Happy International Men's Day... Tom Dunne celebrated the day quite well... I particularly enjoyed the segment on blokes and sheds... I'm all for international men you see!

So I ask you.... who's your favourite man?


* It's only fair... mostly I just give them abuse...

So I got my first car last weekend. It was actually a gift from a friend. She had it sitting idle for awhile and so gave it to me. This is my second free car offer... which just goes to show how a post-grad life leads you to be the charity case who takes all the handmedowns... similarly I've never bought a TV...

Anyway a free car is great but cars incur expense. It being my first car the insurance was high enough, but at least my ages made it reasonable... then there's motor tax which I sorted out yesterday. I was terribly complicated considering I'm trying to give the government money... apparently after you're set up it's dead easy and you can pay online, but the first time requires some form filling.

The third requirement of the car is to passed the NCT (national car test) and as it's been sitting idle the car has a few issues on that score. The float thingy in the petrol tank is broken, so there's no telling how much petrol you have there. A mutual friend was supposed to fix it at cost price before I took the car ... but that never happened due to the various problems of getting things done on the basis of favours. And there's at least two other problems which I've noticed since. Now none of them impact the car's driveability, but the test is pretty sticky... so of the three badgey things I'm supposed to have displayed on the car I've got just one... and next week I'll probably have the second one. The third one will just have to wait until I get some money together to pay for a service and the repairs... which could be some time. I think there's some delays for testing anyway so I could book an appointment and that should cover me if stopped by the police. All this hassle makes me feel like a proper grown up.

The other thing I haven't got displayed on the car are my L plates. I took the ones I had been using off my mothers car the week before (much to her relief - people are no longer beeping at her now!) Anyway those ones ripped when I was pulling them off so I have to buy new ones... however my experience of driving the car without them since I picked it up, has made me think I won't put them on again (except when taking the test!). My first morning driving to college two people were really polite and let me in... in rush hour! My first reaction was "oh people are being very nice today for some reason" and then I remembered what was different - that I was no longer marked as a learner. It's the exact opposite of what's supposed to happen. You're supposed to be kind and nice to learners, but people are extra abusive and horrible.... so much so that my mother, who's been a fully licensed driver for years, is utterly traumatised since I put the L plates on her car!

Aside from that I'm just facing parking issues at college. In the morning I come in to one end of campus for work and it's a half hour walk from that part to where I work in the afternoon. Each morning I'm too cold and sleepy to park at the far end of campus and walk the distance to work and yet I don't want to have to do that walk in the evening, so I've attempted to drive between the two at lunch time, but the car parks are all full and it so far has involved circling them for 30 - 40 minutes trying to find a space... tomorrow I'm going to have to abandon the car somewhere... it just remains to be seen which end of the day I'll side with! In my desperation to find a space yesterday (I almost didn't make a tutorial) I considered parking in a space that had become a pond due to flooding... then I drove into it and realised that opening the door would flood the inside of the car and that this probably meant that bits of the engine (or whatever that is underneath the car) would be sitting in water for the rest of the day and that would probably not be good for it.... today I feel like I parked in a tree... I'm in an actual marked parking bay but it was so tight I had to stand in a bush to get out of the car! This problem parking is not helped by the lack of power-steering... I can still parallel park, but my arms hurt!

So that's me and my car... an experience most people have in their late teens and early twenties I'm having at very nearly 31.... I'm almost a real grown-up... ok not really!

Obviously if I'm blogging I must be procrastinating... how unusual! I hear you all cry. Well I've been high up on the blog neglect lately due to severe time constraints and operation finish the damn thesis... however now that I have a stack of essays to mark it's procrastination all over the place. Obviously what I should do is take a big run at them and get them out of the way... obviously... ok in reality they're going to hang around until such time as the students are screaming for them and I can't put it off much longer - I must confess I'm a bit impressed with myself for starting today, but I really, really don't want them to get further in the way of operation finish the damn thesis so I'm going to mark a few more this evening before I go home.

Have dreaded panel meeting tomorrow so we'll see what they think of the thesis status then... perhaps they'll point out the ridiculousness of my ridiculously unrealistic timeplan... but I need it... it's what's keeping me sane! well as sane as anyone can be in the final stages of a thesis.

Work is ticking over although I was very annoyed this morning. One of my colleagues habitually rubs me up the wrong way... which I find I need to sort out in my head what is actually annoying me. I suspect it's not quite enough for me to have words about it without me looking unreasonable, but perhaps if I figure it out I can be more zen about it in future.

