Back to blogging

I see that it's very easy to get into the habit of not writing blog entries....

The Passover festival has passed over - it was one of those weeks when there were two days festival, two days work (except that the factories and offices were closed, so more holiday) then the weekend then another two days festival. The last day of work was on Sunday 24 March and the next day of work was Tuesday 2 April. It was back to work with a vengeance: each day (Tues,Wed, Thur)  had an important - and long - meeting.

So what did I do during this time and why didn't I write? It all boils down to laziness, I suppose; that's not a quality which I normally have, but sometimes lethargy gets the better of me. There were also some very hot days, which I will quote in my defence. I took some pictures of the garden with my mobile phone and some of the hall in which the Passover celebrations took place, only to discover that there seems to be a problem with the phone. I can see the pictures but the phone is not recognised by my computers and so I've been unable to transfer them. Tomorrow I will finally take the phone to be repaired but as the problem seems to be with the phone's memory card, it seems that those pictures will be lost.

I did spend some time - not as much as I would have liked - studying. I very much miss the weekly meetings in Ramat Gan; these very much helped to keep the material in the brain's temporary memory, and of course having a fixed timetable helps those who slack. Now, every time that I pick up the file, I have to spend a certain amount of time just getting into the correct mental space so that I can continue. I have found some interesting papers which impinge on my subject. I read one doctoral thesis which examined the advantages of Microsoft .NET as an implementation platform - a niche subject if ever there was one. The candidate obviously didn't attend Heriott Watt as the methodology was almost non-existent and the writing was poor (most obviously uses "it's" when meaning "its").

There was work for the Occupational Psychologist but I'll discuss that in a separate entry.

I cooked a great deal: having so many festive meals (and guests) meant that I had to plan meals and shopping in advance. I ran the whole gamut of my menu, even bringing back forgotten dishes such as pineapple chicken. One recipe which I heard about only after the festival might get cooked next year: matza mousaka (fried mince meat placed between slices of matza, then cooked in the oven). Minced meat is a very versatile ingredient; so much can be done with it but unfortunately my family don't like it very much (if at all) which means that the mousaka is likely to remain in the planning stages.