An evening off.

Hurrah! I've finished my work for the week. Well, the actual writing of essays. Obviously I have loads of reading for next week's classes to get on with, but that's besides the point. I feel free :) This is a good feeling as since the start of term I've mostly felt pretty snowed under with work.

So it's nearly the weekend, and therefore nearly the end of January. Can't believe it's gone so quickly! Excitingly this means I've almost done my whole month free of alcohol. In truth, apart from a couple of nights out, I've hardly noticed not drinking, I think my personality's back! That said, a nice pint of ale would go down a treat. I think I'm going to break it early as it's a friend's leaving drinks tomorrow night, but we'll see, maybe I can hold out till the 1st proper.

We saw Frost/Nixon last night, which was really good, the dude that played Nixon was just brilliant. The script was also really good, with some quite funny bits and then lots of seriousness too. By the end of it I kinda even felt sorry for Nixon rather than just thinking of him as another "Bush" type. So yeah, worth seeing.

In other news I signed the lease for our new place today, yippee! It's ours from tomorrow. Also I have an allotment from Sunday in college! I'm super excited about this, mainly cos it means I can do some exercise outside again, yeah! Plus it's the perfect time to do some gardening and start sowing some veg for the summer.

Finally, today I had a sixth-former shadow me to see what Oxford is like, which was cool. I'd completely forgotten how much fun it was to show kids around Oxford and inspire them to come etc. so I felt like I'd done my good deed for the day. I think I'll sign up to the Access Scheme again and try and get more involved.

Phew so one day to go before the weekend, let's keep going! Oh wait, I don't have to, it's my evening off!

Week 2 begins

Another weekend gone and the start of another busy week. Last week saw loads of hard work, but I'm not sure how sustainable it is. At least this week I'm only writing one essay, but the reading lists are still massive. Phew, hard work, roll on the holidays!

At lunchtime today we had a seminar on internet dating and use, and perceptions of married couples of internet use, and also characteristics of people who had met through online dating versus traditional forms. It was really interesting stuff, although now we're so drilled into thinking quantitatively that when these guys presented their work, we were kinda disparaging of it. They showed that women generally were more suspicious of men's activities online, and even went to the extent of surveillance (covert!). They also found marked differences in the ages of people who used online dating sites, and also differences in the ages between the two individuals in the couple, and differences in education too. Interestingly people who used online dating seemed more keen on all aspects of attraction e.g. physical, emotion, personality etc. suggesting that they were really "shopping" for a partner. I'd like to know what the outcome of relationships formed online are in comparison to offline - do they last longer, are people happier, are they more similar to each other etc.? Also their sample was only of heterosexual married couples - I wonder what they would find if they broadened their search?

X was around after the interviews so we had lots of good fun. Spent too much money but we feasted and dined in Oxford and in London (some really great food, particularly at the birthday dinner we went to in Angel on Sat, but also at my little favourite, Luna Caprese, on Fri too). We had cocktails at Raoul's, which was lovely, and we saw Slumdog Millionaire, which was a really good film, although in no way at all could be reasonably described as a "feel good film", except for maybe the last 10 minutes or so. It was pretty sad and quite harrowing stuff, I guess because it's so real and happening right now. Not the millionaire stuff I mean, but the stuff about child orphans and slums and exploitation and a lack of welfare and just cruelty. It was hard to watch but a brilliant film nonetheless.

Spurs are out of the FA Cup, as to be expected. What are we going to do? Our performance is so lack-lustre - we can't even perk up for cup games now it's pretty demoralising. At least we beat Burnley I suppose, and Man Utd are TOUGH opposition, but right now it still hurts to be a spurs fan.

Yesterday we tried to do the RSPB birdwatch event, but the view from my window was dominated by geese and crows, none of the cute little birds on their leaflet, so we had to abandon the challenge. Later in the afternoon though, we could hear them so beautifully chirruping away, it was lovely with the sky all sunsetty too. And I won Scrabble in the evening, hurrah!