Also I have a cold... it's not swiners but I am coughing and sneezing all over the place and I took the afternoon off yesterday to go home and sleep... which did seem like an extravagance, but the fact that I did sleep for several hours in the afternoon means I needed it I suppose. I am using any number of remedies to tackle it and I hope to bring it down before it brings me down!

that's about it... as you would expect there's nothing much happening in the social life, although I was out 2 Saturday nights in a row... no-one was more shocked than me I can tell you! I'm going to see Bill Bailey in a few weeks, but I saw a sign to say he's here in college before that, which prompted me to say (out loud) "Bill Bailey... but I love him" in a populated area to no-one but myself. It's like a Pavlovian response now... but probably not the craziest thing I did this week.

I'm also beginning to suspect that the essay-marking fairies are on an extended holiday with the thesis-writing fairies... I suppose I'll just have to do all the work myself. huff!

Bah Bah Bah... no I haven't turned into a sheep but I am extremely annoyed at Simon Cowell... as are a lot of other people... if you don't care about X factor don't bother reading this.

OK you know I'm not the target X factor audience... like I'd never buy their Christmas single or anything and I know that it's a money-making scheme, so that's not a shock or anything, but there really is a fine line between what the public will accept as a scenario designed to bring out emotions and manufactured drama. Once it goes over the line they totally lose interest, which has been seen with things like Big Brother. X factor has been happily swinging along that line for the last few years. It's a big prize and there seems to be consensus that people with talent in singing should compete for this singing prize... and Simon Cowell actually saying what he thinks without worrying about people's feelings has been part of the magic.

But it's gone wrong for the last two weeks. And it isn't Jedward's fault. Jedward are annoying, but I can see how they would be great on a Saturday morning kids show. They shouldn't be booed, but no-one should vote for them. Most years there's been some sort of slightly dodgy novelty act in the final 12... so fine... people find them funny despite (or perhaps because of) the negative feedback they've got from Dannii, Cheryl and Simon. And because in this show you vote FOR someone to stay in and not AGAINST someone, the votes of all the people who want Jedward to go and spread across the other acts. Again this is fine, but as the numbers get smaller the spread of votes is thinned out and Jedward are not going to get any new votes. So it was unsurprising that they were finally in the position of possibly being booted on Saturday. And we're all thinking finally we're getting down to it - separating the wheat from the chafe... but true to form from the previous week Simon sent it to deadlock, siding with the weaker singer(s). He keeps defending his position saying that that Lucie would not have won and that it was up to the public who decide. Bollocks Mr Cowell, Bollocks I say, so are you saying, Mr Cowell, that you shouldn't be a judge? Well fuck off then!

His decision is the beginning of the end for X factor. And, you know, Simon was terribly bored by the whole audition process so maybe he's so sick of his cashcow that he'll burn the show down with Jedward at the top. I mean it wouldn't be the first time his label had a crap act and it won't be the last. So that was it... I can see a lot of people switching over to strictly, because it's one thing to find a novelty act entertaining for a couple of weeks, it's quite another to see a so-called-expert so clearly take the 'heighten the drama' route picking the shitest option. So now its so clearly manufactured drama that no-one can deny it.

However I'm not sure if I'm so sickened that I will stop watching... I mean I might well... I suppose we'll see next week. My three favourites are still there: Stacey, Jamie and Olly. My TV commitments tend to be suddenly changeable... if I switch off it is likely that I'll switch off for good.

Actually my big surprise in all this is how much I find myself liking Dannii Minogue... I mean historically I would never have liked her. I didn't like her when she started in the show. I think I got to like her a little last year because Ruth was my fave and they were great mates. This year I noticed a big change, because she's all happy and positive, and has moved away from the plastic face (botox is a bad idea people), but when she said 'I obviously did something wrong' when asked how she felt about Lucie leaving, it actually brought a tear to my eye... something Dannii Minogue said brought a tear to my eye! I could never have predicted that. Fuck Simon let's have Dannii as the main judge!

I'm now extremely excited about tomorrow night. A big gang of us (or actually two gangs which slightly merge in the middle) are going out to this huge costume party. My costume is ready and I think it's pretty impressive. There's a big cash prize for the best costume so I think we'll see lots of great efforts, which I think is one of the best things about being out on Hallowe'en. Two years ago I saw this guy who dressed up as a lego man and had constructed this huge papier mache head. It was so cool. I think the homemade costumes are the best. For me making a costume is part of the fun... at least it was when I was a child... ok I think every Hallowe'en I reminisce about black bin liner based costume, but you know, it was imaginative. Buying a full costume seems to skip that bit. On saying that I did buy bits of my own costume... but construction was involved too. To the left you can see de nephew in his own pumpkin costume... These are the kinds of photos we will show prospective brides in the future!!

