Total Recall – Arnie Version

The other night we watched the 35 year-old version of “Total Recall” starring Arnie. I have reached the age when all remakes cannot ever be better than the original.

Spoiler alert….

The gist of the plot is that Hauser has his mind adjusted so that he thinks he is Doug Quaid a builder and wielder of pneumatic tools, who then goes on a convoluted journey to infiltrate the underground resistance on Mars whilst trying to restore his memory. After Kuato the leader of the resistance is killed Quaid then refuses to be mind  wiped back so that he becomes once again the fascist special agent Hauser. There is a plot twist where which reality is real is tested. Quaid is led to believe that he has paid for a secret agent mind-trip at a company called Rekall. The Quaid/Hauser superposition is unsure. In the end the Quaid nice guy dominates and he sets off an alien machine to provide Mars with a breathable atmosphere.

One scene suggests that the lowly manual worker Quaid is living out his fantasy as a Martian secret agent. It is all a bit far-fetched and the special effects, though leading at their time, now look a bit Blue Peter.

This is what co-pilot suggests for the above text.

“The plot follows Hauser, who is made to believe he is Doug Quaid, a builder on Mars. As Quaid, he becomes involved with the resistance, trying to regain his true identity. After the resistance leader Kuato is killed, Quaid refuses to revert to his former role as a ruthless agent. The story blurs reality and illusion, leaving Quaid uncertain whether his experiences are real or just a memory implant from Rekall. Ultimately, Quaid chooses his better nature and activates an alien device that gives Mars a breathable atmosphere.

One scene hints that Quaid’s life may just be a fantasy of being a secret agent. While the premise is a stretch, the once-impressive special effects now feel dated.”

AI has adjusted the reality…which is very considerate of it.

I guess we each choose our own narrative(s).

I have lost count how many dreams are in this blog. In the film Quaid is asked to consider if whatever he is experiencing is nothing more than a dream and therefore easily discounted.

With my feet grounded in everyday physical plane reality it is very simple to adopt the advice.

The everyday reality is simple enough. I can only rely on the measurable. Which tells me that around a dozen people read the blog according to WordPress stats. So were I to bin it only these would miss it. The basic reality is that I am a retired person with hip arthritis. Two decades ago I was a university teacher. {Assuming this is not a paid for implanted memory}. More recently I was a private tutor for ~6 years during which time I taught “A” level physics and chemistry. That is about it. I can still chop wood and do some gardening chores. My cooking skills are perhaps a little above average for savoury. The only “cakes” I ever made were hash cookies which were tasty and potent. Rocky was better than Leb, more chocolatey and unctuous…

In the circles I move in, life is very simple. On the cards is a visit to the hospital for a new hip. I will then be doing physio. Sometime around spring if we are not kicked out of France by the NF, I may be lucky enough to get a second operation after which I may eventually walk a bit better.

I am toying  with the idea of doing a blog / vlog about by incoming experience.

hip-hop-hip-op.fr and Bolshoi-hips.fr are currently available as is hippy-mchipface.fr

I’ll wager that such a blog would be more widely read…

I suspect that I could write something which is not dire, fearful and boring…perhaps when I was last at Rekall I purchased a mind-trip extension which includes delusions of creative writing capability…

Who can tell?

Planning and the Seventh Ray

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I’ll kick this off with a quotation from  “Esoteric Psychology II – Chapter II – The Ray of Personality – The Coordination of the Personality” . By Alice Bailey and Djwahl Kuhl. My personality vehicle is seventh ray by predilection.

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Ray Seven

    ” ‘I seek to bring the two together. The plan is in my hands. How shall I work? Where lay the emphasis? In the far distance stands the One Who Is. Here at my hand is form, activity, substance, and desire. Can I relate these and fashion thus a form for God? Where shall I send my thought, my power the word that I can speak?

    ‘I, at the center, stand, the worker in the field of magic. I know some rules, some magical controls, some Words of Power, some forces which I can direct. What shall I do? Danger there is. The task that I have undertaken is not easy of accomplishment, yet I love power. I love to see the forms emerge, created by my mind, and do their work, fulfil the plan and disappear. I can create. The rituals of the Temple of the Lord are known to me. How shall I work?

