Free lunch, bad computer

Several topics for today:


FREE LUNCH

The training folks paid for lunch today; we went to the fancy-pants restaurant (upstairs from the cheap one I usually go to). I almost had the lamb, but it comes to ya still on the bone, and I don’t like having to cut the meat off the bone. So I took the pasta w/ chunks o’ chicken. (I’m sure they called it something more elegant.)

I’m fairly open to most types of foodage: nothing super spicy, and I don’t care for meringue. Other than that, I’ll eat most things -- which forms the basis of a symbiotic relationship with The Lady: she’s more particular -- so at restaurants, I get all her leftovers! That said, I have two eating oddities:

Food quirk #1: As mentioned, I don’t like having to deal with bones. I’ll eat salmon if a family member -- esp. my dad! -- cooks it, but I don’t order it at restaurants. Stakes, lamb chops, chicken legs -- nah. I’ll sometimes eat ribs -- but only because I can use my hands.

Part of this is due to my American upbringing: Aussies routinely eat with knife and fork, cutting things up into pieces. So for them, cutting the meat off the bone is no extra cutting. But for most Yanks, we just cut stuff with the edge of our fork. So I usually can’t be bothered to pick up a knife: extra effort for little gain.

(In Aussie-land, a lot of cutlery sets include a ‘’splade’’ -- a fork with a slightly wider tine on one side, to facilitate cutting through things. Didn’t catch on in the U.S., probably ‘cause we already cut our food with a fork: no need for an extra tool.)


Food quirk #2: I water down my soft drinks. (Did I already blog about this? Sounds familiar.) 50-50 if I’m feeling bold; one-fourth to one-sixth full strength for normal drinking. As I probably mentioned, not as sticky-sweet, less bubbles, less phosphoric acid (for cola drinks), and (as they say here), ‘’cheap as chips!!!’’ A two litre bottle lasts me about two months -- and that’s having a drink or two an evening, and several on weekends.



BAD COMPUTER

On my way to breakfast, stopped by the little library room to check e-mail at the computer terminal. Wouldn’t connect to the internet. Stopped by the check-in desk to report it. Manager-type lady said they’d get someone to look at it; assistant guy standing next to her said, ‘’Oh, yeah -- I noticed that this morning.’’ (Der! Maybe -- report it to your supervisor???)

Stop by after my training session finished for the day to try again before dinner. Still not connecting. Inquire at front desk. ‘’Oh, we need to send out for someone.’’ Apparently, they don’t have their own I.T. person, and they’re not part of any Department or School within the university. Felt bad for them: clearly, they can’t get timely help for their own, internal computer problems. But also a bit annoyed that I can’t check e-mail this evening. Plus, I finally figured out how to log in to view my recently re-discovered friend’s blog entries, so I’ve popped backwards a few months to read thru them. Was hoping to read a few more entries tonight.

But, can’t. Pah.


OTHER #1
Missing my wife and child terribly. The Lady phones every evening, but The Bub is pre-phone. The other people taking the training course with me are nice folks, but I don’t really want to hang out with them during the evening. Plus, have the ol’ Dissertation to work on...

That said, had dinner with a Uni friend of The Lady’s. Went to a Turkish restaurant; good food. Actually ordered a complete other meal for takeaway, to stuff in my ‘fridge. I’m used to having dinner around 8-9pm, so having dinner around 7pm (as dictated by the operating hours of the cafe here) leaves me hungry by 10pm. Better to snack on ‘’real’’ food than on orange-coated corn chips.


OTHER #2

Nice lady leading the training sessions agreed to get me a USB keyboard, so that I wouldn’t have to struggle with the dinky, closely-spaced keyboard that’s part of the laptop. The I.T. people from her Centre didn’t have any extras, so she gave me hers from her computer in her office, and plugged a PS/2 version in, instead. I’ve used it to type this blog, and it’s muuuuch easier. Faster typing -- and way fewer typos! :)


--GG