I’m still alive, honest

Posted on September 8, 2010 by admin

Obsessed with: “What’s new, Lucy Fox? Woah-ah-woah-woaaaaah-oh” and “Wagon Wheel” by Bodega

Hello!

I know, it’s been, like, a year. I’m so terribly sorry. I have several people to blame for this:

John
Tom
Greg
Toby
John
Tom

So, Towersey. I’ve already put some quotes up, the most significant of which was “What happens at Towersey stays at Towersey” (or, “What happens at Towersey, happens at Towersey” haha). Therefore, debauchery shall not be discussed.

Photos are on Facebook.

However, I did learn three amazing folk tunes, thanks to Hannah and John. I’ve decided I like folk music a lot. We went along to a workshop where they were doing tunes, and it ended up with us having to give a performance on the Monday afternoon. It was unexpected, but lovely. Towersey is a music festival that is not like Reading & Leeds. They have got music (which, by the way, is way better than boring mainstream stuff. “Up to the rigs! Down to the jigs! Up to the rigs of London town!”), as well as side-shows, a craft fair, sideshow acts (“Lord Long-Lens!”), and generally some amazing people. I met the wonderful Beth, who I love (“Corrie, the second Tom goes away you turn into a lesbian!”), got to be with Tom, Toby and John, in one place for a whole nearly-week, and lost my voice after five days of screaming, shouting, laughing and generally being my loud self. It was heaven. Best week of the summer.

After arriving home on Tuesday, an impromptu nap was followed by cleaning up the old house ready for the handing over of the keys on Thursday. We did well; when we first moved in, it was disgusting. There was not a single layer of dust on anything when we finished – well done us! By the time we went home I was so tired I felt like I could literally fall asleep on my feet. I almost did.

You can’t imagine how shocked I was when I logged into my Gmail to discover a message from Greg of “you never check your email anymore”, “I’m arriving on Wednesday” and “I need somewhere to stay!” I felt awful (my phone ran out of battery at Towersey and there was no power, so I couldn’t check anything. It was lovely). I sent him an email with our home phone number and went to bed. 

He rang at 9 am from Gloucester Road on Wednesday morning, having been in a cafe for the last two hours, passing time. I gave him instructions, doing a passable impression of someone who hadn’t just been woken up by his phonecall, and tried to wake up.

When he got to our flat, Tom had gone out to work and I’d only just managed to haul myself out of bed. The Johnplosion that is normally our flat had been replaced by a Towerseyplosion (“I’m not used to seeing your flat so messy with stuff that isn’t mine, Corrie!”) and I was feeling very much worse for wear. Greg hadn’t had any sleep, fortunately, so while he was napping it off in the spare room, I hurricaned around the flat and cleaned up. When he woke up it was looking much more human, and I was feeling more alive also. We made sandwiches, then headed off to Hyde Park for Ben’s Cookies and a wander. It was lovely, we chatted, I walked barefoot, and the mark of how good the conversation was is that I can’t remember what we talked about. I must have enjoyed it!

Greg spent the night with Matt, while Tom and I had takeaway with the ex-housemates. They gave me my birthday present – some circular knitting needles made of laminated wood. The layers are all dyed in different colours, so the needles look like little rainbows. They are so cool. Seriously, I’m in love. They also gave me a spice rack thing which spins about and has lots of space for all my spice. Yay for not having a student kitchen!!

Thursday consisted of handing over the keys, letting Gav into our house, packing for Devon, and tea with the local vicar. The new church opens on the 19th of September, and he came around to see where we live and what we do. He remembered an awful lot about us, which is quite impressive given that the last time we saw him was at the beginning of June. Anyway, it was nice. When he left, I drove the leopardile to Matt’s place and he made us roast pork. It was soooo yummy! They drank a lot of wine, and Tom and I learned about what to do in a nuclear attack. Useful.

This weekend was spent at home with the family. We left late on Friday, owing to Tomfaff, after a hurried goodbye to Greg and Gav. We got caught in a lot of traffic, got to Modbury late, and were fed braai by the parents. We discussed a variety of subjects sitting on a sofa in the garden (Best. Idea. Ever.) and I fell asleep numerous times.