Ok I'm off to dinner now, before hitting the library. I ambitiously want to finish the rest of my stratification reading tonight - 5 more articles - leaving me with just one book and a chapter to somehow sneak into tomorrow's schedule, along with my analysis reading AND education class AND bike workshop. BUSY. And at some point I need to go shopping and also do some work on my knee. WHEN?! Heehee just this afternoon I was doing a psychology experiment for a friend and circled the box that I "mostly feel in control of my life"....is this still true?

All work and no play...not yet anyway!

Phew it's Thursday evening and my work is almost done for the week! Two essays, so so much reading, lots of coffee and books and late nights and library hours. And now hopefully some down time.

I'm about to do my Sociology of Education reading, which along with reading the ethnographic studies on my qualitative methods list, I consider to be "fun" work. I think Thursday night after my stratification class will have to be my new Friday night! Except I have a lecture at 10am on Friday morning, boo!

So I'm impressed with Obama and all the nice bits and pieces of his inauguration - boy does he have a good speech writer! Also think it's really bold and brave of him to speak about closing down Guantanamo, about time too.

In other news X is coming to visit after the climax of the interview today, which is cool as it's finally done and X can hopefully go back to normal and then just wait to here the outcome. We are going to try and see Slumdog Millionaire tomorrow after we failed in our attempt last Weds when it completely sold out at the Phoenix - dang Orange Wednesdays and their free tickets! And we have a very busy Saturday of social obligations, but it'll be fun, am looking forward to cutting loose after such a hard working week.

Ok best get back to it for a couple of hours, yippee!

Sunday 1st week

Good evening. It's Sunday of 1st week, term has officially started! A quick recap then:

My stats exam on Friday went ok - there were a few obvious things that I just forgot how to do e.g. find a confidence interval for a proportion, but mostly it was cool, and at least I finished it in time.

I met up with a potential supervisor, which was very exciting. My research proposal has been second drafted and I think it's ok, so it's staying as it is for the Oxford application. Just waiting on references now so that I can give my application in.

Research design essay is printed out and ready to go.

Have realised that this term that for three weeks I will have four reading lists to get through - sociological analysis, social stratification, sociology of education, and qualitative methods! Yikes! For the other weeks I'll still have three reading lists to get through, loooooads of items on each too! Over the term I'll only have to write 13 essays though, which isn't so bad, although I guess there'll be assignments from qualitative methods to do, not to mention attending the intermediate stats lectures. It's going to be a very busy term I suspect.

Am trying to manage my work better by doing some now, hurrah! Also am pleased that most of the SA reading seems to be posted online, which means it'll be easier for me to get hold of. My laptop is now back and working in my room too, which is cool!

What else? So on Friday eve I headed down to London to see X - we went to dinner and saw Twilight, which was very funny, mainly because the acting and script were just SO BAD! We chilled on Saturday, it was really nice! We've found a nest too, from the university, which is really cool - we'll be in there in three weekends time :) Saturday night I was at home with the family, which was good, although some bad family news (a divorce and also a very sick close family friend). But my cousin is getting married in the States in the summer and we get to go, hurrah!

Today I caught up with some TF-ers at a lovely cafe in Fulham called Aziz, very nice food, although I "accidentally" ordered a giant choc meringue, and am still trying to finish it! The amount of sugar in it has got to be dangerous! Was very much fun to catch up with my friends though, who are all doing exciting things, it seems like ages ago when we were teachers, but we can still all chatter about it like it was only yesterday.

So I best get back to my reading for tonight, before some scrabble fun, but would lastly like to note my pleasure that Spurs didn't lose today, we drew, thus we are out of the relegation zone! Let's hope we can stay there!

Some grumbles, but the library's been fun!

This morning we woke up cross due to loud noise from one of my neighbours. Grrr. Noise pollution is very annoying and people are very selfish to play video games or watch TV oh so loudly till 2am on a Sunday night. This hasn't happened before at my place, although it happened at lot at X's and also when we were house-sitting. A disrupted night's sleep ruins the day.

Luckily X was able to have today off, and so we had a bit of a lie-in and then did some work. X has a lot of work to do for some interviews shortly, and I have my various research proposals/essays/exams to work on. It was nice to be back in the library. Sounds funny to say that but there's something cool about the start of term when work is still exciting and you feel productive.

