Episode 404: Lazy, Anti-social Weekend

Was assiduously doing my French homework last night, when Keegan unceremoniously dragged me off to Coventry for dinner. (Yes, Keegan, it is still your even if Samantha made you do it. You could have said no. Man up next time.) We had Nando's, which was rather underwhelming for me taste-wise, though it was the first time I've had it. Maybe I just thought it would be spicier? Was absolutely shattered by the time we got back, so I only rolled out of bed past noon today. Not proud of it, but if you told me to crawl right back into bed now, I would actually agree and sleep till it was time to wake up for church tomorrow. I'm not a Halloween person really, or else I would be clubbing at Kasbah with the Singaporeans. To be honest, I don't feel like doing anything much this weekend other than reading, writing and watching TV. Might not even go out for lunch tomorrow after service! Am running low on groceries anyway, so it might be time to make a trip to Tesco. It's either that or do it on Monday just before the meeting for the musical ensemble members, assuming that's still happening. Must remember to check with Tiffanie...

Episode 403: So I Woke Up For My 9 AM Seminar...

George Ttoouli said nice things about 'An Honest Mistake'! He said it could do with some tweaking, but at least it wasn't total rubbish. Now have to write 1234.5 words for next week. Yes, 1234.5 because we're just strange that way and think our stories should end mid-word. Costcutter was completely out of Ben & Jerry's, which was very upsetting. Oh well. Better luck next time. Came home to watch FlashForward and The Vampire Diaries instead of hanging about on campus. The former is completely turning into the new Lost, now that Dominic Monaghan has showed up. There's also the part where the characters throw up theories that are never properly addressed, which was Lost's undoing for me and the main reason why I'm not watching it anymore until the final season is over. Let's hope FlashForward manages to escape that trap. The Vampire Diaries, on the other hand, is finally starting to pick up the pace! Methinks they should turn a few more characters into vampires, just for the fun of it, as I'm totally over the star-crossed lovers storyline. Anyway, don't you think the current TV climate is just begging for a revival of The Dresden Files? That always seemed to me like a series that got the short end of the stick because it arrived at the wrong time, culturally speaking.

Episode 402: Return Of The Varsity Crew

Was very productive today, relatively speaking. I wrote another pantoum during David Morley's seminar in the morning. Just on the spot, writing 10 lines down, shuffling them into position and editing. The result was surprisingly okay for the amount of time it took. Then I had a couple of hours to kill between my last class and the publicity team meeting, so spent some of that chilling in the Arts Centre with friends and then did some work when most of them left for their seminars. I wrote four flash fictions based on templates from Georges Polti's The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations while Alex read some Coleridge. Didn't take much time because I was typing into my handphone. Typed them out to be printed, which ended up with me rewriting portions of them, the results being good enough for an exercise, I suppose. Still had about an hour or so after my meeting before it was time for Varsity, so I went back to the Library to do some more work. This time, I wrote my film review of Coraline for the Student Cinema, before being ambushed by Laura and heading off to the pub. It was almost like old times, except the place was full of freshers. Haha!

Episode 401: Budget Shopping (By My Standards)

Went shopping today at Topman with Dan. It was quite random, to me anyway, when he sent me an SMS in the morning, as I hadn't figured him for a Topman guy. Then again, neither am I. It's just that I suddenly felt the need to add a few tees to my wardrobe that didn't come off the Threadless website. So I bought four of those V-neck tees that have ribbing around the holes for your neck and arms that's a different colour from the tee, which just screams Topman to me. At two for £10, I didn't feel too guilty. There were also tees that had different colours for neck and arms, and even different colour for neck and each arm. Those were too bizarre for my taste. Also bought a hoodie because it was green and white, and on sale at a price that's considered a steal for Topman. I caved and bought a new bag from there as well, since I've been looking for something made from a material that won't cause my tees to pill. In any case, I've been feeling the need to splurge a bit, though I've kept to my promise of not buying any books until I've read more of the ones that I already own. I did want to go to Costcutter after the AGM to get a few tubs of Ben & Jerry's, but I guess I'll have to hold out till Friday and hope that they're still on offer then. In case you thought I spent my entire day being frivolous, I also wrote two poems, a pantoum and a ghazal, which leaves me with only three or four 100-word flash fictions to write before I've completed this week's work. My plan to work (fairly) consistently seems to be working out so far, pun not intended.

Episode 400: Bejeweled Blitz Obsession!

I finally managed to finish the villanelle, which wasn't as ambitiously experimental as I'd been thinking of initially (which means it went from mildly experimental to barely), but at least it's done. Having trouble with the ghazal though. I'm also slightly obsessed with Bejeweled Blitz again on Facebook, which is entirely Alex's fault for tempting me to smash his high score. I've done it, by the way, much to his dismay. Was a quarter of an hour late for LL209 today because I missed the bus I usually take, and then the next one took forever to arrive. It's partly my fault for taking forever to get around to showering and leaving the house, but goodness, why can't the buses be more reliable? On the other hand, it's not like I really missed a lot. It sounds terribly arrogant, but I don't think I'm learning that much in my French lessons, beyond improving my listening comprehension since the tutor speaks in French most of the time. There's this girl in my class who is so earnest, I don't know whether to be annoyed or impressed with her. She actually raises her hand to voluntarily answer questions! What kind of person does that?

