Nothing is Perfect Born

In my last entry I mentioned the amazing weather we've been having recently. I think I jinxed it. The past few days has been rain, rain, rain. How typically English of me to discuss the weather, but its unfortunate as Rachel and I were planning to meet for another game of tennis this morning. I think instead we may head into Windsor.

Well, in my last entry I didn't get far beyond mentioning my Myths and Legends party. After this I stayed in Canterbury for another week or too, but I've now been back home in Berkshire for just over 2 weeks.

Home is... home. Rather tedius and dull in many ways, but at least a lot cheaper and with free meals, woo. First week I was back, I spent it sanding down the woodwork and cleaning the walls in my very yellow-and-blue-ten-yr-old bedroom, and painting it. Its all very, very white now, with the same pine furniture although reccently I did persuade my parents to buy me a double bed. I'm still in dire need to buying curtains and duvet covers and things, I haven't quite decided on a colour theme but I'm going to have a look round Canterbury when I head back there in a few days.

Have been job hunting although probably not as much as I ought. I went for an interview for an admin role at a pest control company the other day. Horrible place in the middle of Slough but it did pay rather well. Bit dissapointed not to have heard anything back, but in a way relieved because 40 hrs a week is a bit much. I am however working 2 nights next week at the Venue on campus during graduation so it gives me a deffinite reason to go back.

I've been on a bit of a health kick since I've been home aswell, which is only a good thing. Got temporary mebership back at my gym so been going there pretty much every day to work out and/ or swim (and use the sauna hee) on top of various things like tennis. Went for a walk with Simran around Windsor great park the other day, and we managed to get lost, walking about 7 miles in total.

Other thing I've been really enjoying reccently has been being able to read. Just reading for fun is something I dont have time to do at uni so I've been getting through quite a lot now. I finally read Labyrinth by Kate Mosse the other day, and managed to find the sequel Sepulchre for 50p at a car boot on Sunday. I do however have to read through a lot of Middleton plays for my dissertation aswell as it will save me A LOT of time over the term if I do.

And finally, last monday my university results arrived in the post. Was quite a surprise as I was not expecting them until this monday, and I was not especially pleased. Especially with my exam results for the Shakespeare Tragedies which at 57% happens to be the lowest mark I've got since coming to university in what can only be my favourite module. In fact, as expected all my exam marks seem to have dragged down my overall marks, except for in Medieval and Tudor literature which was the exam I was most worried about and yet managed to do rather well.

Anyway, my marks for 2nd year:

Shakespeare and his contemporaries I: Comedies
Essay 1 [20%] – 68%
Essay 2 [20%] – 70%
Seminar Performance [10%] – 85%
Exam [50%] – 64%
OVERALL MODULE MARK – 68%

Shakespeare and his contemporaries II: Tragedies
Essay 1 [20%] – 67%
Essay 2 [20%] – 70%
Seminar Performance [10%] – 80%
Exam [50%] – 57%
OVERALL MODULE MARK – 64%

Medieval and Tudor Literature
Essay 1 [20%] – 68%
Essay 2 [20%] – 68%
Seminar Performance [10%] – 68%
Exam [50%] – 67%
OVERALL MODULE MARK – 68%

Early Modern Literature
Essay 1 [20%] – 68%
Essay 2 [20%] – 67%
Seminar Performance [10%] – 67%
Exam [50%] – 62%
OVERALL MODULE MARK – 65%

I ended up completing 2nd year with an average of 66% which all things considered is a fairly good mark, but because my coursework marks had been rather high I couldn't help but want a higher mark. Even one percent would have been an improvement, but was just annoying averaging lower than my lowest coursework score. BUT nevermind, 66% is not bad as it is higher than the 65% I need to do the MA I want, and with next year to make improvements.

Hi livejournal! I'm alive, woo! I thought you might like to know this since you haven't actually heard anything from me since the end of April.

Its summer now, both in the sense that uni term has finished (quite a while ago actually) and in terms of the weather which has been pretty incredible reccently. Consider that they have only had to use the new roof over centre court at Wimbledon once in the past few weeks. Thats pretty incredible weather for England, in fact earlier in the week Rachel and I went to play a game of tennis and I managed to get rather burnt in like an hour. Shocking.

