Curiouser and curiouser...

Honestly, if this place didn't exist, someone would have to make it up.

(Oh, that's right, someone already did. This week, I'm definitely through the looking glass, and I'm getting more and more certain that the couple we met last week were Sylvie & Bruno, all grown up, having learnt their lessons well from the Professor. I mean, what else could that tip about bluebells in Wytham Woods be but a hint for how to get to Faerieland? "He looked again, and found it was/A Double Rule of Three". Hmm. What's it going to be like when I settle into serious thesis-writing?)

So. What I learnt today: (1) When you try to report a problem with the heating to the admin people at my college whose job it is to note such problems and get them fixed, they take it as a personal affront and get defensive. (2) Boilers are part of the plumber's remit, and the electrician knows nothing about them. (3) The central timing system which prevented me (and everyone else) from having my (and their) radiator(s) on whenever I (they) wanted it when I was here two years ago ... must be a figment of my imagination. Even though there was definitely some sort of central timing system. But nobody who supposedly makes the decisions about such things seems to know about it. Even though the existence of the central timing system has virtually been admitted to one of my other housemates.

Oh, and when you explain things to people ("The timer on the boiler is set to "continuous", it has been all winter and we've been able to have the radiators on any time, but all of a sudden, the radiators only come on in the afternoon and at a much lower intensity"), they appear to wilfully misunderstand ("The timer on the boiler was set to "continuous" but I've set it to come on twice a day, so now it should work").

Maybe I picked up more Dutch than I thought (maybe double?), and that's what I'm actually speaking?

Vale Humpty Dumpty. No bloody wonder he's still in pieces.