Episode 181: Short People

Got together with Hui Lin, Sarah and Shen Ting to practise the song. Ended up harmonising random songs in the practice room. Worked rather well, especially given the acoustics of an enclosed space. We went back to Hui Lin's place in Tocil to make dinner, which again proves my theory that I eat far better when I'm eating at other people's places. Joanna came over too, and as is usual for Singaporeans, we talked all through dinner and for an hour or so after it. The back door to my hall of residence has had its lock changed, and I have no idea why. I've been spending a fair bit of time since I got back to my room writing my brief review of The Reality Street Book Of Sonnets. I've decided that I like individual poets within the anthology, but as a whole, it doesn't work for me because I'm unconvinced that it's more than 'just another modern sonnet anthology' that 'delves more thoroughly than ever before into the myriad ways poets have stretched, deconstructed and re-composed the venerable form' of the sonnet. So I've cheekily hidden three bastardised sonnets within my review, one each of Petrarchan, Shakespearean and curtal. The last is a form invented by Gerard Manley Hopkins, who only wrote three documented examples of it, one being 'Pied Beauty', which Mr Purvis once showed my class in JC. A curtal sonnet, according to Hopkins, is three-quarters of a Petrarchan sonnet. I'm hoping that my review still reads sensibly as prose, so I'll probably show it to a few people first before sending it off to Michael Hulse.

Episode 180: This Post Is Obviously A Sonnet

Woke up just past noon. Pottered around for a bit on my laptop before I finally made a late lunch, where I used up that can of curry and that packet of gnocchi that've been lying around for ages. Finished reading Small Favor last night, and it was awesome! Between the two wizards named Harry, Dresden could totally take Potter down in a fight. Can't wait for the next book in the series to come out now! Have now moved on to reading The Reality Street Book Of Sonnets, edited by Jeff Hilson, which is the book I'm meant to be reviewing. Having read the introductory essay, I have just one, albeit important, bone to pick, and it will be blindingly obvious to any moderately discerning reader. If this volume is intended to serve as an overview of 'linguistically innovative sonnets', why has no attempt been made, somewhere in all of Hilson's ranting about the deficiencies of other sonnet anthologies, to define what exactly qualifies everything in this anthology to be a sonnet? Some of it is recognisable as such, but at times, Hilson's inclusions call for a suspension of disbelief that I'm reluctant to concede. I really want to like this book, and I'm sure that once I've read it through I will be more forgiving in my actual review, but for now I can't help but feel that by marketing itself as a compendium of 'the myriad ways poets have stretched, deconstructed and re-composed the venerable form', somehow it's trying to have its cake and eat it too. Case in point: What the hell is a 'free-verse sonnet'? To label something as such, surely one must have some sort of standard against which to judge if the poem qualifies as a sonnet. I'm not saying we have to be completely reactionary and define the sonnet as only 14 lines of rhyming iambic pentameter, only that there must be some criteria. Otherwise, what's to stop me singling this post out as one of the 'prose sonnets' that Hilson so clearly approves of in his introduction?

Episode 179: Harry Dresden Is Ridiculously Cool

My feet are still aching from all the walking I've been doing over the past couple of days. Hence I've been in my room all day, except for the occasional trip to the kitchen and the laundrette. I've washed and dried my G-Star RAW stuff, so they've shrunk a little and fit just right now. My summer wardrobe is looking sharp indeed. Am watching my last episode of Doctor Who for the day. A self-imposed limit, as I want to finish reading Small Favor before getting started on The Reality Street Book Of Sonnets, which I'm meant to be reviewing for The Warwick Review. Have decided to start working on that despite it being the least urgent piece of work I've got, simply because I want to get cracking on something small first. If anything, the sense of achievement from finishing my short review should be enough to spur me on to finish another essay by the end of next week. For now though, Harry Dresden and his motley crew will be keeping me company tonight. I swear the series is practically tailor-made for television adaptation and that the people at the Sci Fi Channel were idiots for not continuing beyond one season. Paul Blackthorne looks a bit older than I'd imagined Harry to be, but he still made a fantastic Harry. Oh well...

Episode 178: NatWest, You Suck!

The day started so well, with a lovely breakfast at Chernise's place and a walk around the lake behind Rootes after that. Then I borrowed Keegan's university card, so I have all the books that I need for my essays, at least for now. Haven't got anything for the WSC module yet! My good mood was ruined by NatWest though. I am still futilely trying to understand why my total and available balances don't match up. I've tried to get them to clear it up twice already, but both times, I've received explanations that make sense superficially, but once I look at my transaction history again, they don't hold water anymore. I suspect that I've just used my debit card for something, forgotten about it, and the transaction's just taking a really long time to get through the system. I'm annoyed though! My G-Star RAW stuff has arrived, as well as the last book I need to complete my The History Of Middle-earth series. Have yet to start reading Small Favor, but I will do that once I've caught up with the latest episode of Gossip Girl. I am going to try and have a productive Thursday evening/night for once though, since I won't be hitting Varsity. Perhaps I'll get started on the stuff I need to do for The Warwick Review. Sounds like a plan?

Episode 177: Feasting

Went down this morning to put a hold on our house. Hopefully, everything else on that front continues to go smoothly. Went to Topman to exchange one of my rings, and then we all headed to McDonald's for food. At least that was the original plan. Instead, we got sidetracked and ended up at KFC across the road! I've missed KFC, although here they only do the original version, not crispy, which is what I really love. Got back to Cannon Park just after Dan Leong and his friend arrived. My Amazon purchases did reach him in time after all, which made me very, very happy. Time to settle down with another instalment of The Dresden Files tomorrow! Slightly annoyed that Roc has decided to publish the paperback edition in a different size though, even if it probably means that Jim Butcher is officially one of their more important authors. Chernise and I brought them to Kenilworth, where we did the obligatory visit to Time For Tea. Wandered around for a bit after that, as it was a really nice day, sun shining down and all. We even did a stroll around and inside Kenilworth Castle, although my handphone died about halfway through and so I only have limited pictures. I expect it's going to look really picturesque once the restoration work is complete. Not that it isn't stunning already, of course. I guess castles are pretty cool after all...

We got back to campus in time to catch the screening of Revolutionary Road at the Arts Centre, which was really good. I think Kate Winslet was great, although I'm a little less certain about Leonardo DiCaprio's performance. As a whole though, I thought it was a very convincing portrayal of the cracks that lie beneath suburban bliss and that threaten to undo us. Certainly some ideas to think about in relation to the creative writing I have to do over Easter break. At some points, I found myself thinking that if only I could write some dialogue like that for Peter Blegvad's unit, I would probably get a First. We went over to Tesco afterwards to shop for our late dinner. I bought lots of fruits for myself, which I'm going to savour over the next week or so. Making dinner actually took longer than we realised, so it was pretty late by the time we actually sat down for a sumptuous dinner. I helped to put together the salad and mash the potatoes. Haha! It's quite sad that the only times I eat well are when other people have me over for a meal. I guess I should stick to my plan for summer vacation?

Episode 176: Money Woes

I suspect I might have incurred an overdraft fee by accident. Either that or there's some mysterious payment that has yet to be deducted from my account. Will have to clarify it at the bank sometime tomorrow between settling housing in Coventry and meeting Dan Leong back at Cannon Park. I have done some calculations, and I figure I probably have just enough money to see me through the next 15 weeks until I fly back to Singapore. I freely admit I got a bit carried away the past couple of days with the whole spending thing. Oh well. As my current Facebook status says, I'm going to look great while living on a shoestring budget. From now until Summer Term begins, no more frivolous expenses like junk food I shouldn't be eating, books I won't be reading in the immediate future and clothes I won't be needing any time soon. Kind of doesn't apply to Threadless tees though, I guess, since I'm using my credit card to buy those and paying back my dad out of my POSB account. Went back to Birmingham today with Bella and Sarah, where I bought a Ted Baker vest, which has a green inner lining that I think looks pretty cool, but which people like Eugene will probably consider a sartorial travesty. I didn't find the Zara leather jacket, which is just as well in hindsight, since I'm skating dangerously close to busting my budget. Seriously, no more unnecessary expenditure. Whoever reads this, please remind me about this constantly, in person and/or on Facebook. Thanks!

Episode 175: Library Woes

Can I just say that I love the RapidShare download manager? Anyway, I went to the Library to photocopy some pages from this book that I had to return and then to pick up another one. I'm going to have to repeat this whole cycle over the next few days, until I've collected all my books that are being held for me. I suspect I can pretty much return most of the stuff on Freud and psychoanalysis, as I've got too much material as it is, and it's usually only tangentially related at best. Was going to start writing my essay for The Warwick Review pathway, but I couldn't get the moving shelves to work, so I couldn't get the second book that I need, even though Keegan had kindly agreed to let me use his card (that he has no need for anyway because MORSE students don't write essays). So I'm not sure what I'm going to start writing tonight, probably will end up just reading. Have got to wake up to attend a workshop tomorrow on The Tempest anyway. All I wanted initially was more information on it, but the person I e-mailed seems to have assumed I'm turning up, so I guess I shall. Then it's off to Birmingham again, to see if my leather jacket is still hanging on the rack, waiting for me to come and pick it up. I hope it is. Threadless is having a sale again, and I've picked out 19 t-shirts so far, which I definitely need to whittle down. Will have to ask Shirley for comments when I see her online again...

