The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2820 by Angharad Copyright© 2015 Angharad

I told switchboard that I was leaving and so was my secretary and Professor Agnew’s secretary was also going, so to reroute calls back to them and to take messages for me. They’d have to see what Professor Agnew wanted to do but I suspected he was in a meeting much of the afternoon. Poor old Tom, he looked the worse for wear this morning, not so much the drink but the effort of chairing the dinner dance last night. He is getting on a bit and it takes longer to recover—talking of recovery, I was walking normally now, after Simon’s animal instincts had caused a slight modification in my gait. It doesn’t always hurt but he got a bit carried away after talking about money. He still doesn’t know about the dress, which I took to the dry cleaners this morning and will collect on the way to collect the girls—good job they do four hour cleaning but the price is ridiculous, but it got a bit sweaty last night and there was no way I was going to try washing it.

I arrived at the school to find Trish in deep conversation with Sister Maria, they looked slightly guilty when they saw me coming. What is going on? Is it something to do with her early morning attendances? Neither she, the headmistress nor any of her sisters let on what it was all about and for once I didn’t demand to be told, though curiosity was driving me nuts

When we got home they were talking to David about the stuff they wanted for Thursday for their class parties, then it was the nativity play cum carol concert, dash back home on Friday and off to the Dorchester for High St’s Christmas bash. Simon had organised a room so we could shower and change there and sleep overnight before returning on Saturday. The weather looked abysmal for the week except for temperatures which were more like May than December. Apparently some place in Devon had the temperature drop to 14.2 degrees Celsius overnight making it the warmest December night ever recorded in the UK. The accompanying wind and rain are not so welcome.

I was so looking forward to having some time off over Christmas though I always had stuff to do for the survey so I never quite stopped altogether, even abroad I tend to check my emails. Simon once called me a workaholic as he was checking his emails from the office. I wasn’t sure if he was joking or serious and I’m still none the wiser.

Tonight dinner was very basic, pork chops with creamed potatoes, mashed carrot and swede which the kids love, peas and broccoli. We don’t do desserts now, all us adults are trying to shed the odd pound, preferably from waistlines and the girls are happy to have a chocolate bar or few biscuits instead. Danielle has stopped eating sweets and biscuits so I suspect she may have a boy in view. She says it’s to stop her getting spots, but her complexion is gorgeous—then it should be at fourteen. I feel really sorry for teenagers who get acne, especially girls—one or two of whom, get it really badly. It must be awful.

I taught Danni to do a deep cleanse every night before she goes to bed so hopefully that will minimise the risk of clogged pores and blackheads. I even pay for the cleanser and cotton pads not to mention the moisturiser she uses. Julie recommended one which is really good and she gets it wholesale for us, so we save a little that way, but we have about four or five bottles of it on the go most of the time, even Stella uses it.

Thursday arrived and Trish was champing at the bit as we took extra time to load all the food David and Amanda had done for the various class parties. According to the girls our stuff is miles better than anyone else’s but they don’t have a chef on tap to do it for them. I told them that if any of them get caught bragging, next year, we’ll buy it all from Waitrose, same as the others do. They all groaned—I know, I’m a mean momma. Ha ha, that would make them laugh themselves silly. One word from me and they do as they please—until I think they’re pushing their luck and then they discover I do mean what I say—they tend not to like it as iPads and mobile phones get confiscated.

The secretariat, well Tom’s and mine were looking as if they had a good night last night. They went to the restaurant and then on to a club which had male strippers. If the men’s equipment was anything like the bags under Diane’s eyes, they had something to be proud of. She looked shattered and at one point, when I had to go off to a meeting in Tom’s office mid morning, I told her to lock herself in my office and get forty winks. I don’t know if she did or not but she looked better when I returned after lunch—the only problem with meeting Daddy in his official capacity as Dean was his insistence that I go to lunch with him afterwards. He always pays so it could be worse. That sounds as if I’m a real tightwad, I’m not but after about the third time of asking to pay or to pay for my own meal, he told me to never ask again, it was his pleasure to spoil me and made up for his not being able to do it as my father when I was young. He’s such a nice man for an auld goat, as he says.

Our meeting had been officially about maintaining educational standards in our examining committee, but in reality it was the small core of dissidents who were opposed to the way the Vice Chancellor was trying to turn us into a commercial business. His previous job had been with a huge American firm of business consultants who make their money making their clients more and more efficient. I quoted by paraphrase the chapter in Professor Brasier’s book the example he gave of systems which as they become more and more efficient have only one eventual outcome—extinction. They all applauded at that.

We all know that we have to raise a certain amount of money in order to fund the research we do in the various departments. So far, tuition fees and my films plus grants from Henry have kept biology well afloat. However, the downside is that it looks as if I’m going to need to do a film a year to keep us that way. I do make some money personally as well from the venture, but then I use a lot of my own time to make them, not only in the actual shooting but also in the writing, directing and pursuing. Alan and I are thinking of forming a company to continue our partnership, though we haven’t agreed on a name yet. I suggested, Dormouse Films he preferred Catalan Films. His is more clever, mine is nicer.