  ‘Love not the work. Let love of God’s eternal Plan control your life, your mind, your hand, your eye. Work towards the unity of plan and purpose which must find its lasting place on earth. Work with the Plan; focus upon your share in that great work.’

    The word goes forth from soul to form: ‘Stand in the center of the pentagram, drawn upon that high place in the East within the light which ever shines. From that illumined center work. Leave not the pentagram. Stand steady in the midst. Then draw a line from that which is without to that which is within and see the Plan take form.’ “

It is not possible to be more explicit than this. This great and powerful ray is now coming into manifestation and it brings new energies to man of so potent a nature that the disciples of today must move and work with care. They are literally handling fire. It is the children who are now coming into incarnation who will eventually work more safely and more correctly with these new potencies. There is much, however, to be done in the meantime, and the disciples upon this seventh ray can ponder on this formula and seek their own interpretation of it, endeavoring first of all to stand in the East, within the protection of the pentagram. As he realizes the task to be carried out and the nature of the work to be done by the seventh ray worker, and appreciates the fact that it is the magical work of producing those forms on earth which will embody the spirit of God (and in our particular time, this necessitates the building of new forms), each seventh ray disciple will see himself as a relating agent, as the one who stands in the midst of the building processes, attending to his portion of the task. This, if really grasped and deeply considered will have the effect of producing alignment. The moment that this alignment is achieved, then let the disciple remember that it will mean a tremendous inflow of power, of energy from both the aligned points, from both directions, converging upon him, as he stands in the midway place. Ponder deeply upon this truth, for it is this fact which always evokes a seventh ray crisis. It will be obvious what this crisis is. If the man concerned is materially minded, selfishly ambitious and unloving, the inpouring energy will stimulate the personality nature and he will immediately be warring furiously with all that we mean by the instinctual, psychic, intellectual nature. When all these three are stimulated, the disciple is often for a time swung off the center into a maelstrom of magical work of the lower kind – sex magic and many forms of black magic. He is glamored by the beauty of his motive, and deceived by the acquired potency of his personality.

If, however, he is warned of the danger and aware of the possibility, he will stand steady at the center within the mystical pentagram, and there suffer until the light in the East rises upon his darkness, discovering him still at the midway point. Then comes the revelation of the Plan, for this has ever to be the motivating power of the seventh ray disciple. He works on earth, upon the outer plane of manifestation, with the construction of those forms through which the divine will can express itself. In the field of religion, he works in collaboration with the second and sixth ray disciples. In the field of government he labors, building those forms which will enable the first ray activity to be expressed. In the field of business, he cooperates with third ray energies and the executives of the Plan. In the field of science, he aids and assists the fifth ray workers. He is the expression of the builder, and the creator, bringing into outer manifestation God’s Plan. He begins, however, with himself, and seeks to bring into expression the plan of his soul in his own setting and worldly situation. Until he can do this, he is unable to stand in the East within the pentagram.

It is occultly said that “the pentagram is open and a place of danger when the disciple knows not order within his own life, and when the ritual of the soul is not imposed and its rhythm not obeyed. The pentagram is closed when order is restored and the ritual of the Master is imposed.” The writing goes on to say that “if the disciple enters through the open pentagram, he dies. If he passes over into the closed pentagram, he lives. If he transmutes the pentagram into a ring of fire, he serves the Plan.”

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The seventh ray, an incoming influence or mood, is often known as Synthesis in which things diverse are brought together in the cauldron of inspiration to synthesise something whole and new out of the wider parts. It is also known as the ray of ritual magic or ceremonial order. A good plan has mathematical grade beauty to it. Ritual magic can be used to bewitch the masses as Hitler knew in his mass events. Tripartite mantra chanted with gestures hypnotises and galvanises the herd.

I am in my element scoping out and planning. Or rather I was because that stage of life is seemingly now past. I enjoy writing business plans, putting together new courses, organising tutorial systems, bringing together artists and scientists to run courses, planning retreats and making up transferable skills courses.