Saturday found me replacing a tyre on the car. “Why is this worth mentioning?” I hear you ask. (Never mind that most of the stuff I say isn’t worth a mention. Meh.) Some idiot decided on Friday night that it would be an amazing idea to leave a broomstick on the motorway. Imagine driving behind someone, watching them hit it, watch it catapult towards you knowing there is literally no way to avoid it, and feel the rush of adrenaline as it misses the windscreen and hits the side of the car instead. My relief was quickly replaced by dismay when we stopped at the next service station to inspect the damage. One new tyre and a lovely black stripe down the side of my car. At least it goes with the leopard print…

After that, we headed to Plymouth to see the Budden’s, stopping at a wool-shop along the way to accessorise my new needles with some amazingly soft wool and some stitch markers. We had dinner at a Spanish tapas bar with Tom’s parents, followed by a rather entertaining Saturday night at Tom’s grandparents house. There were old photos.

On Sunday, we gave Tom his birthday present, a Nintendo Wii. We drove back to London after picking up Toby, playing a rather amusing license-plate game along the way (“Rawr, yawr, 24-hour Long John!”). It took a long time (traffic was really bad) and when we got back to London, had an hour to try tidy up before all our good work was negated by the arrival of another Johnplosion.

Tom made a yummy dinner, we played Wii Sports for a while, and went to bed about 10 minutes after Tomkin was old.

Monday heralded the arrival of the BIRTHDAY, celebrated with cupcakes, quartets (the Cupcake Quartet, in fact), and the first successful surprise party I’ve ever managed to pull off. It was amazing. While Tom was at work I discovered that John can sleep through someone whisking up three batches of cupcakes in the same room as him, and fought the urge to tidy up his stuff into a little corner. We played some music when the quartet was assembled, but mainly ate more inspired sandwiches and decorated my cupcakes. The surprise dinner was at La Tasca, hastily rearranged after Tom told me he had the day off work last week, messing up my plans to have everyone at home by the time he arrived. They all came round afterwards, we played on the Wii for a bit, and went to bed quite late. I hope Tom had a good day – I know I certainly did!

Yesterday found me back at work, unhappily hauling myself out of bed at 6 am and having to rush about after realising the tubes are all out (Stupid strikes. Stupid TFL). I almost missed my train due to a rather amusing incident with a honey-bran muffin. Getting back from work proved to be easier, although fairly pressured as Adrian told me off for not having done any knitting while on leave, and I just didn’t feel like doing any knitting! We had a very sophisticated dinner (fishcakes), messed about with the Wii, and I amused Toby and Tom with my ass-wiggle as I tried to play Wii Sports baseball. There is room for improvement.

Incidentally, if anyone is wondering where John went, so am I. Apparently he was never staying the night with us. Could have said goodbye! (Rude!)

This morning I missed the early train by 30 seconds and got into work an hour late, which was wonderful. It’s good to be back, although after realising this is my second-last week we are all feeling a bit more sombre and less chatty. (“The office has been so quiet without you, Corrie!”) There is a new student here, so I’m not the official newbie anymore, though I am still being called student. I have a lot to do, and not much time to do it, which is great. My list of things to do is enormous.

My plans for my leave, which I so carefully wrote out on Google Calendars last time I sat down with my computer for a substantial amount of time, were all rejected in favour of more interesting stuff. Even the one about finishing my report for the 8th of October so that I have no coursework to worry about while I’m in Portugal. I can only apologise for not blogging, but when you all get back to London (as I’m assuming the only people who read this are the Dwarves) you will understand why life has gotten manic for me. Incidentally, I’ve signed up to do another year of IC blog this year, so it’s not going to get any easier. I love it.

It’s good to be blogging again!

CORRIE

PS I will try to get photos up soon, but the computer with Adobe Photoshop on it is currently sitting in the middle of a Tobyplosion. Lovely.

Posted in Flat, Friends, Music, Partying | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

TOWERSEEEEEEY

Posted on August 31, 2010 by admin

I’m alive! And back from the Best. Weekend. Ever. I’m tired, so you get quotes instead of a blog post. Only I can’t remember a lot of them.

