September 2008


The Shrew Who Wanted To Be A Doctor

There once was a shrew,
Who, having little better to do,
Decided to pursue,
A career in medicine.

Being unable to cram,
For all of the exams,
He hatched a plan,
Both cunning and devious.

To emulate his betters,
And escape his social fetters,
He placed after his name the letters,
"M.D."

The fact is,
He set up a fake practice,
And hired an actress,
To play his receptionist.

Now set up,
In his medical get-up,
The shrew didn't let up,
But began a marketing campaign.

He placed an ad,
In his local rag,
Saying,"You'll be glad,
"You visited Dr. Shrew!"

The shrew was in his office,
Drinking the most recent of several coffees,
And anticipating his profits,
When in walked a patient.

Who said, "Doctor, I'm impotent,
"When I... hang on a moment!
"Aren't you some kind of rodent?"
The shrew had been found out.

Crying, "Oh no! A shrew!"
The patient hastily withdrew,
Causing something of a to-do,
In the waiting room.

He rapidly opined,
That those waiting had been blind,
Causing them to become inclined,
To violence, and aggressive acts.

The mob were less than gracious,
In fact they were somewhat pugnacious,
Shouting, "Get out here and face us!
"You nasty little animal!"

The shrew, his plans in disarray,
Found it rather imprudent to stay,
So he quickly sought a way,
To escape the situation.

Alas, the room was sealed!
His plot was now revealed,
So he prepared to field,
The inevitable barrage of questions and accusations.

The mob gave him no quarter,
"Little bastard! Why we oughta,
"Truss him up and have him slaughtered!"
Dr Shew was rapidly stamped to death.

To prevent this verse continuing ad nauseum,
The shrew was stuffed and placed in Bristol Museum,
Where, to this day, you can see him,
Just to the left of the capybara.






Results

The rain drums down outside, coming down harder than ever. I'm struggling to concentrate, they've been talking about the same student for half an hour now. Someone who has chronic reasons for not being here, for not doing well. Serious reasons. One of the academics has taught her. He says she is the most disengaged student he has ever taught. She has been here four years.

The argument is about whether we let her off the last few credits and give her a degree (if she wants it), or whether we make her come back next year, even though she can only get a third anyway. This would mean doing a module for a third time. Eventually reason wins over, it's just not fair to make her go through it again, a third is pretty crap anyway - what employer would want her? or rather we just want to be rid of her AND her personal problems...

Another discussion involves whether someone who was charged with rape but let off should be allowed to carry on being a student, and whether we should inform the University. The charges were dropped! Just goes to show the power of suggestion. There is also an ongoing investigation for murder but I'm not supposed to minute this.

All afternoon this goes on, my new member of staff has to sit through it for two days, I tell her she should probably practice writing some minutes too, just to stop her chewing her own arm off. Or at least spend a couple of days eating pies, girls are just TOO skinny these days...

Afterwards, it's all panicking and results and having to shuffle students around and fix disasters that we should have fixed in the summer. I am the one who writes FA and FU next to your name, if they decide that you've failed. There is a long and tedious process of click print tick click check print ok check sign click publish, which should have been over two days ago but the idiotic control freak who is supposed to be doing the signing has booked herself into meetings all day. I am supposed to be at home today, helping the GF to decorate the front room but oh no, I have to come in and wait until I'm allowed to publish.

At 1630 I manage to catch her1 and she says it's fine for someone else to check them as she won't be doing it tonight. By some miracle I manage not to strangle her there and then and resign myself to being in work past 6 for the fourth day this week.

My little helper feels bad that she has to go home, but she has been very kind and helpful this week. We'll see how she feels after I've left her with the aftermath tomorrow.

  • 1. She is on her way into a meeting with a student whose mum thinks it's a little bit unfair that we penalised him for printing out the seen exam for the wrong module and turning up to the wrong exam.




