it's friday i'm in love #5

Normally, I am the type of person who hates summer. I am a very typical English person in this regard: I'll complain because there's no summer weather in the summer months, but when it turns up I swelter and curse. My room at university is very large with a bay window, so in this sort of weather it's always cooler in here than outside, and as a result I chronically overdress. I realised way too late yesterday that I was going to overheat with my tights and sweater, and as such had to wander round the University Library in a vague state of undress (oo-er) to try and cool off. Given that I was carrying 13 books at the time, it was a bit uncomfortable. Still, I'm not complaining. I've bared my legs to the sun for the first time in months, I've cracked open the sunscreen and bought my first pair of non-prescription sunglasses. I was so happy this morning when I woke up ridiculously early, about 6am, and the sun was already shining brightly but the air was gloriously cool and crisp. There's something so refreshing about these kinds of summer mornings and waking up with the sun.

Despite this glorious weather, I've been somewhat locked inside, due to my thesis progressing (albeit slowly). I'm aiming to have another draft knocked out by the end of the weekend, so I've been staring at my computer screen, armed with library books and copious quantities of tea. It's not going as fast as I would like, but it's not too bad. I'm finding the sunshine to be quite an incentive to work, since I can go outside and read in the sunshine when I've got enough work done.

Nonetheless, I've had some amazing times with friends and family this week. Even when things aren't so good, it's very illuminating: I can't claim to be a person with the highest self-esteem, but I feel like I'm learning to take what I can from experiences, rather than letting them crush me. I'm not saying I'm impervious to things - I spent a lot of last night either angry or crying - but life is long and there isn't any point giving into things. Even when the present is tough, there are always good things in the world, such as tasty food, cats and books. It's good to remember that.

Mmm, delicious Graze boxes. This one was very tasty, but a little disappointing, since I like my box best when there are things I can enjoy all week long. The bread and dip are things which need to be consumed in one sitting really, and quite quickly, so I'd finished half my box within a day. Still, it was extremely tasty. Don't forget that if anyone wants a free box, use my code (7PQK525)!

[The scene is set for ridiculousness. Barbeque, a swing, water pistols and alcohol? What could possible go wrong?]

[Josh in the foreground, with Dan and Glory behind him.]

[Dan and Sam grooving in the swing.]

[Water pistols, strange dancing, oh my! A true Classicists' party.]

[Sam and Paul managed to destroy the swing, and so Dan did what anyone would do: dance like a fool.]

My coursemates Glory and Sam both had birthdays this week, and decided to have a barbeque to celebrate. As it was, that afternoon was the first afternoon of absolutely glorious, it was particularly wonderful. There was a lot of gin, prosecco, water pistols, foam slingshots and delicious food, not to mention some awesome discussions about bizarre Classical topics. It's going to be really sad when so many of us get split up in a few months. Still, there are some good memories (and hilarious photos).

My mum and stepdad stopped by my house during the week with the aim of going to the Cambridge Beer Festival which is happening on the green behind my house, but the queue was enormous, so we decided to go to a really nice pub on my street. The falafel wrap and Crabbies were pretty good, but the highlight was meeting this lovely fluffy black and white pusscat on the way. Sorry the photo is blurry, the cat was so desperate to rub his chin into my hand that he wouldn't stay still!

My friend Anna and I have started a reading group to practise our Greek, and since the weather was so good we sat on the grass outside the Faculty with bourbons and bare feet. It was both productive and hilarious - I ended up comparing Nausicaa and her servants playing in Odyssey VI to a lesbian pillow fight, and when Anna translated something as 'gentle soothing', she was epically misheard as 'genital soothing'! It was a lot of fun, and rather whimsical somehow.

My boyfriend and I went out for dinner last week, and managed to get this photo together. Aren't we a nice couple? And isn't his hair impressive?

Marmite popcorn is one of the nicest things ever. I got the idea from Katiecakes, but I'd been considering it for a while since popcorn maize is stunningly cheap at the Co-op and I've wanted a new savoury snack. It was so, so good, and very fun to make (the popping in the saucepan is terrifying at first!), but incredibly buttery - I felt so fat afterwards!

The buttercups on the common this morning were so bright and lovely, it made the day feel good by 10am.

it's friday i'm in love #4

This week has sort of run the gauntlet from extreme stress and misery to extreme joy and happiness. The extreme stress and misery has largely been caused by my dissertation, which has been going more smoothly than it has in previous weeks, but I managed to shoot myself in the foot somewhat. I overestimated how much I overwrite, so I had to take a day to come up with another chapter for the sake of the word count, but now I'm actually over - typical! During my week of general writer's block and doom, I took to just writing without citations (or even full sentences at various points!) so I was up until 4am last night inserting citations into 10,000 words, along with general formatting and explanation. Thank god for a good memory. It's all come together more than I thought it would, although I've got a few more ideas which need to be inserted/developed, so there's still more work to do. I've got three weeks left before the hand-in, so I can hopefully rewrite/rework it into something stronger.

Tarquin may have been behaving a bit better this week, but various things have conspired to make him even more stressful, even though they are happy things. Firstly, I've been invited to give a talk at Oxford in September, which is really brilliant. It's for AMPAL 2012 (Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in Ancient Literature), and it'll be a wonderful venue for my first official conference as a speaker. Nonetheless, it has resulted in a lot of paperwork to do, so I had one mad dash to the Post Office this morning. Secondly, my funding for my PhD was officially confirmed, but that also means paperwork I needed to do. Thirdly, and entirely out of the blue, my first-choice college emailed me to offer me a place there for my PhD. This is the one which has really thrown me, since I knew the other two were coming (although I didn't anticipate needing to do all the paperwork in such a busy week!), but this was really unexpected. The college I ended up at for my MPhil is fine, but it's a very small college, it's for 'mature women', it's got very little money and it's not very good for my subject. If we're going to have the college system (which I still find rather quaint), I'd prefer to be at a college which can give me some funding for my studies, isn't divided on gender and age lines and has some people who actually do my subject there. I don't wish to be too hard on Lucy Cavendish, since it's perfectly nice, but it's also rather gratifying to go to King's. I'm so looking forward to it.

In some ways though, this is the problem. My whole PhD hinges on my thesis going well, and although I have no reason to think it might not go well, it does make me rather conscious that this needs to be great, and I've been working on it mostly in the middle of the night...Oh well. I've got three weeks to edit! I want this so badly, I'm this close to sacrificing a goat to Zeus. Although, given that my thesis is based on Greco-Roman cultural negotiations in the imperial period, maybe I should sacrifice one to Zeus, one to Jupiter, and one to the Caesars...

At any rate, Tarquin's gone to my supervisor, and after that I bought books, went to the seminar I organise to hear my friend Matt talk about Aeolic dialects, went t'pub to discuss Classical things and HBO shows with the classics peeps (it's so weird knowing I'll be at the same college as some of these people soon!) and thence to a restaurant with my boyfriend. We've barely seen each other this week due to thesis commitments, so going for a meal together was the perfect opportunity to catch up and spend some time together. Not to mention goat's cheese pasta al forno and limoncello make all ills disappear. I'm having a supervision on Monday to discuss my thesis draft, so until then I have, gloriously, nothing to do at all. It's World Baking Day on Sunday, so I imagine I'll take advantage of that to make something tasty, but I'm honestly just looking forward to curling up in bed with A Clash of Kings and some time to do absolutely nothing.

My bookshelf is starting to look pretty impressive now. I have about a thousand books now back home, but since my room's been dismantled for building work, they're in boxes and mostly inaccesible. As such, I'm accumulating lots of new books to decorate my new room, and I'm rather pleased with the results. On the advice of my lovely friend Rachael, I've started reading A Song of Ice and Fire, but I had to buy the second one first (they were all out of the first one at King's Cross), and then I got the first one and the new Jeffrey Eugenides at Cambridge station. Yes, I'm a biblioslut, no you may not judge!

For my last birthday, my friend Helen gave me a gift designed to help me get through the year and give me a giggle...it'a a Stress Paul! The idea is that I take my stress out on the Stress Paul rather than my boyfriend Paul, and he lived by my computer in case I have a sudden urge to crush something. I've needed him rather a lot this week, as you might have guessed. 

 

It's my housemate Anna's birthday today, so we had a small party earlier in the week to celebrate. Anna is obsessed with all things pink, glittery and Disney (at Christmas she demanded a pink hat from the cracker so she could be a princess!), so her boyfriend Matteo created menus for the dinner inviting us to her Disney-style kingdom Annalee. We had lots of Italians cooking the dinner, so the lasagna, tirimisu and cake were all absolutely delicious. I haven't been able to spend lots of time with my housemates at the moment due to the pressures of thesis, so it was really nice to have an opportunity to catch up and relax for an evening.

I've been drowning in paperwork all week due to all the nice things being offered to me. I'm very happy with the offers, but the amount of time I've spent filling out forms is a bit much really! 

I've been searching for coffee chocolate for ages, ever since my boyfriend gave me a book of brownie recipes for Christmas and they recommend it to make mocha brownies. I found some in Selfridges in Birmingham, but it cost £7.50 for 45g - I could buy almost four books with that! This stuff is over twice as large for a fifth of the price. And it's Fairtrade. Couldn't get better than that, really.

To help with my stress levels and the amount of work I've had to do this week, my stepmother bought me some coffee. Although I'm not really much of a Starbucks fan, this fresh coffee was rather lovely, and very very helpful, since last night I was up until 4am. Good grief.

When I was visiting my friend Rachael last weekend, I was introduced to the joys of Lush, since she works there and really likes the products. I've never really been taken by Lush, I associate it with a cacophony of smells, not to mention that it always seemed a bit impractical to me. I'm happy to be utterly wrong - this cleanser is really nice, and it leaves my skin looking great. The lip balm was free, and smells of coffee. Brilliant.

I know, I know, I keep posting about my Graze boxes, but they are very very tasty. This week's felt rather providential, since I got basil and garlic olives (I could happily live off olives), Indian chutney and soya cakes, white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake and chocolate pudding. Very, very tasty. I have a code (7PQK525) if anyone wants to try a free box.

To help me get through the week, I bought some of the only beers I actually like! They're light and fruity cherry and raspberry beers, and taste more like a cider than a beer, so I find them surprosingly pleasant. I might get some more to help me celebrate handing in the first draft of my thesis today...

'check your privilege!'

So, despite drowing in Tarquin, which sounds a lot worse than it is, I took some time off this weekend to go to Reading for a belated celebration for my friend Rachael's birthday. I was absolutely knackered from the previous week, so I was feeling a little bit stressed on the train there, but the moment I saw my friends (some of whom I haven't seen for over a year!) all the worry went away.

Candy, Vic, Rachael and Charlie looking gorgeous.

On my arrival in Reading, I was greeted by Rachael and her lovely chap Mike (who makes rather delicious breakfasts, it must be stated!), and in due course Charlie, Candy, Vic, Annis and Rowan turned up. There was much squeeing and joy as we saw each other, balanced only by ice-cream and a cheeky introduction to Lush!

 I think Rowan was sneakily plotting which of the delicious foodstuffs she would start with.


Lemon curd muffins? Cakestand? Mojitos out of jam jars? Totally Tumblr-whimsical.

Once we'd all arrived and indulged in some group hugs (much to the surprise of the other people in the station!), we wandered over to Rachael's home and decamped onto her floor for some catch up, mojitos and deliciousness. My friend Vic brought some gorgeous lemon curd and raspberry tarts which were ohmylordsoscrummy, and Rachael had clearly been baking for some time, since there were mini quiches, rosewater meringues, lime meringue tarts (all mini), plus (bigger) lemon curd cupcakes and a chocolate ganache torte, which sadly I didn't try! Sadface. We also made mojitos which we drank out of jam jars for added Tumblr whimsy. They were all utterly delicious, and I was very happy to be able to drink, eat and be merry with such wonderful ladies.

We headed over to the Nag's Head, which is a really lovely little pub. I let Candy and Charlie use my camera, which led to this photo of me. Charlie pronounced that it looked and like the sort of thing which would appear next to a sign saying 'office hours are...' Glad to know I look like I fit the part of my future career plans!

Annis and Rowan are serious real ale fans, and there has to be an obligatory shot of them with beer.

Candy brought out her bubbles and brought some whimsy to the pub. In the foreground is Rowan's hand protecting her beer, since she wasn't sure how the ale would react with the bubble mixture!

Nice but strange shot of Annis and I - Annis looks lovely, as always, I look a bit weird, but with a face like mine, that's just to be expected, really!

I spent a lot of time sitting with Rowan and Vic discussing academic futures. We all want to be academics, and so we had a conversation about what we're thinking of studying, and how we're going to get there. I felt quite old though when I realised that in a few years we could all be doing pioneering work in our respective fields - scary stuff. At any rate, I'm looking forward to the future when I get to address these lovely women as 'Doctor...'!

On our return from t'pub, we curled up in the living room, ate combinations of bread, hoummus, cheese, celery and tomatoes, discussed various ridiculous things including feminism, gender politics, literature and Toddlers and Tiaras. Candy and Annis' exploits with vegetables should give you an idea of the tone of the evening!

Finally, the dramatic finale: Vic brought her coveted copy of Carlton Mellick III's The Haunted Vagina with her, and as such we had to read it out. It's exactly as trashy and mental as it sounds: there's lots of inane descriptions of things like dietary habits, horrible erotica scenes and some truly disturbing scenes of grown men squashing into vaginas. When my turn came around, I'd become somewhat accustomed to the ridiculous subject matter, but I couldn't refrain from correcting the terrible grammar!

I think Rowan's face sums it all up, this is exactly how the book made me feel. (If anyone wants to buy it, it's £6.66 on Amazon!)

The list of the author's other titles made me actually lose it. I attempted to read them out, but it took me multiple attempts and a lot of breathless laughing before I could actually say The Morbidly Obese Ninja. It's making me smile even now.

 On a side note, there were some epic pajamas to be seen.

Peach and amaretto ice-cream. Sweetest, tastiest thing I had since...the day before. And the breakfast Rachael's boyfriend Mike made. But the point still stands!

Before this weekend, I was stressed, miserable and worried about the future. Time spent with my favourite ladies, with lots of laughter and relaxation made everything a lot better, and just remembering some of the things we got up to ('Sit down, you are eleven!') makes me smile. Leaving and knowing I'd have to get back and deal with Tarquin was really not a happy thought at all. But on the plus side? I'm hoping I can convince them all to come to Cambridge to a few days of punting, decadence and summery fun. So hopefully there will be another hilarious set of photos soon!

litterae et libri II

Okay, so on Friday I was whining about how difficult the week had been, and quite frankly, I was feeling rather depressed about the whole life-thing. Now, on Sunday, I'm beaming and relaxed and generally happy. Turns out all it takes to make me happy is meeting up with some of my favourite people for ice-cream, Lush facemasks, tiny food, alcohol, bizarro novels and general love. I haven't seen some of these people for over a year (if at all!), so this was incredibly happy-making and
wonderful. I will have to post the photos soon, which are uniformly of beautiful girls doing rather strange things, like reading out Carlton Mellick III's The Haunted Vagina (!), checking our privilege and duckfacing like mofos. Despite the need to write about 8,000 words by Friday, this weekend has left me feeling really relaxed and happy and inspired by the generally amazing women who I'm lucky enough to know. I will have to spend some time soon putting together the photos to reconstruct the funtimes, but until then, here are some of the things on t'interwebz which have caught my attention this week.

[*]

On my mum's side, I'm technically a quarter-Jewish, since my grandfather's family were Jews who lived in Vienna before the threat of Hitler's invasion forced them to flee to New York. I've not actually been to Vienna that I can recall, but I now have a very pressing need to, since there is now a cat cafe in Vienna. I love the idea of getting a coffee and doing some university work with a purring cat beside me. Basically like home, really! 

[*]

Really interesting article about tea, coffee and writing, which was quite timely considering my friend Ashley just wrote an article about the history of coffee. I quite like the idea of tea being for readers and coffee for writers, but I don't know quite about I feel about this. Maybe this is how I can tackle Tarquin: more coffee? I suppose I could try it, it's not like I'm obsessed with coffee or anything...

[Image from article: link below.]

Cambridge archaeologists have discovered a lost language. The article is fascinating, it's incredible that in this day and age we can still discover things lost in time for so long.

[*]

Hilary Mantel wrote about Anne Boleyn, who she rightly calls 'one of the most controversial women in history'. It's a really interesting read - I particularly like her bluntness about how little we can reliably know about Anne due to the backlash which both destroyed and romanticised the truth beyond reconstruction. 'The fact that some antique hand has written her name on a portrait does not mean that we are looking at Henry's second queen. Her image, her reputation, her life history is nebulous, a drifting cloud, a mist with certain points of colour and definition.' Also, Margaret Atwood reviewed the Wolf Hall sequel, which did make me squee a little, I must confess!

[*]

Jessica Valenti wrote a brilliant piece about the feminism of the sadly deceased Adam Yauch. What I find really interesting is the fact that he so publically recanted his earlier homophobic and sexist lyrics and tried actively to promote equality - it's fantastically inspiring, and a reminder of how sad his untimely death is.

[*]

Cicero's brother, wrote a manual about how to win elections in the first century B.C. - it's fascinating to know it's still used today! Never say that politics isn't cyclical. 

 [Picture from article: link below.]

Liberty University has a code of conduct which forbids abortion, witchcraft and female immodesty. It's both hilarious and terrifying that raping someone gets the same punishment as drinking alcohol or spending a night in a hotel room with someone of the opposite sex. This makes me thankful I live in the UK, where extreme religiosity just makes everyone uncomfortable.

 [*]

Neil Gaiman wrote a tribute to the late Maurice Sendak, which really epitomises everything I love about his writing: it's very short, but very evocative.

[*]

Literary figures and their favourite cocktails is basically an article combining my favourite things. It's rather appropriate now, since I spent the weekend drinking mojitos out of jam jars (so quimsical!) with, among others, my friend Candy, who is getting a kitten called Hemingway. Coincidence? I think not.