sarah_a67's livejournal

I just had a triple fried egg, chili sauce and chutney sandwich. It was surprisingly tasty!

Still need to get those catalogues out. XD

I used an Oyster card for the first time today; it was a novel if slightly confusing experience. I think it will work out cheaper since I apparently go to London all the time these days.

First of all I had a screening appointment for a clinical trial, but something to do with my heart rate was too low so I was discharged again. I don't think I'll bother with more, though the money would be nice.

Then in the afternoon I had an interview at Sweet & Maxwell, and it seems like a really good opportunity for someone like me to go into a loosely-defined statistical modelling role. I wasn't too keen to begin with but somehow I managed to say words that were right, and somehow I remembered how relational databases work in SQL. The interviewer seemed really friendly and positive. Today I also arranged a telephone interview, which I will have tomorrow morning at 10:00, and an interview in Guildford on Friday afternoon.

I have 116 Kleeneze catalogues to get rid of before my telephone interview. Er, goodnight then!

Now I have some time to catch up with Livejournal I will recap the last two weeks and write up another gig!

- Firstly, there was a rainbow.

- I had a telephone interview with MediaCom, which led to an in-person interview at their London offices. It didn't go too well, and I didn't get the job anyway because I'd applied before. So that was kind of a waste of time. As I was leaving they had a circus in reception.

- Had an interview (London again) for a pricing analyst role with Purchasing Index which I thought went well but they chose someone with more experience.

- Started revising for my Maths exam in January.

- Still doing Parkrun. My time was getting worse so now I've started eating normal amounts again.

- Still doing Kleeneze. I received a £2 tip yesterday! And I went round and picked up a load of orders from people who haven't ordered before. Yay! Must be Christmas.

Talking of which, on Thursday night I saw loads of graphs showing a December spike in sales in many countries. From 5-6pm I attended a talk at the LSE by Professor Joel Waldfogel, chaired by Martin Lewis, about why you shouldn't buy presents at Christmas. Apparently it destroys value and is completely irrational, yet we are compelled to do it. Anyone interested can find it online at the LSE website under Events. There were some good questions asked, and Tim Harford made an interesting critique of "Scroogenomics" on his website.

( Now for the interesting stuff. )

OK so somehow it's December already and I would like to do something Christmassy for you guys.

So if you would like a special gift please leave your address in the screened comments below. :)

Thanks!

This happened over two weeks ago, yeah.

( Ladies and Gentlemen... )

I had a dream the night before last, that Parexel were running some new medical trials that were of shorter duration than the last ones I screened for. I got up and saw that I'd received a text message saying just that! I'm going for a screening visit on Wednesday - hopefully my blood pressure will be OK this time. Maybe I should make myself nervous before going in. It would have been better tomorrow because the hospital is very close to Wembley Arena. I'm excited! Does anyone know anything that's happening on the 18th in London? I might as well make a day of it.

So, yeah. That would be £2,000 if I'm accepted. I put my CV on Monster last night and had so many calls and emails already (the first phone call at 8:19am). I hope it turns out better than last time. I wish I could be more optimistic. I had a call from a woman about an econometrician role and she said I didn't sound enthusiastic. I'd love to work as an econometrician! Maybe I'm tired or something.

I went to Job Centre this morning and saw another new person. For once, though, she didn't seem condescending. And on the way back home I managed to get three small boxes of chocolates, a notebook and a mug all for 5p (well, £1 since it was for charity...) in the M&S Penny Bazaar. I didn't even know it was on! Plus I got a free biscuit and a satsuma.

SATSUMA LA ROUX

If The Cribs would make a "best of" with tracks from all their albums, then that. Otherwise it would have to be Ignore The Ignorant, hoping that the novelty wouldn't wear off! It is not my favourite album but it ~speaks to me~ and judging by how difficult it was to wean myself off it for Kasabian, it seems like a good choice.

( A bit spoilery for tonight's Never Mind The Buzzcocks )

Well, it's been a week. Dreadful.

Still doing Kleeneze. I think the last time I wrote about it I was very positive. Since then, I got really depressed by how much work I had to do, and how exhausted it made me, for such little gain (initially). But it goes in phases. I stopped treating it like a full-time job, and actually that makes it easier.

