School stuff

I’m sick again. And I know why. It’s because there is no friggin’ heat in the building! Okay, after the gas leak they had to turn it off. I get that. But apparently they’ve tried turning it back on and now it doesn’t work. Grr. So now that means I can’t shower because of the lack of hot water. I don’t like cold showers on the best of days and now that I’ve got another cold, I’m not risking it. I slept in a lot of layers last night. As in I’m used to sleeping in just a T-shirt/tank top and pyjama bottoms (sometimes not even that) and last night? A turtleneck, sweater, sweatpants, gym socks and wool socks on top of that. And yet I’ve still got a cold. *rolls eyes* I’m vascillating on going to class today or not. Granted, I’ve only got four hours a week. But my voice is pretty much gone. If I go, it’ll just be to sit there and listen. Or I could just stay in here (in the cold no less) and drink a lot of honey tea and hope that I get at least a bit better before tomorrow. I could e-mail my teacher saying that I’m sick and if he could just e-mail me back with this week’s handout, I’ll do that assignment for next week.

I’ve got three hours to decide, so for now, I’m listening to L&V and continuing knitting Christmas presents. :)

Okay, tonight has been odd to say the least. First of all, around nine p.m., the fire alarm went off. Nothing new there, right? Wrong. It went off because they needed to evacuate the buildings because there was a gas leak and we could have been blown to smithereens. And apparently, this gas has been present in the building for like four days. I thought I had smelled something off about twenty minutes before the alarm went off, but Lucy and Tash, two of Gabe’s flatmates, had been feeling ill and stuff and they’d told the porters about it. Several times. They hadn’t taken them seriously, but finally their foot stomping got someone to come up and check it out. Why yes, yes indeed, there’s a gas leak. *rolls eyes* So out we go. Thankfully we were allowed to go in Alexandra Hall to wait instead having to stay out in the cold and get wet from the sea spray. Remember when I said that there were big waves earlier today? Those were nothing compared to these waves (and actually, that surf is still crashing away there).

So I’m in Alexandra Hall, knitting since I had my needles in my hands when the alarm went off and I just took them with me. I don’t stop knitting in the middle of a lace row unless I really really have to. I’m sitting there, listening to Gabe tell some girl named Ruth about his grand plans for transforming the university if he were the vice chancellor or something of UWA. Eventually people left the entrance hall, probably went to the pub that’s next door now that I think about it, and soon it’s just me and those two. Then another guy I sorta recognize shows up (turns out we met at a party during our first year) and Gabe and Ruth go explore the building. Then Alex, the other guy, goes after them. So I’m all alone in the entrance hall when a group of girls and a guy come from one of the flats and ask if we can go back into our buildings yet. Told them I don’t know, no one has told me anything. We all get to chatting, they comment on my knitting and I offer to teach them how to do it. Continue chatting some more and this guy comes rushing in from outside, and in rapid German, tells the group that some guy has fallen into the sea. One of the girls translated this for me since my German really ain’t that good. Anyway. Then three of the girls Gabe lives with come rushing into to Alexandra Hall to check if Gabe’s still alive and not drowned in the sea. He’s not there, so I can’t really help them. So eventually our building dude Stefan (who’s also German btw) comes to tell me that I can go back in (I’m the only one he recognizes, but that’s because he was my tutor during my first year). I set up a time with the German girls to go yarn shopping on Monday (not tomorrow, but a week later) then come back. Squee! Other knitters! *happy dance*

Jaz is a bit pissy that I haven’t said anything to her in the past hour or so on MSN, but I tell her why and she’s cool with it. Then I’m talking with Gabe on MSN as well and he invites me over. So up I go to the third floor and chat with him, Lucy and Tash. Turns out that what they’ve heard is that the police are trying to determine if the person that went over the railing just fell or was pushed. They told me that there had been a large group of people, some holding drinks and stuff, and when people are drunk, they do stupid things. Like push people over railings because they think it’s funny in their inebriated state. No clue what actually happened though. There’ll possibly be an e-mail about it tomorrow. I hope that whoever it was that went over is okay. Those are some huge rocks beneath the railing over on this end of the beach…

The waves are awesome. Big crashes every once in a while. ^-^

Did anyone else remember that we go back an hour today? Not complaining though. Now I feel like I’ve definitely got the time to listen to L&V! Squeee! (There was a new ep last night but I had to go to bed when I found out about it).

Then again, I am feeling a bit productive right now, so I just might write up the commentary for my second portfolio.

Hmm… knitting or school work? Tough decision. I think I’ll go for the school work. It’s easier to knit on the train than it is to write a commentary. Less thinking required during stockinette.

*sigh* Today has been several things. Tiring (because I got up at eight when I’m used to staying in bed until 11), frustrating and annoying. The frustrating part came from people being unsure of when reading week *is* and misinforming us. It’s not Nov. 5-9, but a week later. And this little alteration screws up my plans for going to see Oliver. So now I’m still going to Sheffield on Halloween (with the stupid rail works causing disruptions no less) but I have to come back on Sunday. Then I’ve got another week of classes before I go back to Sheffield and spend the week there. Grr.

