David's plane lands in about 9 hours. Hooray!
I've totally gone off milk chocolate. Totally. In fact, if it's dark, but it has milk in it, I'm not that keen. I also ate a suet pudding today and it made me feel really sick and heavy. Plus, I now have a minor outbreak of spots.
I'm going to try and watch the end of The Bourne Identity until I get tired enough to fall asleep.
I thought I might have Policeman's Heel. This is a problem with the tendon in the foot that temporarily makes it next to impossible to walk and remains painful even at rest. It's getting better, though, even without resting up properly, so I guess it can't be.
The menu changed at work today. It was interesting. I'm dreading doing prawn cocktails, now. Talk about a load of faff. They were bad enough before, but at least you could premake them. Now, you can't. Well done.
You know, I keep saying things like, 'If this were my business, I'd do it this way.' It makes me wonder if I shouldn't seriously consider doing it my way sometime in the future. If the owners of the last business I worked at could do it, I don't see how I could do any worse. I've learned a lot since then.
We've had some info through at work about advanced NVQ courses, and I was chatting with one of the chefs about them today. He reckons NVQ3 isn't worth doing it as it's basically 'messing around with pastry for a year.' Unfortunately, that sounds quite interesting to me, and that's also the sort of thing that makes a big difference to your salary. I need to get one of these courses under my belt, right quick. And I'm enormously interested in doing a professional chocolatier program, too. Partly because I love chocolate, but also because at the moment I'm really interested in specialising in desserts. I realise there's a risk I could get fat again this way, but I mainly want to enjoy desserts vicariously. And desserts make people happy. What could be more desirable? I heart desserts. And chocolate is the best part of desserts, right?
Need to finish my next assignment tomorrow night. Must. Have to.
Okay.
I am such a muppet. This isn't that hard. It's 1000 words. Why do I go through this every time I have an assigment, only to discover that once it's broken down, it's not that daunting.
Sigh.
No, really, I don't.
Describe the fictional devices employed in the passage and the effects they produce. Then consider briefly how this passage relates to the novel as a whole.
For 1000 words, that shouldn't be difficult. It's on Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen, volume 2, chapter 7, up to Tilney asking 'Has my sister a pleasant mode of instruction?' The trouble is, I'm not entirely sure what they mean by 'fictional devices' and I'm not entirely sure I really understand the whole novel anyway. I have no idea what I want to say and I need to have the essay in the post on Monday.
I ought to be able to get the whole thing done in the space of a few short hours, but I'm stuck. So, so stuck.
I can't read fast enough, or apply myself for long enough, to make decent headway on my coursework. I need to pull myself together. The only thing I've got under control is my diet.
I've had some OCD time, this week, but I think I've mostly resolved it. It's just a case of remembering that the running of the universe is far beyond my capabilities and, in light of that, I have not been granted the ability to effect drastic change upon it through seemingly unrelated actions - such as handwashing - without the entity responsible for such a gift forgetting to bestow the comprehension of such capabilities. Indeed, no. The running of the universe is entirely in divine hands (not mine), and they have my best interests at heart.
I also wrote a short piece of fiction, but decided not to post it here. I got all shy about it.
I gave up my bad eating habits for Lent.
I'm not only hungry, I'm desperate for stuff I shouldn't be eating. This is the wrong week. If I can make it through this week, the next 5 will be easy. Well, apart from the next wrong week. Still, I seem to be losing weight again. Which is, ultimately, the best encouragement a girl could want.
I'm climbing again tomorrow. And Thursday. I love climbing so much. I'm going to take my assessment next week, I think, so I'll be able to afford to climb more often. It'll mean driving out to MK one evening of the week, but it'll be worth it.
I've taken a week off so that David can visit. I'm so excited about him coming. Now we just have to find somewhere to hang out all week that isn't in anyone's way.
I reversed into a tree. It was in my blind spot. I would ordinarily make some kind of so-called 'witticism' along the lines of how it jumped into my path, but I'm too tired, too sore and too aware of how unfunny it would be. After I'd done that, I had to bend my bumper back. I'm not sure that's healthy for a car, but it'll have to wait until Tuesday before I can take it to the mechanic.