Now done with Red Dwarf, mostly I have been watching The Brittas Empire on YouTube. Slightly obsessed with Chris Barrie, hahaha. I keep doing the Brittas laugh unintentionally. If you haven't seen it, I would recommend getting over to YouTube; it's an underrated, mainly forgotten nineties sitcom set in a leisure centre. Perhaps I should do a Barrie picspam.

Still applying for jobs; still getting nowhere. But I haven't been applying for too many since I've been busy with Kleeneze. I had the best rejection email ever, though. From Tim Harford *squee*. Yeah, probably not a good idea to work for him... He was so nice though - he said that the standard of applicants was extremely high but he thought that I would do a very good job and he apologised that he could not give a job to everyone who applied. What a guy.

I'm sure there was something more interesting. I did Parkrun on Saturday but, well, I've gained a stone since I've been home and it tired me out a lot more than usual. My time was 35:something and I came far from last, but still. Need to lose weight again! Also I bought a lovely coat from New Look that I can't find a picture of. It's a navy blue military-style long coat with gold buttons. First time I've bought anything from there in ages. I thought it was EMPIRE, so I'll wear it to Kasabian next week.

All my icons are old.

I took this as I was leaving Leeds in September. I miss the place. I'm going to resit my failed modules, even though it won't make a difference to my overall grade. Not just so I can go back there, but it was a factor.

And as much as I tried to resist, I bought a ticket for The Cribs at Brixton Academy next month! Maybe I won't stand at the front or something. It's like an addiction!

Also I'm seeing Kasabian on the 14th (paying considerably more for the ticket than I did for Cribs).

Went to Job Centre this morning; was offered the chance to apply for a Christmas job in the Argos warehouse in Farnham. If that didn't appeal, there's cashier jobs, care assistants, or I could work as a dental nurse.

I came home and checked my final university results online. I PASSED! I have a Master's Degree :D

I'd best be off to Farnham High Street, then.

I haven't updated in a while because, actually, I've been too busy. Although yesterday I would have worked harder had I not been reading so much Red Dwarf slash.

Since last week I've been to a "Business Opportunity Meeting", where I learnt how well everyone in our "Vision Group" was doing, and how much money they'd all made. It inspired optimism. The meeting was in a pub in the evening and from the car park you could see the whole of Portsmouth spread out before you. I dropped 157 catalogues in a new area today, and I received all the goods that customers from Area 1 ordered. I'll deliver those tomorrow. I also got 25 sets of catalogues for free because I did so well in my first week. The mechanics of this is too boring to go into, but I'm enjoying it, getting to meet people without being too nervous (from worrying that I'll mess up), and, while I am working hard, it doesn't feel like work. Also I'm pleasantly surprised that not one person so far has been rude to me; nor have any dogs bitten me!

I think it would be difficult to stop doing Kleeneze if I did get a job, because once you start delivering catalogues people know you as the Kleeneze lady and expect you to be doing it all the time. I don't think it's ideal (but then what is?) and I'm still wondering how to tell the Job Centre.

On Monday I was in Basingstoke all day because that was the closest emergency appointment I could get. I managed to figure out the buses purely by chance; I'd never been on them before. My bottom right wisdom tooth is going the same way as its left-side counterpart and I was in a bit of pain, so I thought it was time to do something about it, haha. I'm getting it extracted when I receive a letter from Basingstoke Hospital, so who knows when that'll be. In the meantime I have to take these massive antibiotic pills.

In just over two weeks, Kasabian are playing at Wembley Arena and I really, really, really want to go. Trouble is I've left it too late again and have already lost three eBay auctions. Two tickets have sold for £117, £112 and £127, and that is a ridiculous amount to pay when face value was £30 each. I'm determined to get tickets though! There's one that ends at 8pm tonight... OHRIGHT I've been outbid; current price is apparently £126.91. Damn. (Because I happen to have £something.91 in my PayPal someone's gonna end up paying £something.91 for it. I find that amusing).

So I started Kleeneze in the last few days. Monday and Tuesday I prepared the catalogue packs, which was more time-consuming than I'd expected, but that was the most difficult part really! I distributed 199 catalogues on Wednesday which only took one and a half hours and I didn't have to go far from my home at all. Yesterday I collected 125, of which 17 contained orders accumulating to over £400 (!!!) and today I am returning to pick up the "stragglers". This job is surprisingly quick, painless and profitable.

