Bits and Pieces

Remember I was complaining about missing the heat in Taiwan? Well today it was hot here in the UK, damn hot, and even though it's 9pm it's still hot and I am hopelessly ill-equipped to handle it. I don't take back what I said but I sure wish I had a fan.

LJ put a new distribution of linux on my laptop and it works great but we forgot to back up all of the email addresses for the email group I'm moderating. Shit.

Tonight I'm toodling around online and not putting myself under pressure to do stuff for my dissertation. It's tough...I love that I'm writing about blogs but it makes blog-reading-for-pleasure a feel a bit guilty and furtive. I feel like I should be taking notes or something. Having said that, I'm usually pretty good at getting over the guilt. Been checking out some of the blogs on the Bust Girl Wide Web. Also thinkin' about that subscription seeing as my birthday (30 - yay!) is coming up next week.

Happy student

The first...I got my last two essays back today. Much better marks than I had expected. Having written them under far greater time-constraints than I would like (I'm a slow, think-it-over-and-rewrite-fifty-times-gal) I was really not all that happy with the work (particularly on one of them). Anyway, the marks were solid, I'm pleased with myself. Chuffed even.
As well as getting essays back I met with my supervisors today. It was good to get back on track after the holiday. I left the appointment feeling pretty damn excited about the whole thing. It feels do-able, real, fun, interesting and (most of all) like I will actually be exploring something worthwhile. Like not just getting my MA but contributing to something. And that rocks!
So now I need to find two feminist academic blogs to use as my case studies. I've been lurking around a few and I'll post more about it when I've asked and actually received permission. There are so many fantastic women bloggers out there, it really gives me hope, especially when I often feel so isolated where I'm living.

Okay, I'm off to do some reading. And isn't it so wicked that I'd rather do that than anything else right now (well, okay, perhaps I'd rather eat the rest of the yummy leek quiche I made this evening but...must not - must save it for lunch tomorrow...well maybe just a sliver).

Isn't it...don't cha think?

Ironic - to go chasing the sun in Slovenia only to spend two weeks being told by bemused Slovenes that it is a freakishly cold and rainy two weeks for this time of the year and then to get back to a heatwave in the UK. Add to which, after all my longing for the sweaty days of Taiwan, I got heat exhaustion in about three hours yesterday while we were in London and thought I was going to throw up and pass out in the middle of all the trendy Londoners.
So, back to the holiday: I packed for warm weather and ended up rotating the two pairs of jeans I had with me the whole time. Despite which we did have a lot of fun: our hosts were wonderful, the food was yummy, the beer and the ice cream were plentiful, the city was super-cool, and the countryside beautiful. I'll try to post a photograph or two later in the week (yes...I'm moving on to pictures!)
Now I'm back I have to switch from the 'where will I eat ice cream and drink beer' mindset to the 'I really need to make progress on my dissertation' mindset. I'm thinking of today as a bridging day - I'm looking at the books on my desk and getting comfortable with them. Tomorrow I have a class in the morning and work in the evening and hopefully will get the chance to do a little reading in the afternoon. My goal is to read up some more on web based expression (and its intersections with feminist theory if I can find anything) and to hash out at least ten pages of something by the end of the weekend. Phew. Now I've put it in writing I might actually do it...scary thought.
Dinner tonight marks my return to the kitchen which I am ridiculously excited about - am making the very easy and most delicious recent addition to our regular dinner menu...butternut squash roasted in the oven and then added to courgette and onion and garlic and some veggie stock and cream and finally basil to make a yummmmmmmy sauce for pasta. It really suits penne but tonight we are trying it with some wholewheat fusilli. I think I'll make a salad too and dress it with some of the pumkin oil we brought back from Slovenia. Believe me - pumkin oil seriously kicks olive oil's ass. It has the most fantastic nutty taste and a little goes a long way.
Okay, now I'm hungry.