Two estate agents have let us down so far in our search for an Oxford nest. I can see why people get cross with them. It's just inconsiderate not to turn up when you have arranged a viewing with someone. At least call to cancel.

Spurs lost against Wigan. They held out for 90 minutes and then conceded, although I guess we were weakened once Dawson had gone off injured, and Gomes hurt his leg. Sigh, back to the relegation zone it is. Defoe probably could've wanted a better debut.

I'm having an early night tonight, hurrah!

The return of Scrabulous

It's Friday! This time last week I was recovering from my knee surgery. Now I'm sitting at my desk with my right knee bent across my left foot, cool :) Hopefully it'll keep on healing smoothly. I can get the dressings taken off tomorrow, and the stitches should be dissolving soon too!

I finished my stats paper, yeah! It wasn't so hard, I'm pretty confident about the paper, it should be cool. Also just got my reading list for qualitative methods, and that looks really interesting, particularly the stuff on ethnographies. Ever since I read that ethnographic study of American gangs, I'm well up for a bit of ethnography myself.

I'm still reading Twilight, it's got loads more interesting, and now I really want to see the film. It could mostly do without all the description of the looks and glances and lots of the feelings stuff too, just cos it's very repetitive, but I like the drama now, so let's hope it stays interesting.

Am also very pleased about the return of Scrabulous to Facebook - now called Lexulous! I do love my online scrabble, and since I have to take my old laptop back up to college, I don't think I'll be able to be distracted too much, just cos I'm not sure my laptop can keep up!

I'm back in Oxford on Sunday, which is cool, I want to get back into the swing of things there, although being at home has been brilliant, such comfort! X and I have a house-viewing on Sunday afternoon, which is exciting, my first ever one! It's all getting a bit serious now, what with the nesting and all, but I'm happy about it, although I guess sooner or later I'm going to have to come clean to the family. Hmm, I'm sure the right time will come round eventually i.e. when I stop being a wimp.

So happy weekends to everyone and hope January has been treating you well so far!

Working ok today!

I have done all my stats reading now, hurrah! Just have to do part B of the paper :)

Nest-hunting is also on the list today, must get on the phone and sort some of that stuff out.

Am annoyed that my stats exam now requires us to wear sub-fusc, this is all getting a bit serious, and tedious.

My eyes and head hurt, I can only presume it is from being inside at my computer rather than running free in the cold air. Bring on the knee, it's healing well but I want to run again!

Paid my credit card bill. I've spent around £700 on that card just in November and December! I can see why people have to tighten their belts in January. I vow to be more frugal.

Right I am going to update my links now and get back to work i.e. nest-hunting.

Still no stats

I am doing everything I can to avoid my stats paper. I did the first part of it, but really only concentrated for an hour of so, and most of that was just copying out of the notes. My distractions include trying (and failing) to do the Guardian cryptic (this holiday has made me even slower), repeated knee exercises and green-pea icing, searching for a nice nest for X and I, cutting vegetables, reading Twilight, just staring out of the window. Today must still be part of the holiday.

Spurs beat Burnley 4-1 last night, yeah Carling Cup! Still have the second leg to go, but it's looking good. We also have Defoe back, good stuff, although our strikers seemed to have woken up a bit. Would sell Bentley like THAT though, what a waste of £15m.

X stayed over, it was nice have some time together again. We have been planning our nest, it's very exciting!

Twilight is pretty drivel-full in that it's clearly something I would have loved at 13, but right now it's just boring, I want to skip through to the dramatic vampire bits, but instead I keep getting stuck in all the teenage angst and swooning, BORING.

Oooh dinner-time, a justified excuse! I also signed up to Twitter, finally, but I think I preferred just popping in and out of the special forums on it rather than having my own account. I loved the US elections forum, hmmm, maybe there's one for the transfer window....

Thinking other things today

I am having another quite unproductive day. Unproductive in the sense that I am ignoring my uni work. I am thinking once I wake up from my nap I HAVE TO DO SOME STATS but who knows whether that will happen? There's no real sense of urgency at the moment.