I watched Question Time last night. As an anti-fascist perhaps I would have been expected to think that Griffin shouldn't have been allowed on the programme, but in fact I felt the opposite; because we live in a democracy and everyone should have a chance to air his views, however wrong we think they are. It was a good platform because instead of making everyone racist like him, Griffin was shot down and ridiculed, appropriately. A nice, healthy debate :) The programme concluded well - the public have been able to see Nick Griffin challenged and put in his place, and that the vast majority of people disagree with him; as well as how he backtracks all the time and can't explain what he has said in the past. He doesn't know what he believes - at least he tries to sugarcoat it now his party are further into the mainstream, but the British public are more intelligent than that and won't let him get away with it lightly. Now that people are more likely to know he is a blustering idiot I have more hope for the future.

You can't ignore the ignorant, but you can show them up on national television.

I have just applied for a job as Tim Harford's research assistant. I'm not sure if that was a good idea. Although it is pretty much the ideal job for me.

Been doing Kleeneze all day - i.e. putting stickers on catalogues and order forms. I would be delivering them tomorrow but I haven't received a template of those slips that say what day I'm collecting them - though apparently it was sent this morning.

What I AM doing tomorrow is seeing a new radio panel show being recorded in London. It's hosted by Jon Richardson - my brother is a fan of his and got us all tickets. I had a dream in which David Mitchell was on one of the teams, which really isn't unlikely to come true.

I was just going to finish this without mentioning The Cribs but then Zane Lowe started playing We Share The Same Skies. <3

I ran the Basingstoke Parkrun this morning, on one hour's sleep. I suppose I did pretty well considering (33:24, a Basingstoke PB!). I ran far more at the end than I ever thought possible, due to competition from other runners and thinking of the interview in which Ross Jarman told of his bandmate's Marr-athon running (sorry). Apparently Johnny ran 26 miles and played the gig that I went to the next evening. Puts my measly 3 miles to shame. Is there anything that man can't do?! No wonder he looks young. I want to go running with Johnny.

So the gig! Eleventh time I've seen them (I'd lost count!) but just as special as all the others. And Comet Gain were there too :D

( Kentish Town Forum, Thursday 15th: pics, setlist, etc. )

My Cribs ticket arrived this morning! Phew! My initial relief turned into excitement. And then chocolate exacerbated that. It's chocolate week (officially!) and Cribs week - could it get any better?

I have to be at Job Centre for 9:20 the morning after the gig. LOL.

Shed Seven are quite good, actually. From that song. I don't listen to music nearly as much as I should do any more.

So my application to be a data entry clerk here in Alton was turned down. I'm not even good enough for that. Nevermind, though, because I'm becoming a Kleeneze distributor. I'm not misled by claims of easy, high incomes - because you need to work very hard and develop your own team to be super rich. But I believe I can get somewhere with it, as long as I treat it like a proper full-time job and don't fall at the first hurdle. Had my induction at a house in Waterlooville (near Portsmouth) last night. I have a brilliant, helpful person as my "upline"/supervisor/mentor who drove me there. She's coming round this afternoon to show me how to put the packs together and to begin my training. But I'm my own boss. I always wanted my own business.

Cribs in two days, but I still haven't received my ticket. Hm.

Trying to remember what happened on ( Tuesday... )

The mp3 of Tim Harford's lecture, The Consolations of Economics, is available for download here, and obviously I highly recommend it! (Ooh, there's also a video now!)

For many reasons I AM actually going to The Cribs in London next week :D YAY!

I want to see Brett Anderson, Carl Barat and Jon McClure for the JD Set thingy but it's tonight and I only just found out about it. Three of my favourite people!

I need to write about Tuesday, which I will do in due course, because it was very fun.

I lost my plan so now I have no idea what the fuck I'm supposed to be doing.

I just saw a picture of what Chris Barrie looks like now.

Nothing like this:


I'm only on series 4 - I shouldn't have clicked! Sudden ageing is scary!

I still hate being at home but have to admit that yesterday was pretty fun.

