‘Just one more go’ is a phrase I’ve heard a lot from my parents recently. I’m having trouble getting near my Nintendo Wii, and I find it rather worrying that my parents, never before interested in computer games, have now switched to nagging me to buy more controllers and games. I think I’ve become their parents. My dad actually said the other day, ‘Put some petrol in the knitted cow’, in reference to this game, which was the weirdest sentence I’ve heard in a while. Anyway…

Exams, exams. I’ve had 1 (of 3) so far and it didn’t go too badly, but I remembered something important I should’ve included the next day *sigh* I’m currently revising for my modern literature exam, which is 4:30pm on Thursday (!), then I have a Language exam at 9am on Friday (!) and I’m done. 

So after that I will abosutely definitely 100 million per cent be updating. Lots. I am going to manage my time really, really well and get into a routine, hopefully. No, I WILL do it!

My friend Sarah from college stayed with me Wednesday/Thursday, and I had such a good time. I won’t go into details, except that we had chicken and strange times, the weirdest being talking to the Nottingham mafia and a film writer (so K3wL!!1)

The weekend before, Richard and Tabi came over and cooked for me (and it was delicious!), and Hwan Min came over too, which was fun. Then the next day (was it?) me and him went to his house and made shepherd’s pie (correction..he made shepherd’s pie!) and that also tasted really good, surprisingly so as I’m not big on meat. We also went shopping, along with Kieran (2 cars and 3 people, not a good idea environmentally speaking)..

So we drove to Nottingham yesterday, and my family were supposed to leave me there but then persuaded me to come back with them. The journey back was horrific – it was snowing/sleeting/raining, and there were lots of accidents so there was lots of waiting around. There was one bizarre point where we were sitting in the car in the Derbyshire countryside in the snow, eating random things my mum had taken from my fridge. I had a raw mushroom with cheese and spring onion. Anyway, we were forced to go back and take a different route via Sheffield and Leeds, meaning that a 65 mile journey actually took 150 miles. Very very tiring and time-consuming, and a little bit scary as the roads were so dangerous. Once we got on the motorway though, my dad insisted on doing about 90 miles an hour (when the speed limit is 70, and the actual limit from those roads was 50 because of the bad weather). There were signs telling him to slow down because of spray, gritting, an accident, etc. etc. and he still took no notice. Althoug to be fair he was pretty exhuasted by that time and the motorways (yes, plural) we went on were really quiet.

WTF. They told us today that they’ve cancelled our Reading Week, which is basically a week to do ‘reading’ where there are no lectures etc. (read: a week off). So no holiday for Jen at the end of this month/beginning of next. Gah. Who even knew they could randomly cancel a holiday?!

In other news – I am actually completely exhausted. I got up at 9:30 am after falling asleep around 6:30 am. I finished touching up my essay and rushed to get it in (not as simple as it may seem - I ran out of paper and we have to submit two copies so I had to photocopy another copy at the library, then fill out a cover sheet and receipt to be stamped by someone in the office before escaping…). Then I spent a couple of hours in the library with a magazine, a mini pack of Pringles and my rather hefty course reader for Middle English. I met up with Sarah, and we then went to a Medieval Studies revision session. According to the lecturer’s analogies, doing the exam is like baking a cake and reading a map…rather appropriately two things I completely suck at.

So I got back home around 4pm, called my mum, watched Deal or No Deal and was (as usual) mildly disturbed by Noel Edmond’s shirt. Then I decided I would type up some revision notes, but I got distracted by celebrity gossip, cleaning up my laptop and playing music. I was also looking for Jenn’s new site, because I can’t keep track of that girl for more than five minutes! I’ve been through my fair share of domain names I know, but she’s changed her site name so much recently. Anyway, she’s @ http://jenn.nu if you’re interested.

