Old age creeps up on you

And you would think that with each passing year I would get wiser.

Maybe I just get harder. And create an extra layer to peel off me.

I'm feeling rather mellow today. A few things happened which created undue stress for me, rather unnecessarily so needed time to chill. Went back to the lab to do a bit of work as it's nice and quiet now. Will pop back in tomorrow to keep a few things going. Decisions.

Went out last night with work peeps for a few drinks and I ended up drinking a fair bit and talking to a rather lovely Irish policeman. Shame he didn't take my number. Not that it matters, because as the years pass it's harder and harder for me to actually tell someone what I really feel. I also realised that most of the people I tend to hang out are boys. I do have very good female friends but none of them actually live near me. This is a situation which needs to be remedied.

Received a large CD delivery and I now have way too much chilled out music.

Currently listening to Ray Lamontagne.
Will move on to Scott Matthews next.

There's been a terrible fog around Oxford for the past 3-4 days. (I can't really tell for sure because I don't leave my room much anymore, yet the thesis isn't really looking that good.) But I spoke to the boss earlier and he said that the fog was rather wonderful because it gave Oxford a Dickens-esque charm, rather like how everyone pictures England in the olden days. Think sepia tint when you process your digital photos and it's like that. Very romantic. Not very nice if you're alone in the cold.

I saw the first few frozen cobwebs the other day. I love looking at frozen cobwebs. It's like little fragile pieces of ice that get melted by the day. Very much like life.

Haven't been to church in a while, missing out on God a bit but not really inspired to go at the moment. I should be more worried about it but yet, my faith isn't shaken. I can still argue that there is a God and that God shapes me and moves me in way which I can't describe but to me, there is no doubt that there is God and he works for me.

You know old age is creeping up on you when you start romanticising about days gone by and it begins to dawn on you that you should have learnt from the same old mistakes.

merry christmas and happy new year everyone. I miss all my friends dearly.

I have curly flies

Not curly fries.

You could have curly flies with your flied lice, if you went to a dodgy Chinese restaurant. Sadly mine are of the genetically modified variety.

There are words on paper, things are taking a lot longer than I thought they might. It all seemed so easy in my head and then I started writing and realised there's lots of things that needed to be done.

There will be a thesis soon!!

Until then...

you want flies with dat?

You know it's serious....

when I turn down 2 invitations to party over the weekend and work on my paper.

It's very sad but I feel a great sense of achievement (if it ever gets published)

and now I feel like I'm on a steam train going at 100mph, this could mean that I might get my thesis done at some point!!


*disclaimer* am going out for christmas lunch with work on thursday. it involves alcohol.

There's always more

I don't post for weeks and 2 posts in one night. I must be procrastinating...or thinking..

Late night internet shopping

So, instead of taking a break and speaking to real human beings (after all, I have friends in enough time zones)

I went shopping. The internet is a wonderful invention. Where would life be without the internet?

I have new shoes now.









I am about a billion years behind writing my thesis but I have kick ass shoes.

mwah mwah.

and one more thing

I now also officially hate the fact that I'm single.

(although the poor boy would have to share me with my work)

I officially hate...

so many things, so little time to list them all.

First of all, I hate that it's freaking 1:30am and I'm still awake even though I am exhausted.

Then I go to make some food in the kitchen and find that someone stole the radio I left in there. OK, so it's not technically stolen yet but it's not where I put it and it's mine.

Does that make it stolen?

Then I get harassed by some dumb blonde but life is too short for that.

And did I tell you how much I hate my freaking phd right now?

At this moment in time, I would like to collapse in a alcohol and drug induced haze and not have to wake up for a while.

But that would just be too drastic so I'm going to try and eat my pasta (horror of horrors, I have lost my appetite) and watch people dying of strange diseases (watching House, MD)

It's been a while

I haven't blogged in a while, mainly because I'm busy.

And because I'm lazy.

Went home, had a wonderful time and went to Seli's wedding, feels weird that people I am very close with are getting married. I say this at every wedding I go to and I feel like I should be settling down with one person and be happy with that but I decided today that quite possibly, I am married to my work....

Had dinner with Katey and Sarah on Friday, was very nice to see them again. Rushed away Saturday morning to spend some time with JM and Ale at their new flat in London, it's weird seeing people all grown up. I guess I'm jealous that people are moving on with their life but I'm stuck doing the same old shit.

Which brings me to the reason of why I'm posting. It's 5:30am and I'm awake. I've been helping the luscious and lovely Akua and Andres pack for their move. They are leaving Oxford/England for at least a year, spending 3 months in Washington, 7 months in China/Southeast Asia and then deciding on what they are going to do for next year.

And of course, there's Nick and Tanya who are off on their trip of a lifetime, have not kept track of where they could be right now except that they are probably swanning around living the life!!!

I would love to be able to do that but currently, I decapitate maggots.

It's been a while

I know I'm lazy at posting my blog lately, but this piece of news might inspire me to post more.

Enjoy!

Bureaucracy

This blog is turning into post-a-vent! Sorry about this, but I now realise one of the beautiful things about being an ex-British colony. We inherited the best of British. Tea-breaks and lunch hours are very sacred in Malaysia, you do not mess with them. If you go at the wrong time to a civil servant's office, you're likely to be told that they are "out". Which means they've gone for tea break.

We've also inherited the bureauracy. It's great.
Standard conversation
"Can you help me please?"
"I'm sorry m'am, that is not my department."
"Can you transfer the line to the correct department please?"
"Sorry m'am, you have to ask the operator to do that."
"Can you pass me to the operator then?"
"One moment"
Operator"Hello"
Me -"Can you pass me to xxx department?"
Operator- "Hold on"
Phone rings, no one picks up
Operator- "No one answering the phone"
Me- "Can you transfer me to someone else please"
Operator- "No one else-la, call back later"

I love trying to apply for a new student visa as well because mine's running out soon and I haven't managed to quite finish writing my thesis yet. I'm trying to be inspired at the moment and the thought of being poor is inspiring a lot.

However, you've got to love the vagueness of the English Language when all it tells you on the website is
"The passport has been received from British High Commission, please collect the same from the UK Visa Application Center where it was submitted. "

How hard can it be to tell consular staff to put a short note "Cleared" or "Rejected" then I can decide on the next move?
People who work at immigration or consular services must go to special schools where they are taught to be as obtuse as possible.

It's not as if I can just pop over to the Application center in Kuala Lumpur like it's the next stop on the bus, there's just the small matter of the South China Sea seperating us...

Vent over.

