With friends like these...

The current temperature in my room. That's about 82 F for those of you still using the imperial system. I have the window open, but unfortunately because of the direction that my bedroom window faces, I have to keep the curtains closed, which doesn't really help my situation.

Yesterday, I went to a PARSC meeting at my university. Basically I was wanted there as a representative for students currently on the MA course, and there was another girl there who had graduated the previous year. It wasn't as nerve-wracking as I thought it would be, thank god I had someone else in there with me, but I hate talking in front of large groups of people even if those people are perfectly nice and just want to hear my opinion. It didn't last long thankfully, but I hadn't slept the night before and was running on adrenaline and a can of Red Bull. Pretty much crashed when I got home and woke up four hours later to the sound of my step-dad being chased around the back garden by the neighbour's four year old son who had gotten hold of our hosepipe.

I very nearly ended up staying up all night again, but passed out at about 8AM. When I woke up I was practically melting. It's been so hot in here that the butter on the bread I had with my dinner was melting. I guess this might be our summer, though I wouldn't be surprised if it was raining tomorrow. I'm English, that's just the way it goes. chairofbusby knows just what I'm talking about. o-e

Things are good otherwise. I went to see Gill James yesterday and got the first of likely several free books that I'll be given over the course of my internship, and we had a long chat about things that might be going on and she gave me an idea of the kinds of things I'll be doing. I have to say it makes me a little nervous to be given this kind of responsibility but hey, it had to happen some time and better now than never. Wish me luck :D Also, thanks to tumblr, my fanart folder has now exploded.

As I type this my dog is snoring, resting against one of my feet.

My day was rather interesting yesterday - for me, at least. I got the bus to uni after I bought a new lip balm to break a tenner, and before I even got off I had someone asking me for directions. I headed down to the library to sort out my username/password problem, and on the way yet another person asked me for directions. Considering it's only the second week that students have been in the university it makes me wonder, is there something about me that makes me look like I know where I'm going?

Maybe it's the glasses.

I went to my class, and all went swimmingly and such, and afterwards Alice and I went to get our bus. We ended up going two stops because the bus wasn't stopping at the one after the closed one, and on the way this creepy drunk guy stopped us and I have no idea what he was doing, I think he was trying to pull us or something. I just put one arm around Alice and steered her away, since the best defence against that kind of man is to pretend you're with the girl you're walking with, and we were both rather glad that we weren't alone.

I also managed to get my finance problem sorted out. Well, almost. I now need to wait a week or two for the bursary I'm supposed to get to go onto my account. I suppose it's my own fault for not applying earlier. 8|

Today, I haven't done much except make my own dinner.

Now, I'm going to get back to filling the requests I got on my meme.

As some of you know, I successfully applied for a Masters degree a few weeks ago. Last week, I went to registration, which was an ordeal in itself and could have been over a lot more quickly than it was. I couldn't pay my fees then, so I had to set up a direct debit in order to register. Today, I went in early to finally pay, and was told that the loyalty bursary that is supposed to be on my details (as I am a graduate of the university I get 20% off) isn't there, so I need to email my school and get them to do that for me. I also need to email someone in the library to get my login details for the student area of the Salford website.

Well, back to today, which was Really Long. I got up in the afternoon, which is pretty normal for me, except my waking up went something like...

Alarm goes off
Turn off alarm
Go back to sleep
Alarm goes off
Turn off alarm
Go back to sleep
Alarm goes off

and you see where this is going. When I finally did get up I felt so spaced out I thought I might be ill or something and I do wonder if it's due to the combination of antihistamine and ibuprofen I had taken the night before, though I've always had quite a strong tolerance for drugs to the point were even sleeping tablets don't put me out.

I managed to drag myself out of bed, stumbled around getting ready and went in to find out about that damn bursary thing (I could have spent an extra hour in bed!) and then I waited around for my class, then I went to it. As you do. It was a lot more informal than I thought it was going to be and it never really felt like a Masters degree... but then my Bachelors never felt like a degree either so I suppose that's not a surprise. We didn't get that much work done, although Scott (the prof) had this whole plan of a lot of stuff he wanted to get done. First lessons are always that way. There are only eight of us in the class but I do wonder how long it will be before someone drops out. Someone always drops out, eventually.