Haunting

When you vivisect a squirrel it is wise to be aware,
That a little soul is beating behind all the blood and hair,
I took no real notice of the squirrel's right to live,
And now my life is haunted by a ghost that won't forgive.

My keys are always hidden and my toast is always burnt,
At night there are strange noises and I really wish there weren't,
I never should have let my hands remove that squirrel's guts
But all in all I'm thankful that he hasn't found my nuts.






Bored Meetings

They come in thick and fast. The marks fly in, the lecturers look at me questioningly, pleadingly. I point at the red tray, beneath the sign that says INSERT MARKS HERE. Generally it is okay. It is the people who have been here for years that pretend they don't know what's going on that really wind me up. You WERE here in the summer, weren't you? I ask, as someone asks me where he is supposed to sign. It was only a couple of months ago, after all.

I arrange a few exams overseas for some of our students. It is a nightmarish process, primarily because there is no clear directive on what I am supposed to do, let alone how much I am supposed to charge. I talk to the British Councils in Bahrain and Khazkstan, send off the exams, it all goes smoothly... In Bahrain, the student is caught sneaking furtive looks at bits of tissue paper. He begs the invigilators to ignore the incident, but they confiscate them and send them to me. I am only mildly surprised that I am not sent a hand as well.

Three new people start work this week and I'm in charge of two of them, such timing! We struggle to find them things to do, the office is getting more and more organised as we direct them to all the piles of crap we've been ignoring for years. There's stuff lying around from the 90's that we just keep for the hell of it. We are all so busy and you couldn't ask a new person to check people's results! I have two more days of boards starting today, the new girl in my office will be doing this with me next year, but for now it's just me. I have in fact been doing more than half her job since I took over, because we just haven't had anyone we can trust doing it. No-one who is capable of more than one thing at a time, anyway.

A lecturer dies suddenly over the weekend. Rumours of suicide abound, until a heartfelt email goes out from one of his friends. Now we all believe it's just a tragic accident. Too early for jokes, thanks.

Tonight I am going to a gig for the first time in like, forever. It will be awesome, presuming the world doesn't end...





Cirque Bijou

Cirque Bijou-2791

There was a poorly advertised event in town the other weekend organised by Project 360 . It was part of the UK Schools competition thingy - something which disrupted a large number of exams here at the University. A friend told me about it and I took the camera along to test it in the dark. Some of the results are quite pleasing, considering that I'm playing with a Tamron 70-300mm lens from the back of the crowd...





Musical Desks

One of our temps quits. There is a some muted rejoicing, although he was going to be replaced by this latest round of interviews anyway. His replacement will be one of our own students, with next to no experience, which is ideal really and hopefully she will be much easier to get along with. Just weird, is all.1

He quits under a cloud of minor controversy, discovering that I am his boss the moment after he tells me to fsck off! in a jokey sort of way. He quits that same evening in tears (of the crocodile variety I suspect), even though it was taken in the spirit in which it was intended (like I give a fsck). My boss says that she wishes she had set me on him before, we've had to put up with a lot of crap for quite a while now.2

The other annoying temp is coming to the end of his tenure, surprising us all by not causing complete chaos as he is the one who is packing all the exam papers together. A little bit stressed but life goes on... HIS replacement starts on Monday (thank God!) and we might actually have some people who work and care about what they do, rather than talk about films all day or wind me up by just being. Perhaps I am too hopeful?

He is very grumpy today, has been for a while, perhaps it's that I keep asking / telling him to get on and do mundane jobs for me. There is a lot more to his role, but I have been doing most of it for the last few months as he can't cope / be trusted with more than one thing at a time. There is one thing I've been trying to get him to do for weeks, it involves going through a load of boxes, taking out old stuff, putting in new stuff. I suspect that I'll be doing it myself when work finishes because it has to be done by tomorrow.

The string tightens, and frays.

  • 1. Two others also leave, but we are sorry to see THEM go.
  • 2. I slightly regret telling him about Skip The Budgie in a rare moment of us getting along. Hopefully he's forgotten.