Home is good, eating lots of good food, discovering what AM looks like, family is well, still as organised as I am about life and managed to get to Selina and James' wedding.

The haze is back. For those not in the know, this is theoretically the best time to visit Malaysia. It's in between monsoon so you're guaranteed that it won't be pelting down for a whole week (thus ruining your holiday, unless you're a Brit with a fetish for rain), the dry hot spells are over, the wind is cooler.

The only problem is the farmers in Kalimantan and Sumatra (and probably the interior) of Borneo. They used to cultivate using slash and burn which was fine before we wrecked the ecosystem but they still haven't been able to change the old ways. Result?

We're covered in a fine particulate dust we call haze (similar to smog in major towns around the world, think of the big smoke, nueva york, etc etc) and it's getting worse.

which wouldn't be so bad if we actually had a leader who was around when we're all dying from lung cancer (I overstate, a little) but he's away on holiday. At a time of crisis, the leaders go on holiday.

The rent-a-vent is now closed. Please feel free to post comments and face masks (or air filters)

I'm leaving

on a jet plane.

And I'm so excited that I can't sleep. It's 3am and I'm on a plane in 9 hours from now to go back home.

I've been dreaming of the food so much that I can't sleep.

That or I'm so stressed about leaving my work.

Toe-tapping away to the sounds of my keyboard. I must try to get some sleep.

I'll be in Malaysia until 17 October!

All systems go!

Just been given the go ahead by my supervisor to start thinking of writing up.

The load of my shoulder has now been released.

I have a new hobby that's helping my bank account look a lot less drained. It might even perk up in a bit.

Otherwise, 5 days till I go home but it's full of lab work and no time to pack, wash clothes or anything remotely domestic.

war against spinach

Now there's a war against spinach..where will it all end?

I know it's been a while since I blogged, will be back with pictures soon.

Just think stress, multiply by lots and you get me at the moment.

xxx

At least it's not boring

My life can't be called boring. I try to make it boring but it just turns out mildly interesting.

So, went to Greenbelt for bank holiday weekend. It was good. Could be worse but it's good. Sleeping on the ground is not so good. Will post pictures later when my laptop has returned after being sent it again. (Don't get me started on Apple again...)

Bands were good. Friends are good.

Went to London yesterday right after returning from Greenbelt and met up with the lovely Sarah after she finished work, then Sebby who sat down with me at the Genius bar while we were trying to figure out what to do about my diseased Powerbook. It's just too painful to relate the whole story but suffice to say that it's now in repairs again, I expect to have a working laptop at some point in my lifetime. After dinner and a half bottle of wine with Sebby (we had to celebrate that he's been in gainful employment for five years and I hadn't somehow. I'm also an alcoholic) Walked to Marble Arch to bus stop to start talking with random French Algerian boy and then spent the time talking to random Oxford boy on the bus the way back.

Am pleased with self as can still chat up random men.

There is also a big piss up organised for the end of October when I get back. I should start practising for that.

The bank holiday weekend

I'm off to Greenbelt, where they've got quite a random line up this year....

There will be camping in the rain, joy. Why do people in this country put themselves up for it?

Should be fun.

Madness...

I felt frivolous when I woke up this morning so I'm wearing stilettos at work today. Now I know I am well and truly mad.

Working very hard makes me very tense. If you haven't realised from reading the past few posts, I could make it more obvious but I am feeling better today. I have a slight cold but for some strange reason, I'm not so tense. How odd. Maybe it's just the exhaustion. Or the fact that the end is in sight? Well, I can smell the end, I have a good sense of smell.

Then again, maybe I smell because I've been working with flies for a long time.

Enough of that, lots of good things have been happening but because there's so much crap going on in my life, I haven't posted about it.

I've started speaking to an old friend, we haven't been in touch for a long time (due to many silly mistakes from my part) and it's good. I'm going to try and catch up with him again soon. I'm growing up because I know I'm learning from my mistakes.

Mary came to see me last week and we checked out the new tourist attraction in Oxford, Oxford Unlocked. It was hilarious!! It's also nice to see a part of Oxford completely not related to the university and learn about medieval England. It's about prisons, so not really the most entertaining or uplifting experience. We saw an underground Normal crypt, then explored the prison using some high-tech Navigator tools, basically a heavy duty MP4 player, and at the end of it, we climbed one of the few towers left in Oxford. We then had a late lunch and supped some wine.

Later in the evening, I managed to go out drinking with Annie. Drunken debauchery. Not suitable for sensitive eyes, so you know how to get the full story (double rums are so the way forward)

Crawled out of bed on Sunday with hangover (now I remember what one of those feels like, it's been a while my friend) and jumped on a train to Brum. Sent in my beloved baby to be repaired by the Apple Store, you've heard it all from the previous posts and met up with Pete. We had lunch at this crazy crazy Italian deli in the Bullring then walked to Victoria Square when we randomly decided to go into a Birmingham Museum/Art Gallery. He'd never been in there and he's lived in Brum for ages. My excuse is that I always meant to go in there. They have the most random collection of stuff, odd odd artworks.

Worked like a madwoman from hell this week, so bad that I had a breakdown on Thursday. So on Friday, I met Keiko for lunch and we decided that it would be fun to go and have our hair cut. I now have shorter hair, and more texture and layers. I love the unkempt look. I'm so good at it. But then again, I am so lazy, I love rolling out of bed, scraping my hair back if I have time but otherwise, just coffee then work.

I am in a pleasant mood today, I think the frivolity of wearing stilettos to work helped. Lots of other things have happened in between my cycles of madness, pictures here.

Apple Customer Service

Yet again

How can a customer oriented company have no one to pick up the phone?

Are you listening Apple? Your customer service sucks! I don't live locally to an Apple Store or an Apple Authorised Service Provider so I need my laptop which has been fixed by you shipped to me.

HOW HARD CAN THAT BE? Apparently with the best customer service company in the world, impossible.
I've dealt with better trained monkeys than Apple CS.

B***ards

Apple Customer Service

bites.

Big time.

I have just spent about 45 minutes of my life trying to get ONE person to tell me where my laptop is, but no one knows. I try to call the Apple Store and it HANGS UP ON ME.

Can someone please tell me why when I pay stupid amounts of money for a laptop, and Apple's mantra is 'customer service' and they have bloody 'Genius Bar' they can't even get a human being to answer the phone and tell me where my laptop is?

Or they can't even update the damn service log online and tell me what's happening to it?

I expect this kind of customer service from Dell and their ilks but when you sell a whole image Steve Jobs, make sure it works.

And a lead time of 7 to 10 WORKING DAYS to fix a laptop is WRONG.

