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Alumna:
UNC-Greensboro
Nara Women's University
Manchester Metropolitan University
Newcastle University
Shiny:
Dictionary of Japanese Art and Architecture, Lunch In A Box, Sequential Tart, Isamu Noguchi, CLAMP, Apple, Threadless, Uniqlo
Music:
GLAY, the pillows, Misia, Natalie Imbruglia, Jimmy Buffett, L'Arc~en~Ciel, Spitz
Happy Valentine's Day! I am celebrating by eating chocolate, watching White Collar, and not wearing any makeup. :P
Since that last update, I have indeed secured (semi)gainful employment and a new place to live. Tax season and loan payments are looming large, however, so the search for a second/full-time job continues. Other than that, life in Newcastle is most excellent and I have no complaints.
In six more months, this little blog will be ten years old! In light of that (well, that and the fact that I never update anymore) I've decided it's time to graduate to another service. Here's the second generation:
This Cartoon Life @ WordPress
LiveJournal's too gimmicky for me these days, and most of my friends have replaced it with Facebook anyway. So I figured it would be nice to try a platform with more interactive-yet-professional features, and room to develop. If you are by some miracle still checking this page for updates, please go on over and bookmark the new blog! There's no way to delete this one, so as long as Pitas is around it will be accessible. I'm still very fond of it, but there just aren't enough extras to justify its continued use.
Farewell, tiny blog. It's been a long strange trip. :)
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...So I kind of researched and wrote a 15,000-word dissertation in two weeks.
It is not an experience I would recommend.
But I AM FINISHED! :D
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And we're back to business as usual... i.e. no updates. Eh. Well.
I'm pretty well settled in over here, and hoping that doesn't have to change anytime soon. A flat lined up for the summer, dissertation topic ready to go, mostly-full social calendar (full enough, anyway-- going out is expensive!) and plenty of reading material, academic and otherwise. The only thing that's missing is GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT.
Yeah, I'm working on that....
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Well, yesterday I turned in the first paper I've written in about a million years... okay, maybe six. The less said about the experience, the better. It was not pretty. I am now living in fear of my dissertation.
I went upstairs in Waterstone's yesterday. That's where the sci-fi, graphic novels and military history books are. I don't think I should go up there again. It's like a deathtrap for my wallet.
Other than that, things are going well. Especially now that I no longer have to walk three blocks in the dark to do laundry. I think it's time to go and do another load. Then off to a pub quiz... I think I've earned a pint of Guinness.
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Well, it didn't take long after posting that last entry for my semi-sore throat to become a proper head cold. Thanks largely to the timely advice of a friend, which sent me to the shop for some fizzy tablets and other cold-related goodies, it was only horrible for about two and a half days... but totally killed any hopes of a productive weekend. I wasn't good for much besides mowing my way through a box of Kleenex while watching old cartoons on YouTube. Nothing like being too woozy to read and too sick to sleep... I was about to go stir-crazy. Hopefully my immune system's got that out of the way now, and we'll have no more surprises this winter. Please.
I think I'm getting used to the peculiar sort of damp that prevails here; my legs are used to walking proper distances at a good clip, anyway, which is a relief. It seemed like my feet were never going to stop hurting, which made me feel like such a wimp. The nasty, drizzly, gusty rain does mean that raincoats without hoods are sort of useless, since my hair looks limp and disgusting the instant it gets so much as dripped on. Yuck.
I went to a pub quiz on Tuesday, which turned out to be a lot of fun. There are a lot of places nearby which I haven't explored yet, and I keep forgetting until it's too late and everything's closed. (Like today-- somehow the afternoon has escaped me. How did it get to be four o'clock so quickly? I thought I just had lunch....)
The bookstore got the better of me this week: I succumbed to temptation and purchased Nick Hornby's The Complete Polysyllabic Spree, which I have always wanted to own and have never read all the way through. Just reading the introduction made me feel all warm and cozy-- there's something immensely satisfying about reading a book that contains all sorts of thoughts you've entertained yourself, but were never able articulate so eloquently or humorously. If that had been the only book I bought, I'd be doing fine; alas I ordered a book for my course as well, possibly against my better judgement but I won't know for sure until I've skimmed my way through it (i.e. until it's too late). Oh well. At least it's a university bookstore and so will buy the thing back once I no longer need it.
Oh, and today I was reunited with some more of my clothes! Always a wonderful feeling; especially when it's my scarves and favourite jacket. Now I just have to find somewhere to put it all.
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Takuro's latest entry on GLAY's blog is just... well, just like all his other entries: reading it made my day a million times better. Is it possible not to love his enthusiasm? (And meeting Bruce Springsteen backstage... ahaha, be still my heart.)
Of course, anything to do with GLAY makes my day a million times better. That's why I love them so much. ♥ Their new song 'Run' makes me smile until my face hurts, but I can't help it.
Today was my unproductive day of the week... since I can't really afford to have more than one of those, I need to be careful. But I did get a couple of errands done, at least, and socialise with a neighbour, so I don't feel like a total recluse. The wind here has made my nose run, which gave me a bit of a sore throat this morning, and being paranoid I stayed in bed sucking on cough drops and reading the newspaper until I was sure it wasn't the beginnings of a cold. Guess I need to add 'earmuffs' and 'hats' to my shopping list after all.
Last night I went to see Creation, the movie about Charles Darwin. It was beautifully done and I really enjoyed it, but I feel a bit silly because as soon as it was over I was filled with the urge to read Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels. (Well, the third one in the series, I suppose-- I've only read two so far.) Although, now that I think about it, Paul Bettany was in the movie adaptation of that series... which probably explains it.
So, one more thing to do tomorrow: Go to the public library!
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やっぱりこのパターンはまだ.... Yeah, it never changes.
In my defence I sort of avoided posting because I was applying for graduate school and was afraid of jinxing the process by discussing it. Silly, but impossible to convince myself otherwise. So now that it's all successfully wrapped up and I'm actually at school, it's 'safe' to post... I think.
GLAY even came back to San Francisco, but since I was saving up to move to England I couldn't afford to go and see them (even though it would have been cheaper to fly than it was last year, which made it worse!). So I hope they decide to do this every summer, or else that they come to Europe next, because now that I've had a taste of seeing them in a smaller venue I am hooked.
The last couple of weeks were great fun, the stress of packing aside-- we went to so many restaurants and I got to hang out with my friends quite a bit. Luckily enough, the Transformers sequel made it to the cheap theatre a couple of days before I had to leave, so that was like the icing on the cake. (Yes, it was still ridiculously entertaining the third time around.)
Right now I'm sort of waiting for courses to start tomorrow (or at least to meet; I don't even know what my schedule is yet) and for the rest of my money. Then I can get a bank account and a mobile phone and KITCHEN UTENSILS. I'm dying to cook a real meal! And also glad that so many of my flatmates seem to be dedicated chefs; they've already stocked the fridges and their own cabinets and were cooking up a storm today for lunch and dinner. Hopefully that means they'll know where I can get rice and/or a rice cooker....
For now, I'll settle for making my walls a little less bare.
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