You are what you eat

If this is true then I am slowly turning into a vegetable. I'm really really trying to cram myself full of vitamin C and healthyness because I'm not really getting enough sleep and I'm pretty sure I'm coming down with a summer cold. And at the moment all I can do to guard against this is excessive vitamin consumption until this essay is done. Luckily I'm 2200 words down, and I've still got one point to make, then some form of conclusion and HEY PRESTO! one completed essay. 

Ironically I am also becoming a vegetable because I've been sat in the library all week / sat in my room writing this darned thing. Luckily I'm fixing this tomorrow and I shall run around and play cricket. I appreciate cricket is not the most cardio-intensive sport, but it's better than nothing. I'm hoping the weather is as nice tomorrow as it has been today because it's been a bit depressing sat inside on such a gloriously sunny day.

In other news I'm going home for the weekend(ish) next weekend, leaving Friday evening and coming back Tuesday night. I've got my visa interview on Tuesday morning, and will be spending the night chez Lisa and then Tuesday afternoon we've got an afternoon of fun and excitement planned. Happy days. I have high hopes of getting lots of sleeping and reading in the nice warm Surrey sun done while I'm back as well.

Exit, persued by a bear.

A week ago realisation suddenly sunk in that I have an essay deadline on Monday, I then sat around for a while thinking about possible essay topics and panicking about the impending work load and playing cricket. This has culminated in my being closeted in the library for the last two days. Literally I have been leaving the house at 9 and not coming back until 6. This has lead to about a million pages of notes on cuckoldry in Early Modern Societ, and exactly 191 words. Which I'm trying to fool myself into thinking is a solid start.

If you're interested my essay is on the imagery and morality associated with cuckoldry (wives cheating on their husbands) as shown in Othello and The Winter's Tale. Which is more interesting than it sounds, I promise. I've quite enjoyed doing the reading for it. There don't appear to be many essays on it, which is quite cool, because I feel all original and such, but on the other hand, it's a pain in the derrier because it means I have to do original type research and read mad books about society and law and such, which are much harder to read than Literature gumph which has been dumbed down for wallies like me. Also I'm slightly kicking myself, because I'm doing all this sodding research for a sodding procedural essay, and it doesn't even count. Bah Humbug! 

And unfortunately I've got to stop reading now and start writing. Which is where the whole thing goes downhill. Because I still have this irrational fear of referencing. And I just can't get going, which is why I've got 191 words and I'm now writing a lengthy blog post. I've probably written more in this blog post thatn I have on the essay itself.Actually writing is the worst bit of this essay malarky. Bit of a pain really. 

Being stuck in the Library does not lend itself to a great number of stories which will fit comfortably under the title of 'Adventures and Misadventures'. Yesterday I found a new favourite seat in the library, it has a window, and is right by the Literature books and has a nice big desk. It is the king of library work spaces. I did get slightly distracted by two of my cricket friends, which led to a rapid descent of productivity and an increase in cricket practice. If you're wondering how we managed to do cricket practice in a Library without annoying everyone around us, the answer would be we didn't. Frankie and I threw things such as bits of paper and sweets at Ellen and giggled raucusly, and Ellen did fielding practice. By the end there was a big empty space round us, and we had to sneak out via the physics books so we didn't have to walk past the people we had been disturbing.

Today was much less excitable. I decided to explore new and exciting areas of the library, and so I sat in the Humanities Reading Room, which is good, because it is sunny and there is lots of space, however there are lots of people and so it's easy to get distracted by people watching. The girl next to me today had a tamagotchi, this was hilarious for about 5 minutes, then it just got annoying, because the damn thing kept pooping or what ever it does to make noises and it was quite distracting. Still can't very well let it die can you?

In other news I'm trying to eat my five-a-day at the moment, get healthy, have nice shiney hair, and clear skin and strong nails and such. It's actually harder than I thought it would be. Because it transpires that vegetables go off REALLY quickly. Who knew? Anyway I have to go to the supermarket tomorrow anyway to get food for teas for cricket on Sunday, so I'll get more healthy vegetables while I'm there. Maybe some dried fruit, since that won't go off quite so quickly.

I'm currently drinking a cup of decafinated green tea with lotus. I have to say I'm not hugely impressed. It doesn't really taste of very much and has a strange old aftertaste. Maybe it needed more honey.

Anyway I should get back to the joys of my essay.

When cricket ate my life.

So I haven't really posted that much recently. Which is partly because I'm lazy and partly because cricket ate my life (that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it) so I haven't done much other than go to cricket and sleep. (Some of this may, or may not be slight exaggeration).