Episode 174: Gobstopper-ed

As I begin typing this, I am sucking on one of the huge gobstoppers I bought yesterday at Selfridges. It's at least 3 cm across, but because I have a big mouth, I can still shove the sweet to the side to talk to people, if there were people in my room to talk to. I'm quite sure the Science Centre back home used to sell these, but I could be wrong about that. Randomly, a big mouth is also useful for things like wisdom teeth, which I have never had to extract despite the army dentist's blithe suggestion that I have all four of them extracted when they weren't causing me any problems at all. I purchased a three-day premium RapidShare membership last night, and 100 GB of additional download traffic. The servers were down for about an hour earlier, which kind of annoyed me, but everything's back to normal now. On the musical side of things, I have been listening to Måns Zelmerlöw's debut album a fair bit, and I really like 'Cara Mia' and 'Brother Oh Brother', which are now officially on my list of great pop songs. The videos're quite dumb, but the songs themselves sit very comfortably between pop and electronic territory, just the way I like my music. Now I'm going to tear myself away from the laptop to read Wai-chew Sim's Globalization And Dislocation In The Novels Of Kazuo Ishiguro, which I hope to return to the Library by Wednesday at the latest. Have also found another book that may be useful for The Warwick Review essay, so I've got to get that too. Monday beckons, and so does all my work...

Episode 173: Students And The City

Was in Birmingham today with Bella, Chloe, Keegan and Samantha, where I resisted the temptation to buy a sexy leather jacket from Zara. It was pretty expensive, and I figured that I could find stuff like that from Zara if I ever went to Spain for a holiday, where it would logically be cheaper. The jacket was really nice though! I can't help but feel a bit sorry that I haven't bought it. Maybe I'll try looking for similar stuff online, since now I know what my size is for jackets. Or I'll look for something when I'm in Coventry or Leamington Spa, hunting for a backpack to carry my stuff for the Wales trip. We tried to give Keegan a makeover when we were in French Connection at the Bullring, and that worked out quite well, even if he didn't end up buying anything. What a difference some decent clothes can make! I didn't add to my wardrobe, which is just as well, since I've already spent so much on new jeans and trousers, and I don't need new tops at all. Still keep thinking about the leather jacket though. Sigh. I'm wondering if I should ask around to check if anyone wants to go to Birmingham in the next couple of days, and if the jacket's still there (there was only one size M left on the rack), it's meant to be. Haha! I did buy Cast Of Shadows by Kevin Guilfoile, which I think I've seen in Kinokuniya before but never made up my mind to buy. I only got it because it was going at a reduced price in Waterstone's that was even lower than what Amazon UK would have offered. Also bought a lot of gobstoppers from the basement of Selfridges, and a huge box of jelly beans in 50 flavours, which I'm going to save for until I get back to Singapore. So, anyone up for a trip to Birmingham?

Episode 172: Et Les Vacances Commencent...

I had my last chicken caesar salad for lunch today at the Kami Lounge, which is closing down from tomorrow. I'm going to miss that place! Not as much as Lucy though, that I'm sure of. Spent a couple of hours, finishing up the book of Paul Celan's poetry that I've been putting off for so long. I really enjoyed it, in case anyone's wondering. There's something very clearly broken about the language, and it comes across in all the poems, not just 'Todesfuge' ('Death Fugue'). Had to return the book because I needed to collect one of my books that was on hold, but I will definitely be borrowing that volume of poetry again. It's encountering poets like Celan and Rilke that makes me feel like I should learn German, to be able to appreciate the poetry in its original language. Now I've just finished watching the latest episode of Skins, and I think the current series is finally starting to live up to its predecessors. The four-way relationship mess between Cook, Effy, Freddie and Katie is a bit tiresome, so I'm glad that's actually going to be worked out by the end of this series. Have been giving some thought to academic stuff in regard to next year, and I think I might take up an Open Studies Certificate, specifically, studying another language at the Language Centre. At the moment, I'm thinking of Arabic.