Dr Quake’s Chronicles Vol 7 Issue 4

Greetings from Wellington.

Big quake in Christchurch this afternoon is dominating the news here. I’ve been lining up special services for the morning with the Chaplain and talking to members of staff who have family connections in Christchurch. It doesn’t look too good down there. I reflect on our own personal state of readiness and it is not terrific. I keep on meaning to do something about that and keep on doing nothing. Hmm.

Otherwise, the whirl of the start of the new school year has continued pretty much as usual. Lots of nights out hosting evenings for parents to meet the members of staff caring for their daughters this year. Sunday night’s cathedral service marks the end of the beginning of the year, thank goodness.

It has been gratifying that over the course of all these functions so many parents have seized the opportunity to speak with me and express their regret that I am leaving. Sometimes, with nose firmly applied to the grindstone, one wonders if anyone really gives a damn. Apparently they do.

Dr Crumble has been busy busy busy. He has been working very solidly on Lule’s thesis. This has been a very long story of one step forward and seemingly two steps back throughout. She had the bricks put to her by her university – show cause why you should retain you job without a PhD – some chap recently finished his has put up his hand for Lule’s classes. This had the effect of galvanizing Lule into fevered action. Hours and hours of Skype later, Crumble wrote the sign off letter last week and the production moves to the next phase. Her university uses the North American model – internal examiners and then Viva Voce and/or Full Defence. I am not sure what the difference is between the Viva and the Defence but either way it sounds like an opportunity for academic with an axe to grind with the poor candidate’s supervisor can eviscerate the candidate in a public display of brutality with impunity and regardless of how well informed they are about the aspect of the thesis which they are gnawing at. Having knocked over Lule he moved onto Richard’s. This seems to have been faster in these closing stages and I believe he has signed off on that one also.

So a man of leisure I hear you all think. Oh no. Crumble has picked up some consultancy work with Retail and more importantly, is Officer In Charge of Shift. Poto Road has been on the market for a week and a half and we have had 20 or so lots of people through with about 8 or so repeat visitors. The Agent is now marshalling offers. We would rather accept a lower offer as long as it is not conditional on the sale of another property. The market here is pretty depressed and the recession shows no sign whatsoever of abating. Not the Lucky Country. Removalists are in the process of quoting for us. We definitely need to rationalize our stuff as it is going to cost an arm and a leg to move it and then store it until we have figured out where to live.

If any of you have any ideas about jobs, I’d be very pleased to hear them by the way. The only absolutely fixed item is that whatever it is I’ve gotta be able to ski in the northern hemisphere in late January/February. That rules out schools!

That’s all for now from

Dr Quake & Dr Crumble