First of all Mary and I made epic t-shirts (well I think they're epic), which took a great deal of ironing (about 5 hours if you're interested).I did so much ironing that day I thought my hand might drop off. Also I burnt the end of my finger. Because I dropped the iron on the floor, and it got bits of carpet stuck ot it and I tried to get them off, but then I burnt the bits of carpet onto my fingers. We did mine first and we did it on the kitchen table, because it said on the instructions DON'T USE THE IRONING BOARD. And we didn't know what else to use, and then we realised if you did it onto the table to melted the top of the table and it stuck to the t-shirt. So on one side of mine it has burnt on table and on the other side it has tea towel fluff. So after that we used the ironing board and all the others came out really well. Although it turned out that mine's actually fine, once it had been washed and everything.

The team with our fantastico t-shirts on!

We've had about three matches as well. Which seem to take up a whole day. The first match because Ellen, Frankie and I did the match teas, which involved making massive amounts of sandwiches. Piles and Piles of sandwiches. We lost that first match, quite impressively, it was something like 258 to 31. We didn't get any wickets at all, and we all got out quite quickly. And it was a little embarrassing. I get to stand square leg, which is an amazing place to stand because the ball doesn't come at you all too often and you get to stand around and talk to the umpires. The only problem is that you can't really see if the ball is going wide, so I never know whether to clap the bowl because it does mean you're not sure whether it's wide or not. Also it clearly has the best name.

Little map of a cricket pitch, you can see where I stand on the right side of the brown rectangular bit - all technical terms you understand!

We drove all the way to Manchester to play, it was absolutely FREEZING. I can tell you now that those oh-so-warm looking wooly jumpers are not very warm at all. At all. At all, at all. The fielding was a little depressing, particularly since there was this epic moment where I could have caught one of their batters out and instead I just let the ball bounce off of my thumb and I'm never going to live it down. However we did get two wickets which was an improvement on last time, although in fairness one of them really wanted us to get her out, so I'm not sure to what extent that counts. And we got over 100 runs for the first time since 2007. This was mainly due to our captain, who stayed in all 30 overs and got something ridiculous like 43 runs. I got 2 though, which made me the fourth best batter on the team. We all got massive tarmac stains on the seats of our cricket whites, luckily my awesome Sainsbury's Stain remover powder with active oxygen got them out, but it appears that I was the only one with such power at my finger tips so now we all look even sillier than we did before. Success!

The last match we played was in Leeds, where it was slightly less cold, but still not as sunny as it is in York. We were kind of hoping it'd get rained off after the first couple of overs since they're the best team in our league and they made Sheffield (who we played first) cry, and if it gets rained off once you've started you draw, which was about as close to winning as we're likely to get. Sadly there was rain before the match, and there was rain after the match. But no rain during the match. Our fielding got slightly better from the Manchester game, and we even got 4 wickets. Proper ones that we got because we wanted to, not because they wanted them. Sadly my batting went straight back to square one, as I wandered out of my crease on the very first ball I faced and got out straight away. It was mighty sad.

We're now half way through our season, and we don't even have a match tomorrow, (until now we've had a match every Wednesday and Sunday, plus a practice on Tuesday and Friday) so we almost get the day off. Although we do have an extra practice. So we wont get rusty. Or something like that. I think the next couple of matches are at home, so I might not even be needed to play since most likely there'll be more people who can make it if it's here. So I might even make it to some of my regular Wednesday activities this week. Also because there isn't a match tomorrow I can go to the Church BBQ tomorrow which should be good, as long as the weather holds up.

Other than cricket I have been spending my time wisely. And by spending it wisely I mean I have been sleeping. Like a log. For as many hours as I physically can. Last night for example, I had an early night, got into bed at about 10, didn't turn on my alarm because I figured I'd wake up on time because I'd gone to bed so early. I woke up and it was 12. I'd slept through two phone calls. And my phone was right by my head. I don't understand. I guess I really needed the sleep. It did also mean I missed Lacrosse, but I was thinking about not going anyway since I had a lot of reading to do and my ankle is sore from where I decided it would be a really bright idea to stop a cricket ball with my foot, despite Ellen continually shouting at me to use my hands or I'll break my ankle. Figures.

I did stay up to watch the election the other night, because a politically minded student and all. Although I gave up at around 4 when it became clear that the Conservatives were going to do much better than I had hoped and the entire map of England was looking particularly blue. I went over to Frankie's to watch the election coverage on her TV, with what seemed like the entirety of New Vanbrugh, which was good, we watched a healthy mixture of the 'alternative' comedy coverage on Channel 4 and the BBC's sensible coverage with lots of big long words and fancy graffics. I came back at around 1.30 had a light snack of toast, a bowl of sweetcorn and the nicest cup of tea ever. It was one of the Tazo teas that Hollywood sent me for Christmas. I went for Organic Decaf Spiced Chai, and it was LOVELY.

Anyway I think that pretty much covers everything I've done over the past couple of weeks. And this post is getting quite long. I'm going to post this, try and somehow add some pictures to liven it up, make myself some tea and head to bed! Night chaps!

I want a baby duck and other news.

I'm back in York! And it's all sunny and nice and it's good to be back. The lake is completely filled with the most adorable baby ducklings and the black swans have cignets and they're soooo cute! I'm going to go ahead and put in a couple of pictures so you all realise how cute they are and how much I want one for myself. I'd call it Alfred and I'd love it forever.

