Workshop Booze Up VII - New Year, Same Plague, Same Booze Up, Deja Vu

[Pentagathus]

Play some funky music. Or whatever it is that gets you going. Sometimes just getting up and moving is enough to wake up.
Could also try something like https://youtu.be/pL02HRFk2vo

[Jubal]

Having said that, I then ended up on my feet and exploring the city for most of the next eleven hours. This was partly because a lot of Venice has awful access to public seating (and poor accessibility generally) - I mean, I can see how fixing a lot of the accessibility issues would cost money, but having a few more benches and planters in some of the public squares would be really helpful, hurt nobody, and improve the look of things.

Anyhow, have seen some stuff, will report in full when I get to writing the travelogue

[Glaurung]

On public seating: I think the answer (at least in Venice) may be churches. There are many churches; I think a lot of them are open to the public, and they almost always have pews or seating of some sort. I expect they're OK with people sitting down for a while even if they're not actively praying.

Also: I'm very much looking forward to the travelogue.

[Jubal]

Yes, though more and more churches are acting as art galleries and museums and have entrance fees, so I suspect that calculus may have shifted over the last decade or so.

Unfortunately the travelogue may be shorter than hoped as I've come down ill, either with exhaustion or mild food poisoning, so I got very little done today and tomorrow doesn't look great either. Either way, my guts are in a pretty unhappy place and I'm feeling rather sorry for myself. I fear I may not be very good at this holidaying lark.

[Glaurung]

Sorry to hear about the illness - very frustrating, I'm sure.

If it's any consolation, I've had this too, on occasion - tiredness, heat, and a change of diet seem to be risk factors. Also local tap water, even in countries where I would otherwise think it perfectly safe to drink, so I'd suggest sticking to bottled water if you can.

[Jubal]

I think the mostly likely immediate culprit was actually a seafood risotto purchased on Torcello - but yes, I don't have the most robust digestion at the best of times due to my various chronic issues and I'm sure the sudden major change of life pace can make one much more susceptible to upsets.

I am feeling a bit healthier today, got out for a walk on the little island of Certosa, and finally saw a friend of mine who I'd hoped to spend a good amount of the week with but who's unfortunately been down with post-Covid migraines and suchlike until this point. Trying to work out if I have the energy for another city walk before dinner.

[Pentagathus]

At the start of this (academic) year, at the obscenely advanced ago of 27 I began studying Physiotherapy full time at my local university. It was pretty intense, and often rather stressful, but I had my last day of teaching today and was really looking forward to starting my first clinical placement next week.
Unfortunately it seems I failed a practical exam resit, which means I've failed the year and have to leave the course. It really rather sucks, I had been planning on starting this course for so long before I actually did, largely delaying because of my dad's illness. I really don't know what I'm going to do with myself next right now.
Also the extra annoying thing is that I knew the correct techniques in the exam and proscribed an appropriate exercise to treat the problem my model was supposed to have, but I failed because I  couldn't explain how stretching induces a change in muscle length at a very detailed physiological level. Oh, and because I didn't pick up a portugaling water bottle that was left under the edge of the plinth. And then somehow I failed even harder in the resit because I'm a cock.

Ahhhhhh.

Euurgh.


Eeee.

[Jubal]

Oh, no, I'm really sorry to hear that, that's very rough And seems overly harsh as a system, honestly. I've no good advice on hand, but very much here if it'd help to chat at all.

[Jubal]

In "exciting news and the return of recurring villains" at my end, my landlord has resurfaced - or rather one of his minions has, asking me to pay them a thousand euros for energy bills and telling me to add 140 euros a month for energy costs to my rent.

My contract is bills-inclusive and always has been and they know that: I mean, I knew they were terrible landlords, but at least with the furore last year they were asking for money that nominally I sort of did owe them. This is a whole new low. I mean, it's an easy one to resolve, I guess I just write back pointing out that my contract is bills-inclusive and the cost is therefore their responsibility. But it's still jaw-dropping, frankly.

[Pentagathus]

I may be able to resit the rest and then maybe go on my placement and move into year 2 or maybe go on a placement and then take a year out and then move onto year 2, if I can provide valid extenuating circumstances but idk that I've got any good ones.
We'll have to see.

Your landlord really does suck.

[dubsartur]

I may be able to resit the rest and then maybe go on my placement and move into year 2 or maybe go on a placement and then take a year out and then move onto year 2, if I can provide valid extenuating circumstances but idk that I've got any good ones.
We'll have to see.

Your landlord really does suck.

Try some vague words about COVID and the current world situation?  Most programs need students more than the students need them.

[Jubal]

I agree with dubs that family and study/life disruption due to the pandemic still seems an absolutely fair call in attempting to provide extentuating circumstances. May depend how bureaucratically anally retentive the system is, but I've certainly signed off students dropping out of courses in the last year or so for "pandemic reasons" pretty much without thinking about it.

And yes, Keynes' thoughts on rentierism have definitely been springing to mind lately.

[Pentagathus]

I was looking after my mum for a while after easter because she caught the covid in april and then broke her ankle as she was recovering, I could try to claim she had longer term health issues but I'd be bullarmadilloting a little.
I could also try using my own mental health issues as an excuse but I have to provide proof and I'm not seeing my GP until two days after the deadline for submitting the ECs. I'll email someone about that and see if they can allow me to submit it a little later.

[Jubal]

I'd include both - even if it's "only" for a few weeks, looking after a family member is a valid circumstance causing a gap in your studies. And MH stuff is very valid too, if you can get the time leeway to discuss it with a doctor.

[dubsartur]

And yes, Keynes' thoughts on rentierism have definitely been springing to mind lately.

There are also the old Georgists who noticed that if you let them, landowners will absorb all growth in the economy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism