te zaddi ahey

Capstain’s blog, stardate late May, year of the hamster.
The gap between posts has crept now to eight days, but that’s OK, perhaps I will have more to remark upon than the cost of wine at the COOP.
A civilised and drunk couple of days spent in leafy Woking has been the main event of the past week. Despite – not because of – having spent every day in each other’s company for several months whilst travelling around forrin back in the last millennium , I have hardly seen Yash in the last ten years. A trip to his place a few years ago, when he lived in London, and a couple of festivals is about as much as we’ve managed, and haven’t met his wife Anagha hardly at all either. In the summer of 2007 Yash said we’d definitely have to visit before the end of the year, so come mid-2009 we finally got around to it.
He and Anagha live in what I think the establishment classes refer to as a ‘pile’ - meaning big house – in Woking. Not that most of it is liveable because they’re doing building things to it all, but nevertheless it’s still an impressive place. Anne and I turned up Friday night and as hoped-for had a lovely curry and loads of beer. Stayed up late drinking more beer and whiskey with Yash till 2ish, chewin’ the fat. Saturday, Yash started turning up large gin and tonics at 1pm and it all went from there really. Yash and Anagha’s equally well-heeled pals and cousin Monish came along soon after. Champagne was followed by a dinner so leisurely it lasted until about 8pm or so, when the last piece of fruit pie was finally washed down with whiskey, wine, beer and a big cigar. See, me, I can take my booze, but Yash disappeared for a lie-down after it all got a bit much for him. Not to worry though because Anne and Anagha got him up by hitting him with a pillow. Dragged the poor lamb to the pub where he rather brazenly ordered a shandy, and I learned the Marathi for “she’s so fat” which is “te zaddi ahey”. Doesn’t sound hard, but you have to get your enunciation right. Then we had a kebab. Next day, had a lovely stroll by the river and lunch in a pub. Poor Bert was hoping to come round, but had in-law commitments to attend to, so we didn’t see him unfortunately.
This week I’ve spent mostly with a fecked up neck. I ran 8.5 miles in the gym on the stupid machine, which is a lifetime record for me I think (except perhaps when participating in Wednesday afternoon boot camp with Mr Payne at Taunton School). Not bad – that’s basically a third of a marathon, but as well as ruining my legs I seem to have suffered something the symptoms of which are similar to whiplash. Over the last few days my neck has got stiffer and more painful, and had to cancel various things I was supposed to do Thursday, like a no-doubt riveting seminar. Am involved with AC at Cardiff now with an application for a science engagement project thing to do with climate change and rural Welsh people, which hopefully will be a good experience. I think it will be, and it’s not like the turgid but highly stressful literature review and experimental work I’ve done over the last couple of years as an extra income to supplement my mid-life PhD crisis. Assuming I live to 68 that is.
When I’ve not been downing sleep-making codydramol or sticking a home electrocution kit on my neck to replace muscular pain with nerve-shocking pain, I’ve been trying to get going on the end of year thesis sort of piece of work I have to produce to be allowed into my second year. Familiar problems present of writer’s block, which is less fun than fiction writer’s block because all creativity and individuality is Bad and so the best, ultimate aim is something reference-heavy and desiccated which reads like every other academic article and supposedly makes some miniscule contribution to something, but probably doesn’t. Maybe my neck pain is affecting my enthusiasm.
Yash said his highly regarded law professor tutor from Cambridge forewent a huge city salary to return to academia and had a mental breakdown because it was harder and more pressured. But she was probably just trying too hard. I plan to get a job at a minor university and work from home a lot.