Apparently no-one I send to the supermarket can manage to get soya custard. Sigh. I'll just have to do it myself then!

Today I am dead from too much ilaw and the McCain amendment and grandfather clauses and the evilness of the Defense Department and other incomprehensible yet important stuff. After that Yousra and I had to go and sit in Cafe Nero for two hours and read the Guardian and debate the Egyptian Government versus the Turkish Government, because we are strange and like doing this. Today the Guardian came with a free mug from Cafe Direct except I handed over my money, put a mug in my bag, was then handed my change and a newsapaper and another mug! Hurrah for mugs and student offers and of course the Kakuro which is almost the only reason why I buy the Guardian at all! I really much ahve a better go at cryptic crosswords again sometime...

* posted by nat 11:53 PM

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Essay extensions have been achieved, so there is slightly less pressure and a lot more sleep going on! I am sitting up in bed reading some more about globalization and green parrot-spotting (there was a pair of green parrots about in the garden last week, but then this is London so you come to expect the odd strange thing - today they are back). I haven't had much energy in the past week and the idiot NHS has pushed back my rheumatology appointment by another couple of months. Typical.

Ian has finally decamped to his new flat, although thinking back on the week he still seems to have been around most evenings to make me tea and be beaten at Scrabble. Which is obviously good.

Yesterday we had the UN Security Council exercise, so Ayesha and I met up for coffee and muffins beforehand to discuss strategy (which was simple really: we are the USA, so we'll be belligerent and annoy everyone). We mostly succeeded and had great fun browbeating the UK into submission, fighting with the French, and mostly ignoring China and Russia. The non-aligned group all stuck together, and so we happily vetoed the motion and all went for a drink. It was fun, anyhow, and made all the better by the fact that we have two tutors who were on the Security Council in the late 80s/early 90s, so they can tell us how it really is. Then it was drinks and dinner, and Ian came up and had to deal with all the usual questions about being an air traffic controller, which I still find amusing: "It's not stressful, it's fun!" then he and I wandered off for chai and a quick stop in Borders before going home - except I dozed off and missed the stop so had to double back from Albany Park, whoops, and then had to hang around waiting for a bus for a ridiculous amount of time. And it was cold. Stupid buses.

This lunchtime, for my amusement, I have requested the my brother bring me soya custard back from the supermarket. I await the results!

ETA: "No stupid custard".

* posted by nat 12:37 PM

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Firefox is yay all my tabs now come in different colours!*

I went to the Post Office to buy a Second Class stamp. It turned out to be a stamp with Mr Jeremy Fisher on it. Oooh. Unfortunately, in a bid to make it impossible for me to buy chocolate, I only had 25p on me in change, and so could not buy out the PO's collection of Jeremy Fisher stamps.

I bet when I get back on Monday they will not have any.

* Essay deadlines are looming, how did you know? I have decided that globalization is evil, purely because I have to spend time writing an essay about it, and am therefore spending happy hours at the IFG, where books get written by consensus and people have implausibly silly names such as Jerry Mander and Walden Bello. And a lot of people called Randy. Alas, I fear I shall never be taken seriously as an anti-globalization diatriber unless I change my name. Something in Sindarin ought to work... Korondelothiel? Koron Delothiel! Aie! Immortality awaits!

* posted by nat 1:21 AM

Friday, January 20, 2006

I got my oud playing on Wednesday night, and it came with satsuma-biwa and pipa playing too (in fact the satsuma-biwa player, who played and sang an excerpt from Tales of the Heike, was absolutely tremendous), despite the hall being utterly packed out and having to sit on the steps for the first half of the concert (Ian was far worse off than I, of course, being taller).

The concert finished off with a jam session, and while it seems bizarre to put three instruments from totally different traditions together, it turned out to be super to listen to.

Today in Turkish Politics class the topic was gender, and we had a lot of fun laughing at general propaganda, a quick discussion over the headscarf, segueing into a roundabout discussion of why no-one, not even the men, like sitting next to other men on long-distance buses, and then we got onto Atatürk having apparently said that the best thing about women was their availability (this was right after the anecdote about his daughter having demanded that he give women the vote).

