ramblings through the landscape

October 11th, 2006

10:54 pm
I got free wine today! And all I had to do was sit through a lecture of physics equations. It didn't seem entirely worth it at the time but I hung around afterwards to talk journalism and publicity with the organisers and was rewarded with two leftover half-bottles. Got a lot of funny looks wandering down the underpass to the tube with an open bottle of wine in either hand, but I like to assume that they thought I was a good samaritan taking drinks to the thirsty. Which I was, as my beloved housemates were definitely thirsty.

I also bought lots of folders and staplers and other stationery goodies so I am all set for the term ahead, though I can no longer do up the straps of my satchel.

Today was enjoyable in that I had nothing whatsoever that I had to do. As one newly liberated from the shackles of a science course I appreciate this greatly. I like reading instead of going to lectures! I like getting up late! I like deciding I've done enough work and going to explore the second-hand shops of south ken (high quality goods!).

Imperial is also fun. The library is huge with plenty of fiction both worthy and trashy, and even a bit where you can eat your sandwiches and get a coffee. The campus has a newsagent, an opticians, a bank (where I just paid £4200 tuition fees *sob sob*), a travel agent, a Waterstones branch, at least 4 major food places, and on top of all that today the christian union was giving away free coffee. Which I unscrupulously accepted. Also there is the science communication area, which is very tuneful being tucked in behind the music practice rooms, where I have my own locker and FREE PHOTOCOPYING, YAY! You can see how my priorities have changed doing a humanities degree, I didn't have a photocopy card til my 3rd year at oxford.

Though I don't know why every single club and society I'm interested in seems to meet on tuesday evenings. I will not give up swing dancing for any of them!
Current Mood:

cheerful

(2 comments | Leave a comment)

September 29th, 2006

11:20 pm
So I went to look at Imperial and was like 'this is the most amazing building ever, what a beautiful college!' until I found out that I was looking at the royal albert hall. The building site next door, that's imperial. I will be going there on Monday to have a trial shift in the servery, dolloping out mashed potatoes and stew to hungry students. Yay, minimum wage!

I like south kensington, though of course it is not as cool as wapping. South Ken has fabulous museums and shops and hyde park and so forth but Wapping has pirate ships and therefore gets a million points.

My course officially starts on tuesday. I am sure nobody else will have done any reading or preparatory work but I am still scared of appearing clueless and lazy because to be honest that's what I am. I will spend this weekend frantically reading the newspapers and stealing copies of scientific publications from libraries and doctors' surgeries. unless I get distracted by cake.
Current Mood:

blank

(5 comments | Leave a comment)

September 14th, 2006

01:02 pm
It's been a fun week

Thursday
Watched half a season of the west wing.

Friday
forbade myself west wing. Did vaguely useful things

Saturday
Saw alice get married! CONGRATULATIONS! Also insulted an army officer. oops.

Sunday
Visited an old friend and spent the whole day lying in the sun with friendly dogs.

Monday
Went to a picture framing workshop and and saw many interesting things.

Tuesday
Arrived back in london after a cosy train ride, learned the basics of swing dance and ate my own bodyweight in dumplings

Wednesday
Made mysterious beer-and-jam pastries and fed them to a circle of knitters. Megan is back in england, yay!

I declare this week a success

August 27th, 2006

07:38 pm
I am in London. I have cake! Visit me!
Current Mood:

chipper

July 23rd, 2006

03:25 pm
Well, I guess you guys were't expecting to see me here. The long and the short of it is that I wasn't really enjoying the whole travelling experience - perhaps it had got so we wanted different things, or perhaps it was the strain of being with two people all the time and constantly on the move, or perhaps I'm just not cut out to be a traveller. Anyway I've been pretty unhappy for a while and when I worked out I was making everyone else miserable too I finally plucked up the courage to make the decision to come home.

So here I am. I've had a great time and done some fantastic things, but I think England is where I belong, and I'd much rather be here preparing for my degree course and trying to sort my life out than half way round the world attempting to constantly enjoy myself. It's not as easy as it sounds!

March 12th, 2006

10:24 am
Guess I won't be posting here for a while.
Goodbye all you lovely people. I will miss you most exceedingly.

February 12th, 2006

06:50 pm
another weekend, another house full of mathematicians. A week ago I came home from Oxford and found swarms of them having a rather strange 'let's watch the candidates for a job in their natural habitat' party. Not that a party is the natural habitat for any mathematician, so maybe it was just a way to watch the poor people squirm. And then today we had about 20 people over for lunch including small children. (A 6-month-old baby was parked in its pram in the garden in the rain the whole time. It's a danish thing, apparrently). They were remarkably well behaved and human today, and brought flowers and chocolates. I made myself useful (read: escaped) by entertaining a three year old boy who determinedly fed me imaginary yoghurt 'wiv fwiendly bacterias' and took me on a voyage on a playmobil boat. He made me show him everywhere we were going on the globe. The kid could read when he was 18 months old. scary.

I made chocolate brownies. Half of them worked and half of them collapsed into goo. It's one of life's mysteries. Still, they were good. Damn Mathematicians ate them all.

Work again tomorrow. Why am I doing this to myself??

