OH MY GOD - can i just say how sucky things are going. i have a billion and a half assignments to get in over the next two weeks...it's funny how i think i've planned well and then realise that, no - no i haven't and i have to basically live at the library...who, as it happens are sending me threatening e-mails about some fines i owe them. bah humbug.

had my interview at the university of manchester for the ph.d programme on monday; went rather well even though i magnificently mispronounced the director's name..but then again, that's what he gets for being dutch. i have somewhat tweaked my proposal into the development of iran's institutions post khomeini and whether or not the state can be called a theocracy or a democracy (i'm arguing that it can not be both). he seemed rather interested which i hope is a good thing and he isn't like that to everybody. i took the train, which was actually on time, so i had to run after trotting over to cafe nero to get some caffeine in my system, was only £5.20 return which i didn't think was that bad and the station is a mere 5 minute walk from the 'dover street building', imaginatively named after the street it is on.

the campus is SWEET, a mere ten minute saunter to oxford street with its wonderful shops and bars and other such necessities. had a pint with a couple of fun and interesting people at a pub called 'the lucky scholar' which was quite nifty and cheap. i have to look into accommodation, the uni offers it but in all honesty it makes south green look like the hilton, lets just say the bathroom at home is larger than my entire 'suite' as they perversely called it.

i have to sort out funding, from what i can gather there are two options i can try for the research council's 'quota' award or a 'competition' award...they are both for the same amount, so i don't really see the point in having two separate applications, but whatever.

gran had her new knee put in last week and is back home, she's hopped up on liquid morphine which is quite fun but she's doing really well, it is of course painful but she just guzzles some more morphine and she's floating on cloud painkiller.

going out tonight from the gang in history our 'christmas party' which basically means, a trail around preston pubs getting as pissed as we possibly can. ahh what fun :P

i have a new mobile number, i got mad with O2 and told them to go f-themselves, so i'm on t-mobile pay-as-you-go, which has worked out to be considerably cheaper, and i can actually text internationally now, as before i could only receive them and not reciprocate.

can i just say i how much i love dog the bounty hunter

i hate doing presentations, i mean i really do.  luckily this time it isn't in one of the lecture theatres...had to do that last year which nearly made me cry...standing *on a stage* in front of sixty students warbling on about post-colonialism, i feel lightheaded whenever i think of that..but anyway, thankfully this presentation is nothing like that.   but still, i *hate* presentations...blah, i've started work on my research proposal for the ol' PhD..or DPhil i'm not sure what it officially is..i talked to my aunt gill a few days ago and she was laughing, i had told her previously i'd rather drink monkey piss that keep on at uni...she unfortunately remembered, but anyway...keith vernon one of my more favourite history lecturers is being hella cool helping me with it, making my proposal sound 'academic' he said, which i think is totally illegal, that if i get a first in this education module i'm taking (with him) he will give me an astoundingly good reference...the depths these lecturers will go to.

i took dear grandmother to chorley hospital on tuesday to go in for her 'pre-op assessment' i thought i'd be an hour tops...ha! six hours later we were back home...ridiculous! but it seems everything went well and now i have to take her at 3pm to the anesthesiologist who gets the final say on whether she can have the surgery or not...the horrifying thing though is that she isn't going to be under a general anesthetic!  they're doing a lumbar block instead...is it just me or does that sound absolutely wrong!  knee replacement surgery and she isn't even comatose!   i suppose there must be some good reason why.

jimmy is currently licking my toe which i think is a hint that he wants to go for a walk *aww*

hazzah!

i met a boy, the most beautiful boy in the world.   actually, he was in one of my lit. classes last year but i didn't really pay him much attention...anywho, we met at the union yesterday and got thoroughly schwilly...£1 shots are the best thing since, well, the invention of alcohol. 

anyway, i have the most vicious hangover since that blurry night at OU that wenz captured on camera, i had my meeting with the head of english who gave her almighty (final) approval to my independent study (woohooo!) although i fear i was exuding eau du rum.   met up with sarah and pamela, we have a presentation friday, i lucked out and got 'the elementary education experience of the late 19th century'  boy lucky me.

a bunch of us are going to france for a 'long' weekend...i'm uber excited, sarah's parents have a holiday home in some place called nevers , which i can't even find on a map...should be sweet anyway, we're leaving straight after lectures on friday drive down to dover and take the ferry (a crap load cheaper than taking eurotunnel) and spend three wonderful days in sunny france...knowing my luck however, it will probably piss it down the whole weekend.