"Wasn't there a rumour or something that he didn't die from cirrhosis after all, but something downstairs?" said Matej. There then followed a brief discussion in which more than one member of the class displayed their lack of knowledge about the fact that more than one STD actually existed. Eventually two or three people squeaked "Syphilis!" and "French disease" at about the same time, and then someone else said, "He slept with a French prostitute?", and two people said, "Syphilis is an STD? Really?"

Friday afternoons are always good fun!

Then I was going to go to a lecture on European enlargement at LSE, but I ended up on a lecture on Turkey and Iraq, because it was at SOAS and I was tired. It was still good. I will get to an LSE lecture eventually! I will!

My brother rolled in at midnight slurring "I've fallen off the wagon!" and crashed headfirst and fully clothed onto his bed, so I went and turned the light off for him. (He's been off alcohol since New Year, with interesting results such as consuming vegetables - I came home one evening to find him cooking cabbage, for heaven's sake!) Anyhow we are now probably back to normal, and hopefully he won't notice when I steal his broccoli.

* posted by nat 11:23 PM

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

My tutorial has been cancelled, which is a good thing, as I am tired and creaky, so I am taking the opportunity to eat hot cross buns (on special in Sainsbury's) and veg out in front of Buffy. My addiction to BBC7 continues and Ian constantly comes home with chocolate of one kind or another which is possibly A Bad Thing. He also makes me tea, lets me beat him at Scrabble, does an inordinate amount of trips to the supermarket, and comes complete with his own internal heating system. I like this relationship!

Last Saturday we went down to the Medway and I watched wading birds and Ian took photos of pipes (what is is with men?). Despite the fact I have x-million essays to write we seem to have been doing much eating at Wagamama and Haagen Dazs and trips to the NFT. Tonight there is an oud concert after lecture - it's about time I managed some SOASy stuff.

* posted by nat 3:04 PM

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

I want a new head. This one is all stuffed up and hurts.

Spent today bonding with many friends over the insane amount of work we are never going to get done. Also spent quality time with the photocopier in the library. And more quality time in planet organic, where I awarded myself a pear and ginger smoothie at horrendous cost on the grounds that I needed it for my health.

On Monday Ian came up to town and we went out for dinner followed by treating ourselves to Haagen-Dazs. (January diet what January diet?) We then lingered slightly too long in the pub and arrived at the train doors just as they closed, se we spent half an hour sitting on the station platform playing Hangman.

Tomorrow morning I shall choose a topic for a Foreign Policy Analysis Paper, on Thursday I shall be picking my law essay topic and by Friday I'm supposed to have a general idea of my dissertation. Argh!

* posted by nat 11:51 PM

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Laid around at home and struck dramatic poses for a few days. Went to see Narnia and thought it was Not Good At All (pointless dialogue changes, all the adult acting just that bit too flat, battle way too long and defrosting river huh?) but everyone else seems to have liked it, so I should stop being picky. However I spent most of the film going 'But Why?!?!' Oh well. It was an excuse to eat Revels.

The rest of the time I have been deadonsofa listening to Lord Peter Wimsey tales on BBC7 and arghing about all the work I have not been doing. It is difficult to get motivated when it's so grey and generally dull and dark weather. Ian turned up late on Wednesday and we drove down to London in the middle of the night, so Thursday was spent doing almost nothing. Friday we achieved a trip to PCWorld (I've been told I need to skype people, so I have a little headset now - ooh) and a game of Monopoly. Today Ian went to work and I slept. I have Ian with me for a couple of weeks while he is inbetween places to live, and he is taking very well to his role as House Tea Maker, Buyer Of Bread (and bits of chocolate), Anytime Games Partner and general Hug Object. Also makes baked beans on toast - the boy has hidden depths!

The outside of the house has finally been repainted and is a very light green instead of the nasty dirty yellow colour it was before. It scares foxes and they come and cry in the garden at 3am. Just what I needed.

Tomorrow I have to do two weeks' work in about four hours. Looking forward to that one. Just a couple more games of Spider and I'm off to bed.

* posted by nat 11:37 PM

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

If it's January, it must be the flu. Urgh. Have sprawled uselessly around the house for a few days, eating up the house supplies of chocolate, playing ultra-slow games of scrabble online and hallucinating having done any work.

Had a dream in which the shower overflowed and then all the wallpaper fell off the wall. I think this means I am becoming obsessed with interior decor. Argh.

* posted by nat 8:18 PM