perils of the internet

I met with one of the people on my interview list today. We were scheduled to meet next week, but she had some time and called to ask if I were free, so we had lunch. She seems nice. We chatted for a while. And then she admitted that she'd googled me. And found the blogs. And I felt as if I'd showed up to the meeting in nothing but my pants.

So. That was interesting. I suppose I have to assume that people are going to do that. I'm lucky Sarah didn't, really. Although in a way, it might save a lot of time. If someone doesn't want to meet me after reading the blogs, I wouldn't have wanted to work with them anyway, so there's that.

Dr A (not even her actual initial; I'm calling them A, B, C etc for now) seemed fine with the madhouse that is my life and said she might even keep reading, at least until we get Sherlock bone-chandelier up, because she wants to see how it turns out. (So, if you're reading this...hello.)

It's an odd feeling. Partly because I'm used to presenting a professional front, but also partly because until L and the boys, there hasn't been all that much that... You know, even as I type that sentence, I realise it's not true. If I'd been keeping a blog in my thirties...probably anyone reading it would've thought I was writing fiction. Anyway. Odd day. 

narwhals and interviews

Narwhals:

I'm reading The Mauritius Command, and sometimes Sherlock perches on the back of the sofa and reads bits over my shoulder. The bit he read today was a scene in which a captain under Aubrey's command is convinced he has a unicorn's horn. It's really a narwhal tusk, which caused Sherlock to interrogate me for my scanty knowledge of narwhals (mid-sized whale, has an enormous tusk, lives in the Arctic), which was obviously not enough to satisfy him, so we looked on the internet for a while and found, among other things, the above picture. 

Before Sherlock got home, I called a few of the people on the list I got from the course to set up interviews for a potential...mentor? Supervisor? Both, I suppose. And instructor, since they're meant to sign off on me and attest to my general competence to do the job on my own after a few months. 

I called five people and got three interviews out of it. The first man said he was retiring soon and wasn't prepared to train anyone, and the third said he was moving to Ulan Bator in three weeks. I wish I'd thought to ask why. I really want to know now, despite it being quite obviously none of my business. I thought about going there to teach English for a while. 

Anyway, I'll let you know how the interviews go, and of course even if someone takes me on, it's no guarantee of employment. Just have to wait and see how it all turns out. Even if I don't get work right away, I might start looking at the requirements for the DMJ (diploma of medical jurisprudence). I think it'd be interesting. 

-

Aaaand apparently Sherlock is the proud owner of a giant purple sparkly bone, which we need to pick up tomorrow. The things that happen when I leave town for a week... 

wedding day

We're just back from Jo and Lisa's wedding. Sherlock fell asleep while we were still there and has been put to bed without waking enough to do more than grumble that he wasn't tired at all before dropping off again. Mycroft has retired to his room to be alone and hopefully get some sleep as well. He was, as always, a perfect gentleman, and must've danced with at least five little girls under the age of six, which takes fortitude.

I got to dance with L, which was lovely, and gave me some hope for our wedding, since I managed not to trip over either his feet or my own. Didn't even feel like I would, which I'll give him the credit for.

During the course of the evening, L managed to balance on my head a veil, a flower from the cake (the cake was delicious, by the way), and a button someone had lost. That's just the things I know about, of course. I dread to think what he'll manage for our own wedding.

And of course we got to hear him play. It was beautiful, no other word for it. Such a depth of feeling, too. I wish you could've heard it. I was, and am, ridiculously proud of him, and I know it made Jo and Lisa very happy, you could see it all over their faces.

avebury

After talking about it for only two years or so, we finally made it to Avebury today. Lovely day, if chilly. We had a picnic, Mycroft and Sherlock and the dogs played tag, Sherlock tried (unsuccessfully) to climb ancient stones that were as unconcerned about him as they have been about generations of children doing the same while their parents' backs are turned for two seconds. He said he would've managed it with both arms full functioning.

I was a little worried about the dogs and the sheep, but they were both very good (the dogs and the sheep, that is). The dogs watched with fascination and lolling tongues, and the sheep wisely kept their distance, drifting away whenever we got too near. They had more trouble from Sherlock, who wanted to touch one, and kept trying to creep up them. Frustrating for him, endlessly entertaining for the rest of us.

