Naoko's news, views and shoes thread

Good(ish) news about work!

Everybody put some comfortable chairs for HP and Ogg to faint into, as I pop back to let you know some good news about my work!

Normally, the Management (better known as the Muddlement), send us all letters of redundancy about now, so their legal butts are covered, and they won't tell us if we have got any teaching work for the coming autumn/winter months until a few days before teaching starts. So the summer is a time of high stress, looking out for emails to say if we have got work, and for new work in case we don't get back the old work, and applying frantically for anything we think we might remotely be considered suitable to teach. (Creative writing - of course I can teach that )

But this year, the Muddlement decided to tell us in August whether or not we have got teaching, with a small proviso that if there aren't so many students as they hope we may have to take smaller groups on a slightly lesser salary. And I have already been informed that I will get back both my autumn/winter teaching contracts! So I can kick back, go down the beaches and ... actually plan my teaching this summer (I actually am very excited about this, and already thinking how I might refresh my tutorial presentations.)

I feel personally responsible for this happening, as I have been b!tching and wh!ining continually about the stress and strain of our contractual system through any means available. I think the Union found me a very useful case, as whenever they put out a representation to Muddlement, about one line in every two was from me! After all, I am a single mum struggling in this situation *sniffle*, unable to get a mortgage so I can put a roof over my poor baby's head *sobs*, and not sure if I will be able to clothe and feed her against the winter's rages *wahhhh!!!!*

Ugh - it has been horrid! I hope they build on this and give us our permanent contracts, even though it does mean I have less time to come back on here and flirt. No real life flirting either recently. I am bundling up Piglet to go off on holiday with my sister, and once she is off I will have about three weeks in which to sleep! I texted my friend to say that not even a kiss from a effing Prince would wake me up, and he texted back 'depends where he kisses', but in my experience Princes are not very adventurous kissers <snerk>

.....

Hooray for pay, anyway!

Good News, Duchess.
Welcome back!

I've seen this thread before, but never went on it. Today it popped up on the first page of the AH, and being bored I thought I would give it a try.

I love the the little vignettes I've read in the two pages I tried. Thank you Nako, I'll have to come back again. And again.

49greg said:

Thank you Nako, I'll have to come back again. And again.

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You are very welcome, sweet pea! I love to make people come, again and again

Handley_Page said:

Good News, Duchess.
Welcome back!

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I know! Things do seem to be getting a bit better at the Old Unmentionable. I went to a meeting the other day, after writing a 5 page letter of complaint about our so-called 'Staff Development Day' (barely any development but lots of the Muddlement stuffing new strategies down our throats), and two middle Muddlers apologised in six different positions and said it's all going to be changed and done the way I want things to be. Then I went to a 'Listening Event' about the latest strategy and ... they listened!

I was wearing a lucky Millenium Falcon plaster, as I had a blister on my heel. Maybe I will try out the Darth Vader one next time I go in

Bramblethorn said:

Hooray for pay, anyway!

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Yaayyy! Money money money!
Oh ... where did it go?

I went out with a friend the other day, and asked him if he thought I was low paid or just extravagant.
"Well, you've got a £10 cocktail sitting in front of you," he pointed out.
"Yeah, but you are going to pay for that," I said.
His face!
(And he did pay for it <snerk>.)

kisschampagne said:

Just lurking, loved reading your anecdotes...

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Thank you, my dear. You are very welcome. Lurk, post anecdotes of your own, ask intimate questions you feel unable to put elsewhere on the internet. It's amazing what I have managed to find out on this board. I have learned how to fill up the wishy-washy-wiper-water bottle in my car (just did it the other day, HP! - and checked the oil and pink coolant liquid). I got invaluable support when my cat had five kittens, in spite of all my efforts at safe sex education . And sometimes I have even had good advice about my writing!

I promise to pop back now and then when I can. I know it's hard when people disappear and you wonder what has happened to them. My life has got so much better, so I don't have such a need to come here and blurt about all the problems I face, but I remain very very grateful to everyone on here who supported me at a really rough time in my life.

Dear Lady,
Will you please empty your bloody in-box ?
Thank you

Welcome back, Lady.

Glad to see things are finally working out.

NaokoSmith said:

Yaayyy! Money money money!
Oh ... where did it go?

I went out with a friend the other day, and asked him if he thought I was low paid or just extravagant.
"Well, you've got a £10 cocktail sitting in front of you," he pointed out.
"Yeah, but you are going to pay for that," I said.
His face!
(And he did pay for it <snerk>.)

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I do hope it was a nice cocktail!

Bramblethorn said:

I do hope it was a nice cocktail!

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At that price it had better by Bloody Good.

Good Lord - she's alive, alive I say! Still if I count your posts this month against mine this year, then it is I who have committed Lit-suicide. Lets call it evens?
Really you're saga over pay and conds has more Dickens than Austen about it and it's disgraceful that people find themselves going over the same ground for rights that ought to have been resolved years ago. Is there some weird loophole bridging the 19th and 21st century?!
Happily my employers don't treat me quite like dirt, but then I is not an hacademic like wot you is. I am simply staff and as such we are cherished for people who really do pick up the dog-poo of Uni life.
I dare say it is possible to have sex on the back of a motorbike, but why, when presumably there is a perfectly good verge at hand? Nasty things with very hot pipes ready to cook the flesh off a calf in a trice.
A little anecdote from last term. A foreign student telephoned to ask in very broken English, if we could test/try/time? her tablet if she came in. We wouldn't normally, but I felt sorry for her, struggling as she was with the language. An hour later she arrived, repeated her request with the same pigeon English. "Ok, let me have a look," I suggested. She rummaged in her bag and produced a bottle of pills. "You test this yes? It cost lot of money." I wasn't sure if the drugs squad might be able to help her, but she left very annoyed that the Physics department were refusing to and stomped off to the school of pharmacy instead.