Good plans are “bare bones” simple. Complexity and convolution is an anathema. Many think they are good at planning but create fat unwieldly complex “plans”. A good plan has no special cases or exceptions. A good plan is never seen in execution. It is evident by a simple execution. A good plan does not seem to be there at all. There is no one size fits all, a plan should be fit for purpose.

Certain organisational obesity is uncomfortable to me. Poor unwieldy plans can “fry my onions” if I am required to comply. In France there is a problem with the fiscal budget. One could easily save billions by cutting out some of the idiocy in the health care system. My GP had to use a card machine to charge me for my consultation yesterday. A waste of her time. Someone else will reimburse me ~90% of what I paid. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! What a waste. Fat and unnecessary.

This is one area, plans and planning, where I perhaps am alone. A good simple plan to me has an inherent beauty, a symmetry. I don’t often care if a plan is ever executed. I enjoy the planning. I used to like planning research grants. I was not keen on selling them to the big cheeses. I have followed the Delphic entreaty to know myself. I am not overly keen on socio-political ritual sniffing and arse licking. I do not do the social things necessary for longevity of team. My leadership style, such as it is, is best suited for short term endeavour. I would have been OK at short high stakes commando raids. But I would have needed time off between escapade.

The above slide is a second ray love-wisdom, seventh ray synthesis overview. One needs a second ray purpose executed by seventh ray means.

At the moment I am busy trying to scope out what, if anything, remains for me to do with the rest of this mundane sojourn. At the moment that scope is very limited and “nanna themed”. In that it seems, assuming I survive my upcoming operation, we will wait for the second operation and downsize sometime in 2026. It is not very complicated and that is about as far as the plan goes.

It is pretty bare bones…

Exhausted and Sighing

Not long back from our fun filled and action packed day at the hospital. I am exhausted and sighing. If I had known we were going to have group presentations on diet and physiotherapy exercise I would have been less keen. I’ll speculate that I was not the target demographic.

All of the group were older than me and less apparently crippled.

Given I used to do courses on presentation skills…

It is difficult enough to be talked at in French. It is harder to listen when you are not overly interested. What struck me most was just how passive everyone was. No banter, no piss taking, no humour, no fun. I was  tempted but refrained. When I did the naughty boy speeding course the facilitator worked out that I was game for a laugh and did not mind having the piss taken, we made it more fun for everyone.

One of things we have learned here is if there is a single penny coin of the train tracks of the system it can derail the whole caboodle and that takes years to get going again.

There are a couple of appointments which are due for me, which I might not need. If I cancel these it frees them up for someone else. This would be good citizen thinking. This however could throw a spanner in the workings of the system juggernaut. I’ll take an opinion from the GP tomorrow.

An after lunch monotone in a foreign language ….difficult to keep attentive..

When we went I had two questions in mind.

  1. Do I need to take the pre-op iron tablets given a high ferritin level?
  2. Can we get a prescription for a medical bed for downstairs given a spiral staircase?

The answer to the first was no and the answer to the second was yes. This was as predicted.

I have learned two new things. One about using a second mattress and the other about a rubbish picker.

I have had my high resolution pre-op X-ray and the anaesthetist gave a verbal go ahead for general anaesthetic. From what they said I could be out in 48 hours or less.

From my perspective this did not need to take six hours. But systems are systems.

The take home message I got was that the French are very concerned as to when they are going to get to eat after the operation. It was mentioned several times.  It had not even occurred to me.

For me morphine is a pretty good appetite suppressor. So I doubt I’ll fancy a kebab or lamb vindaloo. I am not fussed about a Madeliene and a coffee.

The other take home for a “hermit” is that it is very tiring being around people for any length of time. Which suggests that limiting my exposure to others remains a good idea. That way I don’t upset people and piss them off. I don’t get tired from picking up their vibes. It sounds like a win-win.

Is It Me Being Self Important?

At the moment the wife is checking though the forest of paperwork for tomorrow’s putative appointment. I asked her opinion, “do you really think it is worth getting it all together and going down to the hospital tomorrow?” It has taken me well over half an hour. There are a lot of test results.