Tom: “Are you guys coming out yet?”
Corrie: “Lean back, Tom.”
Tom: “How do I know when to stop?”
Corrie: “You’ll just know.”
*crash*
Tom: “Are you guys coming out now?”

HIYAAAA!!

wwaaaaaaAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!

What is a pirate’s favourite mode of transport, and place to go drinking? The GLOWEROO!!!

“How much vodka is in there, Toby?”
“THAT MUCH”

“Lick the bow, Toby!”
“Lick the spider, Beth!”
“No, you do it.”
“OK!”

“TOBY, HAVE I REALLY NEVER LET YOU PLAY MY VIOLIN BEFORE?”

THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!

“Guys. The steward isn’t on duty any more. YOU CAN’T GO IN UNLESS YOU’VE HAD YOUR WRIST BAND CHECKED!”
“No, no, you must get it checked PROPERLY!”

“No no, you must play your violins inside. Licensing laws.”

“HANNAH, you taught me my first folk tune…EVER!!”

THE EXETER COW!

John judo’d me.

What happens in Towersey, stays in Towersey.

Much love xxx

Posted in Friends, Music, Partying | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Leave leave leave leave SLEEP

Posted on August 25, 2010 by admin

Dudes,

Yes, I say dudes now. Don’t ask me why. I used to do it when I was 16, maybe I’m going through a second childhood. Actually, scratch that. I know I’m going through a second childhood.

Guess what? I’M ON LEAVE NOW!!! Oh my gosh, I’m so excited about it. I have a huuuuuge list of things I want to do. I shall give it to you:

Make cupcakes
Photograph cupcakes for CupcakeQuartet.com
Buy wellies (for Towersey)
Eat cupcakes
Play violin
Sort out CupcakeQuartet.com
Upload photos from last few weeks onto Facebook and Blog
Sort out more Freshers Blog for IC Freshers
Sleep
Have a wonderful party for Thomas’ birthday
Plan a party for my own birthday (it was more than two months ago. You all fail at attending. Except Tom and Tobes)

Well that’s about it. The biggest issue for me is to find a way to make extra money for me and Tom, and probably include John in there to help fund his gap year etc. If you know anybody who is getting married, then for goodness sake, tell them you know an awesome quartet, who will (very shortly) have an amazing website.

At the moment I should be doing any of these – but you can see which I’m actually planning on doing quite clearly.

Anyway I’m going to go cos I can’t think clearly. I’m not as happy as I thought I would be that it is effectively my HOLIDAY.

Show me the love?

Corrie

Posted in Internship, Me | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Exploding friends and not much else.

Posted on August 24, 2010 by admin

Obsessed with: Blazin’ Fiddles, The Greenland Set

John exploded over our flat last night. What actually happened is probably only marginally less bizarre than that sounds. I got home at around 4.30 (I’d driven to work) and walked in to less floor space than the day we moved in, when all the boxes were lying aboot. I think to explain this I probably need to back-track a bit.

I got a Google calendars notification that John got back from Edinburgh on Sunday evening. I text him saying something to the effect of “we have a spare bed, use it”, then lay down for a nap, cos I was in a very bad mood and poor Tommo was getting it in the neck. To cut a long story short, at approximately 11 pm Sunday night, I was driving around Notting Hill, trying to find my way back to Fulham while John and Tom had a lively discussion about nothing in particular, with Johns ‘directions’ going something a little like this:

Driving up to a junction/roundabout/lane diversion.

Corrie: “JOHN?!”

John: “Ummm…LEFT.”

We ended up going in a massive circle, then me basically finding my own way home anyway, and getting back at like, midnight. The explosion started then. He left for Edinburgh with three instruments and two bags, and somehow managed to triple the amount of stuff he had. (I know it sounds like I’m complaining, but I’m not upset.)

