Nasty sore throat

Why - when I am just about to teach a week long course, do I get a really horrible cold and sore throat? I hope that I don't loose my voice before tomorrow. Have gone out and bought lots of foul tasting stuff to help - but fingers crossed that I survive the week.

Giant pumpkins

Elephants are big creatures - so they need larger than normal toys to play with. At 66kg though, this pumpkin is a giant!

Huge pumpkin is elephantine treat

Is there nowhere to avoid a mobile?

China has put up a mobile telecommunications mast on Mt Everest. Can you imagine slogging up the mountainside only to hear somebody bellowing 'I'm going to be late - am up Mt Everest at the moment waiting for the weather to clear'. Is there anywhere in this crowded world where we can really be free from being disturbed by those annoying ring tones? I don't care if it means that the relay runners for the Olympics can keep in touch - why send them over Mt Everest anyway? - let's try and keep some wild spaces in the world. Take the mast down.

What is your university called?

Big fuss being made about universities changing their names to attract better publicity, avoid confusion etc. Trouble is, it DOES matter. The latest one is Bath Spa, and Bath University is not very happy about it, as they feel it will confuse potential students. Damm right it does. The University of Central England in Birmingham, commonly known as UCE recently changed its name to Birmingham City University. The University of Birmingham was NOT impressed - but it does and will continue to cause confusion, especially for overseas students. Many of the students at my university are really shocked to find themselves studying in Stoke on Trent, as they assumed they would be at Stafford! Names are important, and the Privy Council should stop messing in this important area.

What's in a name? Our reputation, for a start

Where are the student loans?

Reports today that many students still have not had their student loan payments. The students I have been dealing with have had all the emergency payments they can get, and are STILL waiting - one of them has 4 children under 6, and is a single parent - I dread to think of how she is going to feed them all once the payment she had on Monday is spent... I know the system is in transition, but really, until the LEAs finally hand over the assessment process to the about to be centralised student finance system, they should not be cutting back on staff and creating the backlog which is causing so much hardship to students.

'I can't make ends meet'

Where are the student loans?

Online Careers Fair

You never know, but somebody might read this blog and want to register on the National Online Careers Fair, which is being hosted by my university Careers & Employability Service between 12 Nov and 14 Dec. Follow the link - and have an online conversation with a graduate recruiter!

http://www.staffs.ac.uk/services/careers/careersweb/nationalfair2008/index.htm

Job hunting

The pressure is on to find a new, full time, permanent post, as half of my job finishes at the end of November. Wonder how much I will be paid for redundancy? Probably not a lot, and they will probably mess up the calculations, adn pay it late. Just got to try and remain positive... it is hard, as everyone else is so excited that the contract has been agreed for the next tranche of Graduate Futures, but I only get 27.4 days work between Dec and end of March, which isn't much at all - and I get a break in service as well.

Happy birthday!

Clare was 40 - and had some exquisite Jimmy Choo's for her big day -hence the cake! SO comfortable to wear - pity they were several sizes too large for me - but probably good news for Clare!

Extreme stress harms cognitive ability

That was the conclusion reached by researchers who asked people in an aircraft, who were told they were about to crash, and could they just do this test... Hey - any student could have told them that! Other bizarre experiments included trying to see how LSD affected an elephant [it killed it!].

Elephant on acid, dog head grafts and a seesaw to revive the dead

Just love this sign - my favourite one by far in the Times competition for funny signs from around the world. I know elephants are very intelligent animals, but I wasn't aware they could read yet...

Loosing out in the workplace...

So, even after all these years of advances in equality, women are still dammed if they do, and dammed if they don't when it comes to being leaders. No wonder that the numbers of women going through that glass ceiling are still very small - corporate bias towards men rules. Changes need to be made - but I think it will be a long time before we have real, unbiased equality in the workplace - but in the meantime, I will keep encouraging my female students to go for it, not accept the status quo, and help shatter forever that glass ceiling.

The Feminine Critique