typical sunday really

I slept in quite nicely today after being woken up at 5:30 am with a blinding headache, and then went to meet some friends at Starbucks for a cuppa. It is always nice to get out of the house for a little bit, and I think the fresh air did me good as well. After coffee I went by the Apple store for a bit and it was much nicer today than yesterday. It wasn't as packed as yesterday when they just opened, and I had a play with the new iPod touch and the iPod classic as well as with Leopard. I am now thinking about upgrading, it seems worthwhile just for Time machine alone... but anyway. After the visit there I walked home, and was greeted by a very strange sight; Neil sitting on the sofa with my DS! It is the scrabble game that had him convinced. But then again he is really good at it, and can actually beat most of the opponents in one try, when I still need a few more gos. But it is still fun, I prefer the mini games - they really help with building vocabulary. Not much else going on today really, we are having roast later and then then just vegging on the couch I assume... maybe pub quizzing later, but no word yet.

finally

I am free... I finished all the marking I have to do this year... I still can't quite believe that I am done. It was quite a nightmare, but I am just thinking about it in terms of how much I will get paid at the end of December because I have all this marking done now. All the things I can do with that money, but I really should be careful and just be good and pay off my credit card rather than going crazy and spending it all on nice things.

Anyway, I was in town this afternoon and saw that the Ice Rink near the Castle is opening up and it is combined with a little Germany style christmas market - all it is really there are a few stalls with things to buy and then the obligatory Bratwurst stand. I only walked by briefly, and it looked authentic, but I need to find out if they are real and good Thüringer Bratwürste. Might see over the weekend if I fancy one!

Also apparently the Apple Retail Store in Exeter is opening up tomorrow morning, but at the moment it doesn't look like it is anywhere near ready. Still all boarded up on the outside and no shiny windows to display any cool things yet. But who knows, they are probably making everyone work like crazy so it is all perfect for tomorrow morning. I will go but not first thing in the morning, having a lie in is more important to me...

Monday morning...

gosh how in the world do weekends just disappear so quickly and we are back on another week... well this week isn't just another week, it is also another week of marking :( It's just not fun at all, I guess it would help if the module convenor would set a different assignment, but they are just the same every year... and for this particular one it has been the same for the last 4 or 5 years... very sad, but oh well. This year apparently the students are supposed to be better quality (A-level wise) but must have got stuck with the bad batch (the other markers have a higher average than me and I am not being too harsh we checked!) so I am hoping things will pick up with the ones I mark today. It isn't that it is the most difficult thing they have to do, I had to write more difficult papers in my first year and I did it all in a different language and there aren't that many students whose first language isn't English... anyway, enough ranting (sorry it is Monday morning) and better get to my lovely cup of tea that's waiting for me (Mmmmmhhhhh Roiboos Strawberry and Cream flavour yum!)

Once

went to see "Once" at the Picturehouse yesterday and it was brilliant. Well not very much happens in th film really, but it just really made you feel happy inside. The story is very simple. A busker on the streets of Dublin (?) meets a Big Issue seller and they record a few of his songs together and both are happy in the end with choices they made. Doesn't sound like much, but trust me the music more than makes up for lack of anything happening. Plus the girl dragging a vacuum cleaner through the streets as if it were a dog is just really funny!!!

this afternoon I got a pile of first year practical reports to mark by the 27th of this month, which will be nice for the money I am getting in December, but not so good for my sanity. First years are just a bit inaccurate in the way the report findings. should be interesting. and then of course I have all my own work as well, a paper that needs to be written, and a load of data to be analysed from two studies now. Still typing in data for one of them, but the other one can soon be written up... so I really should get to that, so that I can actually properly enjoy my christmas holiday.

oh speaking of collecting data... if you know of any men who have 3 minutes to spare and don't object to contributing to science, here is a link to my current study.

I have more than enough women, but it would help if I could get a few more men to fill it in, as the numbers are too unequal at the moment. so thanks to anyone who can help.

another weekend has come and gone way too quickly for my liking, but there you go. Not much that can really be done about it. It was a nice weekend though. Friday night we went for a drink with a uni friend who had finally submitted the final version of his PhD after a long time of trying to please the external examiner. then we came home and just vegged out on the couches and watched some tv.

Saturday I wasn't feeling too great, so I stayed in most of the day and in the evening again we met another friend for a drink at Mill on the Exe and then I came home and watched Ocean's 11 from the very nice big couch in our living room, while Neil went to play some snooker.

And then yesterday morning annoyingly started with my parents ringing with computer problems, so they kept me on the phone for a while and Neil was thinking we were having an argument. the main problem was them putting me on loud speaker on their end and then walking away from the phone so i couldn't hear a word of what they were saying and my dad just changing random settings on the computer and then not telling me about what he had done. That made me all flustered, but thankfully friends had invited us over for Sunday lunch and to see their new house. It was really nice to finally see the house, they moved in August, and now it is November... way too long. Anyway, we had a nice afternoon with them eating a lovely lunch, and then playing on their Wii for a while, then I saw I had a text from a friend who was desperately looking for a dinner buddy to use up a 2 for 1 Wagamama voucher. So I ended up going with her which was really nice, I had one of the ramen soups, and it was just the right thing. Not overly filling, but just really nice and tasty. I have been craving soups with this colder weather... not much else to report, we watched Top Gear and then A Long Way Down and played on the computers for a while, and then went to bed....

And now it is Monday morning already and I can't get myself out of bed... well I will be staying at uni late to though, so I can warrant going in a bit later. Hope the film tonight will be good. We are going to see "Once".

I'm really not feeling very good at the moment. It seems that my body can't quite decide whether it wants to be ill or not, so I am constantly in this weird stage of where I think I can get a good day's work done and then end up sitting in the office feeling all sluggish and lazy and can't get anything done. I wish it would just develop into something properly so I can just stay in bed for a few days and get better... but this way I just can't justify staying in bed. So I am just waiting now for the washing machine to finish the cycle and then I am off to uni to have yet another unsuccessful day. At least one thing to look forward too, Neil is back tonight :) YAY!

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

went to see the above film last night, and it was quite good... just a bit in the middle was a bit annoying and seemed to be superfluous to the rest of the plot (what a big word so early in the morning), but the fact that Clive Owen was in it made it all worth wile to watch. Cate Blanchett was brilliant again as Queen Elizabeth, but I thought the first film was better than this. But then again it was a long time since I have seen it. I seem to remember to have gone to see it to get some extra credit for a class in my very first year in college (1998 or 1999), don't know anymore though how that film related to the class I took.

weekend catch up...

First I should say that the Ann Summer's Party wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We played a few slightly embarrassing games, but the lady who ran it was nice to the few of us who hadn't been to one of those parties before. I did feel slightly bad about not having any money to buy anything, but I also didn't quite see the point in spending so much money when I don't have the money... so maybe next time I just won't go...

The rest of the weekend has been nice. Yesterday afternoon I met some friends for starbucks coffee and then met Neil at the Continental Market to have an overpriced German Thüringer Bratwurst (something I much rather spend my money on twice a year) and then wandered home to watch Fireworks from the flat... some were really really nice, and there are more today!

Neil cooked a roast dinner/lunch today and we had friends over which was lovely and very relaxed.

I am off to an Ann Summers Party tonight - not quite sure what to expect... Hope it won't be too embarrassing :-/