Chained to my Desk--Working on Lecture for Cambridge University

Monday, October 10, 2016
London

Usual Morning Rituals:
     My day began with the knowledge that I had to draft and prepare for the invited lecture I am to give on Wednesday in the graduate seminar at the Center of South Asian Studies at Cambridge University. I awoke at 7.00 pm (rather late for me but I also woke up in-between and was awake for an hour), blogged a bit, caught up with routine email and had my breakfast--fruit and nut muesli with passion fruit and mango yogurt and decaff coffee. While munching, I watched Making a Murderer (as I am now hooked on to the series once again). I next showered and shampooed my hair and while it dried, I got down to serious work.

Working on my Lecture:
      From 10.00 am until 1.00 pm, with a pause in-between while I chatted with my Dad in India and Facetimed with Llew (I gave him a proud tour of my lovely new flat), I worked on my paper. It went faster than I thought as I gleaned most of the information from the Introduction to my book.
     At 1.00 pm, I stepped out of the house to buy a couple of items I needed from Boots and Morrison's and ended up having bought Fawlty Towers--The Complete Series from the Octavia charity shop for 4 pounds--what a steal! In the end, my onlky souvenirs from this stay in the UK will be a bunch of British DVDs.
     Bach home, I had lunch: the other half of my sausage and onion roll (from my Saturday pub lunch with Roz)with lashings of English mustard and a cup of soup.
     Then, it was back to my drawing board again and this time as I re-drafted and proof-read, I also created a Powerpoint presentation to go with my talk. I was quite satisfied with it when I finished at 6.00 pm. at which time I brewed myself a cup of tea and ate it with Carrot Cake from MandS--unfortunately, I found the cinnamon in it too strong and the cream cheese frosting too sweet--not a fave!
      It was just beautiful outside today--the sun was bright, the sky cloudless and the temperature very comfortable if you were well-clad. At 6.00 pm (when it had already turned dark), I got a text from Greg who was supposed to deliver a TV set here--to tell me he had become tied up with his little boy and that his father would drop it off the next day.
      I contemplated going off for a bus ride--but then I decided to get back to my laptop and continue working. And I did that till at least 9.00 pm, when I had my dinner (cup of soup with ravioli with tomato and herb sauce). I sent off the Powerpoint presentation to the chap at Cambridge who is in-charge of setting it up for me and quickly received an acknowledgement from him.
     I fell asleep at about 10.15 pm after reading a bit more of On Chesil Beach.
      It is amazing how sometimes what appears like a most uninteresting day can actually be the most productive. Tomorrow, I shall review my talk, re-draft and make changes, if necessary, and then go to my office to print it all out.
     Until tomorrow, cheerio...