Another quick one

I know, I know, I'm cutting corners again. But I'm very tired and I was supposed to be in bed 48 minutes ago! There's a whole day of shorthand in the morning, and my brain won't forgive me if I have to face that on reduced sleep. Therefore, quickly, some things:

1. The boyf is coming to visit me tomorrow! He's over for the weekend and I'm very excited. Hopefully we'll be able to do all sorts of interesting London things (and maybe also Woking things) that I can take lots of photos of and blog about at length!

2. I have just got a rather good piece of news. More on that if/when details are sorted. Yes, I enjoy being mysterious.

3. There is no such thing as a nail polish that dries faster than you can accidentally smudge it. Fact.

Just the three, I'm afraid, and (even worse!) I'm going to be in the flat tomorrow and possibly a couple of nights after that, so there may be a dearth of blogging for a while. If you get lonely, I have some helpful suggestions in the sidebar.

Night night!

Brightness, bombshell, barometers (OK, not barometers)

I had a really good walk to the station this morning. It took me a while to work out why I was feeling so uplifted and refreshed. Sunlight! The first of the year (at least that I've seen).

My parents claim to suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), and as South Africans bred to near-perpetual sunshine and heat, they may be right. But I've always thought I could weather winter. I was born in these grey, drizzly islands, after all. Still, my half-hour in dazzling sunshine this morning completely transformed my mood. Maybe vitamin D is real...

It was raining by the time I got out of Journalism School, and dark to boot, but never mind that, look at the sun: 

You may think this looks like a nice road to live on, but about half a second after I took this picture, a transit van, a sports car and a people carrier bombed past me in some sort of high-speed pursuit

Superchef swung by Journalism School in our lunchbreak to drop a bombshell - he's leaving the course. I may have had an inkling beforehand, but it was still sad that this was the last time we could see him for a while. He did bring chocolatey treats though (silver linings etc). Thankfully any sadness was soon dispelled by Ostrich's bratwurst story (you'll have to ask her), which made us laugh so much we were in physical pain. 

More defamation in Law today. Wheels was on good form as ever (although he has set us a proverbial mountain of homework) and we started the lesson with another case from the news, that of the man falsely accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old who has recently (as an adult) confessed to lying in the stand. We had to identify the legal issues and decide whether it was safe to print. (The lifelong anonymity automatically granted to anyone who complains they have been the victim of a sexual offence is rescinded if they are prosecuted for falsely accusing someone of that offence, in case you were wondering.) 

I decided to show you some learning in action, in case you have any difficulty picturing the process, so here is a picture of my desk today:

Enjoy

That is all for now, or I will need to bring out the kitten video again.

Goodnight!


P.S.: This is my 80th post, apparently. That's a bit scary.

Now with added kitten!

This video is the only adequate way of expressing how I'm feeling right now. Also I want a cat.

It was great seeing everyone at Journalism School again today. It feels like it's been ages! Ostrich (ask her, not me) has a sleek new hairdo that we've all been admiring from a distance, as she is now almost intimidatingly glamourous. Also Normandy was kind enough to pick up the Public Affairs notes for me. Now we'll see if the Drone is as boring on paper.

In Law we had a big discussion about the Joanna Yeats case, and how Contempt of Court applies to the media coverage of Christopher Jeffries' arrest. It morphed nicely into a discussion about defamation, which we polished off today. I'm starting to feel like a legal beagle - I understand this stuff! Of course, that may have quite a lot to do with the wonderful Wheels...

More importantly than any of this, however, was my first ever visit to what I suspect may be the only supermarket anywhere near the town centre of Woking. There's a Sainsbury's hidden in the shopping centre. I followed the trail of people with orange bags until I found it. I now have supplies for the week, which is very exciting. I can't say I noticed the effects of VAT, but give it time and I'm sure I'll be complaining bitterly to anyone who'll listen.

Anyway, I am starting to resemble that kitten more and more, so I will sign off now.

Goodnight!

Further to my last post

Chez Percy

Today Whizzkid and I undertook an epic trip into darkest North London to visit Percy in his ancestral home. It took a very long time (especially as someone was a little bit late...) and we ended up on a tube train that emerged into daylight towards the end of the line, pretty much blowing my mind. They're not made for outside! Deeply disturbing. 

Percy and his dad picked us up from the station, which was very nice of them as it was rather cold. When we got to Percy's spacious yet cosy house (with a rather space age bathroom), it was like visiting a  friend back in my schooldays. We had a brief chat with his parents, ate quite a lot of pizza and garlic bread, and then disappeared up into Percy's room. 

The afternoon was mostly taken up with watching The Good, The Bad, The Weird, a very excellent Korean film. Watch it!

I had to leave at about quarter to 7, as I have to be back at Journalism School tomorrow (really, really not looking forward to Public Affairs first thing), but Whizzkid stayed for dinner. It was going to be chicken, apparently. 

