The state of the wellinghall

[wellinghall]

New job
It looks okay so far - I'm enjoying it. There's a lot of development work to do over the next three / six months, but it should be within my capabilities. And next week, I get a permanent desk!
I went to a Bristol Actuarial Society session on mortality improvements by cause yesterday; interesting, but there is more work to be done on this area.

New house
Well, all the boxes are unpacked and disposed of. And all the books are on shelves; but not in any order. Next job: get the PC set up, and hopefully even connected to our new wireless network (thanks, foradan), so we can get on with things like the Supplement to the 2005 Proceedings. But this means clearing some space in the junkroom study ...
We are giving back the keys to the rented house tomorrow.

Visitors
The house was duly warmed last weekend.
We've got my father coming down this weekend, and I hope that my sister and her family will be able to come over on Saturday as well.
Later in the month, we hope to play host to MastermindChampion, and then to adaese's sister and her family.
And next month, we have GlassLady coming down, to see the opera - reminder to adaese, book the tickets!

Reading
I have finished the latest George RR Martin, A Feast for Crows, and am about to finish have now finished Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals. Then it will be back to the collection of SM Stirling short stories, Ice, Iron and Gold; and also the backlog of magazines, including the latest Amon Hen and Mallorn (both of which I've only skimmed through so far).

Listening
I have been listening to the new Dave Nachmanoff / Al Stewart live CD Uncorked. It is truly excellent - the selection of songs, the performances, and the production are all outstanding. And it's signed by Dave Nach :-)

Also to do
Put the last seven months' worth of photos, negatives and CDs in albums.
Sort out what we're doing on weekends in November. (NB could some kind soul remind me of the date of the next bout of Committeedium?)
Now that I've joined the gym at work, I need to have an initial fitness assessment (which will be embarrassing), then I can start using it.

And what have all of you been doing?

Comments

[gurthaew.livejournal.com]

From the last minutes:

7 November 2009
9 January 2010
20 February 2010
24 April 2010

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Ta.

Memo to self: don't invite friends over for 7 Nov!

And advance warning: I'm likely to be working on 9 January; it comes with being a valuation actuary.

[colinbj.livejournal.com]

Will be curious to hear what you think of Unseen Academicals.

So far I can't get into either it or *coughs* The Lost Symbol.

Possibly it's just I'm enjoying my dilettante projects too much, but neither book has that compulsive feel to it.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying it very much - maybe not quite up there with his best, but still v good. I'll try to put together some more coherent thoughts (but don't hold your breath!)

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

Coherence is overrated in my opinion :)

[clarienne.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry neither of us made your housewarming - I hope it went well.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Well, your absence meant that was plenty of food and drink left ...

You'll just have to come over some other time!

Re: A question for you...

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

It normally means something like, "When an insurance company's assets are lower than its liabilities", but you then need to define both of these terms. For example, in reporting to our regulator, the FSA, we normally use a prudent measure of liabiities (and a slightly prudent measure of assets). So it's possible for assets to be less than liabilities using these prudent measures, but still to exceed liabilities on a more realistic measure.

There are other measures you can use, each of which contains more or less prudence. The real problem is that you might not know whether you can meet all your liabilities until the last policy has gone off the books - and by then, it might be too late.

I'll try to put together something more formal ...

Re: A question for you...

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

No problem!

[meglorien.livejournal.com]

Seems you're doing all right. Way to go on unpacking.

We've been busy too. Narizinho back at nursery. She was sorely missed and very welcomed back last Monday, which both foradan and I thought was very sweet. foradan is working during the day and trying to get his talk ready in time for tomorrow evening.
I have been doing lots of tiding up. I'm sort of Winter cleaning (since I didn't Spring clean...) Next week I shall have to work hard on two abstracts to submit to two different conferences and I need to work on my talk for the conference in November. No luck with getting fabric yesterday, so that's a trip for tomorrow.

Saturday, after a very very long time, we have visitors. Last visitors we had was in February. It seems we're not quite as popular as Narizinho ;-)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you have such a popular daughter, and I hope you enjoy having your visitors at the weekend!

[segh.livejournal.com]

That all sounds very satisfactory.
Me, I'm just putting off the next bit of DIY - which is going to entail renewing the beading on the doors. And there's two sets of vestments and a wedding dress in the pipeline.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

You're going to renew the beading on two sets of vestments and a wedding dress? Actually that almost makes sense ...

[segh.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's not like me to be so ambiguous, is it? But no, vestments get gallooned. (That's a neologism but I like it.)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

What are galloons?

[segh.livejournal.com]

Galloon is the braid one trims vestments and uniforms with - the word deriving, oddly, from the French gallonner, to deck the head with ribbons. I don't know in what way (apart from price) it differs from ordinary braid.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[davidcook.livejournal.com]

Well, all the boxes are unpacked and disposed of. And all the books are on shelves; but not in any order.

Wow, that was quick ! Three months on, and we still have lots of boxes around (lots of them in my office, strangely enough), and not enough bookcases to hold everything (I'm making more, one more round of staining to go).

... and you've had a house-warming ! We think we'll be ready for ours by November or so :-)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

It has helped immensely that adaese has only been working one or two days a week, and so has been able to spend much of her time on getting the house straight.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

Where is she working?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

In a coffee shop run by the church. She's also been helping them with their travel plan.

[kargicq.livejournal.com]

Our bookshelves are still in random order, 4 years after moving... it makes finding a book an exciting adventure, as it's so easy to get side-tracked!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Ours weren't completely sorted in the old house, after eight and a half years; but they were, admittedly, much better than they are in the new house!

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

But does it actually MATTER? Maybe life is a bit short to have TOTALLY organised bookshelves?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Nope! A bit more organisation than we've currently got wouldn't hurt, but we don't need to employ a professional librarian!

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

Mine have never been anything else. Doesn't seem to matter.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

A milestone was reached when the Tolkien was no longer interspersed with the cookery.

[sally_maria]

I'm glad to hear your new job is going well. :-)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Thank you :-)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much :-)

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

Job/house etc: sounds good
Supplement to the 2005 Proceedings: why does it need one of those, then?
Fitness: don't be embarassed, they won't be and I am SURE they will have seen much unfitter people. Remember to tell them about any relevant or even not-so-relevant ailments so they can do their job of advising you properly.
What have I been doing: er...Stuff; lots of Stuff. Although yesterday, I slept nearly all day, managed to do a tiny bit of reading and make 2 untaxing phone calls, and watch 4 hrs of TV, and still felt exhausted & went to bed early. I had overdone it previously, clearly. I am now okayish again.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

I think embarrassed has 2 Rs. So don't be that version either :)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

2005 Proceedings: there were a few papers which didn't find their way into the original publication.

Ailments: yes, good point; thanks.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I am now okayish again

I am pleased to hear it :-)