Anyway, in terms of general stuff thats happened in the past few months. April mostly was Easter holidays, for which I was at home for a while and not very much interesting happened that I can recall, and then I headed back to Canterbury for some joyous revision time. Before the holidays ended I took another journey, and went to visit daughteroflight in Southampton and to see Nya play there which was rather lovely. Back home for a few days, in which time I went to see a production of A Midsummer Nights Dream in Newbury acted by Propeller, an all male cast. Was a spectacular performance and I really enjoyed it.

Back to Canterbury and on the 11th May the summer term kick started at uni with my first exam. By the 19th May all 4 exams were out the way, and I remained in Canterbury to enjoy some free time with friends (and hunt unsuccessfully for a job). A term of many, many BBQs and a couple of memorable days including beach trip to Whitstable with my housemates, Keynestock, Artefest, Wine and Cheese night, Nya performing in Canterbury, Eurovision, and not to mention, my 21st birthday party (although I should mention my ACTUAL 21st birthday isn't until the 31st July).

My birthday party was pretty awesome. The theme was "A 21st Midsummer Night's Party - A night of Myths and Legends." People came in some fantastic costumes, and we decorated our house like a summer forest. I made an Isis costume which was a bit of a last minute descision and my housemate Anna made me an AWESOME castle birthday cake.

I'll share a few photos behind a cut to bring this entry to an end:

( Myths and Legends within )

I know I'm no longer so regular in my livejournal posts as I once was, but its hard to believe I've had this livejournal since the end of 2003.

I've met some fantastic people over livejournal, however the first person I met was Lucy palodelvampiro who I met way back in 2004 when we were both going to see Red Hot Chili Peppers at Hyde Park. I didn't actually meet Lucy in person until January 2006 when I was going to see Dragonforce, Sabaton and Edguy with Erin.

Next would have been Maaike, snowonyourlips although that was a long time ago when she was known as afterforever__. Not long afterwards in 2005 I met Izzy daughteroflight and through her Miss Erin kewen who I first met in person at the nightwish gig ^^. I met Izzy later that year when Erin and I went to Bloodstock, where we all briefly met the Seasons-enders like alphanomical and wabe. the_opheliac must have been around then too! Some time in 2006 I think, sancta_terra added me also.

Everyone else came a bit later, but I've made some great friends through out the years. I've met quite a lot of my livejournal friends in real life too which is fantastic, even some lovely ones whilst I was in Australia over Christmas. In fact, I'm going to stay with Izzy in Southampton next week to see Nya!

So a big big thanks to livejournal for the chance to meet such lovely friends, and to you guys for being part of my life. (/cheese)

It may be a strange way to break the silence; posting a crisp advert on my blog, but everytime I see this advert it makes me feel happy. I love the quirky video and song. So, after a bit of a google quest I found the band The Mostar Diving Club, the song is The Honey Tree, and they are a little bit fab and summery.

Livejournal has become only fun to update when I have essays due...

But currently there is a rather giant hole in my bedroom ceiling, and our shower is out of action for the present.

Fortunately I'd moved my desk and none of my stuff was damaged by the down pour of water, but all the same am missing the environment of my bedroom for sleeping and essay writing. Now spending more time than ever in the library, but I am hopeful that soon the ceiling and shower shall soon be remedied, the sofa isn't all that comfy.

In other news, I'm getting a bit fed up of Canterbury and glad there is only 9 or so days till my essay deadlines and I can get away for a little while to head home and see some friends over the Easter holidays.

Everything has become rather bitchy here, and whilst I'm certainly partaking in this its getting a little annoying the amount of people that have taken to coming and bitching to me, although in one case I'm glad that someone has taken to bitching to me as it shows they trust me and subsequently I feel we've got closer.

I think I just need a bit of time away to freshen my brain before heading back for revision and exam mania, because at present its getting to the stage where I don't really feel like socialising that much. There was a Rock Soc Prate Night on Friday, which wasn't particularly great tbh, but I didn't even feel like going and spent the earlier part of the evening working in the library.