After class I went to get the bus with Alice, a girl I know from my degree enough to chat to but I wouldn't really call her my 'friend'. There's a load of roadworks going on outside the university until Christmas, and the stop I normally get my bus from was unexpectedly closed. We tried to make it to the next one, and the bastard bus driver didn't stop, even though he saw us and we were right near the stop. Git. I rang John up and he came to get me and took Alice home too. If it happens on Thursday we're going to be calling to complain.

I finally got home at a little past nine. I was hungry. I had food. I went to my room, and here I am. I will hopefully be able to get all my shit together before the end of the week.

My only concern with this degree is that my urge to write recently has been virtually non-existent. I have always enjoyed writing no matter what the context, and to not want to do it at all is a little disconcerting. Perhaps I need to read more.

If it's not one thing it's another.

My current addition? Pokémon. I don't care if that's dorky. At all. So nurr.

What can I say. Hrm. I haven't really written anything now in... a while, except something I wrote for plextral which I don't think will ever see the light of day. I dunno why that is. Maybe my brain has decided it wants a hiatus. Probably.

I still need to apply for my university course, but they're having an open day in four days, so I'm taking that to mean I still have time. All I need to do is write my personal statement and I know for a fact I don't even need to try because I'm practically on the course already but eh, procrastinating. I'll make sure to get it done next week before I go away.

I also need to get my measurements and order my costume for next month, and get some riding boots - finally managed to find some cheap ones that will look good enough to pass. Kinda looking forward this one, especially since I know a couple of people from LJ who will be there! =3

Finally on the exciting news front, I am off to Venice in less than a week! I There will be so much picspam for you guys when I get back that your browsers will crash.

Ciao~

Now, I'm going to write some porn.

See, the other night while RPing with amael_elen , the issue of how many nations Arthur has slept with came up. The list came to twenty-six (including America)... so... I'm writing them. All of them. Some, you will expect. Some, you won't. Feel free to make guesses... xD

Also, here is a nice, dorky photo of me (and my mum). LOOK AT THE HAT.

Hmm, well.

Yesterday, I went out with my dad (as I do every month) and he very much approved of the blu-ray films that he got for his father's day present. As for my step-dad, well, he didn't ask for anything, so he has no right to get pissy when he doesn't get anything. I felt kind of bad so I went with him to the shop and got him a bottle of cider. It was cheap but hey it's the thought that counts right? Yes. Back to the day... Saw my dad, and we went to a nice pub - I had grilled salmon, rather than the burger I was going to have, because Amy told me that we were going to have a barbeque when we got home.

Apparently my cousin Alex has destroyed yet another mobile phone, his fifth in the past two years. I don't know how he keeps doing it but if he were my kid I'd stop giving them to him. My other cousin, Sam, is on report at his school. While we were at my aunt Jo's (his mum), my aunt Janet (Alex's mum) was reading through his report book. Most of it is good, but at least once or twice a week it seems, he gets into trouble for not listening, for disrupting the class, and generally being a nuisance. Two things which stuck out most in my mind were one report of him and two others (I think) pushing another kid over and kicking him, and another of him filling all the sinks in the boy's toilets and locking all the cubicle doors.

Sam is five years old.

Though I can't say that it came as a surprise. He's frequently ignoring what his mum tells him to do, though personally I don't think she does enough to stop him from doing it. She'll make threats but he'll have to really push her to get them carried out. While we were at the pub having dinner he kept running a toy car off the table. He was told if he did it again he'd have it taken off him, so instead it came shooting toward me. I confiscated it. Granted I was pretty tired and he was being noisy enough for me to want to throttle him, but I won't tolerate that kind of behaviour. Quite frankly I wish I could do more to tell him off but he's not my kid so I don't really have that right. Eh.

When we got back we had a barbeque, though I didn't eat much because of the big meal I had at lunch. Apparently when my step-dad opened the barbeque there was a burger still in there from last year... and it was blue... I'm so glad I didn't see that or I might have had reservations about eating anything that was cooked on that thing no matter how much it'd been cleaned. Ben was freaking out over the smoke like he always does, though this time he was far worse than he'd ever been before. He wouldn't dare come outside, or even anywhere near the back door but he wanted the food that we had, so he kept barking. I don't understand him sometimes.