I have no pictures for you, sorry. It seemed like the sort of day that didn't really require cameras or phones, except for a few pictures of the boys to send to their mum, because I try to do that most days. Here's someone else's photo though, which is much nicer than mine would be anyway.

Failed success by Esen Tunar

Also, here's a video about how ice flakes are formed, courtesy of Innie. I'm sure Sherlock will be snow mad once again when he sees it.


And now, a second attempt at sleep. Good night, everyone. 

city lights

A shot from the Met helicopter that L sent me: 

Our house is down there somewhere...

Beautiful, isn't it? Night shots of city lights always are. It's hard to imagine the entire planet dark the way it was really not very long ago at all. I wonder if any light source people could make prior to electricity would show up from space. Or helicopters. Alien helicopters, obviously, since we sort of needed electricity to... I'll just stop there.

The boys and I have been out enjoying the city while L slaves away at his desk, although Sherlock desperately wants to stop by in his continuing quest to get every single person on Earth to sign his cast. We might at least drag L away for coffee if he's not too busy.

One of the things we got at the end of the course was a list of names of FMEs (or FPs or FMOs or one of the other many acronyms that have been/are being used to describe this job) currently working in our home cities who are willing to supervise trainees - that would be us - for the first six months or so. The idea is that we call a few, set up interviews, and find someone we work well with. After we start working, we get to call them if we have questions, and they look over our cases, things like that, to make sure we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, and then, eventually, they sign off on us, and we're on our own.

So that's the next step. I'll look into it soon, but not until after the boys are back at school probably. Hopefully I can do the interviews while Sherlock's at school so I won't need to bother Mrs Hudson. 

sofa

Sherlock came and woke me up about half an hour ago. I got him some water, and now we're on the sofa. He's asleep again, sort of draped over me like a small, warm, bony blanket, with his arm propped carefully on cushions. My computer's balanced precariously on the back of the sofa, so this is probably not going to be a long post.

The course was good, despite the lack of decent tea. I didn't sleep well without L's freezing cold feet and his... Well. Just without him, I suppose. It's easier to remember where you are when you wake up in your own bedroom next to someone you love than it is when you wake up in an empty hotel room. This was the first time I've been away on my own since I met him and the boys, and it was strange to see how much I've changed. Even the concept of having a home is unfamiliar, at least since I left my parent's house, and missing it - not just the people in it but the physical place - is a first.

Got home around 7.30, locked the bike up, got hit in the midsection by a Sherlock-shaped torpedo and grabbed as tightly as he could managed with only one arm. There was some sniffling when I picked him up and he told me all about it (for the second time, because of course he told me on skype as well, but that's not the same) while Lestrade and Mycroft came to hug me slightly more gently and help me get my things upstairs.

Tea, biscuits, curry, my favourite people, two large slobbery dogs...a good homecoming.

I'll leave you with some valuable information from the course. One of the things we covered was 'demeanor in court', on which our instructor had this to say:

Consider carefully the proposed response prior to putting one's mouth into gear.

I liked it so much I wrote it down verbatim. I don't think there's any area of life that couldn't apply to. 

forensic romance

The course continues. Still interesting. Still a lot to take in, and I feel like I ought to be remembering everything, which is obviously impossible when someone's talking to you from eight in the morning till five in the afternoon. That's what notes are for, of course, and I haven't taken this many since medical school. It's like a week-long flashback. Leaves my brain a bit fried at the end of the day. 

Tonight I looked up one of the historical records the instructor mentioned on Monday:

On the Uncertainty of the Signs of Murder in the Case of Bastard Children, by William Hunter, 1818

That is, it concerns children born out of wedlock being killed, not murders done by bastards. It makes for fairly unpleasant, if interesting, reading, especially once you get past the introduction and read about the individual cases. 

birmingham

Want to help name Pluto's moons? (Who wouldn't want to help name Pluto's moons?)

Anyway, I'm in Birmingham. This is the picture I sent Sherlock and L last night of my hotel room.

Unexciting hotel room

spider legs

3D fractals

There's a lot more of them at that link. They look like whole alien worlds. Just amazing.