I'm also off of alcohol a bit since the Friday before last I managed to get utterly destroyed at a random houseparty spent the next day incapacitated by a hangover, and accompanied by a bucket. How pleasant. Even worse then was that the following day was my housemate Jess' bday house party and so I had to dress up and socialise when I felt more like curling up in hibernation. On the Sunday however I did join Katy and Paul for Part I of our epicly planned Star Wars marathon, which was taking place because shockingly neither Katy or myself have ever seen Star Wars, and watched episodes IV, V and VI. Funny since the Sunday before I somehow ended up watching large amounts of Star Trek with Alley and Mark, whilst Alley and I baked a cake. I feel I am being educated in the Ways of Geekdom.

Since John has updated his livejournal, so will I.

I'm currently reading through two books (The Expense of Spirit: Love and Sexuality in English Renaissance Drama and Erotic Politics: Desire on the Renaissance Stage, heh) for the essay I'm currently planning:

"Examine the importance of the regal or ducal court for tragedy. Answer in relation to any two plays."

Its a really interesting question, and I'll be exploring the idea of corruption within the two plays. I'm attempting to choose an Elizabethan play, and a Jacobean or Caroline play, to compare how the idea of corruption (particularly corruption through sexuality) changes over time and contextual reasons as to why this may be.

The biggest problem I face is choosing WHICH plays, I want to write on. There are so many perfect plays for this answer and I only get to choose two, at the moment I'm toying with Marlowe's Edward II, with references to Shakespeare's Julius Ceaser and Hamlet, compared against The Duchess of Malfi with reference to The Revenger's Tragedy, Anthony and Cleopatra and so many more. Gah.

Unfortunately whilst I'm still struggling to decide which plays, the two books I mentioned above, both 24 hr loans from the library are being recalled at 4pm so I have about 3 hours to read the bits I think are going to be relevant for the plays I haven't decided on. Then I'll probably have to spend a fortune on photocopying.

This post was going to consist of a lot more stuff, and a bit less geeky talk but I've just realised how little time there is, so I'm off to read now. Maybe I'll update sometime soon about some life stuff. Maybe.

I haven’t been updating my livejournal as meticulously as I might have, recently for whatever reasons. I’m still well and alive though, which is an essentially good thing to report. The essays of my last entry are all complete, although I did have to cave and ask Andy for an extension but felt fairly justified in doing so since my tonsils swelled up and I was rather sick over that weekend, I seem to always get sick in essay week, due to stress undoubtedly.

Consequently I did not end up going to Alley’s party – or in fact really go beyond the vicinity of home, seminars and the library for the next week until the essay was completely done and handed in, except briefly to a course related showing of The Revengers Tragedy (a film made of the Jacobean tragedy by Middleton but which was based in post apocalyptic Liverpool which was amazing!) and also a to see a performance of Medea at the uni theatre (which was okay, albeit a bit dull).

Since then I’ve been out a couple of times, along to Woodys last Friday to see Black Sun Down, then on Wednesday to the Cart and then saw Black Sun Down perform at The Foundry, and finally on Friday to here Andy (seminar leader of above) giving another lecture on Lyly for the English Society, ending with a few cocktails (I drank the ‘Silly Lyly’ hah) before heading to the Rock Society’s Love Music Hate Racism night in k-bar which was good fun, with music from Castro Disco, Tim & Adam (improvising Black Sun Down with various stand in band members to replace a missing band), and Soliss. However there is a severe monetary shortage at the moment which is not good, and I can’t really go out much, probably not helped by the £40 I spent on amazon buying The Watchmen graphic novel, Spaced series 1&2, The Revengers Tragedy and a couple of other cheap Shakespeare films (for revision).