And then, here’s the kicker, I usually have dance class on Wednesdays from 3-5pm, right? Right. So I get there at 2:30, tell the reception that I’m going to the dance class and go get changed. At 2:45, two guys show up with fencing stuff so I ask if they’re intending on using the room and they said that they’ve got a tournament. So we go down to the front desk and yep, the fencers have the room. And no one told me about this little change. I even got an e-mail on Monday confirming today’s practice! Gah. And I ran into Hannah this morning and she said she’d see me at practice later today. So I’m not the only one who thought that there was one. It’s still annoying though. And I’ve checked my e-mail, no notice about there being a change. So I don’t know where the problem came from; either the Sports Center didn’t inform the team about it (I didn’t see anyone else there so they must have known) or then the team didn’t tell me. Either way, I’m still annoyed.

And I’ve run out of milk. Which means I need to go to the store. Again.

And, my dear friends, I believe I have just completed my first portfolio. 2,646 words about obsessions. And I didn’t even realize all of the pieces I wrote for the portfolio were about some sort of obsession until just now as I wrote the closing lines of my commentary. But yep, I quickly read through my portfolio and all five pieces are some form of an obsession.

Apparently, I am very interested in obsessions right now. At least I know I’m pretty good at writing about them. Y’see, today’s seminar was about how a piece of clothing tells you something about the person who owns/wears it. And I wrote a short piece about The Knitter who apparently is a bit loopy (I didn’t realize quite how crazy I had made them!) and everyone loved it. It was the only one that made people laugh and actually *talk* about.

Quick sidenote: It’s not too obsessive to notice if your needles are half a millimeter too thick for the yarn, is it? Because, that leads to gauge problems right?

At least I don’t hear my yarn talk to me unlike The Knitter. XP So if y’all wanna read about a loopy knitter (and I -just- got all of the possible meanings for loopy in this context), lemme know and I’ll e-mail it to ya. ;) It’s only a page long and feedback would be nice… *hinthint*

Took my breadloaf ends out to the beach today and fed the birds as I watched the sun set. Really pretty and no clouds! The pinks in the horizon and the gold drops of liquid light reflecting on the blue-green water… Beauteous I tell you, beauteous.

Okay. Before I was anxious that I couldn’t reach the appropriate word limit. Now, I’m finding out that I actually might run out of space. I’ve got about 500 left to talk about two of my pieces in my portfolio. Can someone remind me next time that I *seriously* should not worry about not meeting the limit?

And I just realized how late it was. Gah, time flies when I write. Should go to sleep. Let’s just hope that I won’t have to stand outside for ten minutes in the cold at 5 a.m. again. Stupid fire alarm this/last morning…

Let me just say: THANK [insert your choice of deity here] I brought last year’s theory notes with me to Aber. This is why I don’t like to throw things away as soon as I’m done with them. I never know if I’ll need them again. Plus, there was still loads of space (ie empty pages) in the notebook and I hate to waste paper…

I love love love honey tea. For the life of me, I can’t remember why I don’t buy honey unless I’ve got a cold. So there is one good thing about this cold. Rediscovering a lovely hot drink.

Been working on my portfolio and knitting Isabella.

Pigeons keep trying to fly into my room, but even though my window’s open, the gap’s not big enough for them to come in: Free entertainment. XD But, there happens to be pigeon crap in the kitchen because someone keeps leaving the window open and letting them in. I refuse to clean it up this time. I’ve already been suckered into obsessively cleaning the stove; I’m not wiping up pigeon droppings as well. That job can be left to the person who keeps using my utensils (I don’t mind that part) and washes them after use (don’t mind this either) but leaves the soap to dry onto them instead of rinsing. Grr. This does seem to be a British habit though. I can count on two fingers the number of British people I know who rinse the dishes after washing them. The rest… Yum, soap.

Okay, so on Tuesdays I go to “Writing Lives” (the one with Cute Teacher). This week’s assignment is to write something based on a person’s clothing. I asked if I could write about a WIP (work in progress for you non-knitters), he said that that would be okay “and it’s actually a really interesting and original idea”.

So, I just spent the last forty minutes writing about yarn. *grin* I get to have fun and join two of my passions (for a grade too!). How lucky am I? Now I guess I should either pick up the project I wrote about or work on my portfolio. Less than 11 days to go until it has to be done. :-S

I’ve got 1402 words so far. Maximum allowed is 3000. I’ll try to write the commentary about my other two pieces first to see if I need to write one more short piece to ramble on about in the commentary. So far I’ve managed to blather on about a 384 word piece for almost an equal amount in the commentary. Seriously, these people should not tell me to talk about my work. They can’t shut me up. When it’s written that is. If they ask me on the spot to explain my stuff, I freeze up. Ah well, such is life.