foggy fudgy walks in coffee socks

And thus passed 2 months without a spare moment. even now, time is a bit of a struggle if i'm honest. bear with me while i update a bit.

As the PhD moves into full swing, i'm presenting at various meetings within the school and at supporting companies, on what it is that my project is on. this is not easy when there is absolutely no data at the moment, and leaves me reviewing what else has been done in the field, why i'm going to do what it is that i'm going to do, and how. the first one went...interestingly, several questions raised issues that i had mis-named several phenomena and got others mixed up, but no worries. the second, at the company, went swimmingly, and questions were successfully fielded. the third is tomorrow. actually i'm quite looking forward to it, or at least i'm not at all bothered by it.



Christmas came and went, with much fog rolling down the hills and over the geese, and with several in-school christmas events, one very dressed up dinner, one dressed up lunch, one postgrad evening social which went very well even if i do say so myself (it was i that organised it), and one messed up cycling all-you-can-eat chinese. and it was all good. 3 kilos gained in the bag for me :)

Christmas itself was enjoyed with family, one nephew not quite being able to recognise me straight off, which i'll put down to my 2 year absence. and while we had no christmas tree we did have polish food. oh the barszcz and the pierogi and the cakes... by the time we were done with the supper i couldn't breathe in fully i was that full. for 3 days!


New years was spent in devon, with the wonders that is the bideford new years fancy dress party, only we didn't go to it. what with the weather being as unpredictable as it was and the house being so warm and inviting we just stayed in. the week passed with much work of the reading and writing variety, some refreshing strolls along the coastline, and much complaining about the smell of the dog :) bleugh. for christmas my parents treated me to a coffee grinder and many stripy socks, and i treated myself to a new set of forks for my bike. oh lovely suspension. the difference it makes is astounding. i'm looking forward to this weekend when i get to really test them out, in frozen solid wales (we have snow in nottingham as of last night!). am thoroughly looking forward to that, if a little scared...


The first postgrad students association "day out" under my guidance was to lincoln, to the christmas markets! armed with a very handy handbook made by melanie, 40-odd of us descended on the markets en masse to see the delights of thousands of stalls and fairground rides and cheeses and fudges. oh the food was good. and there was pie. we stopped in at the cathedral for monce pies and carols, the cathedral used in "the da vinci code". which was nice. i believe a good time was had by all, and i have to say i was pleasantly surprised with how smoothly the whole operation went. now i have the liverpool day out to look forward to, the weekend after next. ticket sales are lready into the coach-load so it may well be a 2-coach event. nerve-wracking though that may be. hmm. liverpool for my birthday. beatles magical tour, anyone?


Last week or the week before was rachel's birthday, and so to the flat below (not hers, for her flatmates kindly leave raw meats out on the dining table there) for a little of the old party. naturally we advertised this in the usual way, a poster inviting all placed on the door by the front entrance, and naturally the powers -that-be came days in advance to warn us we couldn't have it, and on the event itself telling us to stop it. which we fought all the way. now let me state this: in our contract, it states "any party myst be by permission of the hall tutor". we have no hall tutor, unless (s)he lives in the broom-cupboard under the stairs, in which case i insist on being allowed to play with edd the duck, so no problem there. the contract also states "you must inform the neighbours". well, we are the neighbours, so no problem there either. so when mr UPP (the power-that-is) came to tell us that "you can't be having this party" we retorted with "oh yes we can" while holding a big knife (cake knife, admittedly), and then had a good long mini-argument with him. the upshot is that now there are fake party messages going up every day, and the real ones are saved for online advertising. to future nottingham postgrads, cloister house? don't do it. community nice, broadgate park UPP not. but then, what can you do?

And in other news, there has not been a single day this year yet that i've not been coughing or sniffling. having caught a cold right before new years and a new one as i was heading out of the old one. i am now in my 26th day of laboured swallowing. but apparantly my lung capacity is still above average for my stats. which is nice to know.