General update
Back at work today, after two days of a cold. Except that when I came in this morning I had a horrifying sneezing fit which made it quite difficult to drive: I hope that's hayfever (for which this is roughly my peak season) rather than the remaining cold, in which case it should go away now I'm in the air-conditioned office. If it's the cold I might have to go home again, and I was getting restless.
Being off work with a mild cold is terrible for guilt, because I sit on the sofa, do nothing, and feel fine, making me feel bad that I'm at home. Fortunately (ish), at one point I ran out of food and had to go out shopping, and then I felt headachey and dizzy and that reminded me that I really was ill; but it's difficult to remember that when you're sitting on a comfy sofa and feeling OK.
In other news … the other day mpinna sent me a draft of the puzzle he's working on for my collection, which is worryingly good fun; I can tell it's a good one when my code review goes slowly because I keep stopping for just one more go. Then I sent back a mail which said ‘I'll be happy to accept this into the collection provided the following corrections are made’, which made me feel worryingly like a PhD examiner. Perhaps I should award a qualification for successfully submitting a puzzle. Puzzle Developer, or PzD for short :-)
At the weekend I watched cjwatson and
ghoti get married, which was nice. The wedding was disturbingly Catholic; the congregation kept being expected to mutter ‘amen’ and ‘and also with you’ and similar miscellaneous stuff at various points, and in the absence of the usual cheat sheet I had absolutely no idea when it was appropriate to do any of this. Then they said the Hail Mary, of which I know virtually nothing beyond a vague feeling that I can guess the first two words. Then the Lord's Prayer showed up and I thought ‘thank goodness, something I do know’. Except that I didn't even know that, it turned out, because their version was two lines shorter than the one I knew. All of which, I think, conclusively demonstrates me to be a Protestant atheist.
Still, that wasn't a big problem. And there was a silly photo session, a mead-enabled reception, caterers who had specially provided gluten-free food for me (and a terrifying quantity of it too!), and all the usual good stuff. At one point my umbrella became filled with confetti, which was odd.
Anyway. Now I need to wade through a rather scary quantity of e-mail backlog from the two days I've been off work.
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Praise The Lord, Ye Heavens Adore Him
Praise him, angels in the height;
Sun and moon, rejoice before him;
Praise him, all ye stars and light:
Praise the Lord, for he hath spoken;
Worlds his mighty voice obeyed;
Laws that never shall be broken
For their guidance he hath made.
Praise the Lord, for he is glorious!
Never shall his promise fail;
God hath made his saints victorious;
Sin and death shall not prevail.
Praise the God of our salvation;
Hosts on high, his power proclaim;
Heaven and earth, and all creation,
Laud and magnify his name!
Worship, honour, glory, blessing
Lord, we offer unto thee
Young and old, Thy praise expressing
In glad homage bend the knee
All the saints in heav’n adore Thee
We would bow before Thy throne,
As Thine angels serve before Thee
So on Earth Thy Will be done.
Foundling Hospital Collect (c. 1796), based on Psalm 148.
The tune was slightly different from how I remember the German national anthem to go: The notes from the first two lines of each verse were repeated for the third and fourth lines, before carrying on as I expected. But maybe I remembered the tune wrongly.