I decided to come home to Berkshire on Saturday since my mum is busy next weekend (mother’s day) and it was coincidental that Caroline too was home from uni, on behalf of her dad’s birthday so I went round to hers before arriving home for a bit of a catchup session. This weekend, however, has been surprisingly quite pleasant with no silly arguments between me and my mother, we’ve had some nice chats, as well as visiting my grandparents who are not so well (being at the grand ages of 86 and 87) and my cousin Chris and his baby Adam who is now 6 months old and has the most adorable crop of spikey hair. I’m about to drive back to Canterbury any second now, but felt slightly compelled to update livejournal before I went.

Today is the first day in which I can choose my modules for 3rd year. I’m quite anxious to choose something I want to do, of the core modules I think I will be doing early 18th century literature followed by Modernism – both sounding the most interesting of the 4 choices. As for special modules, the choice is far harder – being absolutely in love with the Shakespeare and his Contemporary modules I’m doing at the moment I’ve decided I definitely want to take “Devils, Whores and Deceit: the Dramatic Repertoire of the Prince Charles' Men (c. 1610-2)” which is taken by Marion who I believe is meant to be very good. This leaves only a module to choose for next year’s spring term and after a lot of thought I’ve narrowed this down to either “Literature of Terror” which is basically Victorian horror like Dorian Grey and Dracula and does sound rather fabulous, or otherwise writing the long essay, basically a dissertation, which I think I would like to write on Middleton but I have no idea whether I would be capable of actually doing a dissertation or my inability to work for deadlines would handicap me and mess up my degree, and also how even to choose what question to write on??

I’m currently working at a high 2:1 overall, managing to get 68% on 4 of my essays (something I shall be discussing tomorrow with my seminar leader Rosanna, how to push this into the region of 1st class) and 1, 70% plus then a 68% and an 85% on seminar performance from last term. I’m aware that I normally tend to drop a few marks in exams and I’m currently waiting back for my last essay (on the idea of early modern plays emphasizing their own theatricality) from Andy, after which I have just 2 more to write this term and then those dreaded exams… Basically I really want to finish my degree with a first, whether or not this is a bit ambitious it is at least giving me a reason to work and I very much hope, perhaps stopping me be so careless about being so last minute with all my work, in which case the idea of doing a dissertation would be beneficial especially if I then did go on to do an MA since I’d have developed individual research more, but then again perhaps my chances of getting a better mark are with the taught modules so arghhhh… I’m still not sure.

What better way to put off writing your presentations for 9am tomorrow than by playing Simcity 3000 (haha yes I am that cool)? And once you've finally conquered that then there is of course facebook and msn. And once quoting the lyrics to The Lion King over msn grows old then you can always find facebook for having interesting conversations like this:

Joseph:
Gutted
Not bad
I finished my book and drank all the wine
Hooray!
Jessica:
haha this is indeed good!
And harnessed the power of cats
Joseph:
yep
Well you say power
Jessica:
ok well maybe not the strongest of creatures but at least you'll always land the right way up
Joseph:
haha
Will they make my sledge land the right way up do you think?
Jessica:
Hopefully!
Joseph:
Well if I get enough cats I could make them go off jumps and i'd never crash
I'd be like evil canevil
But without the dying part
Or crashing
Jessica:
What way do you reckon a cat would land if you tied a piece of buttered bread to its back?
DO you reckon it would just defy gravity?
Joseph:
HAHAHAHA
that's the best dilema i've ever heard
Jessica:
I'm still waiting for an answer. It was my FB status a while ago but I've not yet tried it out
Joseph:
it'll land sideways
That way cat and toast are safe from the perils of the err floor
Jessica:
but would it?
Joseph
Err i dunno i'll but the toaster on
Jessica:
haha
I just hope they will spin exponentially
Stuck for eternity in a bready, catty catherine wheel
Joseph:
that would be amazing
And they'd never land

There is so much snow. I wanted to organise a snow picnic but everyone else appears to be stubbornly busy so instead I shall sulkingly go to Coffee and Corks with Alley to do some much needed work. Uni is in fact cancelled today, although this makes little difference to us with days off.

I went home for the weekend, rather spontaneously really. My mum suggested it, I claimed lack of money, she offered to pay petrol and so home I went. It was quite nice, we had a log fire burning, and on Saturday I went to the sauna which I've been craving to do.

