Working Girl

Today was my second day of full-time (albeit temping) work at Rohan in Cambridge. It was not the busiest of days: time dragged and I spent most of the day hoping that I would win the Premium Bonds tomorrow and not have to work again! We had what is known as a Mike Slack Day, in which very little was achieved apart from the odd game of noughts and crosses, played with the plastic bits off of the coat-hangers on the tiles on the shop floor. I have two weeks of this existence (although it's bound to get busier when the sale starts next week) and then I go on to 15 hours a week (which should be tolerable).

My spare minutes are being spent with Byron in preparation for my dissertation: he had the right idea when he was at Cambridge: bring a tame bear (and try to get it elected as a Fellow of Trinity College), never go to a single lecture, never submit an essay, never pay your college bills, stay away for entire terms and STILL graduate. I'm doing quite well following in his footsteps; I just wish I could get me a bear.

28 days left sans James. Am living a sober and Marlboro Light-free existence. It's just not ME, is it?

We Is Well Fit! 

Oh it's all gone quiet over here...

I am bereft of James, my partner in crime, my drinking buddy extraordinaire, my evil/loving life coach/tormenter, who has gone to Australia for a month. Lauri The Happy Finn leaves on Wednesday, then it will just be me and Ryan, the Axe-Loving Canadian Bear-Wrestler. People think they can just go off and leave me... oh no, don't mind me.. it's only ME so it doesn't really matter, does it?!

I have spent my first James-free day clearing out my room in an effort to create a relaxing working environment where I can spend my days reading Byron and planning my dissertation rather than chain-smoking Marlboro Lights and sleeping off hangovers. My room is nearly tidy now, but somehow it just doesn't feel right!

Balls!

The Wolfson ball was held on Friday evening, with guest appearances by Megan, Mark and Sophie (all the way from Norfolk) and Julie and Mary (all the way from Dublin). Blurred memories, but highlights of the evening include:

- James telling a newly arrived visiting scholar, who was commenting on the dodgem cars: "Yes... fucking pikeys - once you let them in, you can't get rid of them". Visiting scholar looked shocked and made a prompt departure

- Sophie queueing time and time again for the simulator machine, believing that she would finally get something other than the virtual rollercoaster ride (which was, it transpired, the only film they were showing). What's the definition of insanity?

- Mark causing mayhem at the ceili.

- Mark staying up until 4 am and NOT PASSING OUT! There's a first time for everything, and we're all very proud of him.

- Fighting for our right to paaaaaarrtttyyyyyy. Long live the Beastie Boys. I've never danced to their music in a ball gown before, but I'd highly recommend it.

- Alas, a guest appearance or ten by Vomiting Veronica early the following morning. When, oh when, will I learn?

Why I Like e e cummings

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

Before the ball... 

... and After! 

The Other Place

We went to the Christchurch Ball in Oxford on Saturday night. It was their first ball in 15 years, a white tie affair and all very Brideshead Revisited (including a star appearance by Sebastian at the beginning of the evening, sporting a white silk scarf, dishing out cigarettes from his silver cigarette case, air kissing his friends: "darlings! I've missed you enormously!" - all that was missing was the teddy bear). My Boys all looked gorgeous in their white tie numbers; girls looked equally gorgeous with hair and make-up done by the ever wonderful Emily. By the end of the evening, Lauri was covered in jelly beans and vomit (not his: unfortunately, he was just within range of a Vomiting Veronica), Ryan and Mo were unconscious in Glen's office (always go to a ball with a Fellow!), Jason was harassing a fearful oik behind the bar who was refusing to serve any more alcohol, Yael was wowing all the 18 year olds with her amazing back bends, and I had three men asleep on my buttocks. What more can a girl ask for?

Dinner Party, Darlings!

On Friday night all us English students from Wolfson were invited to our Director of Studies' house for dinner. We always knew that he and his wife were rather eccentric but were somehow still not expecting to be dragged away from our pre-dinner drinks to break into a neighbour's property to investigate the colour of their chickens' eggs. The dinner conversations were hysterical. I remember at one stage looking through alcohol-befuddled eyes around the table, laughing my arse off and thinking there was nowhere else I would rather have been at that moment. It's impossible to describe the whole evening in great detail, but it was one of the most Cambridge evenings I've experienced and is probably best described through a series of quotations I had to scribble down as soon as I got home:

"I don't think we necessarily need to investigate the chickens, darling" (Peter to his wife as she was insisting we all get up and march across a field to the neighbour's farm)

"Um, I've never more regretted starting a topic of conversation" (Boyd on the way to the aforementioned farm)

"Don't touch the fence, dears: I tested it last week and it IS electric" (Mrs Raby's words of wisdom)

"What sauce do you think we should cook Sarah in?" (James to Mrs Raby: her immediate response: "cassis"!)

"What would you count as excessive drug use? It is okay to go to the end of the garden and smoke a joint every night at 6 o'clock?" (the Mrs again!)

"This is great! I'm watching one of the greatest minds of my generation descend into madness" (Dev re Boyd)

"That man had such small feet - and such shiny shoes. Even when I see him all these years later, I can't stop looking at them and thinking about them. Such small feet!" (Mrs Raby)

"Germaine Greer managed to really piss me off 5 years ago" (Trevor)
"And, until then, you were a committed feminist, were you Trevor?" (James)

And so it continued. I do hope we get invited back!

The Attention Seeker 

The Happy Couple 

40 years of wedded bliss...

I went home for the weekend to celebrate Mum and Dad's ruby wedding anniversary. 40 years - imagine (I can't)! We went for a boat trip from Orford on Friday afternoon, had dinner on the boat and probably made the poor people running the boat trips consider new career options. Mum lost Dad's hat as she got off the boat, and the poor - and obviously slightly mad - girl who had been helping with the catering decided to strip off and swim after it. Hat retrieved - girl left freezing cold and wet with no towel or change of clothes!

Mum and Dad then had a party on Saturday. I decided to go dressed appropriately - in Mum's wedding dress (attention seeker - moi?!). Then Saturday night was spent celebrating Megan and Sophie's birthday's. Quote of the evening: Richard: "Yes.. there are only about 7 or 8 people I'd actually like to kill...".

Now back within the safe confines of Wolfson. Home sweet home.

The Way Things Are

1. Buttocks = getting slightly wobbly after more than a week's break from running.
2. Tripartite boyfriend = 0nly two-thirds present in my life right now
3. Exam fear at college = palpable (but does not apply to me - heheheee!)
4. Total hours dedicated to French revision = 0
5. Chances of passing French exam = slim
6. Uncle Bob and Auntie Mary = fab
7. Last weekend = sober (imagine!)
8. This week's bedtime story = The Cat in the Hat (very scary!)

Something else that deserves a mention is that we went to the Cambridge Beer Festival on Friday and, Nicola Kietz, you'll never believe what they were serving in the cider department - yes, Kenny Cramp's Double Vision, single-handedly responsible for destroying more of my brain cells in my teenage years than any other form of alcohol I have ever consumed. We used to go and collect bucket-loads of the stuff from Kenny's farm, and had to sieve it to remove all the bits of wood and dead insects that were floating around in it. I think it may have gone a bit more upmarket in recent years but has kept its name so obviously still has much the same effect. I didn't dare try any - it was a very hot day and I could see it all going horribly wrong. But I might order some to be delivered and consumed under controlled circumstance - or, alternatively, just feed it to Ryan and see what effect it has on him! If he starts boiling clothes and washing in WD40, we'll know it's still good shit!