Episode 444: SG Buzz With Dennis Foo

Overslept this morning, but managed to get ready in record time, so I still made it to my 9 am seminar with David Morley. Or rather, with Tom Cornford. His session was definitely out of my comfort zone, but the points he was making were valid and worth thinking about in relation to my self-perceived inability to write sustained, lengthy prose. The Hemans and Landon readings for EN227 this week were a refreshing change, but still not the sort of poetry I would normally pick up. I strongly suspect I'll like the Victorian half of the module better than the Romantic half, and quite probably for all the wrong reasons as well. Skipped the last Varsity of term for the SG Buzz event, although if that hadn't ended so late, I probably would have made it to the pub for a drink or two. It was really cool to meet Mr Dennis Foo though, and chat with him about stuff. In all likelihood, this is probably the closest brush with the entertainment industry that I'll ever have in my life. He struck me as a very down-to-earth man, despite his success today. The Asian food buffet also tasted remarkably authentic, so everyone happily stuffed themselves, myself included. I might be going back in a day, but there's definitely no such thing as having too much spicy food in one's life. Haha!

Episode 443: Christmas Market Redux!

Was supposed to head down to church to do more administrative work, but the electrician's in today apparently, so Sarah told me not to come in. Within minutes of seeing her SMS, I decided that I would head down to the Christmas market in Birmingham again, to get some presents for people back in Singapore. Was pretty efficient, figuring out what I wanted to get after one complete circuit of the market. Would have stayed around longer, but I had to get back for cell dinner anyway. I did stop by the huge Waterstone's on New Street, the interior of which is quite impressive. Couldn't find a clearance section though, so ended up not buying anything, despite being tempted several times. The thing that most surprised me about my spontaneous trip was how little it cost, scarcely more than £2 for a return ticket. When you consider how that's actually less than it costs to get a return bus ticket in Coventry, it makes you wonder what exactly is wrong with public transport in this part of England. Ran into some people on the bus who were headed to the film screening organised by Dan, but cell on Wednesday is kind of a prior long-term commitment, so I had to pass. Managed to spend some time in the Library after the dinner getting some reading done though, so that was good at least.

Episode 442: Practice Of Poetry Party

Have a new episode of Gossip Girl waiting for me, so this post is going to be quick. Got back results for last week's French test, which were epic. 90% overall! Clearly, this module is going to be one of my cleverer academic decisions if I keep this up. Annoyingly, hindsight has shown me that I could in fact have posted a perfect score on this test, which would have been ridiculously awesome. I secretly hope that I was the highest scorer in class, although if that actually turned out to be true, I'm sure it's entirely because I have a knack for not recopying the text's vocabulary in the comprehension section, which really seems to be the aspect of the test that differentiates people's abilities. All in all, a very good way to end off the first term of LL209. Now I just need to work harder on my spoken French and this module is totally in the bag. The tutor just randomly commented today that I was right to make the liaisons in my pronunciations. I say randomly, as at least one of them, 'pas encore', is the kind of thing that I thought people would be used to doing, since the phrase is quite basic. Maybe after I do my presentation next term, she'll compliment my accent? Did some carolling at an old folks' home, and sang 'O Holy Night' solo. That didn't go horribly, although it could've been better. Bad throat! On a different note, would love to hear people doing versions of carols out of Michael P. Spradlin's It's Beginning To Look Like Zombies!: A Book Of Zombie Christmas Carols. Rounded off the day by writing an abcderian poem (that I quite like now after having revised it a little, as its speaker has one of those distinct voices that tend to crop up in some of my work) and a dirty limerick during the Practice of Poetry party, in between wine and nibbles. Now to be equally disciplined during the Christmas break...

Episode 441: Creative Writing Bar Crawl

Have been disciplined tonight and left the bar crawl with Dan to catch the last bus, just before it moved from Kelsey's to a house party. I think the turnout this time was double that of last year's? There's a new Vodka Kick flavour by the way, so that's one more bottle to add to my pointless collection. It bothers me, just a little, that the VK Pear bottle is slightly shorter than all the other flavours. Was not carded at The Benjamin Satchwell this evening, which was where the bar crawl started off. Have mixed feelings on that, since it suggests that I actually look my age now. Oh, the horror, the horror. Was supposed to go in for the second half of a seminar this afternoon, but a combination of not feeling well and thinking that I needed to be at home to wait for a parcel conspired to persuade me it was not worth going onto campus for just one hour. So I just stayed at home, watched a couple of episodes of Lie To Me. No sign of parcel, which leads me to suspect that the Royal Mail parcel I found outside my door the other day was in fact the one that I'd supposedly missed because it was too big to post through the letterbox. Oh well...

Episode 440: Christmas Dinner At Millsy's

Did a lot of singing today. Started off in church, backing up Matt with Bex. Second time around, and it's still fun. Had to dash off after the service to view houses in Leamington, but I think the most exciting part of the afternoon was visiting the milkshake bar with 100 flavours, right next to a sweet shop full of enough candy to make you feel slightly ill just looking at it. Chalk that up as one more reason I'm glad to be moving to Leamington next year. Managed to get back home and then to Millsy's in time for a quick carolling practice before the dinner proper. The food was pretty average, and less plentiful than I thought it would be, but it's not like I left feeling hungry. I guess I'm still kind of tired because I left pretty early. Needed to start (and finish) the poem for tomorrow's seminar anyway. (No progress so far!) I did discover that I cannot detect the taste of vodka in Smirnoff Ice, which means there's one more alcopop I can happily ingest. Planning on singing 'O Holy Night' for another carolling session on Tuesday. Hopefully, I won't screw up.