In other news we got sent a review for the concert I sang in last term:

The Seasons, York University Choir / Northern Sinfonia; York Minster
4:20pm Thursday 11th March 2010
By Martin Dreyer
Though it has never enjoyed the popularity of The Creation, its sister
oratorio, Haydn's last completed work The Seasons brings more of his
prodigious genius into play.
That was the irresistible message from Wednesday's often enthralling
performance in the original German, conducted by Peter Seymour.
The true tints of the changing year, seen in Haydn's cameos of country life,
come through most richly in his orchestra. Here Seymour had a hugely
reliable ally in the Northern Sinfonia. Whether in the thrilling horns of
the hunt, the bold fanfares at spring's close, the shepherd's trilling oboe,
or the crack of the sportsman's rifle, we had primary colours at every turn.
The strings, often in perpetual motion in the choruses, added sterling
support.
The soloists took rather different approaches to their rustic roles. Matthew
Brook applied his bass, with increasing success, to Simon's homespun humour,
most notably in his spaniel aria.
The Enlightenment moral of the final aria proved well-suited to his operatic
treatment. Adrian Thompson's twitchy tenor made a townie of Lucas, never
really at ease. But soprano Mhairi Lawson, phrasing stylishly, was always
the country lass whether cavorting or musing. Her folksongs were witty, her
evocation of sunrise creamy and her mezzo-tinted late-autumn cavatina
exquisite.
The choir, weighing in only slightly lighter than usual at 230 voices,
proved surprisingly light on its feet - once it had despatched its clunky
opening to 'gentle' spring. Clarity marked the fugal chorus-endings, and the
sopranos soared fearlessly above the stave. Teamwork triumphed.
Back
C Copyright 2001-2010 Newsquest Media Group

The original is here http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/leisure/music/5057002.The_Seasons__York_University_Choir___Northern_Sinfonia__York_Minster/ 

Which is all quite exciting since I've never had a proper review for something before and it was quite a positive one over all.

The other day we went to Whitby for the day. It was a monst fun day out. We went to the beach, and made a fantastic sandcastle, which we populated with people made from babybel wax, and we saw the abbey and this lovely old church, and many many goths. We took the bus there, which took us past Flamingo Land, which looks worth a visit but quite expensive, and the village they film Heartbeat in (which is a soap opera, in case you were wondering.) We had a picnic lunch, and ice-cream, and fish and chips for tea. And it was all together quite marvelous.

Everyone is getting back to York now, and I'm surrounded by people stressing about exams, while I have almost no work to do, just a little bit of reading and lots of lazing around in the sunshine. It's rather fantastic.

Black hole and shining stars

Yesterday I visited the Oxfam bookshop, which seems to me to be somewhat like a black hole, when considering my money and my time. Yesterday I bought 2 more books there, Selected Letters by Jane Austen, and Writing and Difference. Which brings the total count of Oxfam books to 7 since I got home 2 weeks ago ( the others include The Pilgrim's Progress, an annotated Lolita, a book on Elizabethan Colonisation, a book called How the Scots invented the modern world, and one entitled Women's Oppression Today, which is a marxist/femminist book I'd never actually heard of till I found it, but I'm sure it will be very interesting.) Of these I've so far read the Scottish History one, although I still don't think the Scottish invented the modern world, although they did do some pretty groovy things, like bring the first lending library to Britain and so forth. Still I don't think inventing the library, marvelous as it is as a concept, is quite the same as inventing the modern world. I've also bought several books for my course (Winter's Tale, Othelo, 'Tis pity she's a whore, Priccesse a Cleves, and a poetry anthology) and of course The second sex because the library refused to lend it to me. Which means three things, one, I'm much poorer than when I got home, two, I have a LOT of books to read, and three, I have no idea how I'm going to get these books back to York. Still. It's all good.

On a slightly different note I've just finished a book called The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, which I would definitely recommend reading. It's beautifully written and actually very interesting because it has so much random information about the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. It was quite fun reading about the Dangerous Diseases Acts and things in fiction since I'd done so much research on it last term.

Lastly sorry for the less than prosaic title for this post, I thought it would liven things up a little!

Easter Weekend!

It is finally Easter Weekend. And following today's trip to Sainsbury's we have all the necessary Easter foods. Lamb, hot crossed buns, smoked salmon. And Cadbury's cream eggs. Lots and lots and lots of cream eggs. And it's even decided to be sunny! Hurrah for England. Jolly good show I say. Jolly good show!

So...

... it transpires you shouldn't try to warm up blinis in the toaster. It just doesn't work. They get stuck. They fall appart. You put four in only one comes out. And so on.

In other news the staff list for camp has been emailed out. This is more exciting than you can possibly imagine! It's all so real! It's strange thinking back to this time last year!

Also check this out for giggles (link)