I had to get up at 7am so that we could go bowling in Aldershot when it was cheap. We had a great time - Katie won the first game and I won the second with three strikes! We didn't even have the sides up! Then we went to Burger King and Martin applied for a job there. I opted not to.

After coming back to Alton, Jack and I were a bit early meeting dad. We walked past the Little Green Dragon, a bookshop, where I noticed Robert Rankin would be doing a signing. And we noticed it was in the same two-hour window that we were there! Jack went in to meet one of his heroes and then we went to Costa. I thought that dad might be all bitter and full of propaganda but he wasn't at all, in fact he was really good natured, so that was nice. We caught up, Jack and mum took Jack's whole Rankin collection back to get signed and I went home. It was such a surprise that a famous author would visit a tiny bookshop in a nowhere town. He seemed proper friendly and genuine so that might encourage me read some of his books - on Amazon they were recommended to me based on Red Dwarf.

In the afternoon and evening we went through some boxes of really old stuff from the loft. Looking through my GCSE work I remembered hardly any of it, and it seems a lot more interesting now than I found it then! Especially History. Peep Show was particularly funny because Mark said too few women knew about Jack The Ripper and at pub quiz I had been the only one in the team to get the answer Whitechapel. I also found an old LSE prospectus. I didn't get in in 2004 but it contains statistics on applicants' 2002 success rates and they are dismally low! So it seems only those who achieved (at least) three As at A level actually got in. It sounded really interesting, though, and I wish I had gone there! Still it was useful to rip a map and photograph out of the back for Tuesday.

I want so badly to see The Cribs on the 15th but there's many reasons why I probably won't be able to.

Dear Friend,

You are a successful ticket holder for the public lecture by Tim Harford titled 'The Consolations of Economics' on Tuesday 6 October 2009.

I just like how that's worded. It makes me feel special. But there's more!

At the event there will be the opportunity to buy a copy of Tim Harford's new book Dear Undercover Economist and after the lecture Tim will also be doing a book signing.

Gfhdjhgkdjhfd. He's an economist, so I should probably think of something intelligent to say *beforehand*. Or maybe his talk will trigger some thoughts. It should do!

In other going-to-London news, on Tuesday morning I have a medical screening in Harrow to make sure that I'm fit for a clinical trial. Now I'm unemployed I have the time to earn A. Lot. Of. Money for staying in hospital. Unlike Plan A, hahahaha. Don't worry, I'm sure it's safe...

My ticket request for Tim Harford's talk next Tuesday was successful! Yay! (Link within a link). I stayed up until stupid o'clock last night so wasn't up for 10am when they went on general release. But I clicked at half past one and had to wait for an email later on before I knew whether or not I would be going. Tense times.

My other obsession right now is Red Dwarf. I watched it ages ago as a child but didn't really remember much about it. It's not the funniest programme but I've become interested in the characters' development and think that the show is very well researched and written. And, er, I quite fancy Rimmer. Didn't see that one coming! I'm only on series 2 at the moment, which was first shown when I was just two years old.

It's 33:40, which isn't that impressive really. The last time I ran there was April. I came 74th out of 82, beating an overweight man called Colin. He let me "win". It seemed harder, maybe because I am not used to it. I got up at six this morning (it was freezing) because train travel is awkward, and was back by 12 after looking round the shops in Festival Place. I want to live in Basingstoke.

"So who would you say were Smith & Williamson's main competitors?"
"Uh, I haven't researched that."

I was hoping to tell her about Parkrun and all the ~teamwork~ I'd been involved in but it never came up. The "competency" questions were like why I chose the universities I went to and I wasn't asked any detail about anything I'd done. She asked me to tell her about a story in the news that was relevant to investment management. Um, help?

Well... I didn't really want this one anyway.

- Why people 25 and over get substantially more JSA than those 16-24

- How my mother stuffs her face in the evenings but stays skinny

- How I will ever find a (decent) job

I hope someone comes to Basingstoke Parkrun with me tomorrow.

There's not much to report on. I came back to Alton on Sunday and all my boxes arrived this morning (delivered by the Men with Ven). I don't know how to describe the atmosphere here other than completely flat and lifeless, and it's difficult to have any motivation to do anything, especially as my NEET brothers are quite content sitting around all day playing video games. I don't want to seem ungrateful for the hospitality (oh the irony) but I resent the lack of control, particularly over what I eat, and the loss of independence.