I’ve been checking out a few personal sites – and found something about me that’s…interesting. Before I guess it would have bothered me, but whether it’s a result of all the crap that’s happened in my life recently or just that I’m so tired I don’t know, but I really don’t care about it. Looking at the personal sites though has inspired me to do something with this site, and get some proper updates going. I should have more free time on my hands after my exams are over, although I’m itching to get going now. Maybe I can compromise somehow, although if I’m able to work on my website, I should be able to type up my notes for uni…*sigh* I feel so out of touch with the personal site/blog world, so I really need to organise myself and figure out times when I can update, and actually make a proper effort to blog etc. now I feel up to it  

So.

Enough of the emo rants (for now!)

I’ve just finished my essay that’s due in in a few hours’ time. 2,000 words on applause. I’m tempted to applaud myself, but I really, really can’t be bothered.

I’m exhausted, but it’s my own fault for leaving everything until the last minute again (although to be fair I did spend 5 hours the other day working on a group essay (!!) with Luke. We agreed it was the hardest thing ever to write, we got frustrated over every sentence (if not every word). It was all philosophical-ly – 1,500 words on a two line poem called ‘In A Station of the Metro’ by Ezra Pound (The apparition of these faces in the crowd; / Petals on a wet, black bough.) which wasn’t really long enough considering all the stuff we had to get in it, and Luke did a LOT of the work bless him. 

I have a new housemate! She’s called Alana and she’s doing a PHD in Chemistry, and also doing the odd bit of teaching in her spare time. She’s 25-6, and teaching people my age (!) I don’t know whether to feel young or old lol *confused* She’s just had an operation on her leg, and she’s been in a lot of pain because of it, which sucks because she’s really into sports (she used to be a swimming teacher and was really close to getting into the Commonwealth Games). She looks like a really hard worker, and I think she will make me feel guilty about how little I work, which may well push me into getting better grades (let’s hope…). Also, she’s very multi-talented and can do everything from fix a car engine to successfully grow plants (all mine seem to die in different ways), so either we will end up being the perfect team or I will develop a supreme inferiority complex and emigrate to Inner Mongolia.

Also in the good news list is one of my friends getting a car for Christmas, so he will be able to drive me places (that’s assuming we both don’t get lost), and we will no longer go, ‘Hey! I fancy some KFC!’ at 10pm and have to walk half an town into town.

AND I’m learning how to cook. *shockgasphorrorfallover* I made cookies yesterday (in fact I’m making cookies rather a lot recently), and I think I can do pasta, and I’m getting over my fear of cookers/flames/fire, which is actually pretty amazing because those things have scared the crap out of me for most of my life.

I have my first exam of the academic year next week (Medieval Studies). I’m about as likely to pass it as I am to magically be transformed into Donald Duck with a mohawk and false teeth (give me a break, I’m tired. My brain refuses to work. That’s the best I could do). If you would like to see an example of Middle English (disturbingly, it’s easier than last year’s Old English) then try this for size:

Ant hncche beoð þeos hinen? Summe beoð wiðvten ant summe wiðinnen. Þeo wiþvten beoð þe monnes fif wittes — sihðe ant herunge, smechunge ant smeallunge, ant euch limes felunge. Þeos beoð hinen vnder Wit, as under huse-lauerd, ant hwer se he is 3emeles, nis hare nan þe ne feareð ofte untoheliche ant gulteð ilome, oðer i fol semblant oder in vuel dede.

Now times that by a lot more, add exam questions and you can see that equals complete disaster. People seem to think that Old or Middle English = Shakespeare. If only, my friends. If only.

I also have two exams the week after that, which hopefully won’t be so bad (essays and multiple choice rather than specific analysis, and actually in Late Modern English aka the English we use now). 

So, I’m off to catch a few hours’ sleep before I get up to go over my drama essay again, print it* and submit it.

*My dad used half my printer cable to plug into the back of the TV and DIDN’T TELL ME ABOUT IT UNTIL TODAY. I’ve spent the last few days LOOKING EVERYWHERE FOR IT!! Gah.