thanks

http://www.bluefoxgallery.com/cip/indexcip.htm

just when you thought...

Well still here thanks to massive fuck up on institution's part... though guess who they blamed... Somebody forgot to sign off my money, and do you think I have that power?
So that totally blows any chance of a farewell shag out of the water...
Then every little thing that had to be arranged become unarranged at the last minute and I had to rearrange them. Oh god I am bloody sick of this. I suppose it means I can't wait to be there and just be getting on with it.
So another night with the flatmate. His mummy rings a lot, but since she speaks no English she just barks his/their surname at me which is hilarious. But he also has good taste in wine.... and is a sharer...

Oh well. go in search of something to eat... and drink, yes indeed and drink.
I'll see you when I see you.

ka kite ano

Well it was the last weekend here in Palmengrad before the big FW. And I sad to say I was really hoping to get laid, as I am about to embark on a five month stint of celibacy.... Cheers to that... Still I might get lucky tomorrow night in the big city if I can track down one of my exes, but since we are 'good friends' now we both sometimes find it hard to believe that we used to .. .. so that might not be the go.

I am semi-prepared for this trip. Still have a lot of last minute shopping to do, but it is the mental preparation that I am more worried about. I can't say I am looking forward to this, even though I know I will survive. At least I convinced the doctor not to give me larium for the malaria... but five months of anti biotics doesn't thrill me either.

So the 'flatmate' returns today with his guest from the UK, apparently who is in love with him, though that's not going to happen... This guy needs to wake up to himself...

There seems to be a lot of talk on the internets (ha ha) about gay marriage being a victim of the election. Can't argue with that, but I find the way Americans talk about such matters confusing. If I read it right, and maybe I didn't b/c I've been up since 6 cleaning, that one strategy is to change the argument from one about rights to about fairness. I can't seem to separate the two.

I can't be bothered phrasing anything about it I'm afraid. I might do some more mindless cleaning instead. Oh well if you don't hear from for a while, happy holidays and all that

what's the collacation about sleeping in the same bed meaning 'in cahoots'

Of course I know I don't look any different .... though did have an unexpected good hair day yesterday... I am actually feeling a little bit organised. For some reason I find the effort of organisation quite debilitating and have to reward myself with a self congratulatory lie down to recover (cf Lucy Ellmann Man or Mango)

But the research money is heading towards my account have organised my finances regarding this place while am gone, and have got my travel medicine sorted. Malaria here we come. So just got to sort out finishing exam marking, getting my chapter and hand in my research draft to the boss man....

And then I can get on a plane and disappear into the wilds... still not looking forward to it. But I think I have talked myself down so much that I might surprise myself and not go mental over there .... if nothing else ... my volleyball will improve and hell I'll be tanned when I get back ...


Spooky development on the homefront, the admin ice queen has arranged for the new boss of all bosses to live in MY HOUSE while am gone. My boss will be sleeping in my bed, which is a little bit freaky....

on the fucking weekend okay

And another thing ... a teacher of X as a foreign language tried to correct my English today. He objected to my saying "on the weekend". "At the weekend" he asserted was the only correct way of encoding this location in time. I nearly fell over. He did not accept my argument that we were both making analogies with other locations in time "on Monday" and "at the end of the world". Then he began a rant about the tragic demise of genitive marking in modern spoken German, which of course made me capitulate weeping for the loss of that lovely innocent case. Mmm. I wouldn't mind such misguided pedantry from a lay person, but from a language teacher? How dare he not recognise competing grammatical systems! How dare he privilege his presumed (hyper)correct form over another native speaker's?
What must his classroom be like? Bored students chanting paradigms of declinable adjectives? God preserve us from language purists.

fame fame fatal fame

a little milestone... my first academic citation... boy do I feel important...
still I'd rather be famous than righteous anyday anyday anyday... but sometimes I feel more fulfilled...

God I am too influenced by teen bloggers ... quoting Smiths lyrics.... please stop me if you've heard this one before...

arrivals and Angels

a few posts have gone astray... oh

Have been semi working my butt off. Marking exams and writing texts for two semester's time... oh god, trying to think out assessment that will actually be interesting for them to do and me to mark....

Flatmate (?) has been and gone again and watched Angels in America together which seemed to make him a little nervous. He had to go and phone his Mummy. I was quite surprised how stilted it came across. I kept wondering how much of it inspired Cunningham's the hours . The Mormon coupled seemed like the birthday cake lady. Oh well. Also realized today that I will be away for the final of sex in the city which is something I feel a little bit ashamed of that I like so much. Oh well I am sure I can google a spoiler ... or anyone?

Last time I went on FW the only letter I got in three months was from sister no 1 telling me about Tom and Nicole's breakup, except that she only called them Tom and Nicole, and being so out of context I had no idea who she was talking about....

Oh my god daughter was born on Friday.... Guy Fawkes ... she will have fireworks every birthday.....

As you can tell I am not that inspired so perhaps I should go....

oh no 4 years to go....

My condolences to you, the free world.

vote and be done with it

thank god the day of the election is finally here, though I must prepare myself for i. The onslaught of presidential-mania or not (please please please let Kerry win). And ii. the legal battle to actually be president. Who knows may be it won't be decided beforeI get back from fw. I hate how they keep saying the election for the leader of the free world... not that whoever he is won't be... But being a citizen of the free world, you'd think I'd get a vote.
They televised a good 2 hours coverage of the election here. Doesn't that make us feel like a colony.

In other news ... have been working my butt off and feel I am in a state of high anxiety... which feels strangely very much like horniness....

spooky!

Today I got a lot done... can you believe it? Last night I forgot about Halloween which is not an 'indigenous' celebration here ... Its seen as a North American import..., so I had to hide when I got actual real live trick or treaters.
But anyway got through a lot of stuff here today... including the editing of my student guide...We are pretty much encouraged to write textbooks for our students and then told told it is not worth anything when we get research audited. They have to be ready 6 months before the relevant course starts. Spent the rest of the afternoon advising a nephew on his English homework... okay writing it for him... hell it is the first email I have ever got from him and he is seventeen... and then helping my favourite distance student with her exam preparation. She is only my favourite because she was born in 1921. Go the life-long learning!
Then I went drinking. On a Monday. So sue me. No! fire me. See if I care. I had a chat with my long suffering boss , n.b. I am not the cause of her suffering... honest.... I had sort of decided that she should be my role model since the guy who I wanted to work with because I thought I could learn a lot from announced he was leaving as soon as I accepted the job.... and She is great, well respected in her field, supportive, ethical, hard worker, team player... so naturally well lets just say the institution doesn't want to be friends with her anymore. We were talking about that and she was saying how lucky I was to be going away and I told her don't be surprised if I don't come back....
While I was drinking though I edited one of the aforementioned student guides, and I have to say it was pretty good. I should send it to the local doyenne of such subjects and see what she makes of it....