I have an appointment at the Job Centre on Thursday and a telephone interview on Friday, for a job I applied for back in February. It's as a Trainee Investment Manager, which would use my masters degree but there's no way I'm going to be good enough to get it.

Yesterday I went shopping and bought a dress from the Dorothy Perkins sale and The Logic Of Life by Tim Harford, mostly using vouchers. Today I went jogging around a local park and it was so small I had to do four laps. I felt self conscious and there was not one other jogger, just a couple of dog-walkers and sixth-form students.

Pub quiz tonight!

I am currently listening to the new Mika album. Against my will, obviously.

No, I'm not. Things have become so stupid and ridiculous that they just amuse me now - there's no point in letting them get me down.

The ETA for the driver is between 6 and 8pm. This means that he will get my stuff home around midnight, probably, but having to travel by train there's no way I can be there in time. So I'll have to come home tomorrow and because it's Sunday the earliest I can get there is half past two in the afternoon. I had to change my ticket a second time! But actually I saved money because somehow I managed to get an advance single for only £23.45. Maybe you're compensated for having to go through Birmingham New St.

So I had plenty of time to run this morning. But I've been eating badly the last few days so my time was only 33:46. It would have been a second longer but this Asian guy overtook me near the finish. When we were on the grass coming up to the finish line proper I did a massive sprint and beat him. Haha.

Doing psychology studies turns out not only to be good for the purse but also for finding out about yourself. Apparently I am alexithymic. No wonder I'm no good at relating to customers. I know it's only a student's perception of me based on some questionnaires but it feels good to put a name to it. It's strongly correlated with autistic-like behaviour too, so after two years it's good to have someone finally agree with me about that.

Describing my problems in terms of social anxiety, OCD and now alexithymia makes me wonder why I don't just go one step further and say I have Asperger's. I'm still scared to go through the diagnostic procedure, though. And the last time I desperately wanted an "official" disability label was when things weren't going well in terms of jobs and employment, so maybe I should let it cool off a bit and see what happens.

Maybe I'm extrapolating too much. Last night I decided one thing I was certain about - I am a geek. Why else would I be so excited about the possibility of attending a talk on The Consolations Of Economics at the LSE? Yes, it's by that Tim guy, but did you see what he looked like? The reason I like him is the way he thinks - in terms of economics and statistics. Very few people think like me.

I know labels aren't the be-all and end-all of life, but their fundamental use is to gain help and support from society, something I am in desperate need of at the moment.

Ever thought, sod it, I'm going to the seaside?

I'll come to that in a bit. Last night, being the rebel that I am, I was listening to Radio 4 at 1am. I never knew they stopped broadcasting at that time every night! And they play the National Anthem! It was like being in the 1940's. Trying to sleep I was listening to some BBC World Service programmes, mainly about the anniversary of the Lehman Bros. collapse. We heard from a woman who had lost her job there a year ago, and now she's running her own business making pasta sauces. She said that it was the best thing that had ever happened to her. So there's hope yet.

Onto more exciting things. Today I was up at 6:30 and went to Blackpool. Didn't enjoy it as much as I should have done but I know I'll look back on it fondly. I was surprised that the beach was so long - it warranted four piers - but that Blackpool Tower is actually quite small.

( Pics etc. )

One last thing: oh God, are people like Tim Harford supposed to have fangirls? Something just clicked and now I feel rather embarrassed...

This is very unimportant in comparison to everything but I was right about the Marmite thing! So I'm not going completely bonkers after all.

I found out from the May 30th issue of NME, which I've only just got around to reading. It's the one with Serge and Tom on the cover, Serge dressed in white with black eye make-up. Mmm, Serge.

I just wanna say a massive thank you to everyone who gave support in response to my last entry, it really means a lot to know I have a network of friends who are there for me when things get shitty. Sincerely, I appreciate it. <3

My family have been brilliant as well. My mum says it's no trouble for me to come back home and is going out of her way to accommodate me, while my sister and her boyfriend have offered me a couple of social outings already! And my brother's going to "improve" my laptop, haha.

Maybe it's not so bad after all. I would just prefer that it was me rather than other people who could manage the responsibility of making my life good.

