Hand rashes and tea

Hello world!
(Cue Pogabat's music - da da DA da da DA da da DA Daaaaa!)

I couldn't think of what to call this post, but I am drinking tea, and I do have a rash on my hand at the mo. I'm not sure what's caused it, but it seems to only flare up mid-way through each university term, and then disappear a week after I get home. I've thought many things - the cold, a lack of vitamins, stress? Current thinking is that I'm allergic to some cleaning product they use here, so I've been trying to keep out of my room all day on the day it's cleaned, but this doesn't seem to be having much affect . . .

When did I last write? I should have checked that before starting to write this . . .oh, November 5th methinks? What have I done since then?

* I went to the British Film Institute Library. It cost me a small fortune to get there, and I got lost and walked round in circles until my feet ached, and got very wet on the way back because my boots leak . . .but it was AMAZING. Just unbelievably cool. And SO useful for my dissertation. Yey :) I'm going back there tomorrow.

* I saw one of the best-reviewed plays at the local theatre this term. It was beautifully put together, and the little dancing scenes beween each act were stunning, but it was weird and dark and depressing, and not as good as the other shows I've seen in the last few weeks.

* I saw Star Trek at film society. I love that film so much. It feels like a classic already. It ticks the sci-fi, drama, romance, adventure and breath-taking special effects boxes. And it makes me cry in the first five minutes. Not many films can say that.

* I got a ticket to the Snow Ball! Hopefully.

* I gave up on Flashfoward, then decided I hadn't . . . I can't work out whether the screenwriters are being very clever, or have written themselves into a complete hole. The dialogue is terrible, and I really don't care about any of the characters, despite the great cast. It certainly isn't Lost. Hype gets you nowhere.

* I had no lecture today, and was going to do lots of work to make up for it, but totally failed to do so. And as I typed that last sentence, I realised that I have a French class in an hour and a half, and I still havn't started the translation. Oooops. Better do that now.

It's Rememberance Day here in the UK. I'm not sure if it is elsewhere in the world too? Anyway, this day always makes me think of World War I poetry. And today I thought of this poem by Wilfred Owen.

Peace out.

Fireworks

Oooooooooh aaaaaaaaaah.
That was the text that a friend just sent me. I was all 'If you're trying to be a ghost, you've missed it by a few days', and he was all 'I was doing an impression of me and the kids watching the fireworks, silly.' Which made me laugh.

And I've just typed that and realised that most non-British people probably don't celebrate November 5th, right? I've never really thought about it before. Feel free to let me know if you have Bonfire Night wherever you are, and if not if you've even heard of it. Because this is probably bigger than Halloween over here. Less merchandise, but I think we're probably about 10times to head out to see the bonfire and fireworks on Nov5th than dress up and go to a Halloween party.

The origins are all a bit morbid really - several hundred years ago a Catholic plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament was foiled. So we celebrate that they're still standing and all go and watch fireworks (gunpowder, see?), have a huge bonfire, and occasionally burn a paper Guy (Guy Fawkes being the poor fella who is historically landed with all the blame, despite not really being the brains of the outfit), although you see that less and less these days - sometimes paper celebrities are burnt instead. Anyway, I guarantee you that over half of the nation don't have a clue about the origins of the festivities, and most of the other half know less than what I just put there. So it's not remotely political (in fact the idea of celebrating the Houses of Parliament is faintly hilarious in the current political climate), or religious or anti-religious. It's just a chance to watch the local council spend a few thousand pounds on brightly coloured moments, get warm by a big fire, often go on a fairground (my university town turns Nov5th into a HUGE deal, the whole town turns up. The fireworks were incredible, and the fairground was verging on a themepark, not that I went on anything). And eat toffee apples, candyfloss, treacle toffee and parrkin. Not that I ate any of that either - I got too into Halloween to rememer Bonfire Night properly this year. But I went with good company, and we watched the fireworks from a great spot. Very pretty

I'm hopefully off to London tomorrow to go to a film museum and research for my dissertation. I find london exciting, but terrifying too - fingers crossed I don't get very lost.

Nanowrimo word count: 3153 :-s

Witches and words

This blog comes to you in three parts. All will be hastily written, as it is 00.43, and I need to be up early in the mornng

Part 1: Halloween. Halloween was brilliant. It was misty, someone was playing sinister music on the organ in the unlit chapel, some wonderful person had put two pumpkin lanterns either side of the top floor window of the staff office building. My little Austrian friend and I went shopping for sugary goodies, bought far too much, and headed down several long, dark roads to a big old accomodation block, telling scary stories along the way. We then watched 'Dracula', ate too much chocolate, and got slightly hysterical over the Austrian's hilarious running commentary on the Freudian nature of the film, and the outrageous depiction of women, whilst another friend insisted that the movie was merely a tourist information film about her own country, and that she frequently crawled down walls to go to the shops in the morning. On the way back we encountered many a zombiefied student. And I sat in my window seat watching 'Donnie Darko' until 3.30am in the morning. Perfect.

Part 2: NaNoWriMo. Yes, because I am mad, and many an internet person is doing it, I have decided to attempt to write a novel in a month. Yes, that is 50,000 words whilst trying to write a dissertation. The hope is that after that this the 15,000 word dissertation will feel like nothing. And that filling my day up with more things will make my life feel more structured . . . . ? Well, I'm already two days behind, and all I have is a rough plot outline. But I think a challenge would be good for me. For anyone who is interested, my profile is here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/584654
Nothing posted on it so far, but there will be tomorrow.

Part 3: Selwyn Snowball. Tickets go on sale on Friday, and I am hopefully going :) Yey.

Now to sleep.