Since its soon Shev's birthday, Caroline and Simi also came home for the weekend. We had prelash at Shev's house and then went out to Guildford. Was a very expensive night, a SoCo and lemonade cost 5.20. Ouch. Ended up getting into some random club and had a pretty fun night.

Yesterday I drove back to Canterbury in the hopes of beating the snow, although by the time I was half way into Kent every available space had been painted white - it was a stunning drive, although less fantastic when the snow clouds were above me and the sky grew dark. Got back to Canterbury safely, but I picked my hou semate Jonny up from work at about ten and coming back up our little road of untouched snow my car was stuck on ice and wouldn't move except to swerve in crazy patterns up the road, engine revving manically. Scaaary.

I think it says something about my current state of mind, which is rapidly going down hill I must admit, that I once again turn to fortune cards and the fates to see what my fortune holds.

I find it even more fustrating that the cards tell me my future holds 'the unknown'. Fucking fantastic. I thought the point of fortune telling was to conquer the unknown. :(

Edit: Did I mention the snow?! So much snow. Its amazing.

A strange moment when I was wondering round San Francisco airport last week, eyeing up the alcohol in the duty free shops. It occured to me that I wasn't allowed to buy any.

Stupid American 21 drink laws. I felt so patronised. How weird that you can vote, marry etc before being able to drink. Substantially before. I was annoyed, because it seems wrong. But mostly I was just annoyed because they had a damn good deal on Southern Comfort that I had to ignore.

Anyway, off to London soon, accompanied by my giant anthology so I can read The Spanish Tragedy and Dr Faustus on the train. Meant to be meeting Rachel for lunch, I'm hoping we can go see the parades and what nots in Chinatown since tis soon to be the year of the Ox. Then tonight off to see the wonderful Nya who may possibly be headlining now Nemhain have pulled out? Awesomeness, although Izzy, Mark is totally going to be there too. =/

Vodka was a MISTAKE. Urghh I so do not feel good right now. I thought I was over the disastrous hatred my body has of vodka after artesfest but I was very, very wrong. At least there was no splitting headaches this time, but urgh I do feel very rather sick. We didn't make it to Studio in the end since Phil had no ID, so spent evening in the Hob.

Our landlord should be here soon so we can sign our contract for next year, which has all happened a bit sudden but it got to the case of sign for the house, or lose it.

I didn't think I was jetlagged, but I suppose I must be to a degree. My mind is strangely active for 2am, probably because it is still working in Australian time where it would be 1pm. I failed at sleeping, and without much else to do right now, I have retreated onto the world of el jay to attempt to catch up with several hundred friendslist updates.

I have, as my presence on livejournal suggest, survived Australia. That is, I did not get attacked by any sharks, sting ray, crocodiles, jelly fish, rock fish, blue bottles, snakes, spiders, swimming knives or any other variation of killer Australian specimens. I did however get a slight tan which is a tad... unnatural for me. Normally I just burn, but factor fifty suncream seems to work.

I will update in detail about my two weeks of campervanning at some point. It was a pretty awesome trip, we drove down from Sydney via Canberra to Melbourne, then back up the coast via Sydney again, ending up in Byron Bay and taking a day trip to Brisbane. Lots of traveling, having now been to 4 of the 8 Australian territories, New South Wales, A.C.T, Queensland and Victoria. We spent a fortune on petrol, but our campervan was pretty awesome in its own special way. Shame we didn't get a photo of the back, "every time you masterbate a china man kills a kitten." Lovely.

My flight leaving Australia was cancelled. I ended up having to catch a later flight to San Francisco and then had an eight hour wait for my connection. I randomly caught a free shuttlebus to a hotel, just to get out the airport, and had a coffee in their lounge. A random 30 yr old attached himself to me at the airport and I couldn't shake him off so he accompanied me, which I found rather iffy but I made it back to the airport safe and strangely we had very similar taste in films/books etc. I arrived home on Saturday afternoon, and just 2 days to do some washing and pack up and then tomorrow I'm heading back to Canterbury which I'm looking forward to. Have missed the Canterbubble!