A couple of pictures from this afternoon:

In their natural habitat 

Percy is proud of his national service (in space)

 Off to have supper now, and then collapse into bed. I haven't been to Journalism School in aaaages (it feels almost like I've had a holiday), so I'm going to start off slow, with a decent night's sleep.

Classified

A lazy Saturday necessitates a busy Sunday! I managed to get a few things done today, including the much-anticipated haircut! What do you think? It's been straightened, which is why it looks a little bit like a wig (or is that just me?), although I thought that this added a frisson of Russian spy to my look today.

Excuse the slouch and the shocking amount of bronzed Italian leg on display in the picture behind me. Scandalous!

 Having been fondly waved off by my hairdresser (I like to think we forged a connection), I perused the Woking sales for a while, and managed to find a Christmas present for the boyf (well, I wasn't going to see him until after Christmas, anyway), although I can't tell you what it is for obvious reasons. (It's a radioactive teapot.)

As you will probably have guessed, my photography skills are in no way up to taking the above picture, as I don't have a tripod and can't teleport. I must have had an assignation, therefore, probably with a shadowy fellow agent. Possibly even an amusing national stereotype who's particularly good with gadgets and technology...

Whizzkid unmasked! (With a nice cup of tea)

That's right, it was him all along!

Whizzkid and I had quite a nice afternoon. We met in Waterloo (well, I snuck up on him and gently garrotted him with his scarf) and wombled down Tottenham Court Road way, to see an arcade he's been recommended and hang out in Cafe Nero for far too long (I think the staff were beginning to get suspicious). We also discovered a sushi and karaoke restaurant, just around the corner for London's answer to Akihabara, the Tokyo shopping district (before, Whizzkid would hasten to add, it got otaku'd). I began to worry that the Cafe Nero staff had poisoned us and I'd somehow ended up following Whizzkid to his own personal heaven.

It was definitely his sort of street. All the gadget shops and so forth were having sales, and in every one we wandered into, Whizzkid had only to pause briefly before one of the (predominantly Asian - I think a lot of those shops were family-run) staff appeared at his elbow and offered to help. I was generally ignored, or glared at for playing with thinkpads.

When Whizzkid tired of heaven (mostly, I suspect, due to lacking the readies for £180 headphones, much as he would have liked to buy them), we wandered towards Bond Street. It was as could be expected (you weren't there, man, you weren't there), and we had dashed in and out of a few shops (Whizzkid is still somewhat bemused by the 'This is the man', 'This is the woman' adverts for French Connection. So was Mary Portas, in an article of hers I read a while ago. Am I the only person who finds these funny?) including Uniqlo, where my arm was twisted into buying a (heavily reduced) grey skirt, when Whizzkid had the genius idea of exploring the sidestreets around Bond Street, instead of the tedius monstrosity itself. We saw lots of little shops (sadly mostly closed, but I'll remember), could walk without being attacked by wheelie suitcases and families of 14, and discovered the best Christmas lights in London:

I hope I wasn't alone in half-expecting little grey men to emerge

Mission accomplished (I'm afraid I can't divulge the details), we parted ways, having arranged to rendezvous again in the morning. Tomorrow, we will be infiltrating the estate of a rather cunning military man, known to be in the possession of Margarita pizzas. He may well be expecting us.

Agent K, signing out.



P.S.: Apologies to Whizzkid for calling him a stereotype.

P.P.S.: Incidentally, did you notice possibly the first ever appearance of my famous grey cardigan? Seeing how I live in it, I'm surprised it hasn't snuck in before.

Lazy Saturday

Today was some sort of bank holiday thingammy, so not that much was open. I did manage to book a haircut for tomorrow (I'll update you on how that goes, unless it's unspeakably horrific, in which case you won't be seeing any pictures of me for a while), but that was about it for productivity.

The Godmother, W. and I did manage to watch a lot of Midsummer Murders, though. I love a good murder. We saw one so old it had Orlando Bloom as the victim (well, the first victim - Midsummer Murders takes the Pringles approach to homicide (once you pop, you can't stop!)) and the guy who plays Brutus in Rome as his burgling butcher's boy accomplice (I can't remember the actor's name, but his face used to annoy the boyf to the point of shouting at the television). Exciting times.

This evening's highlight was a fish pie, made by yours truly. It was surprisingly heavy on the milk, so we're going to be rationing out cups of tea until we get some more. I phoned my very talented mother for ideas on how to make the pie taste of anything, as what I was mostly using was white fish and potatoes, and she gave me lots of helpful suggestions, resulting in quite a tasty product, if I say so myself (a bay leaf, parsley, mustard and lots of black pepper in the milk I poached the fish in, in case you were wondering).

At any rate, all the lazing around today has been very good for me and left me even lazier than normal. Coincidentally, there will not even be a picture today, as I am about to go to bed.

Goodnight!