It's Saturday, Saturday, Saturday -eeee-yeeaaa--eee-yeeaaaa

Before I tell you about my fabulous Saturday, let me tell you about the day before that.

Had a meeting on Friday which is part of the peer review process for colleagues who are applying for promotions, substantiation (i.e. kinda like tenure but not as good), and contract renewals. God knows why I'm on this panel, cos again, I'm way too junior for this type of thing and I have no choice but to guess that I am again the token female. AGAIN.

Anyway, it was very interesting. So I ain't complaining. Someone applied for substantion and our conclusion was: recommended with SEVERE reservations. Not those exact words; that would border on the comical, but not far off either.

Basically this person has everything on the books that look good enough for substantiation. Been with the university for more than ten years, productive research record, decent teaching scores, reasonable contribution to university committees etc. But as the discussion proceeded, it turned out that this person is a psycho. P-S-Y-C-H-O. I noticed this person's potential for psycho-hood years ago when I first got this job, but apparently this has only gotten worse over the years. Apparently colleagues felt "fear" whenever they have to confront said person in meetings, or in hallways. Person in question is also hypercritical of everyone (but self) and is a compulsive comparer. One favourite pastime, apparently, is to gather up statistics about other people's teaching load and research output and use them as ammunition at meetings.

One person on the panel gave him a "not recommended" - and he said "My life is in danger if word gets out. I beg you all. Do NOT tell anyone. NOT A SOUL. My life is in your hands."

On a lighter note, I ran up Cloudy Hill this morning on an empty stomach, and felt surprisingly okay. Well I did went to an all-you-can-eat all-you-can-drink hotpot dinner the night before. Sodas and beers and a couple of other Chinese herby type good-for-your-chi type drinks - the beer was called Party! by Yenching Brewery in Beijing. Well, it's practically free so I ain't complaining.

Then had lunch with T and AGAIN this was a buffet lunch with a grill station. I had roast beef, grilled lambchops, then smoked salmon, mounts of salad, and two slices of banana cream cake with chocolate sauce. And a glass of white wine. It sounds like a lot right? We left the restaurant at 2:30, but I was already starving by 4pm.

Didn't do very well on the shopping trip though - bought a Dilbert calendar for O, picked up the new Jarvis Cocker CD and another one by a group called Love Is All (I think they are Swedish), and bought a concealer from Lola. Zara was heaving with bodies. We could actually feel the hot air hitting our noses as we approached the shop. You had to say "excuse me" everytime you wanted to move from one rack to another cos there were just people every fucking where. I even dare say it was busier than Fa Yuen Street!

Am now waiting for my bread to proof (for you non-bakers or fellow amateur bakers who prefer not to be so blooming pretentious, "proof" is what the pros call "rise").