In answer to queries, the writings in my Extracts from my diary section are, as its title suggests, extracts from my diary. The accounts below, however, are not, and were written specifically for this page.
This morning I finally managed to get the lid off the jam I bought on Saturday. It's tasks like this that distract me from my work (well, the internet does as well). Yesterday I also managed to get some washing done. I initially tried to do it early yesterday morning, but for whatever reason the laundry was closed at 2 am. And I'll have to buy some more milk because the two pints I bought yesterday ran out the same day. Also, I had an interesting dream this morning, that I had to give a lecture on Verner's Law. This was difficult since I hadn't realized I'd have to do this, but luckily I could remember the basic points about sound changes from Indo-European and just talked about these.
Index of comments on day-to-day existence.
Today was the first day so far that I left my key in my room when I went out, causing me (after trying to unlock the door with my nails and with coins) to ask for the spare key. Still, leaving the key in the door when I'm inside the room, as I've done on three occasions, is almost as bad.
I'm right out of milk again
The University Library is an amusing place in my view, because although it's very large and grand, and there are statues of Romans just inside, and portraits, and the staff are dressed in shirts and ties, the vast majority of people in there are undergraduates wearing jeans and so on. That's a little incongruous.
Index of comments on day-to-day existence.
Hmm. I'm sure earlier today I thought of something amusing to say about today, but I seem to have forgotten it. Rather like this morning when I wondered why the toast was taking so long then realized I'd forgotten to put the bread in the toaster. That's life I suppose. Also, I really must lend C.D. those Anglo-Saxon history notes... I'll have to find them first though. Also this morning, I collected my Matriculation Photograph. I was slightly late for the Anglo-Latin lecture but that's understandable given the weather (hard to get up in the mornings), and given the toast. What else? I finally collected the underpaid mail on Tuesday. Guess who it was from? My parents! (I had to go the sorting office to collect it, and pay about 30p.) It was just a forwarding of some Charter 88 mail and some Labour minutes anyway - haven't looked at it yet. I still need more milk. I don't think milk that I've bought has ever lasted more than two days, no matter how much of it I've bought. Also on Tuesday was the strike, and the demonstration. It was completely peaceful as you'd expect, though maybe if it hadn't been it'd have got on the news more. I don't think slogans about putting Tory ministers on a bonfire are particularly helpful myself though - nor is singling out Ken Clarke. The bonfire slogans were very much a minority thing, I assure you, but singling out the Chancellor is very common - and I think pointless.
Index of comments on day-to-day existence.
Clearly I have not been writing these entries as often as I anticipated. The reader must appreciate that there are other, more important calls on my time. I have so many important things to do, like buying more cheese, not tidying my room, writing airmail letters to Rachel Verschaeve, and, just occasionally, doing work.
Somewhat irritated to discover (see the Comments page) that someone was actually enjoying reading my views on milk :), I am now writing about cheese instead. I bought some English cheddar recently and didn't think much to it. The Irish cheddar I bought is much better.
I had a dream about a week ago that I had updated this homepage. You see now the sort of interesting dreams I have. Maybe I will start a record of them on here. After all, dreams are likely to interest people just as much as I know milk does!
Index of comments on day-to-day existence.
More comments on my homepage are pouring in all the time. The two emails that I received today about it bring the total number of people who have admitted to visiting the page so far to a massive three, if you exclude my friends (if not, an even more impressive ten or so).
This morning I realized I had overslept and missed my first lecture, but then, luckily, or not, I looked at the clock and discovered that I hadn't missed it after all, merely dreamt that I had, so I was on time.
Index of comments on day-to-day existence.
Well, a lot has been happening recently. On several days over the last week, I have been the lucky recipient of CUCA ( Cambridge University Conservative Association) leaflets, which someone has slipped under the door of my college room. Why this should be so, I have yet to work out. There have been three or four of these bits of paper, urging me to vote for someone or other in the upcoming elections to CUCA's committee. A consolation is that at least two of them have the name "Andrew" written at the top, so at these those poor CUCA people aren't under the misapprehension that I'm One of Them. It would be funny if they were...
So, is this Andrew a CUCA mole, leaking useless information to a member of the Labour group? Or, on the contrary, is this all some of kind of silly joke? If so, I assume it is a Conservative sense of humour, since it eludes me.
On Sunday I met a slightly roguish-looking bloke on Parker's Piece. He wanted to speak to me "for a few seconds", so I let him, and he advised me to "never trust the BNP [British National Party]". I am pleased to inform readers that I never trusted the BNP in the first place, because they are a bunch of fascists.
Anyway, he told me about how he thought later on there might be a brawl in the pub between two black men he'd made friends with, and two whites, who he'd also made friends with (he was white), but who turned out to be racists. So I listened... and eventually he thanked me for doing so, and I asked me if I were a Christian, and was rather pleased to hear that I wasn't. As far as I gather the main reason for this is that he wasn't a Christian himself, and it would seem sad if evangelists were the only people with time to listen to others.
There was a storm both yesterday and the day before. Or was it, the day before and the day before that. Two recent days, anyway. Today it poured heavily as I went to 10 West Road to meet Mr Bibire. It even rained a bit on the way back, which was a little impudent of it.
Anyway, I shan't hang around long. I'm going home on Sunday.
Index of comments on day-to-day existence.
Last week was wet... it rained nearly every day. Friday was the best example. Every time I left a building, it poured with rain. Every time I found some shelter, it stopped.
Then came Sunday (well, actually Saturday came before that, but I'm jumping ahead a bit). There was a Cambridge Labour Students (CoLS) squash that evening, and incidentally on the same morning, the Observer reported that the Government would give the health service some more money after all (which is a relief). (There have been some nasty rumours about charges that might get introduced in the health service. Frank Dobson has said he "won't rule out the killing of the first born because if I do you'll ask me to rule out the killing of the second born.")
I was late and went home quickly after the meeting to be fed by my housemates; but I did get chance to mingle with a few people all the same, principally some first-years from Girton, who were with two first-years from Sidney, and who kept saying how at every Labour meeting they'd ever been to, all people ever talked about was how we could get away with raising taxes and still win an election. (In the end it turned out our strategy was that we wouldn't raise taxes anyway, which is one way of solving it, I suppose.) Of course, we should raises taxes... but only on the rich, not on lower income earners. And we must remember that raising taxes is a means, not an end. I think it may be that we want more revenue to improve public services. And if we do, those who can afford to pay more should pay more.
Today, I was sleepily awoken by my alarm at 10:15, whereupon I switched my radio on. At 10:35 I got up and made a cup of chocolate. At 10:45 I finished drinking it. (I'm sure you're all fascinated by this detail. I know you are.) I arrived at my class five minutes late, which didn't matter because Professor Lapidge was five minutes later still. That gave me time to cool down from having hurried.
Index of comments on day-to-day existence
You can e-mail me at: rjp33@cam.ac.uk.
Index of comments on day-to-day existence.
©1998 Richard Pond