So I'm still in Sydney, but for my last night. Tomorrow, Ash, Martin and I go to pick up our campervan and then we head off on our epic 13 day trek to Canberra, Melbourne, Byron Bay and Brisbane plus assorted places in between. Excitement!! Looking forward to hopefully meeting personphone_20, artemisofluna and armageddonriver in Melbourne especially! :D

So of Sydney so far, on Tuesday Ash, Martin and I went to the beach in the morning and then we Ashley and I, partially accompanied by Martin and their flatmate Heath went into Sydney centre. Ash and I had a picnic in the botanical gardens, before walking across to Sydney Opera House and round Circular Quay. We walked round to The Rocks, which had a strangely European feel to it with its older buildings and million cafes and then to Darling Harbour where we stopped for coffee, and Ash and I went t see "Santa Vs the Snowman" at the imax - the movie wasn't especially great but it was awesome to actually see it in 3D. After that we caught the monorail and then got off in China town where we went for dinner.

Yesterday then, Ash and I went again into Sydney to some big crazy shopping centre of which I've forgotten the name for a while, and then came back and spent the afternoon again at Maroubra Beach. We then came home and got ready to go into Sydney again, getting drunk on goon before seeing the very spectacular New Years fireworks at Sydney Harbour. Was insanely busy, and in fact we ended up behind a police panic line. Fun times. After the fireworks were over we struggled to find any bars which weren't charging excessive entry prices and so ended up just walking round Darling Harbour for a while before catching the bus back to Maroubra.

Today then has been a day of effectively chilling out and recovering, whilst getting ready for campervaning tomorow. We went again down the beach for a while, and are back now doing washing and things. Think we might end up playing an epic game of monopoly at some point.

Anyway, since we'll be on the road as of tomorrow, this is probably the last you'll here of me for a bit. Just wanted to say once again that I hope everyone had fantastic new years celebrations and all the best for 2009. :) I'll probably end up doing some 2008 in reflection meme once I'm back in England, be warned. ;) Lots of love to you, my lovelies! xxx

Sooo... I'm in Ashley's apartment. In Maroubra. In Sydney. In Australia.

And its awesome!!

Didn't get to bed till fairly late on Friday as I went to go see Twilight with Caroline and Simran and then out for dinner for some girly catch up. Then I had more last minute packing to do.

Subsequently quite tired when I woke up on Saturday at 6am to get ready for the airport - but I stayed awake for the duration of the flight to LA and although the in flight entertainment was fairly crap I read the entirety of Twilight which I'd picked up at the airport for some light reading. I was sitting next to a really nice guy who was switching at LA to fly to Auckland and we talked for a while. Across the aisle from me were 2 very stressed parents and their 1 year old triplets, oh god, I spent much of the journey retrieving blankets which the babies thought was some kind of game.

8 hours at LA airport were slightly hellish, for the last hour or so (it was by then about 6am UK time so I'd been awake for about 24 hours) I was ready to collapse and when finally on board the plane for Sydney I fell asleep before we'd even left the runway. Woke up watched a bit of mamma mia before dozing for a while and reading a bit of The Duchess and then finally after about 13 hours Sydney came into view and quickly I made it through the airport and there was Ashley!!! And it was so very exciting :D

Sydney gave me a sunny welcome, but as the day progressed its got a bit cloudy. We went for coffee in a cafe by the beach but having a fairly chilled day which is good as I'll probably crash for need of sleep soon, computer is making me feel sleeeeeepy shall have to get up and DO something soon.

Okay so the apartment here is awesome, two of the bedrooms have sort of outer rooms which are kind of studies or changing rooms and their are balconies and ensuits and its prettttyyy.

Tomorrow we are off to explore the sights of Sydney, and then going to see some Cristmas feature at the imax. Lolz, right off now to go and visit supermarket now as tiredness plus computer screen is making me dizzy. Tooooodles all xxx

Right, well I'm back in Berkshire now. Left Canterbury on Saturday afternoon, the final week of term was a bit of a mix. On Monday I came down with flu and subsequently spent the rest of week feeling awful. In fact right now I still have a really bad cough, and have lost my voice =(

Writing essays however whilst feeling like curling up and dying into a pile of duvets whilst did impede a bit on the essays. I managed to get an extra days extension though which was helpful. Wednesday night was the rock soc Christmas dinner at Supernoodles, was a bit quiter than last years and since I left after 20 mins or so at the 'Cart to return to essaying, but nice enough.

