An chocolate advent calendar arrived in the pigeonhole today from my mummy! This is amazing for several reasons -

 

 -- I now have two advent calendars! One self-purchased and non-chocolate, one Cadburys.

 -- It's Cadburys!

 -- Not only do I get to open all 24 doors this year (as opposed to every third door), I get to open them twice!

 -- Mum disapproves of chocolate advent calendars in principle. I've never had one before, so..

 

 University *is* about a second childhood! *nods*

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6187080.stm - slowly but surely we'll get there! What they don't point out, of course, is that it also depends on what angle your legs are at - hips should be above knees. It's shocking how many chairs actually slope backwards.. Still. I find that having Irma with me makes an enormous difference. Long may that continue.

 

 

I've been in an absolutely foul mood today, stemming from the fact that yet again last night I was woken up by people in the TV room, making it the fifth or sixth night in a row that I haven't slept through. It was only a couple of lads this time, but the TV was on on high volume, one was shouting into his phone, and the other was playing the guitar - at 3.30 in the morning - and then they had a go at me when I asked them to shut up. OK, so I didn't ask them in the best humour, but it was the middle of the bloody night, and I wasn't that rude.. It sounds middle-aged to go on about respect and consideration for others, but that's what it boils down to.. Then I didn't get back to sleep for ages because my cough's returning. Grump.

 

Fortunately, though, I move rooms next term, and will (probably) no longer be directly above the TV room. The ballot's being drawn today, I believe, so watch this space! Six of us have put in to go as a landing together - me, Rhiannon, Paul and Rob from our current group, plus Helen from the other half of E1 and Ros from C3. What's even better is that I've spoken to Maggie Prestwich (the senior tutor) and I don't have to share, either next term or the term after, which is great! I'd've been fine sharing with Rhiannon if it wasn't for the fact that she goes to bed quite a bit later than I do - and I know that that would have become a problem for both of us, both from my experience of sharing with my sister in holidays and from Helen and Annie's experience this term. Anyhows, I went to ask whether those were sufficient grounds for not sharing and it turns out I was on the list already, because I filled in a medical form - stupid reason, as a firmer mattress would be much more to the point than not having a roommate, but hey! I can just stick on the list and not worry about it! :) I vote G2. Quiet and refurbished!

 

Aside to Dickie: I find it somewhat ironic? well, faintly amusing, that I am typing this entry the day after commenting on yours..

 

 

And on that note, I'm going to go do some programming. Will try and be a bit better about updating with news, although the next two weeks look to be completely crazy!

 

one, deep red, thick-ass, cosy warm college hoodie! It's great! It has my name on it!

 

 

I think that maybe blog-writing is a bit like clarinet practice - the more you do, the more productive it is. On the other hand if you don't do any in a while, you build up a mental block about it, and when you do come to do some, it's never as easy or satisfying as it should be. That's a shit analogy, not least because it implies that typing at a laptop is as rewarding as playing a musical instrument, but it brings me nicely to the point - that I actually can't think of anything particularly worthy to write about.

 

The neat irony, of course, is that now I'm apart from all of my old friends, what was once a trivial distraction has become a convoluted method of imparting news that might never otherwise get told - not the big stuff, just the little anecdotes that make or break a particular day, those which make you feel in touch on more than a Christmas-card basis.

 

I'm going to shut up, and take the easiest way out for most things nowadays - blame it on Facebook.

 

Apricots, anyone?

 

In two days, after six weeks and five days away, I'm going home!

 

It's just for the weekend (though I'll have to miss a load of lectures on Friday afternoon to make it back in time for Speech Night) but I can't wait! I knew that I'd miss stuff when I came away to university, but I really didn't think I'd find it quite this hard.

 

I really haven't been updating this much lately, so for a quick resumé of what's going on in the world of Lucy..

 

- Luis Fernandez Appreciation Day on Friday! Luis is our Core A calculus lecturer, and put simply, he's great! He is actually a good lecturer as well, but his main selling points are his incompetance with microphones and his stunning dress sense.. recent example: pink trousers, yellow t-shirt, orange jacket, red shoes. For those of you with Facebook (translate, for those of you at university), the appropriate group to search for is the "I want clothes like Dr. Luis Fernandez soc", where pictures of 300 Core A students in full technicolour complement the man himself! You could tell who was a Maths student that day!

 

- Most evenings spent now at landing parties in college. Usually this just means gathered round the edges of a landing with various edibles/drinkables and music coming out of somebody's room, but it's a very sociable feeling, even if it doesn't get the work done! Apart from the Vodka Incident (and there's always someone who has one Mangler too many), though, there haven't been too many casualties!

 

- Fireworks this evening were at Grey College, and they were really good, even if they were asking for £4 contributions to sit/stand on the hill. Helen's got some sparklers we're having tomorrow (when Paul gets back from a home visit) and I think that there's a bonfire going on somewhere. I've always got such mixed feelings about Bonfire Night when I observe the amount of smoke rising to clog up my atmosphere - Mum's voice was in my head as the Catherine wheels were going off at Grey.. but they are really pretty and it's such a great atmosphere (in the other sense of the word)!

 

- After a bit of consideration, I've bought a red poppy, and plan to wear it alongside my white one. Last year's experience has made me more cautious than I was - which I guess was Bennett's whole point - and Durham's a pretty conventional place, particularly within the university itself. Call it a compromise if you will, but, well... it's difficult. Which is quite pathetic really, but there we go.

 

- I've found a great cure for homesickness! Rhiannon had some Dairy Milk, and I didn't particularly feel like eating any - so I just smelt it, and breathed in the smell of home! Walking past the swimming baths, or back from choir, or to the station.. or just playtime at primary school! Like being wrapped in a warm blanket :) And actually I also found a video on YouTube - Outer Circle 11A, Kings Heath to Kings Heath in 5 minutes! Ah, the crappy nostalgia of it all, I haven't even gone round most of the 11 route, just, like, Kings Heath to Harborne and back.. I want to go home!! Two weeks!

 

- I've (finally) got an appointment with the Disabilty Centre to officially register my need for extra time in exams, and see if they can suggest anything for painful lecture theatres.. Fridays are particularly unpleasant, for obvious reasons. The appointment's at 9am on Monday morning though, so I think a taxi might be in order - 45 mins walk at that time in the morning? Nuh-uh. Nicht gut.

 

 

It's five to midnight. My bedtimes are so screwed up..

 

 

Update: Discussion of the poppy issue seems to have dominated once more, which was not my intention when I wrote this entry - it was meant to be just another point in passing, as I feel like I have had the same discussion rather a lot over the past few years. At any rate, I just came across a relevant article on the BBC website, so I might as well post the link as not.. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6131464.stm