Weekend Jobs

If I ever used to feel guilty about not working at weekends I don’t anymore. I may have a big backlog of things to do but I’ve come to accept that life is too short to work every day of the week.

I’ve explained many times on this blog that we’re very short-staffed in the Department of Theoretical Physics. That is no fault of mine or any of the other staff so I’m not going to work myself into the ground. I did enough unpaid overtime during the lockdown and I’m not going to allow stress and overwork to become the new normal.

So, despite toying with the idea of finishing a paper this weekend, I settled for domestic chores. That doesn’t make for a very exciting blog post but there you are.

The main task I accomplished was to deal with the ivy that is growing in profusion on the outside of my house. It was in danger of getting into the loft space so I got my flat-bladed chisel out and went at it. It’s nearly all cleared now, but my garden waste bin is full so I’ll have to do the rest when I have space to put the bits and pieces.

It being October now I’ve also resumed food service for the birds. I put out one feeder last week and it was emptied in a matter of hours. I saw mainly blue tits attacking it. I haven’t seen any of those for a while. I forgot to buy peanuts but I’ll try to do that in the week so I can deploy the mesh feeders; the seed I’ve already put out is too fine for those.

Another exciting job I did was clean out my coffee maker. I have a nice espresso machine that requires regular de-scaling. That takes quite a while to do as one has to send a whole tank full of solution through the works, then rinse it out with water afterwards.

I also put a few pictures up, having rescued my Black-and-Decker from the shed. I still have more to do, largely because I’m very indecisive about where to put my artwork. I still have to hang my big blackboard too. I might be needing it for online lectures again. Who knows?

Other than the highlight of the weekend was Saturday night dinner, which was roast confit of duck with braised red cabbage, roast Romanesco with garlic and lemon, and new potatoes. It was delicious, especially when accompanied by a very nice Barolo. I even enjoyed shopping for some of the ingredients.

Anyway, week four begins tomorrow. That’s a third of the way into term for the returning students. I don’t think I’ve ever started counting the days to the end of term this early before.

Follow @telescoper