Birthday highlights and being in Oxford

Helllloooo! I am in Wolfson library! So yes, I am back in Oxford now. I don't think I have ever posted from here before. Exciting times! It's cool to be back in college and catch up with people here...I can't believe there are new students here already and that a year has passed since I started here myself.

So firstly, the highlights from my birthday, which I don't think I've done yet:

1. All the love and attention given to me by X. Such a special birthday :) Probably my best and most exciting since I was maybe 11!

2. A cool shiny and stylish brilliant DAB radio. I have named him Oscar.

3. My lovely little cyclomen plant (Hermione). She will certainly brighten up my room here.

4. The rest of "birthday corner" featuring helium balloons, a badge, cards, a banner, and GOLD STARS! (and a big wrapped up present box with piggy wrapping paper! This contained Oscar.)

5. Birthday tiggerific cupcakes. YUM!

6. An amazing birthday dinner at The Bay View, such good food and drink and fun!

7. Walking along the beach. I've never done that on my birthday before.

8. Birthday sunshine.

I had such a great day, really I can't convey it properly here, but I remember waking up on the Friday (a bit hungover!) wishing that it was my birthday again because it was so great, so it must've been a good day. So thank you X, you are very special and make me feel very special too.

Other exciting things since my birthday:

1. Winning £10 on deal or no deal in the KA. Finally, a big win! And we almost won £20, it was like a dream!

2. Working on another telethon. Hard work but I realise I like helping other people and chatting to strangers and stuff like that. Plus the money is good and so are the rest of the team, even if some of the students ARE a little immature.

3. Living in Exeter college as a conference guest - it's nice to stay in other colleges and see what they are like.

4. Having a nice shiny red bike that works. Hope it stays that way!

5. Having the time to write on this blog and do my campaigning for the Tamil people and read books and walk around and enjoy life. I like being in Oxford without having to do academic work yet. I do miss being in Waggytown though. I can't wait for the weekends, but hopefully they will come quickly and we will do ok.

That's all for now. Nap time!

PS I did well in my exams too, which makes me happy!

1st week

No classes this term! This should be a good thing. And indeed it is. Except it means that all structure to my life has gone. Well, as much as it can go for a semi-serious Virgo like me.

So I have revision for my 9th week exams to do. And I have my thesis to do. And both of them seem due so far away, and both of them are such big tasks (in my head) to even start, that I am failing to do anything properly productive. I know that once I am in the zone of things it'll be sweet, but just getting started is so tedious.

I think it's error working at my desk in the flat. I need to be somewhere where other people are working. That said though, I am loving having this kinda free time. It all feels like I'll get it done someday, so in the meantime I'm just gonna enjoy things.

Finished The Knife of Never Letting Go, which was so awesome. Am very glad that X can get me the sequel before it's released (good stuff those bookshop proofs). We're going to see X-Men Origins:Wolverine tonight, which am pretty psyched about, I love X-Men and Wolverine and Beast are my faves. Sometimes I wonder what I'd like to have as a super power, and I reckon it would still be Prof X's and Jean Grey's ESP-style powers, I mean, they seem really useful in whatever situation.

Was listening to Asher Roth's Asleep in the Bread Aisle - really funny album, would totally recommend it. Now listening to his mixtape The Greenhouse Effect, which I reckon is even better than the full on album! So we will see how the work goes today then.

Four days in Cambridge

Quick blog due to limited time! Am back at home in London and it's very nice indeed. I love hanging out with my brothers and parents, and also seeing lots of my friends from back home around here. Oxford isn't so far away but I still find I don't see people enough. Very much looking forward to seeing my girls this afternoon and playing some poker with an indoor picnic too (boo rain!)

Spent 4 days last week in Cambridge as a staff member on the Teach First Higher Education Access Programme for Schools. Basically we had 120 really bright 16/17 year olds on the residential course, where they undertook sample lectures and classes, completed workshops on interview skills and university applications, and lived a bit of a Cambridge student lifestyle for a few days. Selwyn college hosted us and were lovely. The food was awesome as was the punting and formal dinner and casino and debating and all the other exciting things we did. I led the Physics and Engineering group (NOT my subject specialism) and I have to admit, I learnt some stuff. My favourite part was the night trip to the Cambridge Observatory where we saw Saturn through a telescope made in 1927! We learnt some constellations and about space, it was totally awesome. Am inspired enough to take an astronomy course at some point.

Another poignant part of the trip was when we had to think about our lives and how they are finite and what we really wanted to achieve by the end of them. The kids made lists and we shared ideas. It got me thinking about some of the things that maybe I'd like to change and to do. It's good to reflect I think.

The kids were all really inspirational, really bright and exciting. I was impressed with their manner and attitude and work ethic. It made me want to teach again, but I guess it's unreal as this trip was it's own little bubble and real school isn't like that.

Ok best get on to some work, have a hectic afternoon and evening of socialising!

Finally holidays!

Term is done, woo hoo! And I have done the first of my four part qualitative methods project, and nearly the second part too, so things are looking good! We had some nice end of term things with my class, which was great, it's cool to meet everyone's partners and also to spend some non-stress time together, they're a good bunch.