So anyway, when I got back from work, he’d started unpacking and sorting piles into piles, shifting them around, swapping some stuff from one pile to the other….by 7 pm he had managed to clear it all up, though, and helped me chop for the mega-awesome paella that I attempted. (Luisa, I know it’s not a REAL paella, but the recipe said that’s what it was, so for simplicity [as opposed to rice-dish-with-chorizo-chicken-ham-seafood-mix-and-peas] :P )

It wasn’t that mega-awesome. Actually, I thought it was kinda gross, which makes two meals in three nights which I have hated. Go me? The worst of it is when the three of us eat together we normally consume enough to feed an army, so I didn’t bother halving the recipe – of course, we now have way too much, AND we are going away on Thursday. We are going to be eating a lot of paella the next few days.

After eating, we piled into the car and I drove John to Fulham Bway. Upon reaching our destination, I realised there is no suitable parking, and in about 30 seconds we had fallen out, retrieved John’s Luggage (he should DEFINITELY have a Luggage a la Terry Pratchett) and driven off again. It was quite smooth.

Work has been quite boring the last few days. My supervisor is still on leave, and the redesigned drawing is on hold because we have to wait for the sample I sent to Southampton Uni to be returned. I’ve been reviewing some research they did, but it’s 33 pages of text on the computer…incredibly difficult to read through on the screen, but too much of a waste to print. My literature reviews have both stalled; I’m waiting for her return to go through one bit, and the other I sorted out a long time ago and is now also waiting to be read through.

Posted in Cooking, Flat, Friends, Internship | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Fulham Matches and a sisterly visit

Posted on August 22, 2010 by admin

Ellie left this morning. We didn’t really do much. I’m surprised she wasn’t more bored. And we didn’t go to John Lewis, which was sad. I want more wool. The biggest problem is I’m really sick of the thing I’m knitting at the moment, and I’m dreaming of soft wool. That would be nice.

We went to visit Ross and Kim today, and to take the old pots to let Kim grow stuff in her garden. Ross was cross about it (a little bit) hehe, that’s always fun. On the way back, there was no parking. I don’t care how exciting it is that Fulham is playing Man U at home. The fact of it is, the stupid idiots are parking in MY space. I had to park really far away. Grrr.

Seeing John tomorrow :) and Towersey on Thursday. Am v. excited. :D

I didn’t match even a single number on the stinking Lotto. Hmph.

I’m feeling grumpy and nostalgic today, so this is a short ‘un.

How has everyone’s weekend been?

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“you blog alot”

Posted on August 21, 2010 by admin

Obsessed with: Pirates of the Caribbean, Pirate Song

“Yo! Ho! All together! Hoist the colours up high! People! Thieves and Beggars! Ne’er say we die!”

James alerted me to the fact that I blog a lot the other night. I knew that (thanks, Captain Obvious) But I’ve decided only to post stuff on Facebook every couple of days, so if you want to keep up to date with my ramblings, install an RSS feed or make this your homepage! Ha, I’m so arrogant.

Yesterday, I set up Lotto online. I’ve never bought a Lotto ticket before, but a girl of 18 won it last week, and got £1,000,000. It’s only £1 a week, and if you don’t enter you won’t win. I know the chances are basically nil, but I don’t care. I’m giving myself a chance anyway!

Plus, I think it’s going to be really exciting to check my numbers every week. It will be like a raffle with massively high stakes.)

I’m not going to get obsessed with Lotto Instants, like Bridget Jones. Don’t worry.

I had an amazing day at work today. Adrian is a design engineer (he did Aerospace Engineering) and he came over and had a look at my drawing. After shaking his head and getting all grumpy about how I’d done it, he fixed it for me, and taught me a load of stuff about Engineering Drawing protocol. Why the hell don’t they teach us that stuff at Imperial? It’s so basic, but it’s been causing me problems for weeks (the WM had a bit of a go again today. He is just teasing, but I feel a bit too insecure for it to be OK in my head). Thank you Adrian, you are a star.

I also taught Katherine to knit today. She bought her wool from John Lewis, and wowee, it’s nice. I am considering doing a switchover, and will be making Tom and Ellie go to Peter Jones today (with me). They won’t mind, it will be fun. Maybe. (If they do any of that sight-seeing stuff, I’m staying home).

