Essential issues

This morning I take the car because I have three meetings and know I will be dead meat by the end of the day. It takes about the same time as biking, what with road works and all, but I listen to Classic FM and enjoy the sights. The locals who complain about traffic have not been stuck on the ring road in Stockholm, not to mention German motorways. But I certainly do not feel morally impeccable.

The three meetings are of completely different kinds. At the first, I finally figure out that “paper” means course, while a paper is called thesis or dissertation. I realize that “Research and Investigation” is what we in the old country called “Theory and method”. I begin deciphering the mysterious acronyms and get some of my guessed confirmed.

The central issue at the Academic Staff Meeting is whether to abolish water containers in the corridors. They cost too much and the plastic mugs are not recyclable. The question gives rise to a much more lively discussion than the preceding scholarly reports.

The last meeting is relaxed, but to the point. We sit over a cu of tea in the Combination Room, and papers have now become essays and there are more acronyms, and my head is about to split. Iish I could turn it off for a while.