But either way, I love you guys.

Had a call from Annika at the RUH.

They followed up my references. They heard that I wasn't as good as they'd hoped in the "customer facing" area.

They thought long and hard about this.

They decided to retract my offer.

What am I supposed to do now?

So Amstell won in a landslide 7-0. Donohoe and co. need to up their game.

Today I actually started packing. I've filled five small but heavy boxes and I have nine left. Slightly worrying, because my room looks hardly any different. I've put a fair amount of stuff in recycling, but for whatever reason can't bring myself to get rid of any clothes, even if they're now massive.

I found out that uni results aren't officially out until October, but Maths being Maths I have two provisional marks out of five. I checked Continuous Time Finance first because I was doubtful about it, and sure enough I've failed. Again. I got 44 though, which is a pretty good fail for such a hard exam, and I didn't need to pass it (so long as I've passed everything else that is). So then I checked Computations In Finance and out of the three retakes, mine was the worst mark again (64). Interestingly, however, it appears to be the best because the other two had theirs capped at 50 and I'm not sure why. Still, I passed, and that's relieving.

I went on a walk and even at this late stage discovered a new green place, Woodhouse Ridge. I like getting lost.

In yesterday's run I got a PB of 32:10! Ran it all, and did a mega sprint finish, too.

Now that was probably the last official Leeds Parkrun for me ;__;

It's done me good, though. On Friday I was under 12 stone for the first time in eleven years and I am probably a size 14 now.

In gig-related stuff, both The Rakes and Simon Amstell are gigging on the 27th of October in Bristol. I am likely to have no money whatsoever then, but if I do,

Poll #1457017
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8

who should I see?

Conversation with the guy in the Unimove office:

"Will I be able to travel in the van (that is transporting my stuff)?"
"Absolutely not."
"Do you know what time I can expect the driver on Saturday?"
"No."

Helpful. I would have said, well they are Manchester based, but then I'd sound like a proper Leodensian and be even more loathe to move.

Today I received a massive package containing flat-pack boxes that I had to lug up two floors. I need to start packing!

I'm simultaneously excited and terrified.

I'm indebted to my mum in several ways now.

I was feeling down earlier because nothing seemed to be coming together very well. I had a phone call from HR at the hospital, and they were under the impression that I'd start on the 14th, despite having told me that the induction would be on the 21st. I'd arranged all my moving for the Saturday before, so I couldn't really start on the 14th. She said that it would be fine, but my manager doesn't know yet, and I felt quite bad about it.

My first misunderstanding and I'm not even in Bath yet! I remember these used to happen far too frequently at Lloyds, and my manager there always made it feel like the end of the world if I got something wrong. And it was always my fault. I hadn't asked enough questions, but then I never realised I had to, or knew what to ask. I was working on assumptions I didn't know I was making. And now I'm doing the same again and I just hope I have the sense to make better decisions this coming year.

Well I have self-awareness to some extent, if nothing else.

So I made a couple of phone calls this afternoon and they both put my mind at rest - one to the removals company, whom I'd paid over £200 to on Friday and not heard back from. I dreaded I'd been pulled into another scam, but he confirmed today over the phone that it would all happen. And I called my landlord, who actually brought up the deposit before I did, so that's going to be OK as well. I never got the deposit back from my last house despite asking the landlord there about it several times. I didn't pursue it because I didn't think I deserved it - I'd messed up too badly. And now it's sunk anyway.

The only thing left to worry about is money. And it's a big worry. My rent for the new place is slightly more than I was expecting and I have to pay two months' as deposit. There's literally not enough left of my (free) overdraft to do that. I emailed HR about my pay (I don't know how taboo that is but I really needed to know!) and apparently I don't get any more money until 29th October. So much for all these gigs, then. I'm not sure if I'll even be able to afford day-to-day costs. I'm torn between getting into short-term debt and doing what I want, or being frugal but missing out on experiences.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8239242.stm

lolol
Not just students!

There's been a severe lack of news on my friends page. As only 129 people subscribe to bbc_news in this way, I'm not hopeful, but I wonder if LJ is doing anything about it.