OK I'm in two minds as to whether to recap the things that happened in September/October that made me too busy to blog, or whether I should just go forward. Perhaps a little summary:

New Job:
I've been in the new job for awhile and its fine. I would go as far as great except that it's so fricking busy. It turns out it used to be a full time job, and now I'm doing it in about half the hours. Mostly it's accounts and various administration, which is actually nice. I'm so used to (and tired of) doing this big unwieldy task that it can actually be a relief to do small, manageable, completable tasks like balancing petty cash, ordering stationary and filing. The people, workspace and ethos are nicer than any place I've ever worked. And while there are a few exceptions, any blips are so small in character as to be easy to deal with. Mostly I've spent the last 2 months organising systems to be more efficient and trying to establish who everyone else is! Oh and organising the Christmas party!

Thesis:
Speaking of Christmas... there's a plan to have a full draft by then (this plan is motivated by me taking Christmas off - apart from January marking!) The plan was going well, but slid a bit over the weekend, but I hope to be back on track soon. I'm just getting the head down and it seems to be working

Family:
De nephew is getting so much bigger and really making that transition to little boy.... he's also a one-boy germ warfare machine. He's always got something and he always gives it to me. I was sick over the weekend as a result! He's currently obsessed with Tigger, but the best way of entertaining him is to give him a press full of tupperware... it eludes me why we bother buying toys for children at all! In other family things my mother had a health problem, which was sorted out with an operation in the end. Because of all that I had a period of time where I tried to see my parents every day, to do things for them, check if they needed anything, and to chat.... and also distract my mother from housework. She's never had the urge to do housework in her life, but tell her to get into bed and she starts cleaning everywhere. I gave her all of the west wing to watch which she got addicted to and has only just finished (she's now despairing as to what to watch... I have explained that we all went through it - I've pointed her towards Entourage as its my new favourite show, she says she'll give it a shot [GW can't get over that I would suggest my mother watch such a graphic show... I had to explain that this woman has seen Paris Hilton's sex tape, but that's another story!]). Anyway she's all grand now, which is great, but it was another thing that sapped my time.

Career stuff
In the meantime I also did my first ever interview for an academic post. I was really surprised at being called for interview and was lucky I had saved the job spec because I totally forgot I’d applied. On going there I had really mixed feelings because everything had been so topsy turvy and I’d finally got sorted with a nice admin job. So while getting this job would be brilliant for my career and that, I found I didn’t want something that would upset the balance I had just managed to achieve, so I knew if offered I couldn’t turn it down, but moving to another country and starting a new job with about a week’s notice would be hard.

It all worked out well actually. In fact it had the best possible outcome. The interview went well. It was a good experience. Some things do translate across from other interviews and other things need to be prepared. I have a good idea where I’m weak now. They didn’t offer me the job and I didn’t have to upsticks (although I think I’d happily move there next year), but they did say I was second on their list and I gave them a lot of trouble. Apparently in the end it came down to the other person fitting their course requirements slightly better than me. Anyway it was a great confidence boost because it was a pretty impressive institution, so it was nice to know I am good enough to be taken seriously at a place like that, and maybe some time in the future when I’ve left the hell of thesisland something will come up there or connected with it.

Writing job:
I finished my term on the writing job quite well, although I cut my targets in the last few weeks because the family stuff made it impossible. My boss was really understanding about it. It was nice to be paid for my writing, but the targets were hard to meet.

What else?
Oh yes I am due to get a car soon. It was a gift, so I didn't have to buy it, although it isn't the swanky alfa romeo, but a nice little peugeot, which will be cheaper to insure and run... although it is so small that my knees hit the steering wheel, and there is no power steering so I think I'll have to learn to drive all over again!! But my very own car... hurrah!

oh yes and my friends S & G who got engaged a while back have decided they will get married in 2010 and that they will get married at the zoo, which has to be the best venue I've ever heard. I'm even more excited about it now!

OK now you can see why blogging suffered over the last while. I am back, but I expect I won't be blogging to previous levels for awhile as I'm still under quite a lot of time pressure to get this damn thesis down.

How've you all been?

Miss World!