Journal Entries
Mill Road Winter Fair
Posted Dec 1, 2012
Today was the 8th annual Mill Road Winter Fair, now a regular Cambridge fixture on the first Saturday in December. I usually volunteer for stewarding, but keep it to an hour, otherwise it really gets too cold. Got up early and did my supermarket shop, then went to have my hair cut. Checked in for my stewarding stint just before 11, and stood on the corner of Devonshire Road for an hour or so. Duties mostly involved letting cars and vans cross over Mill Road from Kingston Street to Devonshire Road.
Had lunch on the move - an 'Old Smokey' hot dog from Northrop's (great local butcher), on the way to the Hats! competition. Had made a hat, but wasn't very pleased with the result. I gather there were some amazing entries, so not expecting to win. Walked back to the railway bridge and stopped to watch the carnival parade - students from local schools in Rio-style costumes, with samba band. It was great!
Came home early afternoon, and did a few chores, then went to meet mates at the pub, and came home for Strictly and pizza.
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Latest reply: Dec 1, 2012
Bad start to the day
Posted Nov 19, 2012
Last week I spent the best part of a day working out how to timetable interviews in two - no three - related subjects, so that about 30 applicants could have two or in some cases three interviews focussing on their strongest A-levels, and two-thirds of them could also do a 90-minute problem-solving test on the same day as their interviews. This morning when I got to work, one of the interviewers phoned to say "I know we originally said we would interview on the Thursday and Friday, but could we change that to Wednesday, as my co-interviewer has got his department Christmas dinner on Thursday night?"
I put the phone down and literally screamed - the cleaner came in to see if somebody was being murdered! Then I phoned my boss and tendered my resignation. Luckily she saw my point of view and told them that it was too late to change the days now.
Then I spent the morning fighting with software.
Fortunately after lunch things got a bit better: managed to send out interview invitations to about half the applicants, and my colleague went out at lunchtime and came back with chocolate biscuits.
Went to help with Brownies after work and that was good fun - chatting with 7 year-olds seems to put things into perspective ...
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Latest reply: Nov 19, 2012
And ... kick-off!
Posted Nov 15, 2012
First lot of interviews happened today. I was a bit worried when I saw the fog this morning, and had already warned them about the fact that roads are being dug up all over town, but everybody got here OK - although there was one narrow squeak! The undergrad helpers were, as always, a delight, and it all seemed to go smoothly.
In other news, most of the decisions about who to call for interview are now done, and I'm gradually getting to grips with interview timetables.
Only managed a 15-minute lunch hour with a sandwich at my desk today, so off to the pub for supper. Hope they've got liver and bacon on the menu, I could just fancy that!
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Latest reply: Nov 15, 2012
Applications season
Posted Nov 10, 2012
Workload increasing by the day. The Admissions Tutor and Directors of Studies now making final decisions on who to call for interview (overseas applicants have mostly been called already, as they have to book flights etc). As each subject is dealt with, I schedule the interviews - some subjects e.g. Modern Languages, or Human, Social & Political Sciences, more complicated than others and give me a headache. We aim to send all interview invitations by 3rd week in November. This year we are also hosting some of the training sessions for new interviewers, which involves recruiting first-year students in various subjects to be 'mock-interviewed'. Thankfully this is going to rotate round the colleges, so we won't have to do it again for 5-6 years, by which time I may well have retired - hurray!
Decided I need to get out of town this weekend, so planning to do chores today (supermarket shop, cleaning - ugh!) and have a jaunt to Stamford on Sunday, when the forecast is more promising.
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Latest reply: Nov 10, 2012
Zombies for Douglas!
Posted Oct 30, 2012
I know you're not a fan of independence anyway, but had you thought of this horrendous possibilty?
http://www.bbc.scotlandshire.co.uk/index.php/city-news/65-zombies.html
Mwahahahahaha!
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Latest reply: Oct 30, 2012
annie_cambridge
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