Saturday...

Ah it's 7.20 on Saturday and I am a bit bored and restless... The television is useless. Useless! I have read the paper until I am fit to pop... I read it so quickly - I think it is symptomatic of a certain form of information-gobbling that is typical of a PhD student: read, read, read, don't take in periphery info; read, read, read, absorb, suck in interesting tidbits, spit out malnutritious detritus... So I don't read in a very relaxed way. I get full and suffer information overload until at some point I will go mad and turn off all appliances and relish complete silence. Ahhh. I can hear myself think. And then I realise that what I think is crazy unhelpful nonsense and, resigned to my noisy fate, put back on the tele and pick up the paper again.

Last night was a lovely night btw. We went to this little Italian pizza place, owned by Italians and everything! And they sold all Italian drinks and had typical Italian decor - bright lights, tiled walls and relatively sparse compared to English Bistro-style Italian restaurants. The family came over and chatted to us, even the Grandma! She doesn't speak English and gabbled away to us in Italian. I thought it was very funny that the first time I spoke any Italian to an Italian is in a restaurant in England... By the nature of the course we were a very international bunch: Japanese, Columbian, Italian, Spanish, German, Slovak, and the Spanish and Italian speakers gabbled back to the Grandmother. I smiled and croaked out a 'Grazia! Ciao!' We met lots of new people that I like and drank some beer. Had an illicit ciggie outside with DB and where joined by a surprising contingent of secret smokers... Ah, there is nothing like bonding over a cheeky fag. DB and I were in a worry about wether to leave and get the last train home or stay and get a £15 taxi back. We decided we had had a good time and should maybe leave before we got too drunk and regretful, so we ran for the train, got to the doors... and it pulled away. Ah! The sadness! So got that taxi back anyway. Oh well, these things will happen. I was being terribly British and having a quandry in the pub about when to tell the guy who was giving me a detailed and animated answer to a recent question that I had to go now, stop talking please! And not be rude. So bad. If I had been more of a brute then we would have got that damned train!! We were very brave leaving because just before we decided to go a chap placed a few pints of beer in front of me and, having asked him if I could distribute them for him, he explained that they were for anyone who wanted them! A guy at the bar had just bought ten pints for anyone! How ace is that!! And I left... Maybe DB and I are getting old and sensible. Answers on a postcard please.

Anyway we had lots of fun. I am most liking my new sociable position. We talked shop a bit and I had a moment of thinking that I just don't take my work seriously enough... A couple of people mentioned working on the weekend and, as we know, I don't take kindly to weekend-working. I sometimes think I have to remember though that I am a lady of leisure because I am funded, and so don't have to go out to work and waste PhD time on that. This makes a huge difference I think. I am working now though: I have so many outgoings over the next couple of months that some extra cash is desperately needed. I will do data entry for DB and not complain about it. And then get some money!! I feel a bit icky about taking money from DB but I would borrow it from him otherwise. I may borrow the money, then work to pay it off so it is explicit what I am working for.

Today is a happy write off due to a little hangover from last night's extravaganza... We have ordered a wee take away from the most beautiful Indian down the road which I am SOOO looking forward to. I have really watched my eating this week and so this is a treat. Tomorrow I shall go to the gym/run/swim early, then come home and watch Shipwrecked and eat lunch, then do some work for DB - 2 hours - then do some uni reading for 2 hours. Then chill out. Eugh, then it will be Monday! Maybe I shan't do uni work tomorrow... Hmmm. DB is busy busy with important work so we shan't go out anywhere.

I wonder what the weather will be like on Friday... DB and I are having the friends over for some dins and we may have a barbecue! I think I may make barbecue-style food anyway: jacket potatoes, chicken breasts in a masala marinade, salad, home made burgers, veggie kebabs? That would be fun. And they are bringing over some pudding. Yay pudding!!! Am such a fan. I never have pudding in my life, I would have a doughnut or a biscuit or rice pudding for a treat, but pudding, no. And if we eat out I would have a starter rather than pud. So I am very excited by the new prominence of pud in my life... Maybe this is why I am going out more? Do we think???

Ah! My dinner has arrived! Am SOOOO excited. I have ordered a new dish I have never heard of which will be fun (I hope). I am very much a tikka masala/korma/butter chicken kinda gal so this is an adventure!

Have fun times!

x J