Am shortly off to do my third night of alumni calling on the Wolfson Telethon. The first night was tough, but last night was more optimistic, and I got my first pledge, yeah!

Yesterday was X's birthday so I was busy doing lots of nice things. X liked the presents and we had birthday burritos for lunch and went for drinks in the KA in the evening with some of our old friends, it was a nice birthday. I love seeing our old friends again, they are good people and really make me laugh. X seemed to have had a great day, which makes me happy!

We went to see John Legend in Birmingham on Saturday night, which was totally awesome! This was part of the birthday package :) The Carling Academy is a pretty small venue so we got to see and hear him pretty well. He is really talented, his voice was lovely and he played the piano really well all night too. His backing band were excellent too! I had a great time, and even enjoyed the many trains we had to take from Oxford to London to Birmingham to get there. I'd definitely see him again next time he's here.

I've become a good little housewife I think. Now that classes are done, my days are up to me to manage. Obviously I have my qualitative methods project and also I have to do my ESRC proposal summary for Oxford (which will patently never make the cut, but I guess I should try) and also I have to get cracking on my thesis. But apart from that I have more time to do laundry and clean the kitchen and cook and do the shopping and work on the allotment. All nice things to me, physical work certainly has a good feeling to it sometimes.

I'm reading Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman, and it's ace, I really like it, but it's totally intense. I won't tell you what it's about, but just encourage you to pick it up. You can google it to see the praise.

What else is new? Nothing really, just enjoying the sun and looking forward to having a chilled weekend with my favourite and my best.

On the bus

I am sitting on the Oxford Tube on my way back to college. The tube (underground) journey was pretty rubbish, what with my losing of an Oyster last week (meaning that to transfer the lost balance I had to tap in at a certain tube station) and then part closures on the central and jubilee lines, and then the silly oyster machines debiting too much money due to rail replacement confusions. I finally made it to Victoria but the journey took more than twice the usual time, yuck. Still, I am half an hour away from Oxford proper so nearly there now.

I must say technology has advanced a lot since the last time I was at uni, doing this same occasional commute between Oxford and London. The coach has wireless on it (which is how comes I get to do this on the road) and also plug sockets. I have a new laptop that actually works, so whilst updating this blog I can also play on facebook and check my emails. My phone is plugged in and charging too, so really despite being on the bus, I am as contactable as in Oxford (not including actual face-to-face communication. But then, who does that any more??)

I started doing some work earlier in the journey but then fell asleep. I have my first essay due on Thursday. Interestingly it is about sociological analysis i.e the research and analysis and evidence itself rather than what the theories say. We were told how to write an essay (something that never happened during three years of undergraduate work!) and I've been able to download lots of the articles from the reading list on to my laptop meaning I don't have to sit in the library as much. Despite these advancements, I am still not quite putting work at the top of my list. It's closer to the top though.

Apart from impending academic work, I went to a brilliant day of seminars on Football in the Social Sciences, which consisted of all kinds of junior-ish academics presenting their various economic and sociological theories regarding phenomena in football. For example I saw some really interesting work on match-fixing and the Italian football scandals. I also enjoyed the talk on the decline in the home advantage in premiership football (they attributed it to the televisation of football, but I'm not so sure). In any case, it was cool to see people putting theory and evidence together when it comes to football - it was inspiring to see academics combining their passions.

Last night X and I went to see Zorro at the Garrick Theatre in Leicester Square. It was awesome! Lots of the music was by the Gypsy Kings so we were loving the songs and dancing, especially the Spanish guitar. The cast was excellent, particularly the Gypsy Queen, and the script was funny and serious at the same time. I loved all the stunts such as the fire juggling and the rope swinging (from all over the theatre, including over the heads of the audience), but my favourite scenes had sword-fighting in them, which had been wonderfully choreographed but with real swords so you could hear them clinking and see the sparks fly, wow! We had great seats right near the front courtesy of lastminute.com's half price ticket deals (making the tickets practically two for the price of one when you ignore the booking fee!) It was lovely to have an evening like that too, with dinner and the theatre and then drinks afterwards, it was a proper date.

Ok, my battery is low so best sign off. Have a good week!

Feeling a wee bit freer

Good morning :) I don't usually blog in school but now that my Y10s are off on work experience, there is such a glorious sense of relief and freedom that I feel tempted to post my controversies through the school server. Risky business perhaps.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow I only have two periods that I have to teach, which leaves me ample time to do my school work. Supposedly. Realistically I find plenty of more entertaining things to do rather than mark books, plan lessons, or write reports. My latest pet project is called The Book of Knowledge (notice I have written it in italics, as if it were a real book), which I have decided to make after finding that I spend a lot of time not knowing things and then trying to remember to look them up and then forgetting what they were within days of my research. Thus the book of knowledge will hold all the "useless" facts and concepts that I look up, making them forever concrete and available for perusal.

I finished How To Be Free and am inspired by 90% of it. I think I was subtly trying to be free before, but now I am making a conscious effort to do things right. The weekend WWOOF has started me off in fine stead for this. More on WWOOF-ing in another post to follow shortly.

