generalities

There was going to be a post on apathy before this one. There still might. But I honestly couldn't be bothered to post it. And that is the truth. Not a clever word game. Where is the world coming to?

Anyway, today is a day of bothering about things. And a day of packing. For since I have the next four days off, (thank you timetable god!) I'm headed to Sussex-shire (hmmm. Uni is getting to my head- not every county has a shire in it. Pity. It is a nice word. Sounds nice. Makes a nice sussurus. (sp?) And horses. Shire horses really are the nicest horses going. almost as nice as those shaggy cows with the horns. Now they are lovely!

Back to life now I have sat and thought about cows for a bit. I love listening to conversations. Or hearing people talk about conversations they have with other people. You pick up some real gems. And I don't mean gossip. Some friends of mine were talking about square numbers when I was dozing in between lectures (disaster there. Actually snored IN the lecture. Again. Meh. need more sleep of a Thursday night.) When I heard one friend say to another "Sod square numbers. I like circles!" Well. That gave me a fit of the giggles - as you might imagine (especially if you know me. For those who don't, I have an active sense of humour and I giggle a lot.) Mostly, I must admit, because when people say something like that, it brings to mind some of the more blond things that I have said over the years. And yes. That DOES include the Dorset rainforest episode.

Anyway. Packing. Because, as I said before I got distracted by cows (a legit reason: they were wondering past on tother side of the road) I have the next four days off, I am heading down to Sussex - west, not east - to visit my Nan. So packing. Must remember the computer... Yes indeed. What makes me laugh is that I am having to goto Sussex via London which is normal, and York, which isn't. Leeds being a sight closer and the train from York going through there anyway. Fine. OK. Lets go with it. so far, every time I have gone home or come back up here on the train, something has happened. Like my suitcase falling apart. Literally, and on the underground at that. Cows blocking the line so as my train was cancelled, so I missed my booked connection. Or falling asleep and adding a good hour/ two hours onto my journey time because of it. it will be interesting to see if anything of the like happens between here and Chichester, where Nan lives, and before it has always been between here and Polegate, where I live. I'm starting to get excited now though: I haven't seen any of my family since term started. and didn't think I would be until Christmas. Thank goodness I haven't got an overly heavy workload at this moment in time. Although I will be bringing work with me.

Also. I have just started a very expensive hobby. LARP. Live Action Role-Play. Basically I get to run around on a field with a big sword and hit people with it. A foam sword I hasten to add. Soon to be latexed. I really can't wait for that to really kick off next year when things get a little warmer. It really will be fun.

And as for knitting. Well that really is starting to get on my goat. On my forth pattern for a woolly hat. And this one not going exactly to plan either. rescue remedy: go and talk to Nan about it. She'll know what to do. So that is what I shall do. And on the subject of Circle numbers, does 11 count? because that is a nice number indeed.

NB. Have just noticed: I start an awful lot of sentences with and. That surely isn't good grammar. And don't call me Shirley!

Birthdays

Hya! Sorry about the gap between the posts. I would say I was busy, but to tell the truth, that would be a lie. I haven't been terribly busy at all. (well, not too busy to write a post, at least).
Today is a friend's birthday. And she has come up with the clever idea of adding all the numbers in your age up. So today, she is nine. And all of this year, I am two.

This explains to me why at certain ages, like when people goto university, people's mental ages seem to lower, sometimes dramatically. I know mine did. I came to uni, and I can enjoy far more childish things now than I did. But then I did go from ten to two when I had my twentieth birthday.

Anyway, my friend is having a party this evening. And because it is her ninth birthday, we are having a proper party for her. With Jelly, and ice cream, and cake, and not to mention the trifle. And so, for an evening we shall regress into a childish state and revel in it. Because we all love to be young again, if only for a short while. Why is this? Because it brings back the memories of our childhood. And gives us a chance to be nostalgic.

I writing this and remembering one of my birthdays, I'm not sure which one where I was promised a barbecue by my parents. The day came, and I was all excited about it, and it tipped it down. Absolute buckets it was. So my dad took an umbrella, stood out in the rain, and cooked the meat whilst my friends and I played in the living room. I have often thought that I have an amazing dad, and this pretty much confirms it for me.