February 11th, 2006

05:23 pm
I now have extremely short hair. It makes me very happy, and much less likely to hog the bathroom. Everyone say yay.

(6 comments | Leave a comment)

January 22nd, 2006

04:17 pm
Last night as I lay on my pillow,
Last night as I lay on my bed,
Last night as I lay on my pillow,
I dreamed that my Bonnie was dead.

That was the answer to a clue in yesterday's cryptic crossword, whose ass my family totally kicked. We rock at the crosswords. We are too cool for school.

I have caught up with happenings in the OC and will no longer need to stick my fingers in my ears and go 'lalalala' to protect myself from the dreaded knowledge of things to come. I did have to miss out on the first episode of the third series, though, so I would be very grateful if someone could tell me exactly what happened to Trey (the despicable scumbag that he is/was).

Yesterday was an amazingly good day for spending money. We now have flights booked to toddle off around the world, all very exciting even though it's not really gonna happen cos this sort of thing is just not the sort of thing we do and I go into denial every time I even try to imagine it. But at least I had a nice day out in London, saw Sheep (always a pleasure) gave big hugs to my we're-not-really-going-traveling companions, came home, broke the news to my parents about the amount they will have to pay to ship me over to America for Rob's wedding (If anyone can figure out why they are so nice to me it would solve one of the world's great mysteries) kicked the aforementioned crossword's aforementioned ass and tumbled into bed to dream of beaches and sunshine. Though I actually dreamed that my parents got a letter from the student loan company asking where I had run off to with their money. dammit.

time to do something about that application form.

yeah, right.
Current Mood:

cheerful

January 2nd, 2006

07:04 pm
So, Ice Skating was hilarious, gotta love that James. Nobody died and no fingers were severed so I think it can be classed as a success, though I assaulted a perfect stranger with snowalls and it was ALL CHARL'S FAULT grrrrrrrrrr. Then there was free hot chocolate and extremely expensive pubbage.
I hung out in london at charls and sheeps until new years, when we braved the complicated tube strike and meandered down to canary warf for Marc's party. I got very drunk (what else is new?) and made a fool of myself generally and I don't know what you've heard but it's all slander and libel. As far as I recall.

Back at home now, and I take this opportunity to say another happy birthday to my big brother who will forever be older than me. woo.

That's about it. All this writing is taking up valuable knitting time.
Current Mood:

sleepy

December 27th, 2005

09:26 am
snowsnowsnowsnow!!
*bounces*
admittedly not a lot of snow, but snow all the same.
It's just started falling again, it looks so pretty :) I'm getting all nostalgic thinking of that time in oxford when the snow suddenly tumbled out of the sky, enough to cover everything in 5 minutes. And we all ran out into the parks like 5-year-olds and stuffed it down each others necks until the keeper threw us out.

So, christmas. Was good this year, complete with relatives and random mathematicians. My cousin was well-behaved and got given much playmobil including a pirate ship. Am slightly jealous, but hey, I got to play with it too. also a dragon and a sort of aquarium pool with seals. Given these components the resulting game was fairly surreal, involving dastardly plots and much animal cruelty, and getting the bathroom wet, not to mention ourselves. Am slightly disturbed (though not surprised) by Abby's tendancy to make her characters utterly and unashamedly evil.

Then, while the adults went to a drinks party (no I am not an adult, shut up) we snuggled up in front of Dr. Who. I approve of the new doctor, especially in his spiffy suit-and-trenchcoat ensemble. yay for christmas and YAY MORE SNOW!! *loves snow*

Hope to see everyone in london soon, though doubtless a couple of snowflakes on the tracks will manage to delay the trains by 8 hours or so. Still, I will contrive.

xxx Happy day after boxing day.

December 9th, 2005

08:45 pm
I have been faffing around in an architects office all day doing the post and typing the letters and making address labels for the christmas cards and answering the phones and generally being entirely incompetent.

take this:

Phone: *RINGS*
Me: Good Morning, Donal Insad Associates... I mean Donad Ilson... erm...
Caller: Can I speak to mumblemumble please?
Me: ... *Flicking desperately through list of architecty people* She's on the phone at the moment.
Caller: She is actually a He.
Me *perturbed* Oh, sorry, I mean HE's out of the office.
Caller: *nastily* On the phone or out of the office, which is it?
Me: Out of the office. Can I take a message?
Caller: *rattles of information at top speed*
Me: *actually can't take a message*

Or this:

Enters office where MIKE and NORMAN are working

Me: Matthew, could you look at this list for me?
Mike: *Sniggers*
Norman: I'm not Matthew.
Me: *dies quietly*
Mike: This is Norman. NOR-MAN.
Me: Sorry, it's just you're both... *stops, tries desperately not to say old, fat or bald*
KAREN walks in
Mike: This is Matthew

Or you could take the bit where I sealed half the christmas cards in their envelopes before they'd been signed, or the bit when I printed out a letter as a nice set of sticky labels or...

but anyway, I'm going back on monday (unless they've discovered the christmas cards by then) to be a completely useless receptionist for another 3 afternoons. It is almost enjoyable, certainly more fun than photocopying, though Mark makes me type his letters and he has the worst handwriting I have ever come across. And it's money in the bank I guess!

In other news, will pop down to london tomorrow, so anyone who is around should meet me for frolicking and joy.

(8 comments | Leave a comment)

October 4th, 2005

10:02 am
it's raining. woo:) there's something wrong about this because it didn't rain for the whole holiday weekend like it does in england but has saved it all up for the first day back at work. Thus I got to spend the weekend riding around the island on the back of a motorbike. Spending far too much time on motorbikes at the moment, am getting saddle-sore. also getting addicted and very tempted to buy one of my own.
*sigh*
work today. I'm so bored of work. but on the bright side, it's payday.
wonder when the new english teacher will arrive? was supposed to be the end of september but no sign of him yet.

September 10th, 2005

12:01 pm
MEH! What a week. And it's not over yet, bloody saturday work.
First there was the hangover from hell on sunday, which I totally deserved - I haven't drunk alcohol since, you will be proud to hear. I also discovered whichkind person put me in a taxi and sent me home on saturday night, a canadian called ryan who has earned my undying gratitude, though I will be too embarrassed ever to speak to him again.
Then there was the contract dispute, also from hell and sent almost entirely into the imagination of my boss. *siiigh* Lots of emails from her english boyfriend later I am somehow left feeling disgruntled but waaaay to apathetic to make any sort of fuss.
Following that was the cold, not from hell but from Dee and Bel who got it first. My nose is dripping copiously, and apparrently blowing the nose is very rude here and only done in private. So I just have to let it drip or keep nipping out of my lessons to the toilets. I've been getting through the day all drugged up on ibuprofen, which works like a charm.
so, it's not been the most fun lately. Add to that that Dee and Bel are leaving next week and I will be left all alone in this flat with only 50 korean tv channels for company, and I guess you will see why homesickness is kicking in a little bit. But hey, I'm still on a pretty island with beaches and stuff, there are many people who speak english that I will attempt to befriend (while remaining sober) and charlie and the chocolate factory is coming out in korean cinemas next week. So really there's nothing to complain about and I will stop grumbling now.

miss you all, but i will survive!

(2 comments | Leave a comment)

August 19th, 2005

06:12 pm
It's the end of week three out in korea, and it's been another fun session. Homesickness hit unexpectedly for a minute in one class, but soon vanished once the kids started making noise. They're a great distraction. This weekend is party time, to say goodbye to max and to explore a bit more of the Jeju social scene. Next week classes move to the evenings for term time, so 3.30pm is the usual start time. Woo hoo! lie ins!

I only ever have time for quick scribbles, dammit. Being busy is kinda fun though.
Current Mood:

cheerful

(7 comments | Leave a comment)

August 16th, 2005

11:41 am
I'm sure I should be doing some work, but I haven't a clue what. The kids are singing in chorus in one of their lessons, something about 'under the table, under the chairs'... no clue what that's about, but though they know the words thay're a bit hazy on the tune. I had to do 'head and shoulders, knees and toes (knees and toes!)' with one of my classes the other day. These are 10-12 year olds and the expression of total scorn on their faces was was beautiful to behold.

had a fun weekend of shopping and sightseeing and beach. Swam in the sea for the first time in over a year, mmmmmm nice! And plenty more to come. Wish I had more contact lenses though, no fun swimming blind. I guess I could get them here, but how can I answer all the eye test questions in korean??

Also must buy a bike and go exploring. taking taxis everywhere is luxury but I still don't know the way from my flat to the shops. this is silly.

My right middle finger is still rather larger than it ought to be, but not painful now unless I knock it. Would be good if I were a goth, save on black nail polish.

it's payday for dee and bell today, woohoo, party! getting paid 1.5 million of anything is fun, even if a cocktail costs about 5,000. I get paid at the end of my first month here, which makes it the first of september I guess. yay!

August 14th, 2005

11:08 am
the money machine won't give me money! waaaaaah!

August 11th, 2005

06:25 pm
Speaking from a bed of pain, due to base treachery and betrayal by one I believed to be my friend, how can this agony have been caused by one who professes to love me?

Max is taking my dictation as punishment for having maimed me. My right middle finger is now the size of a double decker bus and elegantly patterned in all the colours of the rainbow. This is due to the fact that Max shut it in the hinges of a toilet door, something she niow seems to be unable to stop laughing about (ed: this sounds sadistic. it is not, it is, in fact, somehow hilarious. you had to be there, what can I say?) Max, on the inside of the toilet was disturbed by my polite knocking and request to "open the f*****g door, Max!", and was further traumatised on opening the door and discovering that my finger was now a zig-zag shape (ed: this is true. it is an image that wil haunt me forever.) Fortunately I was exceedingly drunk, and basically forgot about the incident until waking up this morning to see the aforementioned double decker bus. I am now convinced that my finger is going to fall off.

(max: i have apologised lots and lots, and in my defence, why did she put her hand in the hinges when she knew i was going in there?! Also, it was her drunkenly unfazed reaction - me: oh my god, look at your finger! sarah: eeeeeehhhhhh, whatever. it'll be fine.)
Current Mood:

sore