Now that I am slightly more free than usual (despite having meetings/detentions/clubs every day after school this week) I am due to make a long-awaited return to my urban dance class tonight. This will be exciting since after Into The Hoods I feel my calling is in dance. It's perhaps more of a whisper than a calling, but good fun all the same. Hopefully I will make it there, but not being around on the weekend + the imminent return of LIL BRO means all kinds of household chores like sorting and tidying my rooms may have to take precedent. I hope not.

Right, I will do a little bit of admin work and then return to ramble on the joys of WWOOF-ing. Stay tuned.

Happy Holidays!

That title sounds ridiculously American. Obviously I mean Merry Christmas.

I love the festive period. Been rushing around like a mad thing, generally loving the good times. Nothing too imaginative to report, just that I'm really enjoying the break, and thinking of school makes me cringe, so I'm ignoring it. Have decided that despite having to go back to school on the 2nd, the kids aren't in until the 7th, so really I'm on holiday until the 7th, and so will behave accordingly. Heehee.

Simply Red Stars is playing on the radio. I know exactly what he means. Am completely falling for X, in a scary/exciting way. I don't want to be soppy and silly, but really, I'm so consumed by this, I'm all at sea. I should practice my swimming.

Dazed after Heaven

Early this morning I was trying to remember what I was doing this time last year. A pretty fruitless activity, clearly I have no idea, but I'm sure this time last year I would have never have predicted what I'd be doing this time this year. That all sounds very mysterious, and really it is. I feel like a snowflake, or a leaf, or a twig, or a piece of dust...basically anything small that is being carried away and completely overpowered by the outside forces, but not in a bad way, more like doing exactly what was intended all along.

We went to Heaven last night, which was dramatastic and good fun. It's a huge venue in Charing Cross, with loads of different rooms and different music. Lots of stereotypical gays, and then the fabulous looking boys too. They even had drag queens, podium dancers, and a weird Christmas dance performance which was rather freaky. Went with a rather eclectic (slash motley) crew, but it worked. I loved seeing Mosser again after an extended absence - he's such a good dancer. His friend Rob too was lots of fun, we clicked straight away...I can see why there are so many "fag hags" around, gay boys are fun! Gid and CK, and Mouche and her friend Tom also came along, a nice complement to us original three. I think we got back around 5 or something like that, and I feel like I slept for about 30 mins, so I am a bit stunned now, but it was totally worth it, it's a good stunned. I probably won't say any more about that on here, but I figure I have rambled lots to various readers so you've got the basics.

Haha, that said, this still isn't going to make any sense to anyone, I just realised. I am trying to process it myself. I was trying to explain it to N and B when we caught up yesterday afternoon, and they kinda understood, and so did Jade during our hilarious piano lesson (why do I insist on making up my own music??), but I guess if I don't understand then other people won't.

I'm listening to Feist, from the iPod adverts, and Canadian too, bonus! And loving the fact that I don't have to work tomorrow :)

Hmm, I think I will stop now and get back into my happy daze. I hope at least some of you get to feel like this too.

And my horoscope...awesome!

After a period that’s been consistently demanding but has often brought tremendous rewards, this week’s wonderful and — probably — unexpected developments could seem bewildering. While Saturn, the planet behind this austere cycle, remains in your sign, those challenging situations won’t be abating. And there’s a new player on the scene — Jupiter, which is accenting love and life’s pleasures, and will continue to do so for more than a year. This means, first, that things aren’t nearly as urgent as they seem. And, second, you’d best learn to juggle duties and pleasures, since this is only the start of a very busy period in your life.

Yay it's the holidays!

Bah humbug. It's pretty much expected that as soon as the Christmas holidays start, teachers get sick. Booo. I am getting a cold, and am desperately trying to fight it by staying in tonight rather than going on the massive birthday based bender that was originally planned. Not my birthday, a friend's, but a bender nonetheless. But now I can think of nothing more exciting that going to bed early in the hope that I wake up nice and healthy. Fingers crossed, I have a busy day tomorrow.

Yay it's the holidays! Woohoo, 3 weeks of no kids and no teaching! True, the staff still have one more week of a combination of ICT training and packing for the new building, but whatever, will be fine, particularly since I have lots of revelry planned next week, so there will enough to keep me entertained (and hopefully not too hungover!)

The staff pantomime for the kids was awesome, Cinderella, so so funny! I loved how keen loads of the male teachers were to get dressed up as women, and there were loads of kiddie jokes, and jokes for the grown-ups, and inside staff jokes too, excellent! Alas, didn't get to play trumpet after all due to time constraints and problems getting enough cover, but no matter. Thoroughly enjoyed wearing my Santa hat and snowman earrings all day, plus all the Christmas cards and chocolates and games etc. I like the festive spirit! Lovely staff Christmas lunch then a pretty epic drinking session, teachers are such alchies! Woke up not too bad today, but then remembered some of the controversies from the night, and kinda cringed. Heehee, it's all in good fun I'm sure. Will try and stay out of trouble next week.

Yay yay yay, one more time! Now off to wrap the presents and marvel at my excellent Christmas decorating skills. The tinsel all over our stairs and banisters is my special favourite.