Stress relief

Just what I was looking for, anyone for a new business venture in Oxford?

When pigs fly...

That's how I feel about the people in the lab at the moment. Wendy has gone away for 2 weeks and this time, I've vowed not to be the village idiot and left things as they stand. Why should I empty something that I haven't used?

Of course, everyone feels the same way, even though they have used it. So the pigs that I work with have left the bins overflowing... I am getting annoyed by it as it's just starting to look grimy.

And when pigs fly will someone else go and get the food for the flies. Everyone's been stealing what I bring up for the past 3 days and when I ask nicely, no one seems to give a flying fuck. How hard can it be to get your FAT LAZY ASS off the chair and pick some food up? I've done the damn things countless times and you lazy fuckers just help yourself to it?

I don't think so. Personal use things only from now on. And people wonder why I don't share.

Rant over.

I've been swept off my feet

from the sheer frustration...

that no one seems to care about the crap conditions that I work in.

that no matter how much I work, it all seems to go wrong. Why can't I have the luck of Riley on my side? Just for the next 8 weeks so that it will all be over?

that the people I work with, one is an incompetant and the other is inept. Or is it me?

that there isn't enough time in the world to do what I want to do.

A woman and her shoes

So, been helping Acua pack her stuff. They are going to be away for 4 1/2 months but she can't bear the thought of parting with her 30 pairs of shoes. I'm going to miss them while they're away.





There's been a photo competition at work, the demolition work next to ours is a pain in the butt. For those not in the know, the building I used to work in, the Walter Bodmer building is now being torn down to be replaced by a shiny new building.


















I've also decided I want a squeaky toy at work. But the boys in the lab have vetoed it. I wonder why...

Things that make me happy

'Stolen' moments to pray

Home made pesto

Smiling with random strangers

Roast duck salad with mushroom and red onion red wine gravy

Watching 22 fit men running around a small field, kicking a very fast ball

A hot sunny day with a breeze

Well made mojitos

Friends who reply texts at random hours of the day

Phone conversations about nothing at all

Lazy Sundays

--------------------------------------------

I have a football shaped hole in my life until Tuesday. What am I to do with myself??

Read below

There is a new post. Sort of, I started one and edited it today. So skip the suicidal one and read the happy one....

I'd also like to say that Ricardo is the best goalkeeper in the world right now...

Tears flowing freely...

Job Chapter 3: 1-7
Finally Job broke the silence and cursed the day on which he had been born.
Job "O God, put a curse on the day I was born; put a curse on the nnight when I was conceived! Turn that day into darkness, God. Never again remember that day; never again let light shine on it. Make it a day of gloom and darkness; cover it with clouds, and blot out the sun. Blot that night out of the year, and never let it be counted again; make it a barren joyous night.

Why is that carrying your cross makes you feel like Job? And when will one find redemption as he does in the final chapter?

I cried today.

O2 wireless festival with James

Mr Blunt of course. Also described as Mr Bland but he actually rocked for the show at this festival. Although, calling it a festival would seem to be pushing it. At times it felt like a fun fair but had a very enjoyable day with Bex drinking pear cider, lots of Pimm's (it was on offer, to be fair) and listened to lots of nice music. It helped to dampen the previous suicidal notions, which will return tomorrow when I look at my data again.

But on the myspace stage, Roddy Hart stood out. Nice melodies and someone who can actually sing instead of screaming out the words of the lyrics they wrote.

Listened to most of the main stage, Nizlopi, The Eels, Zero 7 and unimitable James Blunt. Overheard Killa Kela whilst sat on the sun lounge drinking Pimms. Nizlope were great!! Two guys, one plays guitar the other plays double bass and they shot to stardom singing about a 5-year old boy sitting on a JCB with his dad so he wouldn't have to go to school where he got bullied. I imagined them to be a bit folksy but there was some rapping, some beatbox and a very tuneful double bass playing. Reminds me of the guy in Barenaked Ladies when he does gigs, if you've been to one of their gigs, you know how he just goes mad and everyone gets in a frenzy. Zero 7 was nice and electronic chill out. They had one hit and some other good songs, but chill out electronic music never makes it big around here. Very odd.

Mr Bland/Blunt impressed me. I'll admit, I like his music anyways so would have stood around but his show was quite good. Better than I gave him credit for. Guess this is where PR and marketing come to play. He doesn't sit on a stool with his guitar but rather jumps up and down and has a crazy keyboard player who does a silly dance..
There was a whole thing going on with the crowd throwing balls around.












Hello Mr Blunt *wink* *wink*















Me and Bex enjoying the day.











Then had the most hectic week, swept off my feet!! Went for dinner at Ale's place on Monday, it was her birthday. I think JM might be slightly jealous that we all love her as much as we love him. But don't worry, we love you more. Sometimes.

Aw...Chad and all the girls.













Then on Tuesday, went for going down dinner. I'm pretending that I will be alumni at St Cross College soon.
Me and Mrs Kramer looking all bling bling for the evening. Can you tell we just RAN there from my flat?










Then worked Wednesday, slept on Thursday and another dinner on Friday. Phew!!

And today, history repeated itself. England lost to Portugal on penalties again. France beat Brazil.

And for the first time in such a long time, an all European semi-final. Might have to take time off on Tuesday and Wednesday. I mean, this only happens once every 4 years.

Don't take life too seriously...

I am beyond the depths of depression, if there is a hole further down than the lowest plumbs, then I in it right now. I can't sleep because my brain can't rest. The results that I spent the last 2 weeks on didn't work out.

It's too late to quit.

Is it?

Summer of music

Joy joy joy

I got a free ticket to the O2 wireless festival in London to see James Blunt plus guests for next Saturday.

Then off to Greenbelt to volunteer and watch loads of music, performances and maybe even listen to a couple of life-inspiring talks. Oh, and drink beer. Organic beer tent...mmm....

And because Switchfoot are no longer head-lining at Greenbelt, I thought I would just pop into London to see them. Since they've got Tree63 supporting them and I vaguely remember Tree63 at Greenbelt some point which means they were pretty good.

Rock n roll. :p

Thank you for smoking review

Went to see "Thank you for smoking". What a fabulous, side-splitting film. It's based on a book by Christopher Buckley. It's about Nick Naylor, a tobacco lobbyist who's probably one of the most hated men in the world. He and his friends the MOD (Merchants of Death) squad have lunch at Bert's and discuss their spin. They are a wonderfully politically incorrect bunch of people . The movie is great because it expects the audience to be intelligent, sort of. They are all spin-doctors, lobbyists fighting for their causes in a puritannical America. They speak of allowing for choice. And that's always good. The movie also involves Nick's relationship with his son Joey, showing how he can be a role model to his son even though his job isn't exactly great. There's a great scene where he goes to his son's school on a parent day and he has to explain his job in between a fireman and a pilot. But he manages to spin the kids, asking them to question everything and getting them to like him.


