I think we need Erinaceous in here for a consult. Stat.

Whoa! meara, representin'. Very cool.

Where did you have it done and did you like the service?

I'd like to get my existing tattoo embellished. Every time I approach someone who has ink I like for a referral, their work was done somewhere not here.

I'm listening to The Pogues. This was possibly not the best music choice for a night when I was already a little depressed. Now I'm more depressed and I want to go to Ireland. (Specifically Galway. Was there a few years ago, and had an immediate "Yeah, this could be me" reaction to the place. I loved all of Ireland, but Galway in particular was the place where I felt like I didn't want to leave.)

Hello, talky peoples.

Can anyone recommend a good gluten-free bread? The loaves I bought from Wild Oats taste like compressed sawdust.

Health~ma for L, Suzi. Cancer is terrifying, chemo only slightly less so. Rest~ma to Hil's mom. Good news from Karen.

Nice tat, meara! You are brave, it looks painful.

Is it too late to chime in on the name thing, since you all got me thinking about it?

I started going by my middle name when I went to college, and though I like my first name more now than I did, I doubt I'll go back to it. I tried on lots of different first names, only to find that my own middle name felt more like me than any other. If I ever did change my name, I'd drop my father's name and use my first name as my last name and maybe my mother's maiden name as my middle. If I got married, well, I'd change to his name if it were really cool. Better if he were willing for both of us to take the same new name, an idea I like a lot.

I hate it when people responding to an email from me misspell my name, even though it's right there in my signature. Yes, I understand that you're from Europe and you spell it with an "s" not a "z". Regardless, I spell it with a "z" and it's RIGHT THERE. I also hate it when people I don't know call me by a diminutive. I'm Elizabeth, all four syllables. I am the anti-Sparky in that nobody calls me Beth, ever. Liz is all right, as long as I know you. The only ones who get to call me Lizzie are people I've slept with and still like. I usually refer to myself in my head by the special pet name "Dummy".

Randomly, does anyone know how the name Vashti is pronounced? I always said "vahsh tee" but my cousin says "vahsh tye". (It's from the Bible, Book of Esther.)

Zen I assume you mean a yeasted-style bread? I've found gluten-free flour works well for quick breads but I haven't tried it for real bread. Which I guess means I'm still looking for one.

It's vahsh-tee.

Thanks, Hil! I was ri-ight.

Yes, a regular loaf of sandwich style bread. There's no such thing, is there? Alas. Nothing is soft and fluffy like wheat.

There may well be such a thing, but it may not be available at a market. Maybe a specialty bakery? I'm thinking the real challenge isn't the nice texture (I do a lot of gluten-free baking at home) but the yeast.

Yay! Didn't you go back to the same stylist?

Same place, but that stylist wasn't available. I was actually quite nervous, because they were colouring my hair too and we disagreed on which colour it should be. It looks fine, but it isn't quite the same colour as last time. But I'm okay with that.

But what was really horrid was when she thought she'd finished cutting my hair, and I was all "...er, but it's not finished!" Because although I'd clearly indicated that the lowest part of the bob was supposed to be somewhere between mouth and chin, she'd got the whole thing Too Fucking Long, and I felt like crying when I looked at my reflection. But when I explained, she sorted it out, and now I like it. But it doesn't make my heart sing quite as much as it did when the other guy did it.

shrugs

Lovely to have it short and neat again, though - it was a mess.

Meanwhile, I'm happy to say I knew what bemused meant. Go Team Me! But I can see that the definition you'd come up with is a sensible enough one, if one's having to hazard a guess from context and from what it sounds like. It's all good. (But I don't think we're at a 'prescriptive/descriptive' level here - I think y'all just didn't know what the word meant.)

Cracking tattoo, Meara!

...aaand now I'm pondering getting another. Hmm...

eta

Meanwhile, today I went to the Crocodile Farm and Zoo with my colleague to suss it out, as that's where we're taking our kids for a school trip.

Man, that was depressing as fuck. Thailand's approach to animal care is...well, in a lot of ways it's like being in the west 60 years ago, I guess. We didn't even go look at the Crocodile Show or the Elephant Show, because they will be A Very Bad Thing for sure, but even just looking at the poor beasts in their wee cages was thoroughly depressing. However, that's what it's like in this country. We're studying plants and animals, and it will be great for the kids to get the chance to see real animals.

So what we'll be doing is working a lot beforehand on what animals need, and then when we go there the kids will be looking to see whether they actually have what they need - adequate space, shelter, water etc etc. And when we're back at school, we can use some of our Building Learning Power/We Can Do It lesson time to work on designing our own zoos, taking into account what the animals actually NEED.

So although I have very mixed feelings about this (I mean, they have tigers chained up that you can have your photo taken with. I am quite sure they beat them, having seen similar things happen at the Elephant Park), I think that it can be a good educationally valuable experience, and can be channelled into raising their awareness of how to care for animals.

Gosh, but it was depressing, though.

Also, the crocodile farm bit - now that wasn't so bad (although it was an ENORMOUS number of crocodiles - but they had quite a lot of space) but it is a bit scary, thinking of taking 40 6 year olds to this place. If we were in the UK, doing risk assessments...well, I don't think that it would pass. But it's Thailand. It'll be fine.

I am ashamed to say I had to skip 900 messages. I hope all is well with everyone.

We are home from the UK. We go back to work tomorrow, as well as starting class, and various exercise things. Something new and exciting every day.

So tired. But I should probably stay awake so that I can get used to 1) Eastern time zone schedule and 2) getting up early for work schedule.

I think a quick trip to the bakery is in order.