Search This Blog

Saturday 15 January 2011

All Human Wisdom Is Summed Up In Two Words - Wait And Hope

Day 12 - That Time I Realised That When You Are Meant To Be Busy It Is Easy To Find Distractions But When You Have Nothing To Do It Is Impossible To Fill The Day

I quite literally have nothing to do.

I could fly home tomorrow if I wasn't quite so sure that I will have to do a re-sit. All I am doing is waiting for exam results and, if they are published saying I passed, I could have gone home yesterday.

It is very frustrating.

I have taken to perusing dress and shoe websites which is only causing more frustration and depression when I realise that there is no way I can afford them.

Excuse me while I go and drown my sorrows with Earl Grey.

&&Fin.

Sunday 9 January 2011

To Send A Letter Is A Good Way To Go Somewhere Without Moving Anything But Your Heart

Day 6 - That Time I Did Basically Nothing For A Week

I have been doing anything and everything to avoid revision, feeling guilty, doing an hour of revision and then repeating the whole filthy cycle all over again.

It is not healthy.

Three good things have happened this week:
1) Passed EU External Relations with 70%. This is incredible because I didn't think I would pass and, when I read the paper, I didn't understand one of the questions!!

2) Passed International and Comparative Criminology with 90%! I literally squee-ed when I read that. (And I may have got Heart radio to congratulate me on air too. I'm not a nerd.)

3) Was reunited with my beautiful, amazing house mate. =D (Although this came with a warning from her boyfriend not to be a homewrecker. =/ Didn't realise I gave out the lesbian vibe quite that much. Should definitely work on reigning that in.)

The rest of the week has been filled with mundane chores and eating. But something did really make me smile which was organising a reunion to Guildford with my ex-flat mates and friends. So we've arranged to all go up on a weekend in February and catch up which will be amazing. I am so excited about it that I had a dream about it the other night.

It has been far too long since I last saw them all.

And it's nice to know that, despite everyone going off and doing their own thing and not seeing each other for nearly 6 months, everyone was really keen to get together and spend some time together. I managed to see most of them at some point over the summer or Christmas but I know that a few of them haven't seen each other since last June. Which is a really long time to not see someone who you used to see every day when you fought to get in the shower! It's not like we haven't all kept in touch over the past few months - it sounds really old fashioned but I've been writing letters to people and it's been a lovely way to catch up with what people are doing without that impersonal, anonymity of facebook. Facebook often just feels like the easy way out when trying to catch up with friends so it has really meant a lot to me that people have bothered to send me things in the post.

If I'm honest though, this rant has just helped me avoid revision for 15 minutes so I should probably stop and actually get to work.

Or I could go and clean the kitchen, organise my sock drawer, doodle aimlessly....

&&Fin

Wednesday 5 January 2011

A Thief Passes For A Gentleman When Stealing Has Made Him Rich

Day 2 - That Day I Cried My Eyes Out

Too shocked to type much.

Someone (some thieving, scumbag, waste of society) has stolen Hoj's seat cover.

This is just too depressing.

Excuse me while I eat lots of chocolate, get fat and mourn the loss of my flowery seat cover with my distraught bicycle.

&&Fin.

Tuesday 4 January 2011

Cyberspace; A Consensual Hallucination Experienced Daily By Billions

Day 1 - That Time I Decided That A New Year Meant A New Day Count

It is 2011 - a new year and new opportunities are waiting. I went home for Christmas and it was wonderful to be back. It made me realise how much I had missed my friends and family. It also made me realise how much I want a good degree and how I need to seriously get my act together if I am going to deserve one. I'm back in the Netherlands now and, after getting through my 'first day' chores (which included food shopping, showering, tidying my room etc etc), I have managed to study my week 1 War and Peace lecture slides.

This is a good start for me.

I was also struck recently by the realisation that the majority of my generation really don't know how to treat/communicate with other people. I was only home for 10 days and yet this applied to at least 3 separate occasions where I was left quite speechless because of other people's behaviour. And, before I sound like an old woman that is just taking a pop at the youth of today, it's not just people in my age category either. My University has been absolutely terrible in terms of keeping its placement students updated with what is happening at home/about second placements. I also had a telephone interview recently to work with some barristers and, not only did they call me over an hour late, they spoke to me for about 10 minutes and mostly about the fact that the man's parents were stuck in Heathrow.

It wasn't a particularly impressive display of professionalism.

In this day and age, with mobile phones and facebook and instant messages, people seem to have forgotten actual, conversational courtesy. I recognise that I am ranting about our dependence on technology in an online blog but when I was at home I refused to go online for longer than a few minutes to check my personal emails and then I went back to my family.

And, actually? It was rather liberating not checking facebook every few minutes, not trawling through junk mail in my inbox, not making idle small talk with people I haven't physically spoken to in over 3 years.

If I didn't think it would make me a complete social outcast, I would delete my facebook right now and be happy about it.

(This rash decision would later be followed with floods of tears since most of my photos are saved on facebook and not backed up anywhere else. So I'm just as dependent on the internet as the best (worst?) of them. Irony; thy name is facebook.)

&&Fin