Fantastic piece of trivia. The act of smoking is not shown anywhere in the movie by anyone. Even when Nick reaches into his pocket to pull out a cigarette — his pack is empty.

Quotes
Joey Naylor: Dad, why is the American government the best government?
Nick Naylor: Because of our endless appeals system.

Nick Naylor: You know the guy who can pick up any girl? I'm him on crack.

Nick Naylor: Michael Jordan plays ball. Charles Manson kills people. I talk.

Go and watch the film! It's on a limited release in the States but that's the country that voted in Dubya for a second term...

Hit 'em down low

I made a fundamental elemental mistake in my data analysis. Something I should know better by now and I didn't even realise it. My supervisor had to send a threat via the internet to tell me that I'm worse than a dumb blonde.

How much lower can I feel about my work right now?

Shoot me where it hurts

The weather is amazing. England is truly beautiful when summer hits. I've been spending days in the parks "reading" while waiting for my experiments. Spoke to my supervisor who convinced me that I was worrying for no reason at all. I went to see him in a mild panic, explaining that I didn't think I was doing enough for my PhD. He's so confident in my work, it makes me feel that it's good enough. I hate it when doubt about what you do creeps in and makes you feel worthless.

It also doesn't help that one of my friends has already started writing up (on time, which is rare) and she's got a couple of papers published. Don't you hate perfectionists? Actually, no, we don't hate them. We're just jealous that people make it look so effortless when we work our sorry little asses off and yet we still can't be as good as they are. WTF is that all about right?

Been contemplating a lot about my life lately, I haven't been out much lately in hopes that it will spur me on to work but it's making me feel as if I'm too much of a geek (no hope there, I'm already a PhD student) and I'm bored. Stupendously bored out of my mind. Listening to strangely depressing, almost suicidal music doesn't help does it?

Went to watch Macbeth last night at New College. Personally, I don't go to student or amateur productions, why pay money for them? But I went because JM's woman (Ale) was in it. She played Witch 3. It was actually pretty good. Amazing for a student production. They styled it as a promenade play, so we started off in the mound of New College (it just looks more and more beautiful everytime I go in there, DAMN-IT, why am I in a shitty hell hole of a college?) then moved on to corner of a building, then the chapel and finally the inner quad of the college. I'm also not a big fan of the Bard but the play was interactive so it was pretty entertaining as well.
Thumbs up. Their run ends on Sunday and I think they might be sold out but if you can get your grubby little mitts on a couple, I encourage you to go.

World Cup has started. And it's joyous. Now to get a couple of rent-a-friends so I can go to the pub to watch football with them. Barring that, I might lower myself to watch footie with A. Actually, I wouldn't sink that low.

My World Cup predictons:
Group A, Germany, Ecuador (and that was before today's matches, I am NOT a bandwagon jumper)
Group B, England, Sweden
Group C, Argentina, Holland
Group D, Portugal, Iran
Group E, Italy, USA
Group F, Brazil, Japan
Group G, France, Switzerland
Group H, Spain, Saudi Arabia (although in hindsight, I should have gone for Ukraine)

And have been contemplating on life after PhD, so many places I could go but I get the distinct impression from my mother that I should be going home. Well, something of her going along the lines of "when you're home" probably gave me the idea. But I think I'd quite like the idea of maybe going to the States. Although, they pay really well in Singapore and it's closer to home. Choices that drive me insane.

It will also be my first "real job". How freaky, I will be contributing to society soon. Pay taxes and shit like that. How will I cope?

Enough crap for a Friday night. I will sleep early, go to work tomorrow, get some more sun and then hit the town. I'm done thinking, let's get partying. Life is what you make of it and if you spend too much time worrying about it, it'll be gone by the time you decide what you want to do!

Trip happy

As I was digging through old research last night, I found some results which I thought I could use.

Looks like the first year of my PhD isn't a waste after all. Tra la la la la

It's still touch and go to finish when I want to finish but thank you God!

The World Cup is descending

It starts in 3 days time, goes on for 4 weeks and only the best team in the world gets to gloat about it for 4 years.

Time to overdose on the beautiful game.

Big screens at the ready, it's time to shatter the hopes and dreams of the English yet again. Although I'm meant to be supporting England as it's the team I got from the sweepstakes at work.

In a previous life

Took 10 days off work. Was fun while it was going on. I'm sad now that it's all over. Literally, all over.

And now it's all back to work and the normal social things going on.

Thanks to peoples who have tried to cheer me up. You're all legends. Big party soon, of course.

The People's Petition

Spread the word. The People's Petition is an online petition for those who support medical research for animals. No, I don't believe in using rabbits for the hell of it but I believe in research, carried out under very strict guidelines, enables us humans to live a better and longer life. Stopping animal research could set us back years in the fight against many human diseases.

Please stand up for what you believe in and don't let the extremists win. Animal rights extremists are no better than terrorists, they propagate fear in general society and indoctrinate all their followers to an extreme belief. They do not belong in a moderate liberal society.

Scientists feel presecuted for research into what they fundamentally believe will change the world. Will you support them in their quest to cure what might kill you some day? Sign the petition, make your voice heard and don't be terrorised by the extremists.

Big up da bop

Carlo, Miriam, Jo-Pei, me..one big happy dancing family

Holywell Manor. Crap DJ, even worse music. But fantastic, fabulous friends.

Thanks to all for a good night out, especially Chad who "fooled" around with me on the dance floor.

Quality night.

Sexy new toy

I have a new phone. Sexy...
Especially since I killed the last one by drowning it.

Now I am a happy owner of a Sony Ericsson w810i. It's a beautiful piece of kit.

Friday night and I am home alone. But only by choice. I am really tired, must be something in the air. Must be all the plants getting on giving me problems. Pollen and me, we don't get along.

Bluetooth is the most wondrous thing that's ever been invented. That and VOIP telephony. A beautiful thing. Free calls with 10Euro credit.

Life is a beautiful thing. There's a good reason why I'm happy and it has nothing to do with my PhD. Want to know all the details? Why, you'll just have to email me to find out more. Although most of you who read this will already know the answer.

Another day, another week

another month, another year, the same old same old life.
I was catching up the other day with some friends and I haven't really DONE much. Yes yes, I am busy with stuff and work but I mean, I can't explain to everyone what it is that I do exactly and why I love doing what I do. I don't really have much hobbies that I am obsessed about and can talk to lots of people about. I guess I'm just a normal wishy-washy person.

So I decided to learn Chinese. And I suck at it. I have no patience and every time I find something that I can't do, I just leave it and now I'm further and further behind in my class.

Got a lovely new phone yesterday although not sure how long I'll keep it since it doesn't really like talking to a Mac and I should upgrade to the latest OS but I'm happy with all my settings and tweakings for now. I'd hate to lose some important stuff that I might have in here for my thesis!

8 days until Mank gets here. Then I'll be able to kick back and take a week off.

This post may be a bit weird at it's written at 6am. And for those that know me well, yes, I am awake and have been awake for a few hours now actually.

Old friends and old mistakes

On Saturday, I went to meet a really old friend. One that I hadn't seen since graduation. He's now happily married and going travelling to New Zealand in October. We lost touch when we graduated and he had the sense to look me up through the alumni directory and managed to find me. It was sweet because as we were chatting away and keeping track of the number of people we're still in touch with from uni, the numbers were small. It's strange how I keep thinking that my undergraduate days were the best years of my life yet the number of friends from there is relatively small. Maybe this is what comes of being a wandering nomad over the years, and being bad at keeping in touch with people after a number of years.

I had an interesting phone conversation last night and felt deja-vu all over again You know how you tell yourself that you won't repeat what you consider as a mistake? And the same awful feeling as you realise that what you're doing at that moment is exactly what you've done before? Sometimes it feels as if my life is a reel of the same movie being played over and over again and there's nothing that I can do to stop myself crashing into the same awful catastrophe. Unless it's transforming into a bad habit, I think I must rationalise with myself that it's wrong and I should never repeat it again.

British Airways and big phrases

Thank you for your email. I am sorry that you were unprepared for the stop that your flight made at Chicago airport.

We describe our flight from London Heathrow to Houston as 'direct', rather than 'non-stop'. We have to land temporarily at Chicago and because this is the first point of entry into the country, the immigration rules say that everyone has to leave the aircraft. So we take the opportunity to re-fuel and take on new catering supplies at the same time.

To view the stop over our flights take you can visit our website ba.com and click on Planning my trip and then click on Our flight timetable and enter the departure and arrival airport.

I hope this helps and that you will choose to fly with British Airways next time.

Best regards

Franz Dsouza

British Airways Customer Relations

How mad am I at British Airways right now? Let me see a 'direct' flight means you're likely to stop and get landed somewhere else. You learn something new everyday.

What makes them think I will ever fly British Airways again? Their entertainment system sucks, the food is barely passable (I live in fear of what they pass of as a 'snack' on their flights, cured meat wedged in semi-sweet raised dough thing they call a sandwich). And now a 'direct' flight doesn't mean direct. Would have helped if they had stated it in their itinerary but having scoured through it again, it doesn't exist there.

You would expect something better from a big multinational company such as BA to get it together but in the great corporate legal-speak that belongs only to the domain of lawyers...

When you choose to fly again, please DON'T fly with what claims to be a national carrier but behaves as the ilks of the budget airlines.

Spring has arrived!!

And I know because my nose is runny all the time, my eyes get red and sore easily.

The descent of the allergies.

Whoop dee doo..

Epic-ness

It's been a while since I posted, lots of things have happened and you'll get the usual way of me telling stories. They kind of, sort of make sense, if you happen to accept the fact that I do live in my own little world.

Katey's wedding was fun. On the left is the happy couple with their witnesses and on the right is me, Katey, Sarah and Charlie. Thanks for the great day Mrs K. I know you still get a kick out of it.

After the wedding, I got to go to Houston. But first let me tell you a story about British Airways. Ah, the greatness of BA. They sold me a direct ticket from Heathrow to Houston, Texas. They just neglected to tell me that I would be stopping over in Chicago, clearing customs and immigration, picking up my baggage, checking it back in and then back on the same plane to Houston. I'm not liking this idea of direct flights of BA. Maybe they need to define a new industry standard for it.

Conference was fun. Houston is a loud loud oil city. It is also the home of the Houston Space Center, origin of "Houston, we have a problem".

Me in front of the remnants of one Apollo(?) satellites. If anyone can tell me what I took a picture of myself in front of, I'd like to know actually.






Oh, I am easily amused....This is the ceiling of one of the exhibitions there.







Me touching a piece of the moon! Yay, I am officially sad.








The real mission control room where they monitored the moon landings and all the space shuttle missions. It's retired now with a new one hidden away. But they've kept the original, just for kicks. Oh yeah, it's also a piece of history.





The reason why there is a picture of this is that I find it highly amusing that everything that can be sponsored is sponsored in America. Is there anything that isn't for sale? Altruism at its best but surely it must go too far? That's for another post maybe.





Look, a scientist! Me at work in the conference, standing by my poster. For those who are confused by this idea, there's too many people who want to present stuff at a conference of this size (think lots and lots of people) so they put people in a big hall next to their posters and present their work to anyone who's interested. It's kinda fun actually.







Goodbye skyscrapers. Downtown Houston.








At the end of the conference, moved on to Bloomington, Indiana. Now for those who know, this wasn't really done just for the hell of it. Went to visit one of my friends, Kath, currently committing hara-kiri by attempting to do a PhD programme at Indiana University. For the other people who live in the States that I didn't manage to visit, I apologise, I will get to you next time. Or when you have your first child... (hint to Fern).

Spent a couple of days chilling out with Kath, going shopping at outlet malls, I love spending British pounds, other people's money always seem better value. It's even better value when I'm home but that's another story. On Thursday, we hit Chicago.

First night, went out with Wendy to party. I highly recommend The Redhead Piano Bar. Good atmosphere, people just chilling out singing along to the piano-man and the tuneful chick that's his sidekick.








The next day, we went to have a lovely luscious morning, pedicures at The Nail Bar, then haircuts at Mark Anthony. Kath had to study in the afternoon so I went on an Architectural Tour of Chicago. It's the best thing ever. Chicago is known for all the pretty buildings so I learnt a lot about it in an afternoon.
The Art Institute of Chicago and a fresco in a building whose name escapes me right now. (It is 4 am in the morning while I'm doing this, amnesia due to insomnia.)




What a beautiful city..











The sculpture is called CloudGate but is affectionately known as "The Bean" in Millenium Park in Chicago.







mmm....Hershey shop in Chicago..








On Saturday, I was given the opportunity to attend opening weekend of the Cubs game in Wrigley Field with Kath, Wendy and Chris. It was COLD. We froze bravely until the sixth inning and then went to a bar to watch John Cusack sing at the seventh inning stretch. It was fun to be in the atmosphere at the end of the ball game. Thousands of people in Wrigleyville, which is the neighbourhood where the ball park is at, getting into bars and enjoying the fact the the Cubs won the game.











Kath is slightly photo-allergic but I thought she should have some shots since she took all the time out to show me around the place. So Kath driving around showing me the sights, literally. Thank you dahling. Mwah Mwah.




Goodbye Chicago.





Hoosiers are people who live in Indiana. Isn't that amusing?








On Monday, Kath had classes all day so I spent the day with Michael, one of her friends. He took me out to Monroe Lake and it was a gorgeous sunny day and we spent it talking about philosophy. The shadow pic is us.






That's all folks.

Oh, and for those that know my church-going abilities quite well, I made a slight error this evening by going to Holy Thursday mass in full Latin. It was painful, I'm going to try another place tomorrow.

Happy Easter everyone. It's all good. Christ is risen again.

How interesting!

OK, it's been a while since I posted.

Last weekend was fun. Went to Kathryn and Adam's wedding which was held in the beautiful Lake District. No pictures up yet but there will be some others soon.

I cannot believe Chad is leaving the country! I hope it's not for good and he will be back soon with more plans and more merry making (also known as drinking).

I leave to Houston on Tuesday, and get to pick up my poster tomorrow. The damn printers better get the font right. I picked this great font for the headings and it comes up as some sort of shite Arial type business on their crappy little PC (I'm sorry, what decent printer doesn't use a Mac?, but please ignore my fan-chick comment). Thanks for Kathi and Phil who kept me going with the poster and gave many many constructive comments.

The thought that's been running through my head this week is the number of interesting friends I have. No one has managed quite an assortment of strange people such as me. You guys know who you are and I can't name (and shame!!) people but I suppose knowing strange people comes with my territory.

A little known (I think) fact about Houston. It's the fattest city in America. Oh joy.

The legend that is Clarkie returns to Oxford for this weekend only to regale us of tales from his trip to Rwanda, the D.R Congo and somewhere else war-torn. Because he can.

Currently mad about Fall out boy and their incredibly random lyrics.

Also, my favorite band in the whole world, Barenaked Ladies, is organising a cruise centered around them. USD699. Anyone wants to buy me a space as an early graduation present?

Cannot concentrate on work. Motivation required.

someone please tell me the quickest way to get the fuck out of Oxen-hole.

Aside from shooting myself.

xxxxxxx

How to...

kill yourself in 7 days.

Work a lot.

Party hard.

A thought. Or two. Maybe more.

I look for validation in wrong places.

Maybe it's time I look for them with the right people.

Am currently in love with "Like Her" by Mandalay and the new Jack Johnson album. It's the only thing that I'm listening to, all the time, on repeat.

Bored as hell with my life. But there's nothing better so I've got make the best of it.

Shrove Tuesday today. The rest of the Christian world has carnivals/Mardi Gras galore.
In England, people eat pancakes.
Go figure.
Nonetheless, we are having a pancake party.

It looks like
You won’t be staying round
Given the time
And your mood
You look a lot like her
And you look so like
You won’t be staying around
Here in this half light
You look a lot like her

The most haunting lyrics ever. Helped along with the vocals of Nicola Hitchcock.

The Magnificat

My soul glorifies the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour,
He looks on his servant in her lowliness;
henceforth all ages will call me blessed.

The Almighty works marvels for me.
Holy is his name!
His mercy is from age to age,
on those who fear him.

He puts forth his arm in strength
and scatters the proud-hearted.
He casts the mighty from their thrones
and raises the lowly.

He fills the starving with good things,
send the rich away empty,

He protects Israel, his servant,
remembering his mercy,
the mercy promised to our fathers,
to Abraham and his sons for ever.

So, I managed to drag my sorry little self to church today, remembering that Ash Wednesday is in a few days time and I need to start thinking about Lent. It was great. I do love going to church and having time with me and God. I must do it more.

What do I give up for Lent? Not going to be helped by the fact that my friend's wedding is in the middle of it (Congratulations Katey, can't wait!!) and that I will be in America for two weeks.

Suggestions welcome.
And something simple please, I'm not a big fan of willpower and discipline.

Party party party

All work and no play makes me very bored. So, went down to London on Thursday for dinner.

Then the party crazy bug hidden inside crept out on Friday so met with Annie and Jo for drinks at the Duke. Then later in the evening went out with my housemates Toni and Carlo to The Old School for a party. Toni gets in for free because he knows the guys running it. We get in for free because he gave Carlo a VIP pass card. Nice. Jo joins us and we boogie until 2:30am.

And tonight I have to pick between going to London for Schaff's flatwarming craziness or try to cope with another St Cross party. I think London beckons...

-untitled-

Rash decisions
Surreal experiences
Faceless names
Nameless faces
Fleeting glances

No thought
No time

Push the rush
No regrets.

-aL-

Blissful relief

I went to see Mary for the weekend. She introduced me to Firefly, and I'm now in love with it. It's basically Indiana Jones meets Star Wars quality. We went for a pampering treatment, the whole caboodle with massage and facial. Very blissful. Mary is a rare friend, someone whom I can just sit around quietly without worrying or thinking about much. There's no need to talk too much and silence is just as meaningful as the spoken word.

Went to church for the first time in a long time with Mary as well. I guess there's something about the churches in Oxford that don't compel me to go. It's not that I'm still not close to God and it's not that my belief in faltered. The sense of community that I wish to have doesn't seem to exist in the places where I want to worship my saviour. But that's neither here nor there. It feels nice to be in a church and to be in Mass, to celebrate Communion and be at one with the Holy Spirit physically.

I finished reading a few books lately that have struck some deep thought. Thanks to Katey who gave me the books. The Binding Chair by Kathryn Harrison. She describes in graphic detail the story of a woman who had her foot bound and her (mis)-adventures through life with it. She relishes in the pain that she describes through the books and enjoys describing perverse fetishes, of which there are many in the book. Right after that I read The Rice Mother by Rani Manicka. I will be slightly biased about this book mainly because I am Malaysian and I have every right to nitpick on whatever I feel like. This book is multigenerational and spans matriachal lines. It starts of with a child bride travelling from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to Malaysia, the land of dreams. Basically, an American dream story. Hard work will give you a great life, all of this interspersed with the usual Malaysian melee of racial diversity and inequality, the progress through time from a small town to a big city and the changes in lifestyle.

Both authors relish the sexual perversity or sheer cruelty that they want to exist in the life of their characters. It's not as if they don't exist in real life. I just find it condescending that they could not choose to develop their characters in a better light. Strong female characters are always cruel or have strange sexual perversions. What is it about the female self that when even a woman is writing about another she can't potray her in a more well-rounded way? Or are all our neuroses so genetic that we can't bear to think of another woman in a better light than we see ourselves? Where are the female role models that we need to see around us today?

Finally got round to reading Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier and everyone's right. The movie isn't as good as the book.

And now moving on to the final book on my reading shelf at the moment, Lords of the Fly: Drosophila Genetics and the Experimental Life by Robert Kohler. Technically, it's classed as a history textbook but I find it particularly helpful and rather amusing to read about the good old days of genetics when only not so modern tools were available to break down and give the scientist much grief!

Now if I only could some motivation to get up in the morning and do some work at normal hours instead of being a nocturnal creature?

Bummer

Today I discovered how screwed up it can all get. I have been awake for far too long, having had another night of insomnia last night. I've been awake for about 27 hours straight now. Wow.

I left my passport yesterday at the US Embassy where it will be returned to me within 5-10 working days.

Today, someone stole my bank cards out of my wallet in my lab. Luckily bank cards are easily replaceable and banks SHOULD *crossing fingers* be pretty good about replacing fradulent transactions.

But the bummer of it is I now can't even go to a bank to withdraw cash as although I have a cheque book I don't have a photo and signature ID. Bless Gav and his lil cotton socks, he's gonna get me some cash for the weekend and I'm hoping Mary *hint hint* will help sort me out for a bit.

On the upside, the little thieving piece of shit didn't take my whole wallet and bank cards are the easiest to replace. One quick phone call. Unlike all my other cards and my driver's license.

And it means I won't go shopping when the new Primark opens in Oxford tomorrow.

There's always a good side to things in life..

xx

And damnit, if you're a friend reading this post, show me some love. *sniff sniff*

An exercise in capitalism

I recently had the experience for a great exercise in capitalism. I needed a US visa for a conference that I will be attending in March. It's very exciting, the conference is "47th Annual Drosophila Research Conference"

But that's beside the point.

First of all, I needed to schedule an appointment, on a premium line number. So 5 minutes later at £1.50 a minute, I managed to get an appointment for the next week.

Not that bad.

Then I had to get the form online, with a recent passport photograph. Not just any old passport photograph, but one which according the their website, be "2 inches (50mm) square, with the head centered in the frame. The head (measured from the top of the hair to the bottom of the chin) should measure between 1 & 1 3/8 inches (25mm to 35mm) with the eye level between 1 & 1/8 inch to 1 & 1 3/8 inches (28mm and 35 mm) from the bottom of the photograph".

Wow, and I thought I was perfectionist.

Then, the visa application fee, £63. It's non-refundable whether or not you get the visa, the fee just lets you walk through the front door. Nice.

And then you wait for your turn.

To get your passport returned to you with your visa in it, you then pay a courier service £9.50 as you leave. And of course, you'll get the option to upgrade your delivery, for a fee. Of course.

Thankfully, I got the visa. It still cost a small fortune to obtain it though.

Welcome to America, home of the capitalist, how would you like to pay, m'am?

xx

Three Wishes

I wish that all my friends were in one place with me (doesn't matter where, although a tropical island would be nice) so I wouldn't have to miss out on anything important in their lives.

I wish that someone could really and truly love me for who I am. I'm tired of playing a character, being a charade in a play to suit the person.

I wish that I had won the EuroMillions lottery on Friday. Loose change, it was only £126million.

---

Sundays are sublimely beautiful in their peaceful little way.

xx

Fabulous feasts!

I appear to associate myself with food quite a lot. Must be something about being Malaysian. A common way of affirming friendships or any relationship is down to food. It's all about feasts! How much can we eat? How good is the food?

And enough of the silly rhymes. On Monday, I organised a last minute Chinese New Year dinner and somehow I managed to pull it off and made 8-courses! YES!

Although a last minute dinner I managed to get Xindan and Jo-Pei around. Carlo lives with me so he's obliged to eat the food I prepare. Chad, well, it's free food. What can I say? (I do love him to bits!)

I continued this reaffirmation of friendship thing over food again on Thursday by meeting Keiko for lunch. I realised that I hadn't seen her for over half a year even though we keep meaning to meet up, and it's manic! She even works in the same area that I do, lives relatively close to me and well, we just can't arrange a time to see each other. But we promise to meet up with each other more often. That's in the next 6 months right?

Tonight I had fantastic crepes made by the ever wonderful Frenchie. Jean-Marie outdid himself and produced the best crepes ever. And the bonus point of having Ale as his girlfriend meant that there was ham on the table. Impressed! Wonderful company. We got Andres and Akua, Chad and a couple of Ale's housemates around as well.

Can't wait until Monday night when Katey has promised me roast Thai onion soup as well as sword fish steaks for dinner with the promise of dessert being ice cream spooned straight from the tub direct to the gob.

Who knows what Tim and Joy are promising on Wednesday evening? I promised to make creme caramel for dessert and they are providing the main.

Fantastic, scrumptious, delicious, exciting food!

I now have way too much hibernation blubber going on but who cares!

Calories don't really count when eating with friends.

xx

You know it's time to worry...

So, I was working in the lab when I felt a twitch in my left eye. I decided to ignore it but it wouldn't go away. Then I looked in the mirror and it's an allergic reaction. My left eye is now twice the size it normally is. I would take a picture and post it but it's kinda gross.

How is this worrying? Well, I spent about oh, 40 minutes debating with myself on whether I should go home and take some antihistamines. Clearly, for some people, this is not a question for self-debate..

My first thought was that I can still see perfectly well with my right eye, it's fine. Then the right eye started to twitch and I swore.

So I'm home, doped up on drugs and achieved nothing for my PhD.

Rail replacement services

Words to strike fear into anyone who has ever had the misfortune of having to travel using the trains in this country. Can anyone please explain to me how the country that built the largest empire in the world cannot run a public transport service?

I went to Bristol for the weekend to celebrate Bex's birthday and on Friday, the train to take me to Didcot where I had to change was late, although advertised as on-time. So I missed the train I was meant to catch and had to wait for a later one. Today was beautiful, I waited 40 minutes at Bristol for a train to Reading, then when I got in, there were no trains to Oxford as the line was closed, so waited for the next train to Didcot (20 minutes later) and then waited for another bus from Didcot to get back to Oxford.

So all in all, a trip that should normally take, oh, about 2 hours, has taken me 3.5 hours.

So, I haven't blogged in a while.

I have been busy, there's been a lot of things going on, I started demonstrating at some practicals last week and it's been fun. It's great to stand around and get paid to talk intelligent bullshit. I might come to appreciate the finer points of educating and moulding the young minds of future generations.

That, or I'm just really glad to be getting paid £10 an hour to stand around.

I had Andres and Akua for dinner last Sunday, it was great. Was nice to catch up with them after they got back from their incredible round-trip! They are world travellers. But then again, I got reminded about how small Oxford really is. Both my housemates had already met them before at various other occasions. And incredibly, I even managed to cook a relatively nice dinner with a hangover from hell. I blame Gavin and his girl Sarah for getting me into that state. She was in Oxford and as she doesn't come around much, we went out for a legendary St Cross bop. They are normally quite bad and the most fun to be had at them is getting absolutely drunk. Having £1 alco-pops probably triggered our drinking spress. Ah well. Somehow, we also ended up at Mood after the end of the party. I didn't even think I was that drunk as I managed to cycle home. So, having a hangover the next day was shocking. Bah.

And the next week, I met up with Yvonne who now lives in Lviv, Ukraine. She was in London for some exams. We spent part of Tuesday afternoon drinking coffee and going shopping. Fun fun fun. And now I get to plan a trip to go to the Ukraine sometime in spring. I am excited about that thought!

The next day, I went with Annie for a screening of Walk the Line, an autobiopic of the life of the legend that was Johnny Cash. It was good. Reese Witherspoon was exceptional and Jaoquin Phoenix is pretty damn good looking.

Which brings me to this weekend. Spent Friday night in Bex's new place. It was really good to see her again! And then on Saturday we went to a housewarming party of her friend, Graham, in Cardiff. And then went to paint the town red. It was pretty good.

I have another busy week planned, it kind of sucks when Thursday and Friday are pretty much dead in the water for me to do work because of the teaching. I have to organise all my data for this poster, can't leave it for the last minute but I haven't even done half of the work needed for me to present. Stress.

Sleepy as well. I slept on a floor last night. I must be getting to old to sleep on floors.

Later my lovelies!

A sum for fun

So, last night.

Tim J introduced his sum for the rule for dating and relationships. Divide by two and add 7. It works apparently. So basically, you take the age of the person who you want to go out with, divide his/her age by two and add 7. That's the minimum age for the go ahead.

So let's say a 26 year old wants to go out with a 20 year old. 26 divided by 2 is 13 and add 7 is 20. So that's just about scraping it in. Anyone above 20 is fine.

A too-cool-for-school rule.

O-raight? as Novelli loved to say it.

A marriage of convenience

The wonders of modern technology.

Was chatting to my mum on MSN an hour or so ago.

Now there's even more opportunity for her to remind me to get married and have grandchildren for her. It's not that I don't want the perfect wedding and perfect children (why, obviously!) but it's just that there isn't anyone who's qualified. So this concept appealed to me when I thought of it and it's been going around the world for a long time. A marriage of convenience..

Anyone who's had relatively traditional parents will understand the attendent stresses that accompany your life when you hit 25 and a bit more. I mean at this age, my mum was raising my older sister and working. So I can see where she comes from, if she could do it when it was much harder why can't we all emulate her and be great? It must also be doubly hard for her because a lot of my friends are getting married and some of them already popping them out. (I meant children, if you didn't get the idea.)

I guess growing up in this age, we like things to be perfect or as perfect as we want them to be. You're expected to have a successful career, or at least one that will pay the mortgage for the house, the pension and the college fund for the children. And if you don't have that you have to work at that before you can think about getting married.

But back to the original point, if there's some sort of swap that could be arranged, all potential grooms are invited to apply via email. I'll take cash, permanent residencies in first world countries or expensive gifts. What you get back in return is questionable.

What's the deal about real life?

Someone told me the other day that doing a PhD isn't a real job. He's right. It isn't.

It's worse than a real job. It's an obsession that takes hold of you and doesn't let you go. Well, it is if you've chosen to do it and you like what you do. It's worse than a real job because you're an 'expert' in your own field and you have to be the best in what you do. Nothing mediocre when you're having your viva voce (thesis defence).

And if that doesn't scare the living daylights out of you yet, kath said the other day that it's equivalent to slavery. I would like to add, that it's a bit more fun than slavery but maybe not. Many of us have part time jobs on top of the full time studying we have to do.

Yeah, yeah, I can hear some of you mutter now. Students don't really need to work that hard. But being a PhD is like never having a day off. Ever. Especially when you're writing up your thesis and it's the only thing that you live, eat and breathe. Unless of course, you're like me and you work with Drosophila larvae (maggots) and then you try not eat them.

Then when it's all over, you get to go out, party hard and start to look for a job. Sheessh. Why the hell am I putting myself through all this again?

In light of recent lack of posts, I will continue here with the usual spiel. Had a weird ass week and weekend. Worked hard in the week and had a surreal weekend. Sarah came down, last minute, on Saturday and we made a meal with Chad in Amelie and Alexis' place. It was fun, we made Lebanese food, which I had never made before. Highly exciting, since Chad made most of the meal, thanks hun! Then we watched Indiana Jones and Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. The sugar from the baklava made us all high so even though I left the flat at like 3am, none of us slept till gone 5am. Ah...the late night adventures that fill my life!

Also met K's new boy, whom I randomly know from doing the same course. Nice, yet intensely disturbing to me that Oxford is getting so small that I recognised him and it was because he's doing the same course as me.

Surreal Sunday as lack of sleep didn't help my ability to hold conversations but somehow managed to speak to Tim and Carlo. He's back from Amsterdam, spent the weekend there with his mum, I wish I could have a jetset lifestyle but right now it's probably best kept in this small city of this tiny island so I can finish up the reason why I'm here.

More interesting conversations (why do they only happen why I'm half asleep? Is that to help me process them?) 2006 is a year for being single, decided Mark K. I'm quite tempted to agree with him. Once I kick this thesis in the ass, which will happen in the next 12 months, I will be able to concentrate on the finer things in life. Like actually having one. But minor details.

And got woken up Monday morning by kath. She explains it all so much better than me on her blog. I'm still printing out the final things as we speak. Then I shall make some breakfast and run the thesis over to be bound and handed over to exam schools. Somehow wishing it was mine and I can leave here. Itchy feet already.

Might appease my heart by retail therapy later.

I also hate mornings.