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)

Cricket

I was watching T.V. today (I can't remember the last time I watched T.V. with ad-breaks) and I saw this advert (link) and I thought it would be an excellent strategy for our cricket team.
According to our captain we actually want to be more like this (link) because the first one made her think, and I quote, "Get off the crease, your heels are going to ruin it!" Which I think is a vital part of the strategy, but apparently my tactical thinking has been lost on her.
Back to the drawing board.

Joys!

Today I had to get up at some horrendous hour to take Ellen to Heathrow. Which basically involved me spending a great deal of quality time with the M25. Gotta love those variable speed limits!

Bookishness

You always read in novels and such about characters who are 'bookish'. Now I don't know about you, but I have often wondered what being 'bookish' entails. I believe that today I found out.

Ellen and I decided to go on an adventure to Jane Austen's house in Chawton, Hampshire. Once there we proceded to get over excited by the gift shop, then debate the merits of different versions of the same book based on the explanitory notes provided and how pretty the binding was (or what might be termed by smart people the 'paratext'), spend ages choosing between a postcard depicting Northanger Abbey v.s. one depicting Sense and Sensibility, get enthusiastic about Mr Darcy wrapping paper, notebooks, quill pens and other such items. I also got upset by a comic book version of Pride and Prejudice... I do not approve at all. I also made sarky comments while the old women in the shop debated the merits of Wilkie Collins over Dickens. Then we wandered around the little English village in the rain (I was with an American - she insisted) and made friends with two very excitable dogs. The big dog kept stealing the little dog's stick. On the way home we played Taylor Swift very loudly in the car. Once back in Guildford we stopped off to pick up... you guessed it! Some books. I am now the proud owner of Norton Critical Editions of 'Othello' and 'John Donne's Poetry, (for those of you who aren't excited by the fact that they are Norton's editions I'm going to assume it's because you are unaware of the superior notes and critical analysis provided in these copies). I also have Oxford University Press editions of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore and Other Plays by John Ford, The Winter's Tale and The Princesse de Cleves. These are less exciting, because they don't have quite such interesting notes, but there's still a decent introduction and footnotes, so I'll survive. Following this we decided to frequent the Oxfam Bookshop, only to find, much to our chargrin (question: does anyone know how to pronounce this word? Ellen claims it is said 'shag-grin' but I feel this sounds a little lewd) that it was closed. Instead we dropped by the Library. Whilst there I remembered why I never go to Guildford Library. There is a very good reason why I never go to Guildford Library. It is because it is USELESS. All I wanted was to borrow a copy of The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. Now their catalogue system is slightly naff and could not find de Beauvoir, because I stuck the de infront and it's under Beauvoir as if her name is: first name Simone, second name de surname Beauvoir. I assumed it couldn't find it because I'd spelt something wrong, so I went to ask the librarian, who despite clearly judging me for not knowing how to spell de Beauvoir, still thought that it might be in the literature section, when I explained it probably wouldn't be she didn't seem to impressed. Finally we found it listed in the catalogue under 'femminism' and went on our way to find the book. However when we got there the cupboard was bare. There was no Second Sex on the shelf. We checked the displays but nada. So I went back to grumpy mcgrumpson to ask of the whereabouts of this book. They didn't know and couldn't help. They were useless. Guildford Library is the ONLY LIBRARY IN THE WORLD that doesn't want to LEND YOU BOOKS. Grrrr and hmph. So in the end I took out The Feminine Mystique instead. Which is interesting enough. But about American Women. And I didn't want to read about American Women. I wanted to read about French Women. Bah Humbug.

I think this story perfectly illustrates what I imagine a 'bookish' person would act like.
The End.

Class Choices

So I've given in my preliminary class choices for Mount Holyoke next year, in the end I went for:

• Creative Writing
• Literature of the Jazz age,
• French Literature and Culture,
• Postcolonialism and Poststructuralism

for the first semester and :

• Austen Film and Fiction,
• French Civilisation,
• Literature for Children and Young People,
• Arthurian Myths and Legends

for the second. I'm not going to lie, I'm most excited about the Austen Film and Fiction, maybe I'll get to watch Colin Firth in his wet shirt!

Oh Mister Sun

Mister Sun, Sun, Mister Golden Sun,
Please shine down on me,
Oh Mister Sun, Sun, Mister Golden Sun,
Hiding behind that (enormous rain cloud)
All us lot down here are a waitin' for you,
To come out and do that thing that you do,
Oh Mister Sun, Sun, Mister Golden Sun,
Please shine down on, Won't you shine down on,
Please shine down on me...
.... shine down on meeeeee!

I should have known the sun was too good to last! Ah well I enjoyed it yestday; I learnt how to do rugby passing and stood around outside. It was nice.

Kitchen Table Tennis

Last night was the last Cricket social of term. We had an end of term pot luck dinner, which involved everyone bringing the random things they had left over and we ate those. So we had a Cumberland pie, a haddock pie, crisps and dip, carrot sticks, mash, bacon sandwiches, quiche Lorraine, mange touts, and then this amazing fruit cake Ellen's mum made, and an amazing cinnamon and coffee cake with coffee icing which Mary made. And wine. Lots and lots of wine. Which all culminated in us playing table tennis on the kitchen table. We played a mini tournament thing, which I can't really remember the out come of other than that our esteemed captain lost. Then we decided to play round the world, which was a great idea except we didn't have enough bats, so Cecilia and Frankie had to use pans, and we didn't have enough co-ordination, so hilarity ensued. After we decided to go into town, the place we were going to go to had a couple of ambulances parked outside, so we decided to give that a miss, and go to the club, or as my father would call it, discotheque, all the cool kids go to on a Tuesday. Only we are not cool kids. So we lasted about an hour and then walked home.

This morning I had my final presentation at 9.15. And a lecture. And a lacrosse match. Then I stayed to watch the rugby, went to my music rehearsal. Then I collapsed a little. Had dinner, straightened my friends hair for her social, and then tucked myself up in bed, with iPlayer.

Good times all round!