I am happy today. Cheerful. Looking forwards to this evening, and I've had a fairly relaxing day. So I sang in the shower. Loudly. I take this opportunity to apologise to my flat mates, should they read this. Why is it that people do this? Why, when a lot of people refuse to sing anywhere else (I am not one of those, by the way.) will they sing in the shower? I personally have no idea. But maybe it is the water. Do I think it makes my voice sound nicer? Maybe it does. Maybe it is the lack of audience. Actually, that last one will probably clench it for a lot of people. But what do people sing? Personally, I've sang quite quite a wide range. from Queen to the Seekers, to Steeleye Span, and on occaision, the odd bit of Bach and Beethoven. Well, hummed. But by far the largest collection of songs that I've sang, both in and out of the shower is WWI and II songs. And I have no idea why. This morning, a friend put the tune for The Quartermaster's Store in my head. been humming it ever since. But yes. I wonder why I sing so much of the war stuff. because I really don't know. This is a mystery. And mysteries are what keep us going as a race. Whats out there? How can we find out?

Reach for the stars! You might just catch the moon.

Weather

I am British. And being British, there are some things that I (stereotypically) like. Like tea. We all have our quirks as a country. One of ours is that we like our tea so much that we are the only country to have to get power from another country - in our case France - at the end and in the breaks of popular television shows, to cope with everyone putting the kettle on. Even that phrase is soothing - putting the kettle on. I also like Morris dancing, and queues. Well, I don't like standing in queues, but I like people to be in a queue if the occasion warrants it. It's more orderly. I also like moaning about the weather.

The weather in Britain is more than a purely physical thing. Here, it has an entity. A personality. We talk and moan about it as if we had gone to school with it, and it had been both our best friend, and our worse enemy. If it is sunny, we moan about the heat and then switch straight to "but isn't it lovely that we have a nice clear day, so rare." to "I hope this doesn't carry on. I can't cope with a drought."

British weather is a changeable as it comes. Look out of the window and it is hoying it down, to borrow a phrase from a friend. So you get all ready to go out in the rain and by the time you get to the door, it is as if the rain had never happened.

If there is nothing else to moan about, people will moan about the weather. But are we really able to cope with it? It is defiantly a regional thing. For example, back home, on the south coast, snow is mostly unheard of. The sea warmth, wet, and I guess, saltiness make sure that doesn't happen. One of my most enduring memories of college is battling my way through the snow on a bike, to get to college, cold wet and shivering to be informed that most of the teachers couldn't get in so college was canceled. The snow melts, we go in after the weekend to be quite calmly informed by our northern Spanish teacher, and Scottish physics teacher that they were disgusted because at home that wouldn't even have been seen as a proper snowfall, let alone cancel the college day and cause all the havoc that it did for us.

And then there are the water companies. Despite having more than sufficient water falling from the sky in it's various forms even during a dry winter we are hit, almost unfailingly every summer with a hosepipe ban. Is this because our scorching hot weather dries out to reservoirs? Usually, no. There are nice big reservoirs with lots of water in them, nicely landscaped, boats and fish and yadda yadda yadda. And they let it escape. If not out of the reservoir itself, then through the maze of leaky pipes and poor fitting that they are constantly repairing. I forget the amount of water lost in greater London alone, but the figure is staggeringly high. It strikes me as shutting the stable door after the horse has escaped.

So we moan. We moan when it is fine because we turn pink and peal, and our infrastructure can't deal with it. We moan when it isn't fine, well, because it isn't fine. and that is a freak of natural situation. we are stuck halfway between the hot and the cold. And we are an island. Islands usually equal wet. unless you are like Australia, in which case you are wet around the edges because you are so blooming massive.

I like moaning. It is a common factor most people you speak to will have in common. And since I am usually a fairly sunny person, well, at least I like to think so, a little moaning will usually be taken in good regard. Because I am just as likely to be disgustingly cheerful about it. Which I have been told, doesn't bear thinking about in a Monday morning.