I've done some thinking about my research proposal at least. You would think this is a good thing. Actually it's not, in that I am thinking whether I really want do my research after all. Having looked at the WWOOF-ing Christmas newsletter I now have a fantasy of taking a year off and WWOOF-ing my way around the world, or the UK at least. Hmm. Must focus on something and stop daydreaming. Or, better yet, make my daydreams into real things.

In other news I have done some reading of AS Chemistry, all the while remembering Mrs Fine and all the fun "secret" end of term parties we used to have, ace! So far so good with the reading, although this is stuff for kids so it shouldn't be too hard. It made me realise how low-level it was when on p34 the sentence " 'inter' means between" appeared, followed closely by "van der Waals really is spelt with a small v - even at the beginning of a sentence". Oh dear.

Finished A Thousand Splendid Suns, felt very sad for Mariam and Laila and also all the people in Afghanistan and other places where women are treated so poorly and things are so bad. Went on to feeling bad for Sri Lanka and all the people in the war and the killings and bombings and destroyed stuff. Decided to stop feeling so bad and instead really appreciate what I have here and how lucky I am to have a loving liberal family and all the things (and more!) that I need. Perspective, yes. But still, poor people, and it's just luck where you're born, unless you believe in serious long-term karma. I don't know if I do, but then why else would people have to suffer so? I guess we just have to do the best we can with what we have and try and make use of our opportunities and help other people.

Also...

...I was just thinking that perhaps I should update my blog a bit. For a start, the heading still talks about maths teaching, which is over two years old now. And my age is wrong and there are no more disasters...well, not in the classroom at any rate. Hmmm, I'll add that to my to-do list. The updating I mean, not the disasters.

Happy New Year!

Once again I'm back! Similar to one of those small shoe factories, I "closed down" over the Christmas break and am now forced to return to work on this first Monday of January. Except I'm not really at work, heehee!

So what's been happening? Some highlights of the vacation (note: I am still on holiday regardless of what my books or the people around me try to tell me)!

1. Christmas day - a true feast of food and presents, so much fun
2. Boxing day football - Fulham vs Spurs, a poor game, but a cool anniversary celebration with X
3. The Nutcracker - nope, not at the Royal Opera House, but instead streamed live at the independent cinema in Notting Hill, very cool and we could take in our own beers and sweets to, aaaah
4. House/cat sitting for D&W and Stripeypants in Shebu - essentially lots of festive fun times with X, brilliant!
5. Our Christmas dinner at Hudsons and stocking swap - the coolest presents and the nicest dinner, we are SO doing that every year
6. Poker party - held at Shebu for my friends to kick off some festive fun, was ace!
7. Knee arthroscopy - this wasn't as much fun, but was def better than when I had the ACL reconstruction and it's healing up quickly too so hopefully my knee will be back to feeling better soon
8. Academic work - so much work, I have done so much work in the break. Ok, fine, I know it seems like I've not really done work but I have, honest. I submitted my last STATA assignment, wrote my Sociological Analysis essay, wrote my Research Design essay (all day Saturday just gone, but I had to do like 3 days of reading before that), two PhD proposals (yes, they are the same basic proposal, but that took ages, like 4 days of solid work). And now I have to refine my proposal and revise some statistics for my exam next week.
9. Chilling out with the family - our house is busy and noisy again and you know my folks are very sociable so we've been busy but having a cool time with just us (and my aunt, uncle and cousin from Canada)
10. Reading and watching films and Christmas telly! - we don't have Sky or cable or any actual TV at the moment so I've finally been able to do some leisure reading again, which is ace. I read The Carbon Diaries (Saci Lloyd) which was really thought-provoking and so I'm trying to be better with my carbon usage. So far this is going well since I'm essentially house-bound. I also read Henry Tumour (Anthony McGowan) which was funny and emotional and for kids so I liked it (as was Carbon Diaries). Now I'm reading A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini) which X derides because it's populist, but I don't care, it's a good story! Have also been watching things on BBC and ITV online players, which is brilliant!

So yes, that's what I've been doing. My new year's resolutions are similar to last year, including doing something nice for someone each day, not using God as a cuss word, not drinking in January. I'm also going to try and make a plan for my life, and I've been doing some research into that today, so we will see if I can actually go through with it this time! Finally I will try and update my blog more regularly. YES!