Worked out the budget for stuff and nearly fell off my chair when I saw the final figure. I’ve had a kick up the ass, and am going to be sorting out CupcakeQuartet.com over the weekend. And starting my project…damnit, I have too much to do. Argh.

Anyway, in honour of James, an article which John sent me.

Posted: 24 May 2010 12:40 PM PDT

Written by Hyperbole and a Half

As a grammatically conscientious person who frequents internet forums and YouTube, I have found it necessary to develop a few coping mechanisms.  When someone types out “u” instead of “you,” instead of getting mad, I imagine them having only one finger on each hand and then their actions seem reasonable.  If I only had one finger on each hand, I’d leave out unnecessary letters too!

If I come across a person who seems to completely ignore the existence of apostrophes and capital letters and types things like “im an eagle and im typing with my talons, so dont make fun of me cuz this is hard,” I like to imagine that they actually are an eagle typing with their talons.  It would be a hassle if you had to hop in the air and use your feet to karate-chop two keys simultaneously every time you wanted to use the shift key to make a capital letter.   Also, eagles lack manual dexterity, so I can understand why they’d want to leave out apostrophes.  Eagles are all about efficiency.

But there is one grammatical mistake that I particularly enjoy encountering.  It has become almost fun for me to come across people who take the phrase “a lot” and condense it down into one word, because when someone says “alot,” this is what I imagine:

The Alot is an imaginary creature that I made up to help me deal with my compulsive need to correct other people’s grammar.  It kind of looks like a cross between a bear, a yak and a pug, and it has provided hours of entertainment for me in a situation where I’d normally be left feeling angry and disillusioned with the world.

For example, when I read the sentence “I care about this alot,” this is what I imagine:

Similarly, when someone says “alot of _______”, I picture an Alot made out of whatever they are talking about.

If someone says something like “I feel lonely alot” or “I’m angry alot,” I’m going to imagine them standing there with an emo haircut, sharing their feelings with an Alot.

The Alot is incredibly versatile.

So the next time you are reading along and you see some guy ranting about how he is “alot better at swimming than Michael Phelps,” instead of getting angry, you can be like “You’re right!  Alots are known for their superior swimming capabilities.”
Posted in Flat, Internship | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

“I’m really craving peanut-butter chicken.”

Posted on August 19, 2010 by admin

Obsessed with: Checking Twitter to find out who the Imperial Freshers are and what they’re tweeting about.

I wrote half of this at work, but due to an inordinate amount of laundry that I have to do, I’m not going to add any extras. Sorry for you.

In yesterdays blog I was going on about how I keep falling asleep on the sofa, ending up with knitting needles to the ribs. Last night was almost worse…when Tom got back from the Proms, where he had been with his dad, I’d fallen asleep in bed basically hugging my knitting, incredibly close to the eyes. I’ve got to get a handle on this…or make sure I have proper adult supervision when I’m knitting, ha.

When I woke up this morning, two things occurred to me simultaneously:

Today is results day! I’ve been so excited about it that I can barely keep myself from spamming every single Imperial Fresher’s group with WHO IS INTO IMPERIAL? I know they’re all going to think I’m some weird old bag, even though I definitely don’t feel like a fourth year. [How can I be in my final year? I ONLY JUST LEFT SCHOOL!!! I think I definitely have a case of extreme nostalgia. Which is weird, cos I found first year really hard.] I resisted, though.

Well, mostly.

I want peanut-butter chicken! Tom made a dinner a few weeks ago, which he found in a Ready-Steady-Cook Cookbook. Oh. My. It was so tasty, and I woke up craving it. (No Fred, I’m not pregnant, ha. JESUS BABY!) Now I’m craving it more. You want to know something really sad? Ellie is staying with us this weekend, and she is a vegetarian. (Also, Tom’s sister, for those of you who don’t know.) Tom says he will make it for me anyway (he’s such a sweetheart) but kinda harsh. Maybe we can trick her and tell her it’s Quorn…

(Ellie, I love you. I would never do that to you.)

(Maybe.)

