In case you were wondering...

...I'm still here!!


Hi everyone, apologies for the low profile but I seem to have a life after all.


Since we last chatted I have finished my second year at uni, not over the moon with how the exams went but I think I've done enough to pass and I'm determined to redeem myself in my final year. My dissertation looks like being related to malingering which should suit me down to the ground.


I have also moved into the most gorgeous new home with a (also pretty gorgeous, it has to be said) MAN! I know, I know, but it's OK, this one's a keeper.

Anyway. It's an 1850's cottage with beams and a well in the garden and everything in a village with a Co-Op, post office, proper local butcher (for local people) and such wonderful stuff minutes walk away. Let me see if I can find a pic....

Pretty innit? The well isn't working, it needs digging out, and the plumbing and wiring is truly extraordinary. But it is all neat little nooks and crannies and unlevel floors and we have to be careful not to drop any of our marbles. In case we lose them.

What? The MAN? Well I could tell you but I'd have to kill you. Suffice it to say that we've been mates for a good few years and still are and long may it continue. But don't go buying any hats or anything soppy like that.

I have also exchanged my very ordinary Fiesta for an MG TF160 so we can ride around with our top down when the sun comes out.


In short, my friends, life is pretty darn good for this old spud. I'll try not to be such a stranger.


Thing wot I learned today: If I don't move my car 'they' will tarmac round it.

DamnYou Hutters!

A letter to me, aged 13? OK, here goes

Dear M

You think you're pretty clever don't you? Well, you are, but you really ought to be doing something with it other than cheeking your teachers and lazing about. You will get good exam results but you could do so much better if you just tried. And then you could go on to university and have a whole life full of a rewarding career instead of starting again when some of your schoolmates are thinking about winding down and taking early retirement. Oh, and study music instead of history of art. Trust me on that one.

Learn to drive as soon as you can but don't let your mum take you out in her car. You won't like it.

Take some time to talk to your grandparents. They really are worth knowing and it would be a shame to have to find that out when you discover something really interesting that you have in common nearly 20 years after they've died.

Stop being so horrible to your brother. He is one of the best things in your life and deserves better. Apologise right now and treat him with some respect.

Ditto your mother. It's not her fault you are riddled with hormones.

Give your dad a break. He loves you dearly and is only disppointed because he can see just how brilliant you are and just how much you waste it.

And finally, you are going to make some really rather bad choices unless you think hard about what you want from life and the people you choose to share it with. I wish I could give you the benefit of my experience but you are so pig-headed you won't listen to me. So go ahead, just promise me you'll learn from your mistakes.

I love you. Now do some bloody work.

M x

Thing wot I learned today: You can buy a juicer for under a tenner in Asda!

Happy new year?

Oh I expect so...

I am up to my eyeballs in w**k, got to hand in two essays and an A3 poster the first week back at skool (Jan 9th I think)so I'm kind of busy. But I had the best Christmas I've had in many years in the best company doing pretty much what we felt like doing. OK, I've probably eaten and drunk more than I should and definitely lolled about being lardy too much and watched the Vicar of Dibley and Only Fools and Horses too much but I haven't been stressed or spent too much. It was great!

New Year's Eve finds me home alone with choclit, shortbread fingers, whisky, candles, my stripy boys and Philosophy of Science journals to read. I had a choice of parties to go to (sorry Mallers) but decided to do the Right Thing and stay at home and have just a couple of hours off from my books.

How do I feel about that? Absolutely at peace and happy as a big happy thing. I'm doing exactly what I want to do, my mobile has been vibrating like a thing possessed with messages from all the folk I love and all's well.

I am looking back at 2007 with fondness and forward to 2008 with optimism and excitement.

Happy New Year to you all, I hope 2008 brings everything you are hoping for.

Thing wot I learned today: It's easy

Bugger

Hutters tagged me.

Rules: Link to the tagger and post these rules on your blog. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

1. When I am stressed and need to let off steam I shout while I'm driving. Loudly. At the person or situation that is stressing me out. It's cathartic. I only do it when I'm on my own, though, never in front of anyone. And never at anyone else driving along minding their own business. Except when they annoy me.

2. I have two cats now, it was three until last April when we lost our Penny. Each of them had a brother that died inexplicably. It's nothing to do with me, Guv, honest.

3. When I am ill I don't like being fussed over. Leave me to stew under my stinking duvet until I can be bothered to get up and wash. But please make sure I don't run out of cat food. Oh, and it's ok to make me a cuppa as long as you don't expect me to talk to you. Thanks.

4. When I was three I was in the habit of going out to play (it was OK then) and coming home with nothing on. Eventually our neighbours used to knock on the door and hand various clothes to my mum. I'm thinking about giving it another try when the weather improves.

5. A while ago I used to keep ko1 and got quite good at dealing with them when things went wrong. I have anaesthetised and operated on fish and they got better. How cool is that?

MMM
Henners
Stu
Lois
Jenny

Thing wot I learned today: Hutters tagged me.

Well, that's it then

Found at tonight's rehearsal in m'colleague's book of clarinet fingering (stop that sniggering at the back, Mallers) charts:

"They should have stuck to strings and keep out clar'nets and done away with serpents. All agreed that 'clar'nets be bad' "

Thomas Hardy, 'Under The Greenwood Tree,' 1872

So there we have it.

Oh, I don't know why but devilment makes me say that last line pirate stylee. It kinda works...

Thing wot I learned today: 'clar'nets be bad'

Catching up

Well. If Lois can do it then so can I...

I did promise a detox blog and you will get it but it's going to require a little tweaking before I put it out here so, well, manana. As they say on the Costa del bleedin' Sol mate.

I was in and out of hospital on the 8th Oct and it was fairly uneventful I suppose. 'They' didn't see anything while 'they' were in, erm, there and I've had no results from the biopsy so no news is good news as far as that's concerned. Not worried about that now. I've got to go back in January for an update, armed with a diary wot I am keeping (nice) but so far so good.

It's taken me an age to get over the anaesthetic and I wasn't helped by the bug that took hold and refused to let go until only a couple of days ago so I have been mostly crying, sleeping and blowing my nose for the past three weeks. Not entirely useful for keeping up with the study but unavoidable so now I'm busy catching up. There's nothing like Philosophy of Science for a cure for insomnia...

It's been a bit of a scary time really, despite the brave face I put on, and there are one or two of you out there who got to see behind it. And you there... yes, you. I can't thank you enough for being there to take care of me. The lifts, the call to see how I was, retrieving my trainers from behind that chair when I was too pathetic to reach them, the tea, the bed, the hugs. Thanks mate x

Thing wot I learned today: Feyerabend was an anarchist. Apparently.

Operation 365

I've kind of hinted at it in recent blogs but now it's getting scary. I have to go into hospital on October 8th for an embarrassingly impertinent biopsy.

It's really only a tiny 20 minute poke about under a general anaesthetic which is no big deal these days and I should be home again by mid afternoon but.....

Of course my head is saying there's bound to be nothing to worry about but the rest of me is saying 'WTF???!!!!!' worrying about missing lectures and deadlines and having nightmares about shaving my head.

But if this bloke can do it then so can I.

For the next 365 days I will get over myself and deal with whatever it is because I can. I really can. And now I know it's OK to have to lean on someone if I need a bit of a hand. And what's more I have people I can lean on. You know who you are. Thanks.

Thing wot I learned today: It's in me. (Oh, dear God. HAHAHAHAHA! It's in me!!! How funny is that? FFS)