the guilty pleasures of the academic

I tend to get my news from the internet, but there is something wonderful about a physical copy of the Weekend Guardian. In my defense, it lasts two of us (sometimes more) at least a week. The excessive piles of paper get used.

Today was a good Guardian day. I knew it would be before I even got my hands on a copy. There had been some animated post's on a few online communities this morning. Crafters were excited about the 90 page booklet linked to this book: make a doormat out of clothes pegs, turn an old roll-neck jumper into a hotwaterbottle cover! Academics have been delighting in reading the guilty pleasures of notable clever-cloggs: Steve Jones has a thing about estate agents, Elaine Showalter loves Trinny and Susannah!

I've got a horrid cold and had just a rubbish day yesterday. The short version is that I discovered it is going to be yet another week before my grant comes through - that's over a month waiting for my pay. So, feeling in need of some self-indulgence but also feeling pretty poor and full of the cold, I pulled on my new mittens* and went down to the shops in search of vitamin C and the newspaper.


Aside from the sections on craft and academic gossip, the true delight of today's paper was discovering that the balaclava has been big on the catwalks (see picture at top of post). A prediction I made here months ago. Though I should note that the article comes out in favour of the bobble hat.

So this (highly frustrated) academic is sitting hiding in her college hoodie, slowly burying herself in tissues, about to spend the afternoon with her own guilty pleasures. I have the pile of weekend newsprint to get through, a cheesy musical on the telly and my knitting. I'm making a voodoo doll to focus my grant-rage upon. Expect a pin-filled FO post sometime next week.

* Yes, new mittens. A secret FO hidden in my cold-addled rambling post. It's based on this pattern (which I found through Mettetations), though I made them more chequered than honeycomb. I used brown Opal Uni (two strands held together) with Noro silk garden for the MC, knit tightly on a 3mm circular. It was cold and I couldn't wait for the Anemoi's to be done so whipped them up on the bus to and from work this week.