Anonymous comments.

Hello. It is quite early, isn't it? Maybe not for you. It is for me though, I don't like to interfere too much with these happenings of the morning. The gasman cometh, though, to make sure we are not in imminent danger of dying in an exciting gasball fire explosion. And I am here to make sure he has everything he needs. That probably entails offering to make him tea, but I'm not sure we have milk. Oh! Jen's milk arrives today, and I need to bring it in. Then at half past nine I must ring the doctor because my pills run out on Sunday night and this is not at all a good time for me to come off them.

Last night I had pie in which was contained wild boar sausages, black pudding, apple and sage. It was quite nice. I also forgot to defrost food so I can't take the mince thing to university to eat. It wasn't a very nice mince thing anyway, but food is not very easy. I have to go the minute I can, and then work all day. Last night I didn't sleep very well at all, not least because I realised that this time next week I'm supposed to be submitting.

Would you like to leave me some anonymous comments? Of course you would, it would be your pleasure to contribute some small source of pleasure into my long day of staring at a horrible draft and checking my email too often. You could, for example, leave me a comment instead of putting it on twitter. I am very resentful of twitter.

DANGER DANGER, gendered travelling

The gas fire is CONDEMMNED! It's not safe to use apparently, but this doesn't matter terribly much as the only time it's ever been turned on since we moved in is just now when the nice gasman discovered its unworthy nature. It's been isolated now, placed in solitary confinement so as not to give our other (perfectly working) gas appliances any ideas.

I eventually managed to get an appointment for more pills, so that's nice. It took AGES to get through, and the first time I did my phone cut out, and the second time halfway through the receptionist couldn't hear me so it looked like I was going to have to start all over again. I also need to ask about injections/anti-malarials, as I might only be back for a week between travelling and need to know when to take things. I also discovered that the NHS travel site has a section specifically about advice for male travellers, which was a pleasant surprise. I'm less than happy about some of the differences:

"If you do find yourself in physical danger try to anticipate the aggressors next move and plan ahead for it. As the innocent party in the confrontation you have the advantage of surprise."

vs

"In a confrontational situation a woman traveller is rarely a physical match for a man."

HMM. Also women don't get any advice about carrying condoms if they are interested in having casual sex, though at least men are told that if paying for sex then they should use condoms to protect the sex workers as well as themselves.