Episode 1366: Right, NatWest, As If I Would Call

So NatWest has still not reversed the charges, and all my tweet achieved was getting myself asked to follow the NatWest account and to get someone to call me. Right, as if I'm going to waste my time being put on hold and shunted from person to person, all for my problem not to be resolved in the end. I'm going to give the bank till the end of the week, as the charges still don't have a description in my account yet, which means that NatWest hasn't even figured out what the initial charges were for, let alone got around to reversing them. Now that they've closed their branch on campus, to speak to someone in person would require forking out a few pounds for a bus into the city centre. Not that I can't afford that, but it's the idea of having to spend my money to fix a problem that shouldn't even be one to begin with that rankles. So I'll just go to the branch in Victoria when I'm in London again next week. Or I could go tomorrow, I suppose. Or maybe I'll wake up tomorrow, and all that money will be magically back in my account. (Yeah, I don't think so either.) On a happier note, I've written a review today, which means I'm down to, oh, about a dozen more to go. Little victories though, right?

Episode 1365: NatWest, Do You Hate Me?

So that's three refunds that for whatever reason haven't been credited back to my bank account. (My order of theNewerYorkM fell through because the website somehow didn't add on international shipping.) Have tweeted NatWest, in the hopes of getting an answer by tomorrow. Have also decided that I'll submit my EN911 portfolio next Monday, rather than my EN954 essay. Had thought I would stick to my plan of trying to work on the essay till Thursday, and then if I didn't have at least 1000 words down by then, I'd switch to working on the portfolio. That was before I realised that once I add up all the work I want to include, I already have 3400+ words, which means the portfolio is practically done. Just need to write the 'Dear Mike' series of letters, inspired by Lim Tzay-Chuen's proposal to move the Merlion to Venice for the Biennale in 2005 and reading Joey Comeau's Overqualified, as well as possibly extending either (or both) of the flash fictions I've included, so as to replace a long sonnet sequence. (I like the sequence, just not sure that it meshes very well with the rest of the portfolio, aesthetically speaking.) Then I can bash out the commentary in an hour or two, I think. The major advantage of deciding to hand in the portfolio instead of the essay is that I can immediately start catching up on my reviews, which is crucial as I have more than a dozen titles pending now!

Episode 1364: Buying Literary Magazines...

Just bought myself the current issue of theNewerYork and pre-ordered the next one, which is due for release in August, so hopefully it'll arrive before I leave the country. Also thinking of getting the first issue of death hums, but it depends on whether they ship internationally, so still waiting to hear back on Twitter. Speaking of which, I've resorted to tweeting Ted Baker in order to get their attention regarding my failed orders and non-reversed charges. Looking at their Twitter page, it seems like I'm not the only person having issues with ordering stuff, and I'm hoping that resorting to social media will mean my issue gets resolved quicker. It worked when I last did it, trying to get Virgin Media to sort out terminating the Internet account at my old house. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that these days, I get quite excited about buying literary magazines. Not stuff that's been around for ages and has a huge catalogue of back issues. I'm excited about magazines that are just starting out, and at the risk of sounding like a print fetishist, I really like being able to order a physical magazine and have it arrive in the post. Of course, I love online journals as well, or I wouldn't be involved in editing quite a few of them, and my love for print isn't because I think print is more prestigious than electronic (my one-sentence view on the issue is that there's more than enough room for both to coexist in the literary ecosystem). I just think qualitatively speaking, the reading experience changes depending on whether you're reading off a printed page or a screen, and I like having that variety, I really do.

Episode 1363: Posh

Didn't realise that Laura Wade's Posh had transferred to the West End, until I saw the posters when I was in London on Tuesday. So this afternoon, I caught the matinée at the Duke of York's Theatre. Previously, I'd read the script of the original 2010 Royal Court production (which incidentally, Kit Harrington, who now plays Jon Snow on Game Of Thrones, acted in) and enjoyed Wade's writing, so it was a no-brainer to catch the 2012 West End production. Apart from the fantastic musical interludes used to signal scene changes (maybe the cast should do a musical next?), I appreciated how Wade's characters weren't uniform stereotypes. Not that the play goes about deconstructing these privileged upper class characters, in order to paint them as sympathetic and misunderstood. What it does do is provide nuance, so that these 10 rich young men can't be reduced to being archetypes of the rich-and-horrible. The pacing after the intermission did feel a bit off, as if things got out of hand too quickly and too drastically, but I suppose in a way, that could have been the point. In that moment of crisis, everyone's moral cowardice gets revealed, and it should be uncomfortable for the audience to be made to realise that the one character who has been most repugnant throughout, i.e. Leo Bill's Alistair Ryle, is also the only guy whose behaviour is internally consistent, morally speaking. Doesn't make him any less wrong, but it does give you pause, I think. Of course, the play doesn't let you dwell on that for too long, since the action immediately cuts to Alistair being offered a place in the world of privilege, ushered into the protective echelons of power.

Episode 1362: Further Ted Baker Woes

So when I got into London, I had time to kill before I had to head to Sophie's place to meet up with everyone. Having bought myself something from itsu, I settled down in the middle of Victoria Station for lunch. Figured I'd check out the Ted Baker sale again. True enough, the wallet I wanted seem to be available online again. Tried to order it and the first time, the order just mysteriously became empty. So I tried again, only to be faced with the same problem as last night, where the order failed right after I entered my payment details. Not sure why this was the case, as a quick check of my bank account revealed that my debit card had been charged (and last night's charge hadn't yet been reversed). Have e-mailed customer services, and I'm sure they'll sort it all out. Otherwise though, it's been great to see everyone again! I mean, Facebook's okay, but it's not quite the same thing as real life meetings, is it? Plus once I go back to Singapore for good, it's going to be that much harder to actually see any of my university friends, so it's good to be able to do something like popping down to London for a weekend.

Episode 1361: Ted Baker Sale, Why Do You Tease Me So?

I love Ted Baker, but I usually only buy it when there's a sale. Was originally just going to buy two wallets, but then just as I placed the order, one of them must have gone out of stock and the website hadn't updated yet, so it wasn't successful. Then I was going to buy the remaining wallet, plus two belts and a pair of shorts. Was going so far as to admit to myself that it's time I start buying size 34 again, instead of pretending to myself that I'm still a size 32, plus this new total amount would have got me free shipping. (Yes, I'm aware it's just a cunning ploy to get people to spend beyond a threshold amount.) Guess what? Now the other wallet is no longer available online. So barring the wallets suddenly becoming available online again in the near future, it doesn't look like I'm buying anything during this sale anymore! Really wish I'd acted faster now, as the wallets were really nice. They're both still available in a physical store, it seems, so I suppose there might be a chance that more stock will be made available for ordering through the online store. Sigh...

Episode 1360: Essay Mode Engaged(?)

Was supposed to meet my supervisor at 4 pm, but he wasn't in. I'm wondering if I might've got the day wrong, but no matter. I won't be able to meet him until the end of term, and I won't have written anything new by then either, since I'll either be writing my essay or new poems addressed to the Merlion during its journey to Venice. Yeah, that's the idea I had last night. Sort of inspired by Joey Comeau's Overqualified, a novel told through a series of cover letters, so I want the letters to tell a sort of wider story. (Side note: I read The Complete Lockpick Pornography on my coach to London yesterday, and it was awesome!) That's the plan anyway. Might find that the poems are boring, or there isn't enough material for a sequence. Won't know until I start writing. My only concern is whether the accompanying commentary would end up overlapping too much with my dissertation, but I suppose if the overlaps only consist of citing historical facts, I should be fine. Now trying to decide if I want to read David Kennedy's Elegy to prepare for my essay, or Bill Clegg's Portrait Of An Addict As A Young Man, which arrived today in the post.

Episode 1359: Launch Of Penning Perfumes

So my first London trip this month went well! Texted Sophie before I got in, so we had coffee and hung out for a couple of hours. Saw this hardback in Oxfam Bloomsbury titled All The Sad Young Literary Men, Keith Gessen's debut novel. A quick look online suggests that it's either trying too hard or readers are too unintelligent these days, both being equally likely and neither precluding the other. Will order from Amazon UK so that I can return it if it really does prove insufferable to read. Then it was off to the Penning Perfumes launch, which is possibly the best-smelling publication I'll ever own. The event, hosted by Odette Toilette, was great fun, so I'm really glad I made the effort to attend. It was also lovely to finally meet Lindsey Holland (it's like I'm collecting face-to-face meetings with my editors before I leave the UK for good!) and to get introduced to Tori Truslow, after Claire Trévien saying several times in the past that we should be. Had a good chat with Emily Hasler as well, which has given me some ideas for what I want to put in my portfolio due in September. There's still a small possibility that I might actually just blitz through that next week, instead of writing and handing in my EN954 essay, but it mostly depends on how prepared I am by this weekend. Also heard back from Sean Colletti at The Camarillo Review, and he's happy for me to contribute reviews. Am actually wondering if I could offer to do one of Penning Perfumes, since I was at the event too. For now though, I think the essay needs to remain my top priority, right?

Episode 1358: A Sort-of Reading

This afternoon, I was going to attend a reading by Charles Boyle in the Chaplaincy, but in the end, only two people showed up, me and Lemma. So instead of a reading, what transpired was a sort of informal chat with him and Michael Hulse, and David Morley, when he came by. Also got a bit of an inside look at the making of this autumn's Poetry Review, partly concerning the difficulty of reviewing in print the large volume of poetry pamphlets that get published every year. Was interesting to see the pamphlets that're going to be reviewed in the next issue, as some of them are pamphlets that I'm hoping to review myself, either for Sabotage Reviews (Knives Forks and Spoons stuff) or The Cadaverine (Richie McCaffery's Spinning Plates). Recognised most of the other presses that popped up too, like Oystercatcher, Salt, Smith/Doorstop. Am going to order both of Boyle's poetry collections from Faber & Faber, once I can get another £10 Amazon UK voucher via Valued Opinions. Didn't leave the 'reading' empty-handed though, as I asked Michael to let me have the back issues of The Warwick Review that I'm missing. Must remember to take out a subscription before I go back to Singapore for good...

Episode 1357: I Caved...

Caved this morning and sent my supervisor the thing I did for Introduction to Research Methods before leaving for church. Figured there was no point in wasting time worrying about a pseudo-deadline when there's a real one looming at the end of the month. (Two weeks to write 6000 words is entirely doable, and I'm excited to get going with this one anyway. Have decided I'm going to put the dissertation out of my mind until this essay is done. One thing at a time, right?) This did mean that I could enjoy the rest of the day stress-free though. Watched another episode of Downton Abbey after the morning service, then met up with Phil and Sarah for a drink in Costa, and pool afterwards. Then after the evening service, I discovered another item on the Varsity menu that I love: the Dirty Rocky. Way too much food, but so much chicken goodness! (To be honest, it's really just the batter they use that's really yummy. That and the hot sauce.) Also, in preparation for reading Joey Comeau's newest book The Complete Lockpick Pornography (which is really two thematically related novels being published in one volume, Lockpick Pornography and We All Got It Coming), I've started rereading Overqualified, his novel told through a series of cover letters. It's heartbreakingly funny, and I definitely recommend it to everyone.