What I Have Been Up To
1. I went on holiday for a week, courtesy of my parents, who instead of a big party for my 21st agreed to send me and Lawrence away to the Lake District. I took very many photographs, some of which will appear on t'internet at some point. More importantly, I recovered from London but at the same time developed a real appreciation for the concept of a reasonably reliable 24-hour public transport system. It turns out that the countryside is dark at night and also that the road between Coniston and Hawkshead is dark and long and bendy. Transport aside, I would very much like to have not come back to London. Alas, there are no jobs in nice places.
2. I did not fail my degree. Having spent the past month or so mentally going over all the silly things wrote about and important things I omitted from my exams, I phoned the department yesterday and found out I got a good 2:1. Which was something of a relief, to put it mildly. More excitingly, I got a first for my dissertation, which suggests that my slightly confused and possibly insane ideas about early medieval political thought are not entirely insane or boring,* and the same for my Charlemagne exam, and I actually got a 2:2 for the paper I thought I'd failed.
3. I have applied for an MA in medieval history at Birkbeck.
4. I have applied for some jobs, and signed up with a couple of agencies. I had one interview, a couple of weeks ago, for a very good job which I did not get. I have another interview the week after next for something which is less good but which I would probably take if they offered it to me because it pays money (which is in short supply at the moment).
5. I have been working full-time in the bookshop. This has involved 80% turning the shop into somewhere people might want to buy books and be able to find the books they want, and 20% slacking off with cups of green tea and being rude about (absent) customers.
6. I have seen two people I haven't seen for about two years, namely poppycocteau and cyrus_ii. Which was nice. Possibly I should see these people again before another two years are up.
7. I have taken on the all-important role of picker-up-of-things-that-fall-upon-the-floor, Lawrence having been off work with back problems for the past month. I was also maker-of-tea until his doctor prescribed pottering about and making lots of cups of tea along with the painkillers.
8. Carlos Tevez has not left us yet. This actually has had nothing to do with me whatsoever, but I am listing it anyway as I am quite pleased about it.
* Anyone who made the mistake of asking me about my dissertation at any point, or indeed reading the waffly bits behind lj-cuts, will almost certainly disagree with this last bit. Sorry about that.
2. I did not fail my degree. Having spent the past month or so mentally going over all the silly things wrote about and important things I omitted from my exams, I phoned the department yesterday and found out I got a good 2:1. Which was something of a relief, to put it mildly. More excitingly, I got a first for my dissertation, which suggests that my slightly confused and possibly insane ideas about early medieval political thought are not entirely insane or boring,* and the same for my Charlemagne exam, and I actually got a 2:2 for the paper I thought I'd failed.
3. I have applied for an MA in medieval history at Birkbeck.
4. I have applied for some jobs, and signed up with a couple of agencies. I had one interview, a couple of weeks ago, for a very good job which I did not get. I have another interview the week after next for something which is less good but which I would probably take if they offered it to me because it pays money (which is in short supply at the moment).
5. I have been working full-time in the bookshop. This has involved 80% turning the shop into somewhere people might want to buy books and be able to find the books they want, and 20% slacking off with cups of green tea and being rude about (absent) customers.
6. I have seen two people I haven't seen for about two years, namely poppycocteau and cyrus_ii. Which was nice. Possibly I should see these people again before another two years are up.
7. I have taken on the all-important role of picker-up-of-things-that-fall-upon-the-floor, Lawrence having been off work with back problems for the past month. I was also maker-of-tea until his doctor prescribed pottering about and making lots of cups of tea along with the painkillers.
8. Carlos Tevez has not left us yet. This actually has had nothing to do with me whatsoever, but I am listing it anyway as I am quite pleased about it.
* Anyone who made the mistake of asking me about my dissertation at any point, or indeed reading the waffly bits behind lj-cuts, will almost certainly disagree with this last bit. Sorry about that.