Then I had an early night, because I was bloody knackered, so I woke up at about half past nine and gave my parents the shock of seeing me up in the AM, before they and my sister buggered off to the gym. Me, I don't go to the gym. I'm too lazy and really, I can't afford to lose the weight.

While they were out I went into the garden, which kind of looks like a garden centre at the moment with how many flowers there are, and I took a few photos though there's only one that I really like.

( This one )

Really love that.

Oh yes, I graduate soon. On the 15th of July, in fact. I get to wear a gown and mortar board (funky hat ;D). These are the colours for my school and degree...

( Purteh )

Only bad thing there is just to rent the damn thing is £40. Ripoff, I say!

So now, here I am, after having reeled off a shortfic so fluffy it made my teeth hurt, sitting listening to Take That. I'll just be off now. -thumbsup-

And thanks to spottacus2 I have several new ideas to work on on top of From Fire to Flame and the AU fic that people seem to want to see.

On top of that, I have a lot of university work due in - 3000 word creative piece + 1500 word essay.. thing. 4000 word project + another 1500 word essay thing, and a 2500 word essay. Fun stuff. I'm hopefully going to use some of the time that I have off to do work on these things because I have this feeling I'm going to be rather screwed if I don't. Ahaha.

But still, no doubt, my own writing will inevitably end up feeling more important than the stuff I ought to be doing for university. 

I slept until 7pm today. This is pretty shocking even for me. I wonder if I'll sleep tonight.

Well, I missed uni again today, but that was totally not my fault.

I actually haven't been to uni this week xD But I'm feeling miles better, I've had a good laugh over the past couple of days from what I've done rather than being in uni, so that's been a big help. I'm also writing again. For those who would want to know, I've decided that after chapter fifteen I'm going to start posting At The End solely on my journal, as I don't think I'll be able to justify posting it on the usxuk community without forcing some kind of usxuk-ness into every chapter, which would of course be detrimental to my writing quality.

So there you go. I'll post chapter fifteen up as soon as it's finished and put a very clear, shiny notice at the bottom to make sure anyone reading it knows about it, but if you're reading this, then you already know! I'll also be giving an option to be notified for new chapters, since I don't expect people to be checking my journal all the time.

In the meantime, here's a little preview of a fic I've started working on tonight. I'm not sure if I'll get it done, but here's hoping!

When I first started university I had big plans about what I wanted to do, the things I wanted to achieve. I wanted to get a first class degree, and take a Masters, and maybe one day do a PhD. I wanted to go into teaching.

On Thursday night, I just resigned myself to handing an assignment in late because I put it off for too long, and was left with a choice. Rush it and get it in on time, but probably crap, or hand it in late and lose ten marks. Ten marks that could be the difference between my getting that first class degree or not. I've never handed something in late before. Strangely, I find that I don't care about this.

I'm twenty-one years old, but in my head I never moved past sixteen. I don't feel old enough or prepared enough for this kind of thing, for the idea of needing 'experience' to get a PGCE and for the idea of actually behaving like an adult. I have no doubt that I'm smart enough, and I could do it, if I put my mind to it, but not doing it is a much more comfortable place.

I just don't know what to do. I can't quit now, it would be a waste of three years of my life and a £10,000 debt. Everything I've done in the past five years has geared me towards becoming a teacher. It is what I want to do, I just no longer see myself as able to do it...

On another note, for those who care, I'm working on chapter fourteen and should hopefully have it done tonight. =)

I know, I fail so hard. I'm now... uh... seven prompts behind. I fail T^T I'll do them, though! I was up all night last night. Hahahahaha. That'll teach me to leave my university work to the last minute. Well, it won't, but you get the picture. I'm a terrible procrastinator... but I think this has to be a new record. Shockingly, I'm not tired. Not so tired as I could get to sleep in any case. More a sort of hyper tired, if you get my meaning. If this keeps up I might be able to rattle off all seven prompts and take a good crack at chapter fourteen (I'm sure that a certain someone would be very pleased to hear that. You know who you are).

Well, in ten minutes I shall be heading off out into the cold, into Salford, to hand in two assignments. After that, the next thing due is in January, and I have an exam then, but I'm not going to worry about that until after Christmas.