Episode 399: Dry Spell?

I've realised that for the past couple of days, I just can't seem to follow through with the poems that I start. I had to abandon a villanelle on Saturday, and tonight, I've tried to write and abandoned both a ghazal and a villanelle. It's mildly annoying to not be able to flesh out the idea fully, especially this villanelle, as it seemed rather promising initially. It may well be salvageable, but I think I'll need to sleep on it. This is all probably to do with the fact that I've been particularly under the weather these past few days, and my brain is calling it quits. I hope it gets its act together by Wednesday though. Attended the Robert Gray reading this afternoon with Dan, and it was kind of a weird experience. Gray read out a commissioned piece that was still a work-in-progress, and then invited us to critique it. Excuse me? Pass judgement on an established poet's work in a public forum when I'm practically a nobody in comparison? I don't think I'm up to doing that. That said, I did enjoy select moments in the poem while disliking it on the whole. I would be more specific, except I somehow managed to lose the photocopy Michael Hulse handed out. The perils of sticking things in your back pocket and having too skinny a butt to keep them there.

Episode 398: Third Time's A Charm?

Haven't been in the mood to read or write because of my head, which still feels like a blocked sink, but I did manage to bang out about 150 words for my French homework. Will have to work on the poems and flash fictions over the next couple of days, even though I'd hoped to complete at least the ghazal by tonight and finish the Coleridge reading for Thursday's lecture. Argh. Being sick is awful. You know, that physical state when you're not ill enough to be incapacitated and collapsed in bed, but neither are you fighting fit (or fit as a fiddle, if you prefer a musical simile instead). I think I might be on the road to recovery though, especially if I have a really good night's sleep tonight. Anyway, I took a leap of faith today. Or two. Or three. Have already got one positive outcome, so that was a good start. Three out of three is a bit much to hope for, but hey, a guy can always dream. Right? Was feeling a bit upset earlier in the evening because of some stuff that hadn't gone as I'd expected, but there's nothing I can do about it except try again, through some other avenue.

Episode 397: My Head Feels Like Cotton Wool

Oh dear. I'd forgotten how annoying it is once the nose gets involved. Spent most of the lesson today on the verge of feeling sorry for myself, except for the last couple of minutes when I got an idea for my villanelle and tried to work it out, except that didn't get very far. A hearty dinner involving all the five major food groups helped to stave off misery for a little while, but now I'm sitting in front of my laptop, officially feeling sorry for myself. Dinner was very heavy because I'd hardly eaten anything all day, which is crazy, but it's just one of those bad habits that I've picked up from living without parental supervision. (Well, to be fair, even when I'm in Singapore, I'm prone to skipping breakfast if my mum's not at home to make sure I eat something.) I suppose all I really need is a good night's sleep, I think, and I won't be so cranky tomorrow. I was going to do some work tonight, but my head's going fuzzy and I think it would be quite pointless. The villanelle had reached a dead end anyway, and I'm considering abandoning the current one and starting over with something new. The impasse is mostly because I think I'm not going far enough with bending the rules of a villanelle, although I've already sort of tried. I am no Elizabeth Bishop, unfortunately.

Episode 396: Happy Birthday, Sophie!

The throat infection has finally progressed to affect my nose as well, like I'd been expecting it to for the past few days. It's going to get worse before it gets better, so it's just as well this is happening over the weekend. I took a nap before going to Sophie's party because I just felt so sleepy on the way back home. Ended up waiting about half an hour in the cold for the 12 to Leamington, followed by a significant trudge to Montrose Avenue. (I love you, Sophie, but you live in a ridiculously inaccessible part of Leamington!) There are days, nonetheless, when I wish I lived in Leamington, just because it'd make it that much easier to hang out with people and stay out late. It is a bit annoying having to always bear in mind when the last 12 is headed to Coventry! Tonight was full of really random things though. Like being huggable and people on the floor. Like bumping into John on the bus back. Like being grabbed from the seat behind by Adeline, whom I proceeded to follow around Earlsdon until she made it to Tony's place, which is where I've left her because I have to wake up for my Open Studies lesson tomorrow and I need the sleep. Hope she gets back fine...

Episode 395: Sleepy, Sleepy, Sleepy...

We were writing ghazals today in EN238, which was good fun. David Morley said mine had intensity, the kind that makes you want to know who the poem is addressed to. Of course, I was completely making it up, but it sounded honest. The EN227 lecture and seminar helped to clarify my thoughts on 'Beachy Head', and I feel like I'm in a better position to appreciate the poem now. Hung around on campus for a while more with Alex, Kathy, Laura and Sophie, before heading back home to finish the story for tomorrow's seminar. Managed to do that, but I'm not quite satisfied with it, although Samantha likes it. It'll have to do. Baked myself some chicken for dinner before heading to the Ugly Cousins social. Didn't head over to Leamington with them because I had six hours of sleep yesterday, I'm probably going to have six tomorrow before my arduous fieldwalking session on Saturday, so I figured I should try to get in at least seven tonight. Having finally got Internet this morning though, I'm finding it hard to get myself off my laptop!