Episode 439: Hunting For Houses

Have started the search for houses in Leamington! We only actually saw one today, but we're going again tomorrow when all of us will be there. Have had a total of 10 hours of sleep over the past two days, so I'm going to turn in early instead of going to the Rev concert at church. That and take a taxi to church again for band practice, just so that I can wake up later. (Walking there would basically triple my journey time and require me to wake up at least half an hour earlier!) My camera's not working again, but I didn't drop it. The batteries died while I was switching the camera on, so now the lens mechanism is apparently out of alignment. It shouldn't cost more than $60 to fix once I get back to Singapore, if the Canon website is to be believed. I'm just annoyed and frustrated that the problem is, to me anyway, basically a design flaw in Canon's product. Guess I'll be using my N95 to take pictures at tomorrow's Christmas dinner. Finally, a situation I can use to prove to my dad the necessity of having a handphone with a good camera! Have also repacked my suitcase, putting in the sleeping bag and leaving all the papers for my carry-on bag instead, since I couldn't find a way of getting the sleeping bag to Eugene's place before my flight back to Singapore. The papers, consisting of almost all my stuff from first year, are pretty heavy, so not really looking forward to lugging them about. On the plus side, my suitcase when I'm coming back is only going to be as heavy as I choose to make it, i.e. it depends on how many books I decide to bring over.

Episode 438: Donald Barthelme Made My Day

Had only one seminar with Peter Blegvad this morning, but wow, what a seminar it was! He liked 'The Black Undulation' for its images and wordplay, but raised a good point when he asked if I would consider it enough, or should the piece offer something more to the reader. I agree that there wasn't any sort of higher purpose to what I wrote in this case beyond having fun, but I'm interested to do some work on the other piece I wrote, using the Swadesh list, now that he's freed us from that constraint and imposed a new one patterned after the Donald Barthelme story, 'The School', which we read aloud during the seminar and was thoroughly enjoyable. Totally think my impulse decision to buy his books was worth it now. The analysis of the story by George Saunders, which we also read cloud, was brilliantly engaging in its own right, and left no doubt that stories like 'The School' require considerale thought in order to succeed, despite how effortless it may feel when they're read. Spent some time in the Library reading Everything Talks by Sam Sampson, which I'd picked off a shelf at random and decided to polish off in one sitting because it was thin, the blurbs on the back cover were persuasive, and it had a gorgeous colourful cover, featuring Come Together by Peter Madden.

Episode 437: Monster Pizzas

Wrestled the terza rima into submission when it was close to 3 am, hence getting only half the amount of sleep that I should have. Bad times. Managed to survive through two seminars and one lecture, although I was struggling during the lecture on John Clare, which was less interesting than expected, considering the lecturer was Jonathan Bate. Stuck around in school because my handphone conveniently reminded me that I had to do an interview with the publicity people for the musical. Did that and got home, feeling completely knackered, but still having a cluster meeting to go to. Thankfully, Liam's place is just down the road from mine, and huge pizzas were awesome! See here for details. Great idea if you ever need to cater for a huge party. Have just got back home, and am updating the various blogs with my latest work. Managed to finish the 600-word piece using the Swadesh list while waiting for the interview, so that was an afternoon spent in productive work. Not sure about the story itself, but for something that I really didn't want to do, I think it's turned out adequately.

Episode 436: Terza Rima Woes

Have written 13 lines of my 91-line terza rima. I've got far enough that to quit now would be such a waste, but at the same time, I'm very conscious of the fact that I would much rather be in bed right now. Was in church this afternoon helping out with miscellaneous administrative stuff for Kidz Klub, which was a welcome change from my usual Wednesday afternoon, which prior to this would normally have been spent alternating between Facebook and TV shows, trying to procrastinate. It was actually very relaxing, and yet purposeful, so I'm looking forward to going back again next week. It sounds lame, but I could be happy doing data entry. It's a different sort of satisfaction from having written, say for example, this. Less intangible, that's how I would describe it. Anyway, the problem I'm having with the terza rima is the subject matter. How to write about a personal hell that you can't in all honesty say you've ever experienced? A couple of nights ago, Paul commented on how I always seem so serene, in the midst of it all. He's not the first person to have described me that way. He also asked if I would consider myself content, to which I had to reply in the negative. Yet that feeling of discontentment doesn't quite weigh on me. I get by quite fine on a day-to-day basis without thinking about it. Except on nights like this, I suppose. I wish I could do existential crises properly. Either that or be less finicky about getting things right and be more concerned about getting them done in the first place.

Episode 435: Everyone, Go Listen To The Shures!

I can't believe I forgot the word 'debrouillardise' in the French test today. If I'd only remembered, I'm pretty sure my score for the grammar section would have been perfect. (The grammar and reading comprehension sections were handed out separately, so we had 45 minutes for the former, and we could hand it in as soon as we were done and get started on the comprehension.) The only reason it's bothering me so much is because we did come across this word in class! Ah well. Came home and waited for a delivery that never arrived. Thanks, City Link. The one time I am available to sign for a parcel, and you decide not to deliver it promptly. Spent the time waiting writing new dialogue for the musical, which is now done and sent off to Bella. Should really begin on my 91-line terza rima, but am not enamoured of the form, hence procrastination. On a different note, have been replaying The Shures covers of Britney Spears's '3' and Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance' for the past few days, ever since I saw the YouTube videos on Bernard's LJ. They've actually given musical depth to those songs, which is pretty amazing. I possibly even like their 'Bad Romance' cover better than the original! So everyone, head over to YouTube and check them out.