Thursday night then was my house Christmas dinner! There were about ten of us, lots of yummy food including roast chicken, stuffing, pig in blankets and then yule log, apple crumble, mince pies etc. We also did our secret santa - I'd got Annie, my housemate Dan's girlfriend and I bought her one of those bags made of zips. Jess Bench had got me and gave me an amazing note toaster, lmao. After this I returned to essaying, and then at about 1.30 realising I wasn't going to get the essay finished any time soon I went across Megan's Christmas party to say hello and drink some mulled wine. Big thanks to Paul and Katie for my present btw :)

Eventually got to bed at about 5am, for 4 hours sleep before continu=ing with the essay in the morning and finally handing it in!! Friday then involved some sleeping, and then Caroline, Jess and I had a few people round for sauasage rolls and to watch Love, Actually.

Saturday afternoon then I finally drove home for Christmas, and since then been a bit bored really. Been doing lots of last minute Christmas shopping which is a bit hellish - but at least I'd decided to make truffles and peppermint creams for relatives which has saved me a bit of money!! Seen Rachel a couple of times too, we went into Hobbycraft yesterday and she persuaded me to buy knitting needles and wool so today when I went across to her house to borrow some books (lots of books!! I hate how I never read anything except uni books during term time) and watch NIghtmare Before Christmas she then attempted to teach me to knit. ^_^

Really do need to meet up with a few people since I leave for Sydney on Saturday, omg!! the_writer666 - are you around?! Need to see you, and also Caroline, Shev and Simran and where has all the time gone?!

Now however, bed time since I want to be up early and beat the Christmas Eve rush into Reading (unlikely!).

Gah, so infuriatingly I just managed to email the wrong file home from the library so I can't really work on my essay tonight. This is bad as I have to write and hand two essays in by their 4pm deadline on Thursday. Gaaah.

Progress is slowly being made on them as I have taken up residence in The Templeman Library for the past few weeks. I literally have spent the majority of my waking hours there - fortunately they make a damn good latte.

Was planning on becoming a bit of a recluse this week but I ended up going deciding to go out on Monday night at about 11pm, so just headed straight to The Foundry, and then deciding to drink left my car overnight in town, actually had a really good night on Monday!

On Wednesday then, was the Christmas Carol Service in Canterbury Cathedral which I went to with Megan and Alley. I haven't been to a church service since I was about thirteen for various religous reasons, but it was quite fun. Haven't been inside the Cathedral before, but it was so pretty being filled with handheld candles and Christmas songs. Afterwards we headed across to the 'Cart and then to the Canterbury Tales for a few drinks before Alley and I headed home.

Thursday was Rock soc night in The Foundry, to which I didn't turn up till gone 11, since I'd been essaying in the library. Was fairly dead, I think mainly due to being end of term and thus deadline time.

Last night by comparison was Rock Soc Metal Night in K-bar which was actually awesome. We had 3 bands, Vialate, Shadow Aspect and Sizen playing for us, and Cristian and I were DJing between bands. Was generally a really fun night, and busy enough for the bar to remain open an extra hour which is AWESOME. The only thing to mar this was losing K-bar's trolley. We think the last band to use it, Sizen may have dumped it somewhere and then some students probably ran off with it. So irratating because unless its found by Monday (which I doubt happening) it means that Rock Soc is going to have to pay for a new one which is unexpectedly expensive. Damn. Afterwards a large number of us headed back to the abode of Megan and co. to smoke a few spliffs and singstar.

Anyway, off to see what I can actually do on my essay without it being here. >.

I met Sarah Waters at a Q&A session with the uni English society. She is awesome. :D

Meh, livejournal update because its more interesting to panic about uni work than to actually do it and quite frankly its getting a bit too stressy at the moment, as I have two essays to do before 18th December.

