A ragbag post

Ragbag in the sense that there are lots of little things I’ve been meaning to post and yet haven’t gotten around to it.

First, planting bulbs. We bought a potted plant at the last table sale at church in the early spring: daffodils. I have a brown thumb (everything I plant or nurse dies) but HWMBO is quite good: he’s kept a cactus going (after I told him not to buy it a year ago because it would just die) and thriving.

The question is: the daffodils have of course flowered and the flowers are gone. What do we do now? How do we plant the bulbs with a reasonable expectation that next year there will be flowers? Any suggestions? I would trawl the websites but I think that more succinct advice could be gotten from some people here. If not, I’ll go trawl the websites, but guarantee that if I have any more to do with it the daffodils will die. If you want to save the daffodils please help!

Second, the job hunt. I had a second interview yesterday at a financial organisation in the City. They seem to be pretty much screwed as far as testing and quality are concerned, but more in terms of spending a lot more on testing than they really ought to, rather than having extremely buggy software. I think I did OK, but I won’t find out until either later today or next week. I really need to move from my current position, which is very boring, due to the fact that the company’s business plan for testing is flawed. They are seen as a low-cost off-shorer. Thus, trying to place a high-cost native test manager is very difficult–in fact, it’s proven impossible. I’ve done nothing in 8 months. Ho-hum. So, I need to switch out of here pronto.

The only fly in the ointment is our holiday. We’re off to Singapore on June 7th, and back on June 26th. Thus I won’t be able to start a new job until the beginning of July. That seemed to bother them, and I suspect that if they have a candidate who could start, perhaps, two weeks ahead of me (for the USans and Singaporeans here, the usual notice period is 4 weeks in the United Kingdom) they will take him or her over me. I do think I could make a difference over there, and am hoping that the other two candidates rank high, but not as high as me.

The alternative is to quit and go back to consulting with Electromind. I feel that sometimes my expectations of the amount of work to be found through Electromind have been higher than they should be. It sounds like Steve has gotten his act together and does have enough work to support himself, his wife, and me. But one wonders. I will think about also offering my services as a trainer to TSG and various other training companies, as well as getting the Practitioner certificate, entitling me to take that course as well. This will up my availability and income.

What to do…?

Third: I am seriously cheesed off with the New Lammas Lands Defence Committee. My friend Rosemary is very involved with it, but none of the committee was particularly computer-literate. The aim is to save a playing field and various other green bits in the borough of Waltham Forest from being consumed by offshoots of the Olympics fiasco and lost to the people of the area. However, when I put up the notice for their “Beating the Bounds” (an old Rogation Day custom here where people would check each year that the boundaries of the parish were still well marked) I immediately got criticised for spelling “defence” with an “s”. And it wasn’t a gentle criticism, either; it was blistering (not from Rosemary, I hasten to add, who is one of life’s princesses and a great person to know), with overtones of anti-Americanism (as in America it’s spelt “defense”).

The next committee meeting was supposed to be last night. It takes me an hour to get to the venue (as I live in South London and the venue is in Leyton, in East London). I duly got there to find the venue locked and dark. I walked around a bit, and when I got back to the venue, it was still dark, so I got a bus home. Total time wasted: about 2 hours 15 minutes. Rosemary is not at fault as she is away.

Now I don’t mind helping out a good cause, and I am happy to donate my expertise and time when necessary, but if you cancel a meeting and know how to reach me it’s a good idea to get hold of me and tell me it’s cancelled.

The website is here, by the way.

One Response to “A ragbag post”

  1. trawnapanda says:

    First, planting bulbs. We bought a potted plant at the last table sale at church in the early spring: daffodils. […] The question is: the daffodils have of course flowered and the flowers are gone. What do we do now? How do we plant the bulbs with a reasonable expectation that next year there will be flowers? Any suggestions?

    you could either keep watering them in the pot and keeping them in a bright location until the greenery dies back, or plant them out now. The greenery is now building up the bulbs for the next flowering cycle, so don’t cut it off. If you plant them (just dig a pot-sized hole and transfer the entire contents of the pot in one swell foop), leave the greenery to flourish and then in the fulness of time, die back. If you keep them going in the pot, again, keep watering until the greenery dies back. Then let the pot dry out, and extract the bulbs, discarding the roots and dried out leavs. keep them dry until autumn (when you see bulbs on sale in the shops – sept, early oct), then plant them in the garden.

    in either case, they’ll start throwing new shoots in late january, february, and start blooming late february, or later depending on teh warmth of where you planted them. Because those bulbs are forced, you may not get flowers (or tiny ones) next year; but in the years after that they should be OK. They’ll self perpetuate once established. Just don’t mow the grass over teh top of them until the leaves have had a chance to replenish the bulb.

    plant them about one or two bulb-heights down. You should be safe from squirrels, daffodils are poisonous (unlike tulips, which are apparently quite tasty).

    I’ll go trawl the websites, but guarantee that if I have any more to do with it the daffodils will die. If you want to save the daffodils please help!

    why am I reminded of “every time you masturbate, god kills a kitten. please save the kittens!” ?