So anyway, I spent ages on Twitter, typing “Imperial” into the search box and adding anybody who said they’d got in. Is that weird? Of the people who were talking about it, it was a pretty even mix of people who got in, and those who didn’t. My thoughts on the demographics of who got in will remain in my head, but let’s just say it’s what we all expected.

I forgot to mention what one of the guys I work with told me yesterday. He is mid-40’s I reckon, and working here is the first time he hasn’t worked in a uni. I was complaining about the amount of desk-work I’ve been doing, and he said that is the great thing about research in a uni; you don’t have to. I want to do a PhD!!!

I had to redesign my rig today. The guy at Southampton Uni told me it’s impossible to use in the machine we currently use for analysis of the thing we are measuring (The Finsbury Elephant). So now I have to try get Ray to make another one, and Doc Rock is away and I can’t really get it approved. Frustrating! To do this, I had to use the tannoy: “Would Ray * please ring Corrie on extension *” Really. Weird.

Having just checked Coranda.com stats, I was really confused by some activity at 1 am this morning. 3 visitors, but 34 page views! On checking the views (“it must have been one person reading through each post separately”) they were all for exactly the same page, about 30 seconds apart. I scratched my head for about a minute, utterly confused about why someone would do that. Then I remembered that my wonderful brother spent ages last night setting up a front page for Coranda.com (because for WordPress to work it has to be the url coranda.com/blog/) and it was him checking if it works.

Thanks Ashton! (It must be hard having a retarded sister. Sorry.)

“You’re disturbing my oboe practice.” “You don’t PLAY the oboe!” “I could play the oboe.”

Apparently I’m like Mr Heckles? Just cos I said I could give birth to Jesus if I wanted to. Huh, Tom and I have strange conversations.

Posted in Flat, Internship, Me, Twitter | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Weddings and Microsoft Word

Posted on August 18, 2010 by admin

Obsessed with: Owl City, The Saltwater Room

“Time together isn’t ever quite enough, when you and I are alone I’ve never felt so at home”

I’m watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (there is a reason, but I can’t say why). Haha. Sirius just died :( always brings a little tear to my eye. I don’t like it when people die.

The most notable part of my day was that I may have accidentally dozed off during a Microsoft Office training session. I already know how to use it…it was boring…Tom and I only went to bed at like, 1 am…

Katherine came and told us all that she was going to a wedding next week, today. We were all a bit like…uh…what’s the big deal? (Everyone here is getting married, basically. So. Many. Weddings.) Then she dropped the bomb that the couple only decided to do it two days ago. Two days!!

This sounds sort of like my ideal amount of planning (and also like my worst nightmare. I’ve been resisting ringing John to find out what is happening with Towersey because although my schedule dictates that I plan it all oh, say a month ago, John’s says that we don’t plan it till half an hour after we should have left. I’m trying to compromise, but I’m going to crack this evening, I know it). I don’t understand why people would want to fuss about it for month and months on end. As I told Lucia when we were discussing this – I don’t dream about a massive white wedding with the whole world and his dog staring at me as I try to walk in high heels. Not my idea of fun.

The groom-to-be apparently said something quite poignant when he rang her up though. The couple have only been together a year and everyone questioned him about it (he was someone they thought would never get married). He said “When you know she’s The One, why wait?”

Why wait indeed. That, and the fact that he is in the Army and is being posted out soon. Kind of a good enough reason. (“Is he leaving behind ‘a little legacy’?” “NO”)

I don’t mind – we might get another quartet gig out of it.

Moving on swiftly to not very much in particular, I didn’t take any food to work today. Why is this issue? (I hear you ask). Well, long time ago, Tom, Corrie and Trolly sat down to watch a truly disturbing programme on the box about how they make factory sandwiches. I haven’t wanted to eat one since, but unfortunately, sometimes necessity calls. I found myself tripping on down to ‘the Tucker Truck’ at 11.24 this morning (can you tell I was hungry?) to buy a gammon and cheese baguette.

I think next time I will just go hungry.

I would appreciate some suggestions on yummy lunches to take. I was doing well, but then Tom and I got lazy and/or didn’t manage to go shopping this weekend. John has lent me an amazing sandwich recipe book, but I just don’t have time to peruse it.