This is the kind of doubt sown by unilateral cancellation without communication. There is in my mind a significant chance we will be back here soon. We will not be having a full fun hospital themed day out. It is just over an hour round trip.

Viewed from one angle I can see that things must conform to how they are supposed to be. In my view it would have been decent to have saved me the trip on Monday. I am not yet fully telepathic.

There is a saying about buses that you wait for a bus for ages and then three come along all at once. I have had two appointments cancelled already this week…am I jinxing it again?

Is it me being self-important or do some people need to brush up on their interpersonal skills, their consideration for others?

The jury is out. It is probably me… it usually is…it is always all my fault.

The bottom line is that it does not really matter to anyone but me if I tip up or not. Nobody has rung to confirm. Is that my job? Someone else could easily take my slot…I am sure there are many people in need.

It is a weird feeling…there is a planning blight now hanging over…this need not have happened…

We shall see what transpires…

Psilocybin Zwitterion or Breaking Bad – the T-shirt problem…

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I was so upset that I cried

All the way to the chip shop

When I came out there was Gordon

Standing at the bus stop

And guess who was with him?

Yeah, Julie

And they were both laughing at me

Oh, she is cruel and heartless

To pack me for Gordon

Just cos he’s better looking than me

Just cos he’s cool and trendy

But I know he’s a moron

Gordon is a moron

Gordon is a moron

Gordon is a moron

Jilted John

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This morning I am wearing a black t-shirt with a rainbow coloured molecular structure of the psilocybin zwitterion. This is what it is mostly like at blood pH. In the past I was partial to a few shrooms. When you go to a pharmacy or hospital it attracts attention. I have had a prostate specific antigen {PSA} test done this morning which will advise as to yet another MRI and/or prostate biopsy. There was a black woman in the queue who looked at the molecule, caught my eye and smiled.

I have a series of t-shirts which can catch eyes in hospitals “trust me I am a doctor” , “Schrödinger’s cat is dead / alive” superposition, psilocybin zwitterion and a Breaking Bad Heisenberg t-shirt. In general I don’t wear the Schrödinger t-shirt to hospitals because people see the “dead” word. There is a bit of a sense of humour failure here in France. In the UK these t-shirts usually spark some kind of comment, a bit of banter.

Since I have been here I have been systematically treated as if I am a bit of an “anglais-moron” according to my interpretation of events. I have yet to find a solution to the problem of forewarning people about my background and what I am capable of. It was rarely a problem in the UK because medics ask your profession there. The Imperial word can have effect.

Problem:

“Is there a way to stop being treated a priori as a moron?”

As I was waiting in the phlebotomy vampire queue I heard the dulcet tones of Jilted John in my mind. It occurred to me that I need to get a white t-shirt  printed in large black {WHAM style} letters. On the front it would say, “My name is not Gordon” on the back it would say “I am not a fucking moron”.

In short I don’t think that there is a way especially since I am now a quasi-crippled semi-obese grey of a certain age.

I did think briefly that I should learn sign language. So that I could start signing instead of talking.

Hey ho…

I am pretty sure that it is unwise to wear a psilocybin zwitterion or Breaking Bad t-shirt when going through customs. Though a part of me wants to do the experiment…the results could be uncertain.

Another Spam SMS?

I guess in modern parlance one could say that I was gaslit about having an appointment yesterday. I was certainly discombobulated when I got there as was the wife when I texted her about it. Perhaps we were having a shared hallucination.

Maybe it was just a spam text purporting to come from the medical centre. Maybe they never sent it. Perhaps it was Putin or Lukashenko.

We have recently received another SMS purporting to be from the same outfit. A reminder for an “appointment”.

I do not know how to take this…nor what to do…

Real-Life Problems and Decisions

Until around 10:20 this morning I felt that most of “my” real world things were in hand. The preparation had been going smoothly though I did wonder about using the word “awry” the other day.

As I lay in bed before the alarm was due to go off, I thought that the only real problem I had was to put my underpants on the right way round when getting dressed in darkness. Later in the day some young person would ask me to strip to my pants and take X-rays of my spastic hip. We did not want to have a “professor pants” moment. I did not want unknowingly to advertise M&S.