I got a PB! Ran it (all) in 32:54! I had some healthy competition from two ladies this week, which helped, lol. Oh yeah, and there were twenty people who finished behind me. :)

On the first lap, my left leg started aching as if I'd pulled a ligament or something, though I really don't know what that means or what the terminology would be. It's OK because I thought of Ross Jarman drumming with a broken wrist and all that, and kept going, and now it doesn't hurt any more. It was probably nothing anyway.

OK I gave in and am now listening to Ignore T'Ignorant on NME.com. I knew I wouldn't be disappointed.

Mainly I like how I'm not going, "that bit's Cribs, that bit's Smiths"... it blends together seamlessly.

Also I love Ryan's voice.

I picked up a copy of this week's Leeds Guide, which has The Cribs on the cover. Haven't read it yet but it made me lol that underneath the picture of the band (in an unrelated feature) it reads, "Leeds' best dishes".

Also, I just looked up the word, "emasculate". HAHA.

There are eighteen gigs I want to go to between the 1st of October and the 13th of December. I wonder how many I'll be able to do! They're in various southern towns from Cardiff to London. Most are sold out already.

For a look at the city I'm moving to, ( here's the view from a Travelodge window )

It's funny because for an unknown reason I had YMCA in head as I was walking to the station on Monday morning and later on saw it for real. It can't be very fun to stay there, though, because most of the beds were empty.

There has been a lot of interest in the room and we are so happy that we held out for you.
Aww. I mean, that's so lovely! I really never expected anyone to like me, let alone want to live with me.

So yeah, I found a place. Four hundred pounds a month that includes all the bills, internet, a cleaner!, a fridge and a microwave in my bedroom, which is large and spacious, located in the Bohemian part of Bath, the household is very relaxed and friendly and the landlady is an intensely likeable liberal (slightly crazy) American academic who runs singing workshops and owns an adorable cat called Jack.

I found it on spareroom.co.uk - thanks so much heybarbecutie for the link, it's turned out to be extremely helpful!

This morning I handed in the last piece of coursework of my masters degree. Because of everything, I now feel incredibly relieved.

Now all I've got to do is get the fuck out of Leeds! It doesn't seem so bad now that I've experienced all Bath has to offer. I'll have to stay until the 7th to pick up Ignore The Ignorant from Crash - I know you can get the Yorkshire edition online, but it's not the same.

This entry brought to you by the italics tag.

Just checked the Parkrun website - the results are up, but I never got an email this week. Weird. Anyway, I did it in 33:32, 20 seconds slower than my PB but still way better than my midweek time. I doubt I'll be doing a midweek run this week - climbing the hills in Bath will have to do!

I've been told I'm nice three times today, by three different people. That must mean I'm actually alright. I'm not used to it!

I won't bore you with the details but I viewed two more houses today, as well as going back to the one I saw yesterday to meet the guy I'd be living with. After each viewing, I felt really positive and I kind of wish I could live in all of them because everyone's so friendly! I haven't even seen my initial first choice yet. That's tomorrow, then I'll have to make a decision.

Been walking around exploring Bath and had some very tasty fish and chips at lunchtime. It's a beautiful city with everything you need in easy reach. I now get why it's called Bath too - it dips in the centre and goes up (steeply!) all the way around. That means pretty views from basically every window in town.

Greetings from Bath Central Travelodge. I love having mobile broadband. I could use the wifi here, but it'd cost me £5 for just ONE HOUR. Ridic. I've been drinking copious cups of complementary coffee (well, tea, actually, but tea doesn't begin with a c).

Leeds and Bath were astonishingly full of people for different but similar reasons. The Bank Holiday marked the end of a certain festival, so that Leeds station was full of wellie-clad rucksack carriers and I do not envy the person who had to clean up all the mud that they left. It was a lot of mud. Bath, on the other hand, was full of tourists. I felt kind of betrayed that I'm not "on holiday" but then I HAVE had a pretty awesome weekend anyway.

I saw the house at Alpine Gardens. It has amazingly beautiful surroundings, hence great views, and it's relatively cheap. I'd be living with two other people. The only thing is that it takes more than money to secure the room. I have to meet with the current residents and they will choose who they want to live with. Hmm. Hopefully it'll be in the next couple of days while I'm still here. The landlord and his wife thought that I would get on well with the tenants, since they're 21 and 24 (and she guessed my age as early-to-mid twenties - spot on! Why don't I look younger than I am anymore?). I have three more properties to view but I hope the first one materialises.