Maybe not tonight, though. Tom has come home the last two days to find me sleeping, curled up in a very uncomfortable position on the sofa (despite popular belief, knitting needles in the ribs are not, and will never be, comfortable). He is out with his daddy tonight, and I might take the opportunity to go to bed early.

And sleep till tomorrow morning.

It’s making me tired already.

Blogging like this is reminding me of the Chef of the Fairy Lights Café J Ahh, those were the days, eh? Except, then it got messy, and myself and someone else turned it into a massive public over-the-internet fight, and I stopped. Hopefully I have gained a couple of notches on the maturity level since then.

I’d like to end this on a note addressed to someone who I received an email from this morning, telling me how to spell epitome. Your advice is greatly greatly appreciated; please avert your pedant eyes for this blog, because I am highly aware that the English is not appropriate for the Queen, and it’s all totally deliberate. I’m in that kind of a mood. [Apart from “Why is this issue?” Word suggested that by itself, and I thought it was funny, cos it’s clearly wrong. WordFAIL.]

I managed to make ‘not much to say’ big again. I’m not going to say it anymore. Maybe…

Ciao for now!

CORRIE

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“Have you had your Hep B jabs?”

Posted on August 17, 2010 by admin

Obsessed with: Ewan McGregor/Jacek Koman, El Tango de Roxanne

“Why does my heart cry, feelings I can’t fight, you’re free to leave me but just don’t deceive me, and please, believe me when I say I love you.”

Last week, Doc Rock told me I could go in and see a surgery if I so wanted. I want, I want!! I spoke to Adrian about it and he asked if I was going to see a hip or knee. I didn’t know, and he reckons I should go see a knee, cos it’s all a lot more visible, which is kind of the point in going. Especially as I’m short (I did say I should wear stilettos, but was kindly informed I have to wear surgical clogs. Nooo, everyone is going to find out how tall I really am!!!). Adrian showed me some awesome photos of surgery yesterday, makes what we were shown in Biomaterials last year seem tame! I’m going to feel so hardcore when I get back. Watching hip replacements on the projector will seem so tame. Take that, Dr JJ and your playing gory films just after lunch!! (Although you are my supervisor next year, so you can do what you like, I won’t complain.)

Anyway, I brought it up today (just as well, she’d totally forgotten), and requested that I see a knee. She’ll sort it out for me, but apparently I have to have my Hep B jabs.

I’m convinced I’ve got them. All I can remember about relevant jabs is that when I went to Zambia before uni, I had to have like, a million jabs (and play in a concert after one lot, too). I have to dig out my Vaccination passport now…man, that makes me feel so much like a beloved pet dog or something. Who knows where it is, for one thing – for the other, why? Just, why? I’m not even allowed into the sterile “area” – so why am I required to have the jab?

If I don’t have it, I don’t think I will be able to see the op. I haven’t got long enough left at Finsbury to get a course done (there are like three of them), and I also can’t afford it.And seriously, I swore off having them after the last lot.

Work has been fine the last few days, if a bit boring. I’m just doing market research now; the sample I made in the thing I designed last week has been sent off to Southampton Uni for analysis, so I’m mainly just waiting for that to come back. We also had some giggles over the function they are planning for the end of the summer. Emily is booking the venue, and one of our discussions over the menu went something like this:

“Grilled aubergine steak? So basically, just a slice of aubergine?”
“What’s the definition of a steak anyway?”
“A slice of meat cut from the fleshy part of an animal or large fish.”
“It’s not a steak.”

You probably had to be there.

Time did drag today – Emily and I had lunch at 12.30, and I was convinced it was 1.30; Diana got up to leave at 3 pm, and we were like…um, it’s really early, and she thought it was 4 pm. Sigh.

I’m updating for yesterday and Sunday as well, cos although I’ve blogged many times since (I’m really sorry, I don’t know what came over me) I didn’t actually say anything worth saying. I’m an internet whore (“Don’t describe yourself as a whore, that makes it OK for someone else to say it” “I’m not describing myself as a whore, I’m an INTERNET WHORE. It’s entirely different.”).