As it turned out I could have put them on inside out with full impunity. It is a missed pants opportunity.

Now because of the unilateral and unnotified cancellation of an appointment a few more decisions arise. There is another early appointment for a full day of hospital based fun later in the week.

Do we need to telephone to confirm if it is still going ahead?

Do we do this the night before or call a little after 8AM before we leave the house the morning of the alleged appointment?

An ancillary line of thought is do I need to start exploring other contingencies for a hip operation in case this one falls through?.

I understand only too well that the universe does not owe me anything, that I have no “right” to surgery. It is at the kindness of the French exchequer. I do not believe in “deserving”. When I tried to get this sorted earlier in the year I met with many problems. Perhaps some more are starting now.

Is this the universe saying that I simply need to suck it up? That it is my karma to suffer from arthritis?

Or is this about patience and forbearance?

It looks like the whole of France is going into a another self-induced psychiatric meltdown. So who knows what is going to happen…They can lose the plot and badly so…They have volatility…

To me it is important to remain grounded especially with all these fancy highfalutin dreams…

Life here is pretty mundane; some would find it boring. Ideas notions and dreams are not the same thing as getting measured for some anti-thrombosis stockings like I just did.

I have learned by experiment that as a whole French timekeeping is loose and that an appointment is often written in the lightest of 4H pencil. I tend to take appointments as possibilities and not reliable fact.

I have another data point, milord.

All in all not a very satisfactory start to the day or the week…

It is all going a bit Pete Tong…

I mentioned earlier that the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. I really don’t like having to make contingency for other people’s poor organisation. Experience has suggested that it is often wise so to do.

On Friday we received an automated SMS reminder of my appointment for a pre-operative X-ray this morning. This is something I organised well in advance to limit the possibility of last minute dot com fuck ups. When I got there at 10:30 on a Monday morning they told me that I did not have an appointment and that it had been set for later in the week. Nobody had the decency to advise me before I got up early and did a 40 minute drive to the hospital.

The Aspie part of my nature says that I may as well go ahead and cancel the hip operation because if they can’t organise this it does not bode well. What else is going Pete Tong and otherwise off-piste?

I have not cancelled the op.

My confidence as to if the scheduled operation will go ahead on time has fallen to 50:50. It is no longer mentally a firm date in the diary. I am already planning and scoping how I might cope with months more hip pain and deteriorating functionality.

I don’t know…

It is all going a bit Pete Tong…

Gedankenexperiment – Quantum Telepathy Patent

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Question:

Is it possible to get a “Quantum Telepathy” patent granted?

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As mentioned previously in the blog I am going to be physically incapacitated and will have some time on my hands after the hip-hop hip op. I will need something to do, to fill the time. One of the things which I enjoy is testing and finding out what may/may not be possible. I can lose interest quickly after that. I am more interested in possibility than execution. A vanity project might be to test if it is possible to get a “Quantum Telepathy” patent granted. A brief search suggests that there is no prior art. I am not sure how someone “skilled in the art” might be qualified and deemed expert. Aside from Marvel Comics there are no peer reviewed journals convinced that the parapsychological notion of telepathy is real and thereby measurable. Professor X might struggle to be believed. In effect such a patent would be for a phenomenon deemed imaginary by others. Patents are not about the already proven so imaginary or quasi-imaginary need not yet be a barrier to grant.

To dream up a tidy application would take quite a lot of work and effort

We are currently resident in France and have a right to remain which expires end of March next year. The government here is putting in place a mechanism to renew these rights for those allowed to stay under the Brexit withdrawal agreement. It is possible and likely that we will be allowed to remain. A change of government leaning towards the antimigration wing could happen and our future here might suddenly become much less certain. We could get booted out.

This means legally we are under a French jurisdiction and our governing body is Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle {INPI}. Even if I wanted to file an application in English to the UK or European patent office I am legally obliged to go through them first. I do not know yet if I can file in English at INPI.

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“The patent application can be filed in any language but a French translation is required within two months following receipt of a Communication issued by the French Patent Office (INPI) shortly after the filing date.”