Well...let's see. I'm leaving the day after tomorrow. Sherlock has helped me pack twice so far. I've removed:

• his book on mummies (interesting, but not exactly a good size to fit in a smallish bag)
• a container of black glitter
• three kinds of gum, including the nicotine variety
• two kinds of tea (a nice thought, but I'm reasonably sure they still have tea in Birmingham) 
• a small, plastic fish
• four pressed leaves
• a candle
• a book on bees
• a carrot
• L's uniform hat

I'll leave it up to you to decide which is the most inexplicable. It's either the carrot or the hat, for me. Spider is going to be the most difficult, I think. Her legs stick out no matter what I do. I hope whoever cleans the room at the hotel isn't bothered by spiders. 

Things I am taking include, boringly, clothes, The Mauritius Command, laptop, toothbrush, etc. Trying to decide if I can get away with wearing boots most of the time, because I can fit normal shoes or trainers, but not both. I'll probably go with the trainers and then not run the entire time I'm there. That's always the way it goes, isn't it? No? Just me? Right. 

Sherlock says he has a surprise planned for me while I'm gone... He also says L approved it, so I am extremely curious and only mildly concerned. 

maze

"Almost 30 years ago a Japanese custodian sat in front of a large A1 size sheet of white paper, whipped out a pen and started drawing the beginnings of a diabolically complex maze..."

More about the maze at the link in the caption. I'm resisting the urge to call it amazing. Apparently I'm not resisting it very well though. I hope they decide to do prints of it because Sherlock already wants one. As a stopgap measure, he's drawing his own. I'm pretty sure his has more traps, pools of lava, and buried treasure than the original does. 

I got in touch with a couple of people I know in Birmingham and in theory we'll get together while I'm there. One of them is married to a woman I used to date. Don't know if he plans on bringing her along or how awkward that will prove to be if he does. Hopefully not too bad. She threw a teacup when she broke up with me, but if she'd wanted to hit me with it, she probably would've. 

Sherlock and I are cooking dinner tonight. What did he pick for the vegetable? Broccoli. 

voyager

Stardust from PostPanic, a short film about Voyager I. I originally thought of Mycroft when I saw this, but I'm not sure how much he's going to like it, given it's mostly computer generated and not real footage. It is beautiful though. 

So. I am signed up for the FME course in Birmingham. It starts one week from today. I'll leave the night before, mostly because it starts early enough that I'd have to be on the road long before I prefer to even be conscious to make it in time, but also because I think saying goodbye to Sherlock before he has to leave for school would be disastrous. At least this way he'll have Sunday evening with L to get used to the idea and make biscuits or something. 

No, to make mango eggs, he's just told me. (Hope you're prepared, L...) He also says he'll be fine and he's very very grown up now and won't miss me at all and what day am I getting back? If only all it took not to miss people was being grown up. 

Seeing Birmingham again will be a bit strange. The last time I was there, I was a patient at Selly Oak, I think very shortly before they started moving it all to the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The time before that I was visiting someone there, and the time before that I worked there for a little while before I was sent to Kosovo. I gather they're turning the site of the old hospital into some sort of residential area? I'd like to see it though, if anything's still there. 

artistic and other sorts of doom

I talked to Mrs N today about the possible painting class. She said they might start it as soon as March, and that Lestrade was so very kind to have volunteered to help out... I told her I wasn't sure how often he'd actually be able to do it since he's usually at work at that time...and she said she was sure I could fill in for him when he couldn't make it. She's tricky. You've got to watch her all the time or, apparently, you end up covered in small painty fingerprints.

I skipped krav maga yesterday to go with L to visit his mum (which was good, I think, in that she seems more or less resigned to my existence now?) so I went today. The instructor likes to demonstrate on me because, he says, it's important not to rely too much on body mass. Which I think is perilously close to a short joke, though I won't call him on it, because he's a bit terrifying. So I'm once again lightly bruised in various places, but it feels good to work my body that hard. It's a good class.

There are two upcoming FME courses, one in Birmingham and one in Manchester. One's quite soon, starts the 11th I believe, and the other's in early March. Lestrade, any preferences?