I've now managed almost a thousand out of 3,000 words of my essay. Probably all bullshit, but it's a very "soft" module and I tend to get good marks for bullshit.

I was bored on the train here so I squeed to my mother on the phone about Gary Jarman. I wonder what the other travellers must have thought.

If you can't be arsed to read all my fangirling, basically I love Gary Jarman.

( Cribs HMV instore, 30/08/2009 )

Today's been very good. First of all I ran for 5km (don't know the times yet) and didn't really feel it! I suppose I still had a lot of sugar left in me from yesterday (er, see yesterday's journal entry for proof of that) and it was making me hyper and paranoid. Like Manny from Black Books when he's had too much coffee. Then add the effects of a breezy run, which makes one confident and happy, and it's an odd mix.

In the afternoon I went into town to meet up with Dani. I can be as weird as I like on LJ but for some reason I worry about making a good impression on people when I meet them in person. So I didn't talk much! But it was OK. We had fun, did some shopping and wandered about. Then I remembered about TopShop and was drawn in to grab one of the last remaining Mod jackets.

( Judge for yourself )

Yes, I can't do it up because it's a size 12, but to get such a thing (that I needed, let's be honest) for just £19 when it used to be £75 is defintely worth it. I could have paid over £52 on eBay for my size but that would defeat the point of waiting for the sale. Also I can use it as my incentive to lose that last bit of weight, which is adamant that it's staying and so far I've seemed to let it. Apologies for being a bit of a camwhore lately but the other pics were quite dreadful.

Anyway, the point is, I can has, and I can look like Paul Weller nao...

I've got to do my essay but I've booked a hotel instead of a hostel for when I'm in Bath next week, which is a subtle change that will make a huge difference in productivity. MAYBE IT'LL ALL WORK OUT. I got my railcard nice and quickly too - I was worried about that because the old one ran out on the 31st.

Well done Tim Key! Maybe this will mean that Cowards gets more recognition. I hope so. Although, "Star" names, who have already had TV series [...] were not eligible. I guess it doesn't count, then, if they actually have done but nobody watched it :P

Change one letter, change one letter.

Table for one, please

Fable for one, please

Um... Fill in the gaps. I can't do it anyway.

.
.
.

Grave for one, please

This is what it's like in my head all the cocking time. Mostly I change words to what they would be if they had "n" as the first letter, such as Needs for Leeds. The funniest one so far was "nough balls" for "dough balls" in Nizza Nexpress. There was a table of people presumably out on a work lunch together who kept looking at me presumably because I was on my own. It took me to wait a long time and then look like I was leaving before the waiter would bring me my bill.

I I I I can't find time for her oh no
I I I I can't find time for her oh no
because I'm empty because of MTV oh no
because I'm empty
because of MTV OH NO

I am very very sad. Nad.

A group of students had a meeting with John today (not calling him "Uncle John" like some of them do because it makes me gag) to discuss the essay that I'm not actually going to have time to do (I'm seeing dani_kc on Saturday, Cribs on Sunday, in Bath Mon-Wed and the deadline is Thursday!). I told him about my job (another student, Simon, even seemed interested) and he said "so did you have an interview for that?" and I said "yes" and he was like "... OK then". As eccentric as John is, even he seems thrown by how exactly one is supposed to approach people like me.

I scare people off because they scare me? I don't even do anything and I intimidate them wtf.

OH OH. The TopShop Union Jack-ets are in the sale at a third of their original price! BUT ONLY UP TO SIZE 12. I need it so badly but will never get it.

I have to share this email from Joe Cole (one of the Gumtree respondents offering a property to rent) because it's a ( classic case of spam )

I also emailed Michael Cole to say that I would not give him any money until I could view the property. He's not going to like that. Fucking timewasting scammers.

Monday: had exam, travelled to Bath
Tuesday: walked around Bath and came home disappointed

( The details )

I would appreciate any advice on how to find an affordable place to live once you're no longer a student and there's only one of you.

( Desperate enough for Gumtree? )

( Running last week )

It's from an excellent article about the Leeds Hyde Parkrun from www.richk.co.uk which has plenty more photos if you're interested.