Hola!
Graduation terror I’ve just checked my academic inbox expecting another thirteen emails about M&S grad schemes and opportunities in engineering (thanks Angela Bywater and Milkround, for conspiring to waste my time marking as read) and found a notice confirming our graduation dates.
Well thanks Lancaster, as if we aren’t all stressed out enough already.
Setting feminism back approximately 200 years , it’s Gillers After 10 hours of campus today (count ‘em, third year is hardcore) I was very happy to get back to my comfy flat this evening just in time for a bit of flatmate banter and jungle nonsense. Gillian McKeith seems to be reaching new levels of lunacy every night. I don’t feel sorry for her in the least (what the FRECK is she doing in there?) but I hate to imagine the kind of crap her daughters are getting at school. It’s pretty selfish of her, in all honesty...
Christmas no.1? I've heard it's already in the top 30, so let's get downloading and beat X Factor...
Lancaster dodges the snow, again Once again looked out of my window, as I did last night, to find the carpark hidden under a glittery sheathe of snow. And three minutes after I’d opened my curtains to take in the winteriness of it, the snow stopped. Again, like last night. Am I causing this?
Beautiful visitors and too much vodka After 3 nights out in a row I’m looking forward to a few days of sobriety and a lot of sleep. The last few days have been so busy, but brilliant at the same time –a visit from one of my fave Lancaster exports, the absolute beaut Katy Shaw, meant very little sleep and a very, very messy couple of evenings. Highlights include ending up in Hustle in my huge cold-defying lecture cardigan (absolutely beautiful photographs), seeing a ghost in the toilets and then a man in terrifying angel wings on the bus home, and a lovely meal at The Borough, a restaurant in Dalton Square that I will definitely be visiting again.
The Shaw is one of my very favourite people and one of my best friends ever and I miss her an inordinate amount now she’s in Madrid. I hope she knows how much she means to everyone here ...massive love ♥
Fairytale productivity and beautiful words in secret corner Aside from the drunken debauchery inflicted on us by our usually absent friend, I’ve also managed to get 2000 words of my dissertation written. It’s a massive weight off my mind, and was probably even worth spending my Saturday afternoon in the secret corner of the library for... just. To further the productivity, this week’s Women’s Lit module reading was the Virago Book of Love Poetry. I’m not going to lie or pretend I’m anything other than a massive geek at this point, because the half of the book that I’ve got through so far has pretty much reminded me why I’m doing the degree that I am. I don’t think I can ever remember seeing more beautiful words written on a page before. Why are these female poets not better known?
Little Red Riding Hood While on the subject of dissertation and general geeking, Rotten Tomatoes tells me that a new gothic version of Little Red Riding Hood starring Amanda Seifried is out next March... this is of massive interest to me since the dissertation that is currently the bane of my life is on the rewriting of fairytales, but is probably not going to be that thrilling to anyone else. So I’ll move on to much more interesting events...
Parisian planning I’m massively excited after booking flights to Paris to see another Lancaster placement-er, Louise, who is spending a year teaching in Le Mans. After first being seduced by Jet2 and their improbable £30 return flights (who were they trying to kid? Not us... ) we reverted to good old reliable Easyjet –I’m beginning to feel that I’m keeping the airline going singlehandedly.
I’ve never properly done Paris before so I feel that it is very important that I experience it as soon as possible, for the cultural and educational opportunities that it brings... I am also looking forward to adding to my growing portfolio of photographs that should be entitled ‘Absolutely Inebriated in European Capital Cities’. No, I’m not pretending it’s going to be a museum-laden trip, although there may be a couple of historical landmarks thrown in.
I can’t believe we have to wait until April, but with four 3000 word essays to write, a festive London trip after term has ended, then Christmas itself, a New Year back in Lancaster and another newspaper placement afterwards, I’m thinking the time is going to fly!
Rediscovering words I’ve been writing a bit today too –not a massive amount, but little is better than nothing. It’s so easy to lose sight of your interests as a student, and fall into the perpetual cycle of working and drinking and sleeping and eating and repeating, and after two years of this I’m making a conscious effort to stop it in third year. I’ve recently revisited a couple of stories that never really got going, so they might appear on here in the near future if I can make them decent J
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xxx