BBC 24/Sky News/CNN and Fox are all still yapping on about the midterm elections, yes yes it's wonderful that the republicans have been metaphorically shitted on, but i mean, wasn't it expected?  like our local elections last year - labour got their arses handed to them.   but in practice nothing really changed...anyway, yeay for ohioans and their spankly new governor and senators and all that.   and on the politics front, it seems that this 'cash-for-honours' scandal has finally hit the cabinet and *possibly* blair...one of the commentators was going on about how blair has poosibly been unofficially asked by the police about the scandal, but who knows.  however most of the cabinet have been contacted by the police saying basically 'what did you know about this and when' so fingers crossed our beloved prime minister will be the first pm to be impeached in 300 years...the sooner the poodle goes, the better.


just on the news...rumsfeld was fired...awww, my friend lauren will be horrified..she had a thing for him.

ugh i hate it when technology bites me on the arse

i ghetto rigged the pc to work again after slicing my finger three (3!) times on the damn motherboard, at least now i can check my e-mail, get directions to the trafford centre and of course bitch on livejournal.  i have to make an appointment tomorrow morning to take my iBook in to the apple store at the trafford centre (hence the need of directions) so at least i shall have my beloved back soon enough.

the weekend has been pretty uneventful - friday i was over at chris's house, he just purchased a rather spiffy alienware computer that is just ridiculously cool, got tanked on the most horrible 'beer' i have ever had the misfortune to drink - if you see foster's twist, then i beg you, run for your life.   it's just rank.  i don't think i mentioned this but i stopped smoking pot over a month ago and friday i succumbed to the stanky goodness, got rather spacey, but i dunno, as much as this disturbs me i think i have grown up...think that was probably the last time until i'm like 70....bring on retirement!  but seriously i didn't get much from it..sigh.

saturday i stayed in and nursed my foster's twist hangover that made me sick all day, i snuggled in bed, with my glorious electric blanket on and with jimmy curled up at my feet, he freaked out many times over the fireworks so i must take him to the vets on tuesday to get some tranquilisers.  i really don't know what i'm going to do with him next year, i'm pretty certain hounds are not permitted in student digs, so i think he's going to be staying with dad for two years.

today, the clocks went back and i got up early.  went in to town to grab some grub up at bruccianis which was ace, i could sit in that joint and have their delicious coffee pumped into me, stopped in at the library to pay my overdue fine and then went to some fancy titled memorial lecture on the abolition of slavery...twas so incredibly boring and the broad delivering the lecture couldn't have had a more monotone voice..blah.

tomorrow i have a meeting with dan lamont my sim advisor and i have to beg keith to be a reference for my application to manchester then it's off to the trafford centre to get a new hard drive.  i also need to sort out my costume for halloween...i'm either going to be (a) my brother (b) a pregnant nun or (c) a school boy   

boy, i think i have the saddest social life known to man

so i'm in the library again...my iBook's hard drive gave up the ghost and completly died on me.  called apple and i have to take it in to the apple store on monday to get a replacement fitted (thank god i got the care plan!!) so i decided i would use the pc which also promptly died..very spooky...perhaps i'm giving off some type of E-M field...who knows, the outcome is that i'm stuck in the godforsaken library trying to get my assignment done for tomorrow.  this is going to be the shittest souces response ever...do i care?  do i f***

taa taa for now

An English Parliament?   I think not.

BRIOCHE!!!  the greatest thing since sliced bread

about the only bloody thing the frenchies get right....damn good pasteries

word to the wise

so i sent a wholly unproductive day at the ol' library trying to get JSTOR to accept my athens id...to no avail - finally i went up to computer support and it turned out they'd issued me with a new password for some reason, so i wasn't going crazy..so there.   let me just say how wonderful i've found JSTOR...the search engine actually works on it and i'm finding all these wonderful articles on Chandler, Christie, Cornwell, Reichs and Wexford - I'm reading a particularly interesting one on feminism/gender bias in the Scarpetta novels..yes i know, i'm a great big geek.

i purchased a freeview box off ebay and it was delivered this morning - i was wholly against getting sky or cable in my room for the fear that i would become addicted, so i feel freeview is a nice centrist type position to take..and it's free so i win on both scores.  so yeay, i get 24 hour news, the parliament channel and a bunch of other crap channels i'm sure i'll end up watching

i'm planning my pilgrimage to the british library next month, i have around 30 or 40 articles i need to get copies of and the UCLan library charges £2 a pop to get them sent up...the train ticket only costs £20.50 (two single tickets are actually cheaper than a return ticket)...hmm not much of a decision really, i can get the 7:10 train which arrives at a little before 10am and the last return train is at 20:45 and gets in around 22:30.   perfection

i'm trying to sort out my all hallows eve costume - my brother is throwing a shindig at his house and i can't go as a priest as his housemate potter is doing that...i suppose i could always use the ol' standby scrubs..maybe be a dentist this time...a goouuulliisshh dentist.  but really, i'll probably go as a 'student'. 

just got a parcel of overwhelming crap from UoM, i have to attend an open day on 08/12 - which personally i'd rather not go to, but i guess they will proof read our research proposals and give pointers on funding...i've just been informed i can apply for a studentship (or something that sounded like that) i'd be allowed to teach two modules a semester (a total of 6 hours a week) and get paid £10 an hour...which is pretty much double what i'd get working at sainsburys.   i've been looking into accommodation - i had originally thought that i would have to look into private accom. but it turns out the uni has a crap load of post-grad. accom. - and surprisingly at quite reasonable costs...i'm rather taken with the Grosvenor Street Building..a mix of 78% undergrad and 22% postgrad...no ensuite rooms so it's going to be Crawford all over again, although it is a private room...meaning no roommate  and to make things even more great (or perhaps disastrous) there is a bar in the building...ohh yeah.

anyway, i have a meeting with my independent study advisor,

taataa for now

jesus christ it's been *five months* since my last update....my god i didn't realise it was that long