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

[Jubal]

Yes - the Lib Dems have always had a Georgist streak, so it's a philosophy I'm moderately familiar with.

[Jubal]

The newsletter may be a few days delayed - am in the UK in advance of a big medieval conference, so I'm stressing about conference prep and also covid and it's all quite a lot right now.

Hope everyone is doing well!

[Pentagathus]

O deer. Do you have the covid or just stressing about the possibility of having the covid?

[Jubal]

I am just stressing about the possibility - tested negative again this morning so I'm OK so far. It's just that it's spreading super super fast, and I don't want to have to rework all my travel plans and other such stressful things which would obviously have to happen if I did get it, so it's sort of the secondary anxieties of "don't want to let people down" and "don't want to deal with travel stress" as much as the more direct "don't want to get ill" (though that's still a thing too!). It's made more complex when I'm in the UK because I don't really have an obvious base to isolate in here any more, I couldn't stay with parents while having Covid given the risk to my Pa.

[Silver Wolf]

Sorry to hear that James, had a similar situation here.

[Pentagathus]

Eye sea eye sea, it definitely does add to travel stress. Hope it all goes smoothly. How are your folks doing?

[Jubal]

Parents are okay, thanks I stayed with them for a bit before the conference and we went to listen to nightjars (which are cool and very weird) and had a day at the seaside with some nice birbs and suchlike. My sister just had Covid recently which was pretty rough, but she seems to be better now.

I'm now back in Vienna after a reasonably successful conference - I did a talk, a storytelling performance of the medieval Georgian epic The Knight In Panther Skin, helped run the Medieval Caucasus Network reception, and ran the conference storytelling circle. Also saw some people for the first time in ages/met some people I've only known online (incl. Eadgifu the Fair, of this parish, and a couple of the folks who come to Coding Medieval Worlds events).

Unfortunately some of those people now have Covid so I'm curled up at home nervously waiting to see if I'm going to get symptoms developing...

[Jubal]

Well, I didn't get Covid after that conference. A lot of the intervening time has been quite high stress though, I'm currently in the joys of the Austrian unemployment system and firmly concluding that I should just have taken the financial hit of not having the unemployment money pittance paid to me, given that the amount of time they're mandating me to spend jumping through hoops vs what they're paying me is an absurd ratio and the stress is really messing me up.

There are some hopeful signals re me finding a job, but I probably can't post more on that until it's been properly signed off, not wanting to count chickens etc...

[Pentagathus]

Fingers crossed.
On the topic of chicken counting, my mother has finally admitted that having an adult non-neutered cockerel with her handful of hens may be a bad idea now we have 22 new chicks (plus 2 dead ones and 5 young chickens from an earlier hatching). 

[Jubal]

That is a delightfully Norfolk problem to have

How're folks doing generally?

[Pentagathus]

Folks are generally ok. Dog is very curious about the one chick we have had to bring inside a couple of times to warm up and look after in the mornings.

[Jubal]

Awh.

I think I'm going to email in sick for tomorrow's AMS-course session. My throat's swollen from the constant muscle tension so a three hour speaking class feels like it might be even more hell than usual.

[Jubal]

I went to comicon today. An error, in retrospect, I'm shattered and it was too noisy and I got little from the experience, though it was nice to see the people I went with.

Things otherwise are smoothing out: new job starting in two weeks, plans for finishing PhD are going okay, and so on. I'm still pretty wiped out (ended up off ill for a fortnight after making the above post) but I'm glad of the increased stability.

[Jubal]

And a happy Christmas to those who celebrate!

[Silver Wolf]

Hello! How's everyone doing?

Things have been hectic here for the past year.