oh the bizarreness!

Only I could go to a talk about the placenames of Scotland, spend the first 20 minutes being harangued by a paranoid South African woman (who believed that her book, which was on the colonial history of South Africa, had been removed from the library at Johannesburg 'because they're re-writing history') and end up winning a book in a raffle. Truly, it was a very strange night. I was certainly the youngest person there by a couple of decades!

I have one week until the first draft of my thesis is due, and my supervisor is being particularly irritating, not emailing me back until today about meeting to discuss it... I still have 5000 words to go, and PROC 1001 has kicked in - I've been spending way too much time on internet forums on bridgetothestars.net, a fansite for Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, arguing with some random in New York over whether 'His Dark Materials' or 'Lord of the Rings' is better. A pointless argument, and also a very annoying and engaging one.

But the weirdest thing which has happened to me is related to a parcel I had to pick up last week. Some of you may recall that while in Rome in December, my mother's wallet was stolen. Well, in this parcel was the wallet, sent back 9 months later by the Australian embassy in Rome!!! It still had the credit cards and driver's license, but no money, of course. I was absolutely speechless with laughter after opening the parcel and finding the wallet inside. It is the perfect punchline to the joke.

oh the bizarreness!

Only I could go to a talk about the placenames of Scotland, spend the first 20 minutes being harangued by a paranoid South African woman (who believed that her book, which was on the colonial history of South Africa, had been removed from the library at Johannesburg 'because they're re-writing history') and end up winning a book in a raffle. Truly, it was a very strange night. I was certainly the youngest person there by a couple of decades!

I have one week until the first draft of my thesis is due, and my supervisor is being particularly irritating, not emailing me back until today about meeting to discuss it... I still have 5000 words to go, and PROC 1001 has kicked in - I've been spending way too much time on internet forums on bridgetothestars.net, a fansite for Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, arguing with some random in New York over whether 'His Dark Materials' or 'Lord of the Rings' is better. A pointless argument, and also a very annoying and engaging one.

But the weirdest thing which has happened to me is related to a parcel I had to pick up last week. Some of you may recall that while in Rome in December, my mother's wallet was stolen. Well, in this parcel was the wallet, sent back 9 months later by the Australian embassy in Rome!!! It still had the credit cards and driver's license, but no money, of course. I was absolutely speechless with laughter after opening the parcel and finding the wallet inside. It is the perfect punchline to the joke.