Driving home, naturally I nearly drove off the road. I'm too tired to drive safely. This is not cool.
These things come in threes. So, we'll see.
I can't get through to David at all on the phone. My connection won't allow it.
I'm fed up of this. Maybe I'll just go to bed.
To say that the only people being affected by the anti-terrorist laws in the UK are Muslim is ridiculous. Why, there is more than one example of the same laws being abused to ridiculous extent against non-Muslims in the UK. Furthermore, the reasons for this man - who wishes to speak out such that he'll talk on TV, give out his name on TV but not show his face on TV - having been held are not entirely spurious; most of the others are still in custody. They must think they're on to something.
Along not entirely different lines - though perhaps the route is somewhat circuitous and the result tangential - should it be possible to imprison people for a crime they haven't committed? If they're planning to commit it? If they talk about it in an internet chat room? See, for some reason, it never occurred to me that there could be such a charge as Conspiracy to Rape in the UK. Sounds pretty nasty, huh? Add to the mix that the planned victims were children and you get a legal and media frenzy over the whole thing. Certainly the men require treatment, and should be placed on the Sex Offenders Register for the crimes they have committed - such as downloading kiddie porn and spreading it about - but they didn't actually rape any children. I can only imagine they'd all have gotten Life if they'd actually carried their heinous schemes out. Anyway, this doesn't half make me wonder how many other Conspiracy charges we have in the UK, and what significance they have in a society where people can be held without charge, anyway, just in case they might be thinking about becoming a terrorist.
Another conspiracy in the news this week is the 'covering up' of the 'friendly fire' incident which killed L/Cpl Matty Hull. I was appalled, today, watching the news, at how the story was handled. First, the name of the pilot who pulled the trigger, codename POPOV36, has been disclosed, and is being thrown about casually. Secondly, the media visit this pilot's home town, find the biggest redneck they can get, who'll say the most controversial things in support of said pilot and the US Military, and encourage him to make Americans sound like arrogant jerks who don't give a fig about the death of British troops because damnit there's a war on. Finally, they add comments from the pilot himself, who now makes a living training pilots, about how proud he is of what he achieved in Iraq, and make it sound as if he doesn't care about the incident, either. Which, as anyone who's actually read the transcript of the incident will know, is not the case. Furthermore, it wasn't entirely his fault.
If the situation were reversed, and a US serviceman had been killed at the hands of a british soldier, I can assure you that the US would not be mounting a witch hunt of these proportions. This isn't about putting Matty Hull's widow's mind at rest, this is about revenge, and about some bizarre perceived inequality between the UK and the US. If we want to be equal partners in everything the US and the UK get up to, then we need to simply behave like it.
By the way, in case you haven't heard, it snowed today.
I'm coming to enjoy the auto-belay thing. It's quite exhilarating launching yourself from the top of the wall and swinging away as you plunge down towards the ground. I hated it at first; the constant tugging at the harness and the inevitable drop if you lose concentration - no partner to hold you steady, here.
I'm slowly overcoming my fear of heights. Today, I stood on a ledge, three-quarters of the way up a wall, and just looked down. It was pretty dizzying. The guy supervising my session suggested it. He climbed up, too, and for a moment, I was a bit worried he was thinking of pushing me off in order to 'cure' me. Except, you know, that'd be dangerous and really uncool. He did recommend turning my back to the drop and just falling, but I figured I was so near the top that I might as well finish the wall.
I'm really proud of myself, today. I'd have done a little better if I didn't seem to have this persistant pain in my left knee. It killed my run, yesterday, too. I probably wouldn't have gone climbing at all, today, if I hadn't already paid for the session. I'm so glad I did, though. It was well worth it. He let me go on an extra 15 minutes while I got the hang of using features only to get across the bouldering wall. I managed a little less than halfway, which, given that the first time I tried bouldering (about 5/6 weeks ago) I couldn't even hold on to the wall, with handholds, I think is pretty cool.
I love climbing. Totally love it.
Feed the addiction!
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