I had some serious Panic on Sunday night. I went to Paddington to pick up Tom, and just as I drove past Imperial feeling really confident and happy about driving in London (“I wouldn’t mind doing this every day!”) I got caught in traffic. That was fine, but the ass behind me (who, by the way, let me in that lane), got really cross when I let someone who was stuck behind a parked car in front of me. He started hooting, which raised my blood pressure, and gave me The Rage. I was so cross with him that I felt like giving him the finger, or something. I controlled myself, but after crossing Hyde Park was still feeling so shaken that I got totally lost (despite it being the second time I’d been there that day) and ended up pulling some seriously bad manoeuvres in a moment of questionable judgement. I was lucky not to get arrested.

‘Manoeuvres’ is a really hard word to spell…I can’t even do it when I’m copying it where I wrote it just above here. Who knew?

Anyway the long and short of it is I don’t like driving in London (again). And I don’t know where any fuel stations are at the moment, apart from the one near John and Toby’s which is really hard to get out of, so until I can brave that one or find another I’m not driving at all anyway. It’s a hard life.

Ross and Kim gave me a chest of drawers for the flat this weekend, and we installed it on Sunday. It is awesome, but it does mean I’m going to have to rearrange my cupboard for the third time in three weeks. I haven’t done it this much for years and years and years.

Sleeplessness struck last night. Alyssa Milano (from Charmed) tweeted this link on Twitter this morning. Obviously, my body is trying to tell me something – I’m not behaving intelligent enough! Haha, take that, urge to sleep. (But I get so grumpy when I’m tired! It will be fine when I don’t have to get up at STUPID O’ CLOCK anymore).

I’m thirsty.

I’ve started knitting Christmas presents (I made a mistake in Lucia’s yesterday that I could have just left…it was only three lines, for crying out loud, but the perfectionist in me said no). You should all be getting knitted presents this year, unless I run out of time, and if you have any specific requests you need to get them in now so I can get colours etc.

Note that I will probably get bored of knitting soon, and you might not get them after all…except one lucky person who already has theirs done. You may think I’m being silly for getting this all ready now. It’s only 18 weeks till Christmas, people! This is how I roll…

I’m looking forward to A Level results and finding out who is into Imperial…I’m going to be so annoying this year, but it’s my last year! (Oh wait, did I say ‘going to be’? My bad.) I have to try appreciate it all while I can. I think I am anticipating results more than most A Levelers are, because I don’t have to go through the “Did I get in” – I just go for “Hello, you’re new Imperial students, welcome.” Ha. Seriously though, I’ve added like, a million new people on Twitter just because they’ve been mentioning A Level results. I want to be 18 again! I’m so excited about it that my much-neglected-up-till-last-week IC blog is seeing more traffic from me than it’s used to. I might even blog again on Thursday (so much for trying to go weekly).

Anyway, Carl and Ellie will be here from tomorrow (not at the same time though) so I don’t know how much I will be able to update you all. This was supposed to be just a little blog to keep the Dwarves updated, but the problem with an ex-diarist who used to spend all her time writing down random thoughts, is that when the diary is replaced with a blog, it tends to go overboard. If you don’t like it, don’t read; it’s that simple.

Although maybe I should start doing little summaries at the top for those who don’t want to read through all the crap…

Ciao for now!

CORRIE

Manouevres
Maneouvres
Manuoevres
Manoeuvres….haha, WIN!

Posted in Flat, Internship, Knitting | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

“If you say that to me one more time, I’m never speaking to you again.”

Posted on August 16, 2010 by admin

The last time I saw Chris he banned me from quoting him again (“Smeagol on a horse, that’d be the death of me!”)

I can’t help myself.

I suspect I may get the same edict from a few more people. It’s just so fun though!

I can’t sleep tonight. Tom is fast asleep and has been for ages. I would like to be knitting but I can’t put the light on to find it cos I will wake him up. It’s a hard life.

I’m listening to Bellowhead instead, and the Sledgehamster running in his wheel. He is so cute <3

Posted in Me | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment