#33 "15:40"

Hello again... let's clear up a few things first: I'm back in Sheffield, the essays are done, and I am now 19. Woo!

Friday night was the time to be celebrating my birthday, for I knew that an early start on Sunday morning may be hampered by any Saturday-night frivolities. In hindsight, that was probably one of the soundest decisions I've ever made. Cheap drinks -- and the fact they were being bought for me -- resulted in a great night and a very painful Saturday morning.

I say morning, I mean afternoon.

I mean day.


Sunday gave me an enormous sense of déjà vu, owing to the fact it was exactly the same as last week. I had to be up in time to catch a 10:15 train to London, an 11:30 coach to Sheffield, and eat the same sub-standard roast dinner on arrival. I did have a slightly longer chat with the coach driver this time, though:

- "Good morning"
- "Morning... thanks"

Bizarrely, there was another non-English speaker (this time from one of the South-Asian countries) talking really loudly on his mobile phone, and who also has no room for any times in his language!! Why do they have no phrase for "twenty-to-four"?!?

Equally bizarrely, there was no Notty House quiz night either. Put down to a severe lackage of potential contestants, the rest of the week was thrown madly out of the usual routine. Open University scientists are still trying to work out the effect this will have on the very fabric of the universe. Thank goodness for the itbox's Pub Quiz, eh?

Apart from handing in my essays on Monday morning, there really has been nothing else to do (as I have no exams). Gloating at the people who do is fun, but it wears off surprisingly quickly. We did sign for a house, however. The result of putting a deposit down on the place has left me in the rather depressing position of paying in all my Christmas and Birthday money, and still having a minus number in the bank account. God bless the student overdraft...

I also attempted to go shopping: my first trip to TK Maxxxxxxxx nearly killed me, as it was only after roughly 4 hours of looking through the "Medium" clothes that I recognised they were all strangely too large for me. When I did finally find something I liked, it had been priced wrong, and was in fact £40 not £11. Bah.

And that's about all I can remember for now. Expect slightly more effort next week.