Another Pair Of Eyes

Translations

Maybe not ALL of what I said about quizzes is true – sometimes good things come out of them, if only for a moment. Personally, I found this very confusing. It appears to have labelled the quiztaker a PinkBeast, and I’m guessing there is something about marmalade.

So, what’s it about?

Builders

Our house (at home home rather than uni home) is currently undergoing building work of the extensive, all-pervading nature, and I’m tired of it. We live out of the annexe on some of those little electric hobs and the remains of the oven, and every day at 7:30 the builders appear and start sawing and cutting and hammering and drilling and there is no peace. I can’t find a job, so I’m stuck with it – nowhere to go and no money to go somewhere with. I can’t even escape to Southampton because my house there is sublet for the summer (through the landlord, all you legally types stop frowning) so I’m stuck in the endless machine noise, the endless Radio 1, until such time as they go home every day. My room is filled with the entire contents of the downstairs of the house, so there’s nought to be found there either. Nowhere to run, and dust everywhere that is impossible to avoid, coating every surface.

It’s ok for a while, but it does get tiring. Currently, for example, I’m in the living room where the front wall no longer exists, now being made of plywood and being hammered on. I can’t leave via the door, because tiles are being laid there, so if I want to go outside (necessary to get drinks, food, toilet, whatever) I have to climb out of the window. There is no door on the room, so when the tiling guy is cutting tiles up with that little handheld disc saw of his the sound comes in unimpeded followed by the cloud of inevitable dust.

I had a party last night, and got to bed at around 4 in the morning. I was woken at 7, and now there is nowhere to sleep that isn’t surrounded by hammer blows. Outside it is raining: not much to be done there.

Sometimes you just want to be alone.

Truth

This is so true.

For me, at least.

Trees

I have rediscovered tree climbing, after quite a few years of absence. In fact, climbing things in general – nothing ropey, just walls and rocks and trees and anything else you can think of. Its the slight fizz of adrenaline when you look down and you’re six metres up stood on nothing but a branch, and that with only one foot.* It’s the twinge of vertigo when you get with the sway of the tree in the wind. It’s the pinpoint focus when you switch hold, half your weight suspended from three fingers and the rest supported by one toe in a crack in the rock. It’s the satisfaction when you drag yourself over the top of the wall and can put your feet on solid ground, and it’s the perspective you get from the top of a tree, from the edge of a rock by the ocean, from the top of a mountain that kind of justifies the effort.

Sing when you’re winning.

*and sometimes the major rush of adrenaline when that branch is misjudged and you end up hanging from one arm trying to recover yourself.

Weymouth

1. I’m off to Weymouth for a couple of days, cycling – 140 miles over the next two days. Should be a giggle.

2. For anyone who hasn’t noticed the commentary in the other post, I’m getting a 2001 Renault Clio. I am hopeful for it’s chances.

3. I passed my exams, albeit by a fine margin. I am now officially a 3rd year medical student. Ha.

4. I’m still unemployed. Curse job hunting and it’s fickle ways. Another application form in today…

5. I’m currently emptying my house entirely of everything with the goal of making it appear like nobody has lived there.

6. I’m bored enough to be setting my sentences to music.

Twilight

A couple of nights ago I watched the film ‘Twilight’ with my sister, and it wasn’t at all what I expected. In fact, it’s positively odd – I’d’ve said, on arrival from my desert island which I’d inhabited for the duration of the twilight hype, that it was a niche, cult film rather than anything else. The start of it is actually very well done – the hues in blue, the sense of the unknown and the surreality of it all really jumps out at you. I’d also argue that knowing the whole plot in advance kind of ruins the film a little – the dialogue in the second quarter of the film is SO uninspiring that only the intrigue of what was really going on could save it (and this was absent for me, and likely everyone else, so…hmm). On the other hand, without having read the book I’m not certain to what extent the film would have held together. Compromise, I suppose.

In the end, it’s actually quite a human film. Sure, it’s aimed at an age group which makes me look a touch on the elderly side, and its a little simplistic, but the director (I didn’t look up his name) didn’t go for the easy route and I can respect them for that.

Odd little thing. Good enough to eat?* Possibly not, but I’m glad I’ve seen it.

*yum yum yum. Delicious Bella. Drinks on you?**
**shame on me. Bad vampire jokes = slightly worse than bad normal jokes.

Hunting

A while ago the combination of a man in a Mercedes, a rabbit, and my sister* wrote off my car. Bugger.

So now I have £1439 of the Mercedes Man’s insurance money and a car with a dent in the back I could sleep in.** It is most definitely a write off, so repairs are out of the question – hence hunting has begun. Hopefully, by the time you read this, my hunt will be over and I will have on my driveway a little thing with an engine that is at least 100ccs bigger than the last one and is hence pretty much equally underpowered, small and efficient. Still, it will drive me places and I am heartened.

Wish me luck.

*everyone was fine, bit of a stiff neck for a couple of days was the worst injury.
**maybe, if the car was somehow balanced on it’s bonnet and I REALLY had nowhere else to sleep.