Cabinet Beau de Loménie

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“But, for national security purposes, the Minister of National Defence, via the Intellectual Property Office of the General Delegation for Armaments (“DGA“ in French) has the right to review all applications for the protection of inventions made by natural or legal persons having their domicile or registered office in France, in order to authorize or not the exploitation of such inventions and thus avoid the possible leakage of so-called sensitive technologies, regardless of the country where the protection is sought.

Article L612-8 of the French Intellectual Property Code

Consequently, the applicants have: An obligation of first filing with the INPI. The applicant whose domicile or registered office is located in France cannot proceed outside of France with the first filing of a patent application. There is no exception to this provision.

The first filing must be submitted to the INPI, and for patents for which protection is sought outside France, the INPI must act as a receiving office and only transmit patent applications to foreign offices once the DGA has delivered its authorization for disclosure and exploitation.”

Oyat Law web site.

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Until this morning I was not aware of this.

To file a patent in French and get it granted adds an extra layer of complexity. Patent attorneys are not well know for pro bono work. That makes the challenge even more difficult / interesting.

I don’t know how the French system works. So that would be a complete unknown for me. I’ll wager that there are protocols and regulations. England might be a nation of shop keepers; France is a nation of administrators and dossier lovers.

I have no idea what kind of can or worms I might open in starting a French process. The possibilities for miscommunication are fairly vast.

In the UK things are a tad more familiar.

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From Gov.uk

National security checks on patent applications

All patent applications filed at the IPO are checked to identify any which could be prejudicial to national security or public safety.

We screen every application filed to check whether it should be placed under directions according to Section 22 of the Patents Act 1977. This includes applications such as:

  • UK national applications
  • European patent applications under the European Patent Convention (EPC)
  • international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)

If such directions are imposed, we will write to you within six weeks of filing your application. You must provide an address for service within the UK for all applications placed under section 22 directions.

The directions under section 22 may only be lifted after your application has been inspected by the Ministry of Defence. You must file a Form DP2 to request such an inspection (we will send a copy of this form to you when we notify you of the directions); it is in your interest to return this form to us as soon as possible if you think the directions should not remain in force.

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From DP2 Form

Note In view of the prohibition under Section 22(1), the application should be provisionally treated as

“SECRET”. The copy of the specification should be enclosed in two envelopes, the inner envelope being marked “SECRET”

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SECRET

Definition:

Very sensitive information that requires enhanced protective controls, including the use of secure networks on secured dedicated physical infrastructure and appropriately defined and implemented boundary security controls, suitable to defend against highly capable and determined threat actors, whereby a compromise could threaten life (an individual or group), seriously damage the UK’s security and/or international relations, its financial security/stability or impede its ability to investigate serious and organised crime.

Threat Profile:

The threat profile for SECRET anticipates the need to defend against sophisticated, well-resourced and determined threat actors with higher levels of capabilities than would be typical for the OFFICIAL tier. This includes but is not limited to: capable state actors; sophisticated state sponsored actors such as cybercrime groups; some serious organised crime groups; and, staff who pose insider risk. Proportionate technical capabilities, user behaviours and security controls will be used to protect information and services from compromise by these actors, including from targeted and bespoke attacks.

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I have had a quick check on the published list of things deemed worthy of considering secret and although cryptography and cypher are listed, there is no reference to telepathy. I did not see the Q word either.

It all sounds more than a little heavy and intense.

Provided that telepathy is entirely imaginary then there is no security threat.  So this is perhaps a hypothetical. It is kind of hard to imagine someone taking such an application seriously.

Dr Whacko McNutjob, The Shed, 1001 Unicorn Jockey Drive, Camelot-sur-Mer, Narnia is not the kind of address that people take seriously so there is a good chance that anything I write will simply be waved through security checks. I do not have a bedlam.ac.uk corporate email address any longer.

People will pay less attention to Shrek from the swamp than a big cheese from a well know fromagerie.

Legally I must go through INPI or jeopardise residency. There are a lot of barriers even before beginning.

Hmmn… needs a bit more thought….