The · Intense · Humming · Of · Evil

So I'm back in Ireland.  Eighth week was fun, panicked, but fun.  Had my final tutorial cancelled on the Friday, but still had one on Tuesday and one on Thursday.  So, I figured I'd get all my work done by Tuesday and have Wednesday free for the garden party.  Planning is great fun, of course, but things never work out that way.  So Wednesday involved three hundred pounds of strawberries and more sandwiches than anyone could ever eat.  Many kudos to both the JCR committee and its groupies for helping out with the preparations.  Garden party in the afternoon, where I drank a few glasses of champagne, ran to JCR Prescom and tried to make valid points about rents and hardship without slurring too much.  Back for the last hour, drank far too much champagne, had a very awkward conversation with someone who drunkenly confessed to having a crush on me since first year.  It's hard to handle that diplomatically while simultaneously propping oneself up and trying not to make a tit of oneself while the Principal is around.  Off to post-Prescom drinks, which were extremely unnecessary, given the amount I had already had to drink.  May have been rather undiplomatic in what I said to people, but I can't be sure.  Thankfully, that little sober part of me that kicks in after a few drinks took me home and put me to bed with minimal hassle.  

Thursday morning, woken by two alarm clocks, feeling like I'd gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson.  Crawled out of bed, wrote a presentation, went to a tute.  Will finish later, post-Doctor Who.

I don't write in this as much as I used to.  There's some negative correlation between the amount of things I actually do and the amount I write in LJ.  Yesterday was my first full day off of the term, and it was fantastic.  I had twelve hours' sleep, dozed in bed for a bit with Antic Hay, went to brunch.  Saturated on my way down to the SSL to drop off books, but it could have been worse.  Down to the river, where we went searching for Merton boathouse for aaages because we heard they had free Pimms, although I wasn't terribly keen on the idea and felt we probably should have been supporting BNCBC.  Managed to miss the Childe of Hale rowers due to the mammoth queue for the loo, but afterwards had lots of drunken conversations with the Principal, boaties, non-boaties, Claire's friend Kate from home, etc.  I thorougly approve of being drunk in the middle of the afternoon.  It's been a while.  Cafe Opium (if you ever want to take me out, anyone, you know where to go) then out to the PT which was ridiculously crowded and full of inebriated boaties with their shirts off.  Cider and black.  Bed by one again.

Today so far has featured the SSL, Mass and free icecream at the Union.  Could definitely be worse.  Am skrewed for work, but it's nothing new, I'll pull through.  And Kim Gordon's interviewed in the Sunday Times Style today.

Last night was odd. I don't go out much anymore, so when I do it just gets silly.   It was he_hetaira's birthday (well, fake birthday, she's a whole day older), so we went to Holywells for fancy cocktails.  All terribly sophisticated, although apparently I looked like I was in a business meeting.  Lots of people were there, had a few good chats, ignored rmugford's gaze when she was insinuating hard.  I would demand an apology, but I'm unlikely to get one :-)  Went to the Zodiac with Heather, met lots of lovely IMSoc people on the way back from the Decemberists gig, who didn't come back with us.  The youth of today.  Massive massive queue, but we got in around midnight, drank expensive Stella and spent most of the night tramping up and down the stairs trying to avoid songs we'd already heard.  We got I Predict A Riot twice, with Every Day I Love You Less and Less.  We heard both I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor and Scummy twice, although to be fair, we did get Cannonball by the Breeders twice too.  The DJ in Transformation at one point made the inspired (read: mental) decision to play Killing In The Name Of and then segue it into Love Me Do.  I'm not sure what I think of non-student nights, everyone there was either fifteen and trying desperately to stay in, or thirty-five and reliving their student days by thrashing wildly around the dancefloor.  Some guy at the bar told me I should get contact lenses, and that he so happened to be a contact-lens salesman.  I like my geek chic, thank you very much.  The onion rings at the Chicken Shack are amazing, although very much in the I'll-regret-eating-these-in-the-morning sense.

Right, work.  I've got two meetings tonight (not including the IMSoc meeting), four tomorrow, one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday.  I should probably finish my NHS essay.

It worries me that I'm too busy to update LiveJournal. That can't be good. Rob said at brunch that I looked 'tired'. If my Doctor Who trivia serves me rightly, that sort of comment brings down Prime Ministers...

You could read about my London jolly in the Cherwell, if you cared. Apparently I look 'five stone overweight'. Thank you Amy, it makes getting up at half five, drinking copious amounts of coffee and running up seventeen million escalators at Westminster Tube station completely worthwhile. Still, the rent petition got around two thousand signatures, gives me hope that the student body as a whole are behind our campaign to battle rent rises.

Speaking of this, I'm convinced that the College are trying to distract me from pursuing this too hard. This may be acute paranoia, or it could be that the welfare meeting and two meetings I have to go to with the Principal are intended to distract me from my meeting with the Bursar. Still, with a JCR meeting on Sunday and a committee meeting on Monday, they don't have that hard a job.

Apologies for missing the AGM on Wednesday. I really intended to stay, but I was full of coffee and lacking sleep. Had a deep and meaningful with Mark, after which I realised that I probably should watch what I say on LJ. He knew rather more than I wanted him to about the last few weeks, and had heard things that weren't true also, which wasn't ideal. Still, I'm glad we talked, he's probably the person who knows me best in Oxford, and I'm finally comfortable around him again. I'm not at the stage of finding him a girlfriend yet, but I'm sure it'll come. He's a good catch!

Yesterday evening was pretty odd. Went straight from a tutorial to Prescom and dinner at St. Benet's to a Sleater-Kinney gig. There is no way one can dress appropriately for all of this. S-K were excellent, although I still maintain that their gig in the Temple Bar Music Centre in Dublin last year was the best gig I've ever been to. The highlight for me was their cover of 'I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight' by Richard and Linda Thompson. I'm a not-so-closet folkie and a massive Richard Thompson fan, and thought it was an inspired version of the song.

Trying to write an essay on different funding mechanisms for health care, and it's gotten me thinking about the NHS. It's pretty fashionable to condemn it as outdated, running at capacity and inefficient, but it's actually a fantastic primary care service. The ideas of a small set prescription charge, free contraception and free doctor's appointments are not to be sniffed at. Britain still spends a substantially smaller percentage of GDP on the NHS than other OECD countries, although that's due to rise by 2007/08. The Irish system has teh same problem of waiting times, with people spending days on trolleys in hospitals rather than in wards, but we can expect to pay nearly E50 for an appointment and up to E42 a month for medicines prescribed. We're pretty lucky to have the NHS, really.

I just checked my pidge, to find a mix CD in it. My name's written on it, nothing else. Now, I didn't sign up to any mixtape exchange this term, and I haven't heard anything from anyone. I'm in Frewin computer room so I can't listen to it because these don't have sound and my computer's STILL broken, but the track titles suggest lots of jazz. I know who I hope it's from, but I think that's unlikely, as it's been put into my pidge this afternoon. Any clues? Not that it's not exciting...

Cabaret last night. I was going to sing "Maybe This Time", but given current circumstances, am rather glad I didn't. Got dressed up in my ridiculously cheap dress, ended up singing "She Moved Through The Fair", a very emotional Irish folk song, which I was terrified I didn't do justice to. It was unaccompanied, Hall was packed, people were very quiet. Two songs with the girls, including "Summertime" where I had the lead bit. I used to always sing soprano because it's generally the tune and I'm too stupid to sing harmony. Anyway, the cabaret and acoustic night were a great way to wind up the Arts Festival.

Is it possible to be dumped when you're not really seeing someone? I think the question is probably academic. The Boy came over late last night. He said he didn't want a relationship, that he was "shit-scared". Charming. He asked if that was OK, I said yes, of course, but the sort of "yes" that obviously means "no". I don't have time to waste on something that may or may not go anywhere. If I'm meant to be dating someone, in a getting-to-know-them stylee, I don't want to sit around in my room and pull. I'm a very straightforward girl, I like things to be one or the other. Anyway, I have very little in common with someone who's not prepared to take a risk. So I emailed him today clarifying my position, and the response was a fairly unequivocal "I'm sorry I'm not prepared to get into any sort of relationship but I hardly know you and I certainly don't want to commit to anything yet." Annoyed, more than anything else, if I didn't like the guy, it wouldn't be an issue. Still, it's very soon after Mark, I don't need to worry about impending spinsterhood just yet.

They played My Bloody Valentine in the PT tonight. This made me far happier than it should.

Essay due in : - 39 minutes
Books read for said essay: 3 (not enough)
Time spent with the Bursar : 90 minutes
Warning of this, due to being in a tutorial: 31 minutes
Minutes of public economic work done so far today due to lectures, meetings etc: 0
Minutes until panto run-through: 109
Minutes until panto: 169
Dates passed up because of said panto: 1
Dinner consumed: 0
Social lives that Christine has: 0

It's not getting better. Panto, all-nighter, breakfast with the Vice-Chancellor, student papers to see what they've printed this week, essay essay essay, OUSU Council, tutorial, library for new books, reading one million pages of information about rent, writing paper on rent, bed.