Reggie Thomson’s Diary

In the morning, I printed out more of the A3 size photos, until the colour ink looked as though there was only enough left for one or two more. It has lasted thirteen A3 prints. at 720×720 resolution. I switched off the sharpness option - I think it was causing some of the areas of the same tone to come out a bit blotchy.

I took a photo of the large room and reduced it to the right size for my website. I also made a tiny thumbnail to put on the advert. I rehashed a former advert, and put it on the Cambridge Accommodation Notice Board. Within five minutes, I had an email from someone wanting to see it! I was amazed. I think Mr. Ward must have improved his program - he used to wait until 6 p.m. before updating the website.

I arranged for the person to come round at 7 p.m. That gave me just over an hour to tidy everything up, clean away the cobwebs, take a shower, and have a bite to eat.

Alessia was the first to come round. She is a graduate student and would have been fine, except that she doesn’t know if she will be offered accommodation at her college. Although the first here, I couldn’t guarantee that I would hold the room for her. Wes came round with a friend at 8.30. He was also very keen. While he was here, I had a phone call from Adrian, also interested. I explained that I haven’t signed anything yet, but have already had several good enquiries. “What can I do to persuade you? - I could give you access to my extensive DVD collection. I can pay in cash. I’m a pilot. I could take you flying. I’m also interested in having broadband.” He sounded interesting.

I asked Wes to sell his good points. He could put me up in Malaysia. He’s a structural engineer (or something like that). However, he had earlier asked if it would be OK to come back late - how late? - maybe quite late. He may only be here for six months. I promised I would get back in touch.

Wes came in by the front door - he had to duck under the huge spider’s web. I don’t usually use that door.

Perhaps it’s the time of year, but the quality of applicants seems to very high. I was surprised that Andrew had difficulties letting out my house. Maybe the quality of the ad had something to do with it: “Room in Shared house with 2 other professional guys. 20 mins from city centre. Convenient for Science Park and Milton Road area. ??245. inc ” was the ad that attracted the untidy person who caused the other two lodgers to move out.

I was up too late to get to church. I printed out my first A3 photos on the Epson 1290. The very first page had a hair on it. Perhaps it had fallen into the paper holder area. I had to stop the print after a few lines. Still, the results look good. They are a bit spotty in places, though.

I’ve also made a start on the diaries. They are so out of date, that I think I should put the “last modified date” into the database. That might be a useful idea for the photos and albums, too, so that I can have a section for recent additions.

I didn’t do much today. Classic FM is quite reasonable over the internet. It is easy to switch it off during the poor quality adverts. They are aware that the adverts are “the weakest link:” they always say, “Don’t turn the dial.” or “Stay tuned” in advance. I’ve taken to sitting downstairs next to the hi-fi when I’m not online. Then I can turn the volume down for out-of-tune adverts. There are some I like.

I found a program on the web (Registry First Aid) that allowed me to clean up my windows registry. At first, I used it in shareware mode, but it was too limited, and would take far too long to do its job. I signed up for the full version. The sign up and payment process was very straightforward, using www.regsoft.com. Maybe I could use their credit processing system to sell my CD and photographs over the Internet.

The registry program had one or two interesting side effects - it has brought back the jogdial facility on the Sony, which I don’t use, and can’t now work out how to delete. I don’t like unnecessary icons on the prime real estate area of my small screen. I’d prefer to remove the Adaptec CD burner symbols, too. Dale moved out this evening. The atmosphere was a bit tense. I gave him a cheque for the complete deposit. I should have gone through the stock list carefully beforehand. The summer 4.5 duvet for the king size bed is missing. It is possible he forgot that it belonged to me. He may have forgotten his bike, or maybe it is Tim’s.

I finished off the book about walking through Britain. Actually, he did hitchhike for part of each day.

Bartow lead the barn dancing this evening.

I started into the book that Rona sent me for my birthday - “Broke in Britain.” The author had attempted to walk from Plymouth to Edinburgh with no money, depending entirely on the goodwill of others. He seems to have had a lot of problems with his feet. I was glad that I had used air-pocket sandals (Merrill for Canada and part of Japan, and Nike for the latter part of Japan). I had absolutely no problems with my feet, other than a minor infection.

I’m still getting my computers up-to-date.

I revised my lesson plan when I got to school - there was a suitable article to read in one of the textbooks. Still, I don’t think it was a particularly good lesson. The students were fine. Some of the activities were too “heavy” - too difficult to do well. There was too much freedom, and too little language input.

In the afternoon, I managed to get the modem on my IBM working, so I was able to update windows 98.

Andrew and Sarah called round with some of my CDs this evening.

The doctor gave me a prescription for my foot. He didn’t actually tell me what I’d got, he just said some complicated formula that I needed. My chest sounds fine, and my blood pressure is normal. I wanted to know if there were any precautions I should take, or things to look out for. “Not really. The only problem is the same as I have - being a man!” It came as a bombshell. I hadn’t realised this was a disease. I was so dumbstruck, I didn’t even think of asking for the cure. It sounded terminal - a problem I would just have to live through till the end of my life. Women are so lucky that they don’t get this problem. (P.S. Actually, I think he added “middle-aged”.. Maybe it’s a problem I can grow out of.)

I browsed the bookshops of Cambridge for a while, and peered into the art gallery opposite Caius. It’s mostly modern art these days, which isn’t really to my taste.

I decided to pay a visit to Central Language School. There was no one upstairs. Christine looked flabbergasted as I walked into the office. “I’ve just this moment been praying that I could get in touch with you. I tried phoning, but there was no reply. And now you turn up!” Doubtless her faith in prayer has been increased, while I marvel at probabilities.

They need a teacher for tomorrow. Would I be willing to do it? I’ve been trying to avoid work. Especially teaching. I reluctantly agreed. We phoned Mandy, who had taught the class today. One of the students may have problems speaking. I may not be able to do any pair work.

I sat in the rooms trying to think of a lesson plan. In the end, I had to take away some books, because I had made so little progress.

All afternoon, I fretted, with very little result. The theme is work.

Jonathan called round in the evening. He showed me some of his online photos with www.fontango.com.

I was up until 12.30 trying to figure out a lesson plan without using pairs.

I’m struggling with Emma. The introduction suggests that by the end of the book, you end up liking her character. I’m not sure that will be the case. I seem to be reading only a few chapters per day, whereas I normally get through an interesting book in a couple of days at most.

Mum and Dad phoned. Dad is thinking about making a video of the wedding, and including some of the photos.

I spent my birthday at home, printing out more of the namecards. In the evening, I spread them all over the lounge floor. I think it will be difficult to make a book in English and Japanese. I can’t divide it into the four seasons, since the Japanese book starts from the opposite side of an English book, and the seasons have to appear in order. I don’t know how to divide the photos. Maybe each double page has to be like a section of its own, but it will be hard to jump from snow scenes to summer scenes.

Rona phoned. It seems I might still be in luck with a birthday card. She has also sent a CD of the photos that she took. It hasn’t arrived yet.

I bought some genuine McVities Jaffa Cakes from the local store, to celebrate my birthday. I think they had been in the shop for too long, though. In future, I will only buy Tesco’s cheap alternatives, which are just as tasty and you get 36 instead of 15 for about the same price.