The 2nd Elizabethan/Jacobean comedies essay - I think I'll probably do the one gender, either misogyny or powerless men within theatre both of which could be quite interesting - and then the other Medieval and Tudor essay, which will be somehow related to Saints' lives although I have barely even looked at the questions yet.

Finally on Friday I finished my other Medieval essay on the idea of nature within Sir Gawain and the Green Knight which sadly took me far too long to write. Not sure how great it actually is, but c'est la vie - time is too short now to be a perfectionist.

I also, on Friday, had a meeting with my seminar leader Andy about my last essay (studying the influence of politics on the Elizabethan stage by studying Lyly's Endymion and A Jew of Malta by Marlow) which left me feeling fairly good, as the 68 mark he'd given me was apparently the highest mark handed out by him, and he generally was persuading me to aim to get above a 70 on my next essay which has inspired me to put in effort with this essay - if only there was more time.

I wish I wasn't such a complete failure with deadlines, I missed both my midterm deadlines but I cannot miss the end of term ones so general argh-ness ensues.

On brighter notes, with essay out of the way I went round on Friday night to watch Blue Velvet with John, Frances, Cristian and Phil which is a weeeird film, and then proceeded to get very stoned with Cristian.

Otherwise a very unproductive weekend, I've decided I'm going to make Christmas Hampers for all family and family friends this year which *hopefully* should work out cheaper(which is good since I have nooo monies), means I'll be attempting to make jam, pepermint creams, chili oil and all sorts - just hope there is time. Christmas is creeping up very stealthily this year, can't belive in 19 days I'll be flying to Australia. Wtf?!

I went into town to amble through the Christmas market which always succeeds in making me feel festive, as does the decor section in Fenwicks. I bought some fairy lights and a bit of tinsel for my room - the rest of my house is unwilling to get a tree which upsets me. Was looking forward to that, but I think my mum has decided to get one at home since we are probably going to be there on Christmas day - which I'm especially dreading, but whatever.

I'm very much looking forward to the Christmas Carol Service in Canterbury cathedral! Haven't actually been to the Cathedral yet, its something Megan and I have been planning to do since March so the idea of Cathedral, carols and candles is just awesome.

I'm having people round to mine for mince pies and mulled wine beforehand, my only fear is that, as my housemate Jess says, we'll turn up drunk for the carols - especially as Jess and I have our final seminar with Peter Brown that day and rather than the usual tea, coffee and biscuits he brings us for a mid seminar break (which is awesome in itself) he is also giving us mulled wine and mince pies!! haha. Fun times.

Rock Soc pub crawl last night was quite fun, although my coat managed to get lost/stolen in The Foundry when I've owned it all of a month. Grrrr. Hopefully it *may* turn up but I sort of doubt it. After pub crawl went back to Alley and Megan's for a spliff, and then had to walk home in my shirt which was fucking freezing. Gaaah.

Today I queued up for a long time to get tickets to the Christmas Carol Service in Canterbury Cathedral next Wednesday which will be very exciting!! Having a mulled wine and mince pie shindig round my house before hand. Fun times!! That said I don't feel all that festive yet, probably to do with essay stress. May take a wonder into town on the weekend, through the Christmas market and buy some cheap decorations for the house. My housemates decided today to throw an Alternative Snowball house party on Saturday, which I'm not sure if I can actually be bothered to attend since I just organised MY unbirthday party last week... meh, I guess depends if anything else shall be happening this weekend.

Dear Santa... Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! In April I committed genocide... Sorry about that, captainwalrus (-5000 points). Last Thursday I had a shoot-out with rival gang lords on the 5 near LA (-76 points). In October I gave the_writer666 a life-saving blood transfusion (50 points). In June on a flight to LA, I stole the emergency flight information card (-40 points). In March I bought porn for _honeyspider (10 points). Overall, I've been naughty (-5056 points). For Christmas I deserve a spanking! Sincerely, typo_queen

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Now to get back to that overdue essay on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight!! Crazy last minute writey skillz come to me, plz?!?