I handed in my last essay yesterday and am rejoicing in the fact that I will never have to write about nuclear weapons and Iran again! (Which is what the last two have been about, in different ways. Although the second one was policy - mostly doing my best to predict what is contained in this. Most of which I managed to come up with, based on keeping myself hooked up to Google and judicious use of the F5 button.)

My next project is to get myself a fluffy one day a week internship somewhere interesting, and to get my head sorted on my dissertation (and preferably to link the two). I have finally come to the conclusion that I'm goign to be staying in education in some form or another, so hopefully I'll be writing something about education, most likely on the Dakar goals, concentrating particularly on girls/women, but I still have to talk to some people about this and work out which way to narrow down. And I still plan to include Turkey!

Anyway, gushing over with. I now have some time to sit down and read all the books on feminist theory that have been slowly accruing on my shelf for the past two months (I have a couple more I need to track down), and then once I come back from Lithuania I shall have to sit down and decide on exam revision topics, especially for law, which I will need to get about 128% in to stand any chance of coming out of the course with a good score!

Ayesha and I celebrated the end of essay time with snacking on dim sum and then a quick shopping trip - I bought a cake tin, because I have been having simnel cake cravings. Still have to wait a bit, but I shall get cake made!

Then we had the video playback of our crisis game a couple of weeks ago (the one where we started a small nuclear war and the Kurds declared independence and managed to get several neighbouring ountries to recognise them - hmm.)

Then a small group of us went up to Iran on the Edgware Road and ate more food. We were joined by a couple more interesting friendsoffriends, one from the LSHTM and one from LSE. The woman at LSHTM had been previously doing humanitarian aid in both Iraq and Darfur, so she had a heck of a lot to say, and the guy at the LSE and I compared notes between Turkish and Uzbek, and talked about election monitoring in Georgia.

Sima is off home to Tehran for the holidays and I am excessively inclined to go along with her as hand luggage. I am now kicking myself for not going there before, because having spent the last month mired in political and academic discussion about the situation, much of which is negative, if not downright frightening, I'm not sure, in a year or two's time, how much of it will be left to go to. (If anyone would like a copy of the powerpoint slides for a lecture on America's strategy towards Iran that I went to on Tuesday, just drop me an email.)

* posted by nat 10:04 AM

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Life in London continues, and I am beginning to spend quite a lot of time at meetings that do not officially exist - Chatham House Rule all over. Otherwise I am in the library, or I am putting together essays from the comfort of my own bed - I have a study, but that's not the point! One more to go and then there's just exams and a dissertation. And next week the Easter break starts, so I am off to Lithuania with the girls. Woo!

The daffodils are all out in the garden, and occassionally there is a bit of sun, but it's still cold and horrid. This is my excuse for spending too much money on food, which seems to be where most of it is going.

Out last night for Vanessa's birthday: cheap cocktails in Guanabara followed by stuffing our faces in Tas, Turkish practice included. On Friday a bunch of us from Turkish class went down to Darbucka, which played such gems as Shakira remixed to an Arabic track and a little too much Mustafa Sandal. At three pounds for an Efes it was almost like being back on Bagdat Caddesi!

On Wednesday Ian and I were in St James' park. Lots of birds. There were two pairs of eider ducks waddling around looking like stormtroopers, and also shelducks.

And this is a bird from Kew.

Ceci n'est pas une autruche.

* posted by nat 10:13 AM

Friday, March 10, 2006

Ever since 9-odd million from the Tonbridge robbery turned up down the road in Welling, I have wondering when a few hundred thousand is going to turn up in my garage.

Still no joy.

* posted by nat 10:15 AM

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

On Friday I put my cashcard in several different machines and it refused to give me any money. Went out for dinner anyway.

On Saturday we went to Kew and warmed up in the hothouse while black-headed gulls stood on the ice on the lake and all the ducks swam round behind the swan which was acting as an ice-breaker.

Then I went to Waitrose and bought three different colours of cherry tomato. Bliss! While trying to pay for said food with the card that got refused, it was pointed out to me that the card had expired. Whoops! And double whoops, because I remember getting the new card through the door, and cutting a card up. Obviously a blonde moment. I blame January.

So on Monday I went to the bank and explained I needed a new card. This apparently confused the woman completely, as "I have cut up the wrong card and need a new one" took her about five minutes to understand. So after she had told me that the bank had sent a card to me in January (which I knew) and did she really want me to cancel it (well, yes) the message finally got through and I cashed a cheque to myself so I had some money!

New card came today, hurrah. Have cut up the old one this time.

I have been eating out too much recently. Brazilian restaurant last Friday, Indian take-away on Saturday, late lunch in the pub on Sunday, drinks out for Ayesha's birthday on Monday, at least two vegan rice puddings from plant organic this week already, and had a posh burger in the bar with Rosie and co. tonight. (I hadn't seen Rosie, we worked out, since I'd been to Moscow back in 2003. Scary! Anyway we haven't changed, of course we haven't!)

On Saturday we have another diplomacy game: the Kurds are declaring independence tomorrow and Iran goes nuclear on Friday - on Saturday the assassinations, nuclear strikes and other fun begins (well, maybe). I get to be the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Levrov, which I am still slightly sulky about; I wanted to be Talebani or someone interesting like that! Nevertheless, I shall take the vodka, and I have got Rosie to write me lots of useful stuff I might need in Russian!

Anyhow, IR essay on Iran due in on Monday. I'd better start reading.

* posted by nat 11:12 PM

Friday, March 03, 2006

11am and I am at 4,027 words, with a conclusion and an introduction to write (but the bibliography is done!) So I should be all right. Three hours to sort it out; should be easy as long as I don't fall asleep. I'm not sure if it's in English, but then again it is a law essay.

* posted by nat 11:04 AM

Thursday, March 02, 2006

It's snowing, there's a parrot in the garden and I do not want to write this essay.

I have brought the kettle upstairs, and as it's Lent, I'm on cranberries.

Word count: 72/5000. Great. Deadline is tomorrow at 4pm.


ETA: Bang on midnight and I'm as far as 2253. Pretty much halfway, but I'm losing the will to live just slightly.

* posted by nat 4:10 PM