Double Maths on a Monday Morning #

22 March 1999

I must say I don’t envy you - it’s like having double maths on a Monday morning!".

Ah, yes, double maths on a Monday morning. I actually used to experience, and enjoy, exactly that, back in the 1992-3 academic year. But to be fair, manually calculating the expected balances of a couple of dozen bank accounts in order to prove that our software works OK isn’t really that similar to those halcyon days back in the classroom. It’s a damned sight easier, for one thing.

I’ve noticed a couple of disturbing televisual trends: firstly that I’m spontaneously enjoying many more programmes in recent days, and secondly that they’re all on relatively late. Judicious use of caffeine will have to help me along, as many of these documentaries are unmissable. Uncle John Peel’s new Sound of the Suburbs series, for example is fantastic - I’ve never before seen a programme which has so well explained to an outsider how it feels to be Cornish, or shown aspects of the county which we, the occasional holidaymakers, rarely see. He’s visiting Humberside this week, apparently - I’ll have to ask someone to video it.

New Year resolution failure - today’s newspaper is still languishing unread in my briefcase. Perhaps I’ll force myself to read it tomorrow.

The boy Richy phoned from a music store to ask if I wanted a copy of the new Blur LP. I agreed that I did. Whether I’ll enjoy it remains to be seen, of course, but Blur albums remain those interesting curiosities which you simply have to buy, if only to see which bands and genres they’ve been influenced by this time. Six albums in, then - so, I guess that was the ’90s? Or rather, the musical styles of the ’60s-’80s as viewed through the ’90s social zeitgeist. Or maybe I’m just babbling and should shut the Psion and go to sleep. Hmmm. Anyway, I’m looking forward to hearing it.