Flowers and kisses to all
J xx

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stickygirl said:

Good Lord - she's alive, alive I say! Still if I count your posts this month against mine this year, then it is I who have committed Lit-suicide. Lets call it evens?

Happily my employers don't treat me quite like dirt, but then I is not an hacademic like wot you is. I am simply staff and as such we are cherished for people who really do pick up the dog-poo of Uni life.
I dare say it is possible to have sex on the back of a motorbike, but why, when presumably there is a perfectly good verge at hand? Nasty things with very hot pipes ready to cook the flesh off a calf in a trice.

Flowers and kisses to all
J xx

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Good Grief; a 'Jane' sighting. And my camera is down the stairs.

Bramblethorn said:

I do hope it was a nice cocktail!

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Oh of course! I have only once been to a cheap cocktail bar recently, and that was with a date whom I rapidly realised was not up to scratch. In fact, he himself said "I can't afford you."

TxRad said:

You did research on sex on a motorcycle and you didn't call me?

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This is for you, dahlink.

Handley_Page said:

At that price it had better by Bloody Good.

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It was a Bloody Mary
No, it wasn't. It was some sort of pink fluffy martini. Sort of like alcoholic Angel Delight

stickygirl said:

I dare say it is possible to have sex on the back of a motorbike, but why, when presumably there is a perfectly good verge at hand? Nasty things with very hot pipes ready to cook the flesh off a calf in a trice.
A little anecdote from last term. A foreign student telephoned to ask in very broken English, if we could test/try/time? her tablet if she came in....
J xx

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I did mention the danger of the pipe-burning-leg thing! You see how carefully I did my research Of course, personally I prefer a good bed or at least a classic rug of some kind, nicely laid out on level ground. (My own rug is an old tartan blanket, which I picked up while taking part in protests at Greenham Common.) However it made for a jolly romp in the story.

@ the tablet testing. I think I have told my story about the Old Etonian and the pills here before, but if you have forgotten it say so, and I will tell it again.

I'm sorry to say that in Old Underwear, our institution, a lot of the actual teaching and work to support teaching goes on far from a highly centralised management, and they only value Managers. I know! Strange, isn't it. They have proposed cutting our IT department and farming IT out to private companies Lots of us are writing to explain what a complete fuck-wit idea this would be, and after their last fiasco when they had to pay us all £200 they screwed up so badly, maybe they will even listen.

Sex on the back of a motorbike?
Of course it's possible, but I recommend a flat surface and a solid centre-stand.
[memories of many, many moons ago]
In my case it was an old BSA.

Handley_Page said:

Sex on the back of a motorbike?
Of course it's possible, but I recommend a flat surface and a solid centre-stand.
[memories of many, many moons ago]
In my case it was an old BSA.

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You should have tried it while flying down the highway. I'll let your imagination work on that.

I've done it many times back in my younger days. I fact, it was part of the initiation into several biker gang... uh, clubs I was a member of.

TxRad said:

You should have tried it while flying down the highway. I'll let your imagination work on that.

I've done it many times back in my younger days. I fact, it was part of the initiation into several biker gang... uh, clubs I was a member of.

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I've done it once on a horse. That was interesting, especially at a trot.

oggbashan said:

I've done it once on a horse. That was interesting, especially at a trot.

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Been there, done that myself. A good time was had by all.

TxRad said:

Been there, done that myself. A good time was had by all.

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<chuckle>
Including the Horse ?

Handley_Page said:

Sex on the back of a motorbike?
Of course it's possible, but I recommend a flat surface and a solid centre-stand.
[memories of many, many moons ago]
In my case it was an old BSA.

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You are forgiven for calling her a BSA, but old, really! You surprise me HP

stickygirl said:

You are forgiven for calling her a BSA, but old, really! You surprise me HP

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I tried it on my old BSA:



but it had no rear suspension, nor dual seat, so it was awkward if not impossible. That black pad at the rear was erstatz rubber from 1944 and was as soft as a brick.

PS. I met a local owner with a similar BSA M20 today. We discussed the limitations of the BSA. Like me, his wife would never ride on the back pad. Both women would prefer to walk... His wife rides her own Harley.

stickygirl said:

You are forgiven for calling her a BSA, but old, really! You surprise me HP

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Well, she lumbered along at 350cc (single cylinder).
I was doing all right until the bus pulled out in front of me.
That hurt !

TxRad said:

You should have tried it while flying down the highway. I'll let your imagination work on that.

I've done it many times back in my younger days. I fact, it was part of the initiation into several biker gang... uh, clubs I was a member of.

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Hmmmm. I need to talk to you offline about that, Tex. My Chinese Takeout story needs sex on a motorcycle, definitely, and I confess, I have no idea....

ChloeTzang said:

Hmmmm. I need to talk to you offline about that, Tex. My Chinese Takeout story needs sex on a motorcycle, definitely, and I confess, I have no idea....

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PM answered. I'll know when you read it. The blushing glow will be seen for miles.

TxRad said:

PM answered. I'll know when you read it. The blushing glow will be seen for miles.

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The mind boggles