Yesterday it was blustery and with Welsh mist in the air. We chose to go up to the coast. With only three official shopping days left to Christmas we reasoned that Christmas lunacy would be inflicting the town centres. We travelled during “witching hour” or French two hour lunch time. The roads were quiet and up at île Renote it was deserted. I joked that there had been a zombie apocalypse which we were not aware of. In all of our nearly six years it was the most deserted we have seen it. They are still clearing up the devastation visited by storm Ciaran in November last year. We did the circuit and maybe saw half a dozen people and a dog. We said “bonjour” a couple of times in passing. Now that it is off season the locals greet each other.
People have asked us what we are doing for Christmas. They don’t get it when we say, “nothing”. We have received one paper Christmas card and an ecard. We have sent one card. We will probably go for a walk fog permitting in the morning and I will cook a roast dinner later. There are no decorations, no tinsel, no Christmas jumpers and no obligatory work do. We are essentially, that is in essence, out of the Christmas loony loop, in a different circle.
What is important to any circle or peer group varies. Earlier this year on LinkedIn I was able to satisfy my curiosity about what had happened to my year class for Chemistry at UCL. I was slightly surprised at how many had retired at age 60-61. I was the baby of the year with an end of August birthday. Which meant I got my degree aged 20. Because I got one less mark than Sue, I did not qualify for the last SERC quota studentship and had to look further afield for my Ph.D. place. Many of them stayed put and did their Ph.D. at UCL. I lost touch with that peer group and moved for a while in a different circle. I found something I could do – research. I was never keen on exams and strict syllabuses. I did OK but attention to detail was not my forte. I can get bored easily. It turned out that I probably had the shortest career and the lowest life time earnings. {My estimate based on LinkedIn profiles.} I haven’t had a job since end of 2006 but I did work freelance a little and then as a private tutor. I have been retired for five years now. I am pretty sure that I could not fit back into the academic circles I once haunted. I could not hack all those people.
Some of my peers from London are big-ish cheeses in academia and industry. Me not. They have a different orbit to me, what is important to them, is not to me. I am not sure it ever was. We were talking about someone who has landed himself in controversy in that field. The taint of controversy in academia is difficult to shift. I have a joke that the collective noun for academics is a “gossip” of professors. I hope he is OK. It is another world.
Over the years I have met some weird people. One guy was fascinated by Aleister Crowley and belonged to a group of people so minded. I have read some of his correspondences and the I Ching. It is not all that. That group of people might be interested that I get Count Saint Germain in my dreams. He is an occult hero and was also a chemist of sorts. In the science circles he would be seen as fictional / made up.
We have two problems to solve. Because of my osteo arthritis the garden has become too large. This can be solved either by finding a small income stream to pay a gardener or to sell the house and buy another. The second problem is the cesspit which needs to be brought up to current standards. For the moment that is the boundary of problem. My working hypothesis is that part-time work for me is unlikely because a) my age, language skills and lack of employment and b) under French employment law creating posts is not straightforward. Realistically there is little besides editing of scientific English which I can do here. I could go back to doing online “A” level science tutoring for people in the UK. The pay rates in France are poor in comparison. We will have, hopefully, reliable fibre optic broadband next week.
It is strange for me to get dreams with famous politicians in. I have never met any of them nor am I ever likely too. They walk in very different circles to me.
Our daily routine has me empty the coffee grounds, feed the birds, turn off the electric fence to prevent nocturnal coypu eating our lotuses and iris shoots, collecting wood from the store. The coypu came during the afternoon yesterday when we were out so the fence is on 24/7 from now. We will play Hokey Cokey, in out, shake it all about with Bibi the indoor cat. Felix and Gandalf, the stray cats are already waiting for their 3pm feed. Tonight, we have lamb tagine, the lamb is marinading in the fridge. I will stick it in the oven for around 4:30 PM. Then as dusk starts to arrive we will close the shutters and light the log burner. The outside world will be outside. We are due gusts of wind to 90 Kmh this afternoon. We will have no face to face in person social engagement for the foreseeable future. We see the physiotherapist early January.
This is the circle that I walk in.
Dreamyoga 