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It's been nice, but it's time to go.
Dec. 5th, 2005 09:33 pmOh, it's so good to be home. Back in the land of Scouse accents and endless rain and industralised grimness!
Well, no. As I tell so many people at so much length, I do not live in an uncivilised wilderness. The North is just another place. But it's my place, and it's good to be back. My last nights in college were, well, pretty amazing. After getting exactly four hours' sleep on Thursday night, I meant to go to bed at some time during Friday, but I never really got round to it. I spent the morning packing and then went to my last tute of the term. Which was amazing. I was so terrified about reading about my crappy Mill essay, but Kinch said it was actually good! And my points remained uncontested! I went skipping across the college in the pouring rain in a bright and happy mood.
And then there was packing. Apparently I was the only person in college organised enough to have done my packing on Friday morning. I ended up chasing Pat round and round college as we searched everywhere under the sun was just one more cardboard box. Finally, we discreetly emptied out a box of OUSU leaflets in the corner of the post room and tried to look invisible as we dragged it back across the garden quad. Because of all this, I missed most of the Nepotists. It's an event every last Friday of Michaelmas, where everyone sings carols in the hall - there's a better explanation on wiki - and I wish I'd been there for all of it, but I did make it for the final song of the night, which was, obviously, Jersusalem. Once the college had attempted to lift the roof off singing it, we had a proper orgnanised Gordouli with all the words, and a random segue into London's Burning in the middle. I had a good time.
Afterwards, we dispensed with the last of the packing and curled up in Claire's room with several bottles of wine and Amélie. I love that film with a passion. Liya, meanwhile, was shocked and upset to find it was subtitled French. She came round, and it's a beautiful movie to fall asleep to. And by the time it was three am, I went off for a nap. Clearly a nap by definition, because I was up again at seven for a pantry breakfast and the mass exodus from college. Sadly, the pantry wasn't open, and bereft of its deep-fried-everything approach to food, we went merrily skipping down Cornmarket to McDonald's.
And then we lost Pat. She was off to Heathrow to get her flight to Madrid, and then Liya's parents arrived to take her home to Cardiff, and then I went up to carry boxes whilst Claire ran out to meet her dad and then it all went in a bit of a hurry. It was raining very heavily, and my parents and I had a sort-of lunch in G&Ds and finally drove home. I fell asleep. I slept for four hours, got home and slept another twelve. Even so, I fell asleep at ten last night and couldn't get out of bed ten hours later. The general consensus is that Oxford life tires you out to this sort of ridiculous extent. After all, we are on holiday a full two weeks before everyone else. We shouldn't be so tired.
And yet, everyone is tired. And it's very, very good to be home. With my parents, my own bed, an actual television, and a shower! And lots of work. But I'm not talking about that yet. Instead, I'm amusing myself with more worthy things. I went to school, for example, and it was so nice to see everyone. I picked up my A-level certificate, which made me feel old, and the prizes they gave me - the Broadhurst's library prize, prizes for Politics, English, and general academic distinction, and a Jubilee Scholarship, which total rather a lot of money. Which is nice. But it was nicer just to see everyone, and see that school hasn't changed at all, excluding that couch in the library.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quackaquacka and eternalwings were there in the library, but I only got to see them for a minute; I guess I'll see more of them after Christmas when I get back. We're going to see Brokeback Mountain, finally.
After school, Sarah wanted to get a book, so we went to Pritchard's in Crosby, where I asked Mitch to phone up Formby to ask if a book I'd ordered had come in. Mitch duly did, telling them he had Iona here and had it come in. There was a long pause before he burst out, "Iona! Yes, your Iona!"
I giggled all the way home. Bless Tony and all the others; they want me to work in the bookshop over Christmas Eve and I'm looking forward to it. It will be so good to have my old job back, even in the middle of the rush.
The rest of the day involved general shopping, because in case I hadn't mentioned it, I'm going to India tomorrow. The flight is fairly early, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm not just in Delhi this time - Silchar, Solan and Ahmedabad as well - and I plan to do very little work indeed.
So before I go, you can ask me for fic commentaries, which will keep me amused on the flight - all my fic is here - and I'll see you all on December 23rd.
Well, no. As I tell so many people at so much length, I do not live in an uncivilised wilderness. The North is just another place. But it's my place, and it's good to be back. My last nights in college were, well, pretty amazing. After getting exactly four hours' sleep on Thursday night, I meant to go to bed at some time during Friday, but I never really got round to it. I spent the morning packing and then went to my last tute of the term. Which was amazing. I was so terrified about reading about my crappy Mill essay, but Kinch said it was actually good! And my points remained uncontested! I went skipping across the college in the pouring rain in a bright and happy mood.
And then there was packing. Apparently I was the only person in college organised enough to have done my packing on Friday morning. I ended up chasing Pat round and round college as we searched everywhere under the sun was just one more cardboard box. Finally, we discreetly emptied out a box of OUSU leaflets in the corner of the post room and tried to look invisible as we dragged it back across the garden quad. Because of all this, I missed most of the Nepotists. It's an event every last Friday of Michaelmas, where everyone sings carols in the hall - there's a better explanation on wiki - and I wish I'd been there for all of it, but I did make it for the final song of the night, which was, obviously, Jersusalem. Once the college had attempted to lift the roof off singing it, we had a proper orgnanised Gordouli with all the words, and a random segue into London's Burning in the middle. I had a good time.
Afterwards, we dispensed with the last of the packing and curled up in Claire's room with several bottles of wine and Amélie. I love that film with a passion. Liya, meanwhile, was shocked and upset to find it was subtitled French. She came round, and it's a beautiful movie to fall asleep to. And by the time it was three am, I went off for a nap. Clearly a nap by definition, because I was up again at seven for a pantry breakfast and the mass exodus from college. Sadly, the pantry wasn't open, and bereft of its deep-fried-everything approach to food, we went merrily skipping down Cornmarket to McDonald's.
And then we lost Pat. She was off to Heathrow to get her flight to Madrid, and then Liya's parents arrived to take her home to Cardiff, and then I went up to carry boxes whilst Claire ran out to meet her dad and then it all went in a bit of a hurry. It was raining very heavily, and my parents and I had a sort-of lunch in G&Ds and finally drove home. I fell asleep. I slept for four hours, got home and slept another twelve. Even so, I fell asleep at ten last night and couldn't get out of bed ten hours later. The general consensus is that Oxford life tires you out to this sort of ridiculous extent. After all, we are on holiday a full two weeks before everyone else. We shouldn't be so tired.
And yet, everyone is tired. And it's very, very good to be home. With my parents, my own bed, an actual television, and a shower! And lots of work. But I'm not talking about that yet. Instead, I'm amusing myself with more worthy things. I went to school, for example, and it was so nice to see everyone. I picked up my A-level certificate, which made me feel old, and the prizes they gave me - the Broadhurst's library prize, prizes for Politics, English, and general academic distinction, and a Jubilee Scholarship, which total rather a lot of money. Which is nice. But it was nicer just to see everyone, and see that school hasn't changed at all, excluding that couch in the library.
quackaquacka and eternalwings were there in the library, but I only got to see them for a minute; I guess I'll see more of them after Christmas when I get back. We're going to see Brokeback Mountain, finally.After school, Sarah wanted to get a book, so we went to Pritchard's in Crosby, where I asked Mitch to phone up Formby to ask if a book I'd ordered had come in. Mitch duly did, telling them he had Iona here and had it come in. There was a long pause before he burst out, "Iona! Yes, your Iona!"
I giggled all the way home. Bless Tony and all the others; they want me to work in the bookshop over Christmas Eve and I'm looking forward to it. It will be so good to have my old job back, even in the middle of the rush.
The rest of the day involved general shopping, because in case I hadn't mentioned it, I'm going to India tomorrow. The flight is fairly early, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm not just in Delhi this time - Silchar, Solan and Ahmedabad as well - and I plan to do very little work indeed.
So before I go, you can ask me for fic commentaries, which will keep me amused on the flight - all my fic is here - and I'll see you all on December 23rd.
