needed to source meals so, after breakfast at the B&B (fresh popovers, porridge, yogurt, juice, fruit and tea - I can highly recommend the Irving House breakfast buffet), we wandered into Harvard Square.  We found lunch at a Japanese cafe where I had a banana, apple and peanut-butter wrap with a tall Bubble Tea and some Pocky.  Bubble Tea is something I've been meaning to try for a while, and it really is most peculiar; essentially it's a flavoured iced tea with milk and then the bubbles are actually small chewy spheres that get sucked up the straw with your tea.  I think I liked it, but it was disconcerting to not be sure exactly what it is at the bottom of your drink until you can look it up on wikipedia and be reassured that it's either tapioca or a type of jelly sweet.

Then I don't remember what we did, but I suspect we both read until it was time for our dinner reservations at a nearby Indian restaurant.  There we ate excellent curry and eavesdropped on the odd couple at the table behind me.  Well I eavesdropped and Doc C observed the body language, then we compared notes afterwards - Our conclusion?  Well, it was very hard to say much beyond somebody was doing something dead dodgy on Christmas Day, but they weren't quite indescreet enough for us to get the sordid details.  Of course we hypothsised wildly on the way home and I must admit that even our most generous theories were still unflattering to the young lady involved who seemed to be the brains of the operation.

After dinner we walked back to our room and I watched "Elf", whilst Doc C pretended to be reading and ignore the film for the first half, but by the end he was watching as well.  It's a good film!

So yes, that was Christma day 2011.  I rather liked it.