(no subject)
So Bath was good. Tis indeed such a very pretty city, and with the literature festival on it was busy, but with a pleasantly sedate atmosphere (not that stressy OUT OF MY WAY, YOU'RE BLOCKING PRIMARK kind of busy that I'm used to in cities). Dr Ben's speech was on at the Guildhall, which was almost ridiculously ornate. Pretty, pretty room with many portraits of important looking blokes and some hardcore-fancy chandeliers. However, fancy chandeliers do to some extent interfere with the viewing of powerpoint presentations, which is a little unfortunate. But the lecture was very interesting and rather funny (in a geeky, in-jokey kind of way) and Ben Goldachre is really incredibly charming. I'm sure that if he had the time he'd have his own TV show (probably on at 3am on BBC 4) to keep the blog-shy non-Guardian readers informed on how the media is doing great harm to the public's understanding of evidence. I'd stay up till 3am to watch that, probably :) And Matt seemed to like it too - it's good to know that he's open to geeky things. Because really, as geeky as the subject matter may be, it's presented in a very entertaining and compelling way and it's important too... So yeah, it was a good experience to share and it's nice to date somebody who will actually listen when I go on about such things :)
After the talk, which did not feel long enough (I don't often say such things about lectures...) we went in search of food, which turned out to be a mission and a half. The place we originally wanted to go to had a 30 minute wait, and so began the fast-walking tour of the restaurants of Bath trying to find one that had the magic combination of being a) open, b) italian, c) empty enough to seat us. I didn't look at the time, but it did take a while. But on the positive side I got some fairly decent exercise, a bit more of a sense of the city centre (it's lovely but expensive) and we did eventually get to sit down and have food.
Unfortunately it was only a short trip because Matt had to be in Bristol by 6 for a premiere (he couldn't get me a spare tickety, alas). And the trains were excruciatingly annoying, being a Sunday. It did feel a little bit like I'd hit a seam of bad luck while at the same time having a great time, and everything had a slight air of being hectic, chaotic, rushed. Which is funny because that's how things were right at the begining of the whole shebang - if you skip back to October I probably described meeting up with Matt on halloween and how insanely chaotic that was, or the chaos of the night we first kissed after Helena's party. So chaos and dashing about is just how its going to be, I guess. I wouldn't say it's my fault, exactly, but I do get the sense that its me the chaos clusters around. Ah well. Such is life. I'd deffinitely right now rather have Matt with the Chaos than absolute Calm and no Matt at all.
Anyhoo, for reasons unknown, after my lovely, lovely day in Bath on Sunday, Monday was an absolute write-off, at least mood wise. I don't know what went wrong. I woke up kind of grumpy, went to my seminars, participated (Neil even told me in both seminars that I made 'important' and 'crucial' points!), they went ok. But my mood got worse. And worse. Then even worse. By the time 6 o'clock rolled around I was actually full on ready to start smashing things into people's faces and setting things on fire. Luckily I managed to restrain the urge to partake in violence myself and Row and I went to Blockbuster to rent something where somebody else was violent. Settled on Friday the 13th, which I'd never seen before. Not bad. I also had a massive (seriously, it was HUGE) slice of chocolate fudge cake from precious Frankie's. The combination of retro slasher and excessive chocolate placated the growling bitch inside my head and I felt much, much better.
Today, t'was alright apart from yucky rain. Although I must confess I was naughty. I read only one essay and spent the rest of the day cleaning the kitchen to avoid work, followed by going out to buy a sandwich to avoid work, followed by watching the Daily Show online... to avoid work. I'll do some tommorrow... Oh and also finally got around to watching Summer of Sam, which I've meant to do for ages now (Adrien Brody as a punk, anybody? Yes please!). Judgement was 'nae bad' - pretty interesting film, though Row reckons it may have been a sneaky excuse to have fun recreating the 70's... she may be right. I need to stop watching/reading/engaging with texts to do with serial killers though - I don't think it's healthy... (but they're often so good! the texts, not the killers, obv.)
Oh! Oh! AND! I downloaded (legally - I believe in supporting the relatively obscure, this guy is no Britney Spears, he deserves the money) the Get Well Soon Album 'Rest Your Head You Will Get Well Soon' and declare it to be pretty damn fine. Put his name into Youtube and watch the music videos - I'd particularly reccomend watching 'Witches! Witches! Rest now in the fire!' - best video I've seen in a long while. Creepy as.
Ok, the time has come for the rambling to stop.
After the talk, which did not feel long enough (I don't often say such things about lectures...) we went in search of food, which turned out to be a mission and a half. The place we originally wanted to go to had a 30 minute wait, and so began the fast-walking tour of the restaurants of Bath trying to find one that had the magic combination of being a) open, b) italian, c) empty enough to seat us. I didn't look at the time, but it did take a while. But on the positive side I got some fairly decent exercise, a bit more of a sense of the city centre (it's lovely but expensive) and we did eventually get to sit down and have food.
Unfortunately it was only a short trip because Matt had to be in Bristol by 6 for a premiere (he couldn't get me a spare tickety, alas). And the trains were excruciatingly annoying, being a Sunday. It did feel a little bit like I'd hit a seam of bad luck while at the same time having a great time, and everything had a slight air of being hectic, chaotic, rushed. Which is funny because that's how things were right at the begining of the whole shebang - if you skip back to October I probably described meeting up with Matt on halloween and how insanely chaotic that was, or the chaos of the night we first kissed after Helena's party. So chaos and dashing about is just how its going to be, I guess. I wouldn't say it's my fault, exactly, but I do get the sense that its me the chaos clusters around. Ah well. Such is life. I'd deffinitely right now rather have Matt with the Chaos than absolute Calm and no Matt at all.
Anyhoo, for reasons unknown, after my lovely, lovely day in Bath on Sunday, Monday was an absolute write-off, at least mood wise. I don't know what went wrong. I woke up kind of grumpy, went to my seminars, participated (Neil even told me in both seminars that I made 'important' and 'crucial' points!), they went ok. But my mood got worse. And worse. Then even worse. By the time 6 o'clock rolled around I was actually full on ready to start smashing things into people's faces and setting things on fire. Luckily I managed to restrain the urge to partake in violence myself and Row and I went to Blockbuster to rent something where somebody else was violent. Settled on Friday the 13th, which I'd never seen before. Not bad. I also had a massive (seriously, it was HUGE) slice of chocolate fudge cake from precious Frankie's. The combination of retro slasher and excessive chocolate placated the growling bitch inside my head and I felt much, much better.
Today, t'was alright apart from yucky rain. Although I must confess I was naughty. I read only one essay and spent the rest of the day cleaning the kitchen to avoid work, followed by going out to buy a sandwich to avoid work, followed by watching the Daily Show online... to avoid work. I'll do some tommorrow... Oh and also finally got around to watching Summer of Sam, which I've meant to do for ages now (Adrien Brody as a punk, anybody? Yes please!). Judgement was 'nae bad' - pretty interesting film, though Row reckons it may have been a sneaky excuse to have fun recreating the 70's... she may be right. I need to stop watching/reading/engaging with texts to do with serial killers though - I don't think it's healthy... (but they're often so good! the texts, not the killers, obv.)
Oh! Oh! AND! I downloaded (legally - I believe in supporting the relatively obscure, this guy is no Britney Spears, he deserves the money) the Get Well Soon Album 'Rest Your Head You Will Get Well Soon' and declare it to be pretty damn fine. Put his name into Youtube and watch the music videos - I'd particularly reccomend watching 'Witches! Witches! Rest now in the fire!' - best video I've seen in a long while. Creepy as.
Ok, the time has come for the rambling to stop.