Kitchen politics

As the new convenor of the Equal Opportunities subcommittee on Sexual Orientation, I was asked to send an all-staff email out today advertising our first meeting. This is all very well, except that it is the holidays, and, being an institution made up of five colleges, we have a lot of staff. Consequently my inbox is now clogged up with "I am out of the office.." auto-replies, which is annoying.

The kitchen also seems to be the cause for much contention up here at UA's pseudo-headquarters. I have already been told off this week for inadvertantly queue jumping, by a woman who waited until I had filled two cups with water before giving me a look that said "I think you'll find I was first, but I will pointedly refrain from commenting." When I apologised she replied, martyr-like, "It's FINE. I don't mind WAITING a bit longer." Due to "health and safety" regs we have also been deemed too stupid to use either a microwave or toaster, which is a shame as I have spent the last couple of weeks at my beloved Elephant, and Chelsea, taking in pitta bread and heating it in their respective toasters (the likes of Health and Safety never venturing to the likes of Chelsea College and LCC frequently enough to admonish them.) This is all part of a half-hearted health kick of mine where I have been bringing in an array of carrot sticks and celery, pitta bread, fruit and soya yoghurts in an attempt to stop my body bombarding me with colds and migraines. I haven't had a cold since February, and I haven't had a migraine since I was poisoned by the National Blood Service (still bitter), so it seems to be working. However, I am going to blow it all tonight by going to Belgos.

It has occurred to me, actually, that the lack of a Belgos anywhere close to Vauxhall or Battersea has dampened my desire to move there. This is possibly just as well, since we hve had no luck with estate agents so far. We haven't handed in our notice, in the hope that something comes up with a two-month-til-move-in period, then, when somewhere nice came up, or when the Roundhouse opens in June and we realise we can't stand Chalk Farm any longer (whichever happens first) we will leave. In theory, anyway, this seemed possible, and we immediately found two nice properties. The first agent we contacted said the property had gone (though two weeks later it is still on their website, which leads me to believe it simply isn't theirs to let), but they had another great property "just down the road" available at the same time. We agreed to go and see it, but when we got there, there was no car available for the agent to take us in. He arranged another viewing. It turned out that, despite his insistences that the property was in Vauxhall, it is actually in Camberwell. It is behind Camberwell College, i.e., it is just off Peckham Road. So it's either Peckham or Camberwell, presumably whichever you think sounds better when telling your mates where you live (it's a toss-up, really), but it isn't in Vauxhall.

The second property we still haven't seen. It has the benefit of being in Wandsworth, which has minimal Council Tax, but I have a feeling that for some reason they don't want us to have it. First of all I was told I couldn't see it straight away as there were not enough staff to take me (how many do I need?!) as they were on holiday for Easter. So I arranged a booking for Tuesday. On Tuesday morning they phoned and said I couldn't see it as there was work being done on the property. I rang to make another appointment and they apologised and said that the landlord didn't want viewings until next week. Then today they called and asked me if I wanted to see it next Tuesday, and apologised again, this time for the fact that the tenant was pregnant and didn't want too many people coming in and viewing her home.

Which has all kind of put me off, really.

Have a good day.