Halloween party

There was a Halloween party last night. I was going to go as a goth (heh) but then my friend had kitty ears and a collar, so I ended up going as a goth cat. It was quite awesome!







My hair isn't actually black, although it looks like it - it's a deep, velvety purple that doesn't come out well under yellowish lights : ) I was bored of the last one, it had faded muchly:





So I changed it, with many comments including "But your hair's not exciting any more!" to which my answer was "But... it's purple, how is that not exciting?!" People.

In other news, am feeling the pinch today. Got my bank statement the other day to discover that my student loan didn't cover my accommodation (uni provided accommodation), let alone my books that came to £90 for ONE MODULE... Drank coke last night (25p for half a pint), and I've been trawling the Job Shop for part time stuff. The thing is, I don't want a job - I want to concentrate on my degree because I'm close enough to failing at least the Russian part of it. I'm working hard and it's all just sliding out of reach.

Wednesday 25th October

Because I'm unimaginative and that's the best title I could come up with.

I ache from climbing again, which is nice. Spent a lot of time bouldering, which I don't usually enjoy as much as routing, but today I seemed to be getting on with it. Heh, it's like I want to go in for BUSA or something! <shifty glances>

Also, I found this news story about the US "exiling" someone to Canada - are they even allowed to do that? I mean, it's not their country so how do they get to exile him there while telling him he must report to his parole officer in the States?

(I understand that exile is usually out of the country, except when you're Russia, but really that's just ridiculous!)

That's all, I'm supposed to be writing things up before I go to bed, although I can't actually hold a pen very well - always the sign of a good climbing session - so it might just be bedtime. Huzzah, it's before midnight!

Monday 23 October

I've just been climbing and I ache :) it's a really satisfying feeling.

I was also out climbing on Saturday (after a night out, fortunately I wasn't too drunk!) which was amazing! Didn't do anything too hard, just getting the feel for being back on the rock. I want to get my SPA (Single Pitch Award) training done this year, so I need to get some practice at leading... I'm just not that strong at the moment and it's annoying me.

I got a phone call from my friend at home yesterday - he wants me to come back from uni because he doesn't have a climbing partner... It'll be good to see him when I go home at Christmas.

Also at Christmas I get to see Rob, which is exciting beyond belief! He hasn't been to the UK for Christmas yet, but since I spent last Christmas in Canada with his family it's his turn to come over :)

I've just spent a good minute or so being entranced by the emoticons and their googly-eyed-ness. That probably means it's time to get a hot chocolate and read some "Wolf Brother". I really like it, and now my friend lent me the second one so I can get a bit further in the story too :)

I'm sorry this doesn't make sense. Maybe next time.

Photos

There are more, but Blogger is playing up. I'll try again tomorrow.

Candlelit procession

Last night was the candlelit procession from Prebends Bridge up to Durham Cathedral. It's a lot of fun, mostly because you get to have candles (I'm never actually going to grow out of the joy of holding fire) and it's also very pretty, a whole load of people walking around in the dark with candles.

Once you get into the cathedral, all the lights are turned off and so you see it just by candlelight - quite a change from the usual brightness! It's a very spiritual moment, and you can see why people have been coming to that site for over a thousand years (the cathedral is 1010 years old, and before that was a wooden Saxon church - I was listening to the spiel we were given!). Then they talk for a bit about the cathedral, religion and the university, and then lights come on and you can wander round the cathedral for a bit. I've been there just a few times before, so I wasn't too bothered about that until I realised that everyone was taking photos, which is usually forbidden, so I decided I'd join in. Here are the fruits of my illicit endeavours!

It's Friday and I can breathe again!

The essays are done, dusted and handed in. This means I can start to live again! Feels like I've been in a bit of a black hole this week, it'll be nice to breathe a little bit. Obviously I still have work to do, term has started... but the languages dept here being what it is, so far it's been just a little chaotic! My favourite is that my friend isn't registered for Spanish, despite having done Spanish for the previous three years and having told them at pre-registration in June she wanted to do Spanish this year, and having told them again when we formally registered last week... when will they learn?

Tonight was a celebratory night of watching Disney DVDs (Hercules and Aladdin) while drinking wine and eating Ben&Jerry's. We fourth years know how to party!

Also a question - I'm trying to learn how to use Dreamweaver to make a website for the college art society, but the tutorial is just confusing me. Anybody got any hints/tips etc?

I love reading lists

I've just spent £90 on books. All compulsory ones, and none in the library... well done Durham!

Cake

Helen just brought me cake to help maintain my sanity... I love this girl. It has a smiley face on it. That is my favourite part.

Jon Stewart's 9/11 speech

For those of you who don't know Jon Stewart, he's a satirist who hosts a programme called "The Daily Show" (broadcast in the US, Canada and now on More4 in the UK). He's also my hero, and seeing this speech is incredibly emotional as it shows a side to him that isn't shown on the programme, the side that loves his country despite all his ridiculing of the administration. Seeing Jon Stewart cry is like kicking a puppy. (I'm apparently having an emotional day).

Back in Durham

It's all a little strange. I'm living right opposite the bar, which is kind of noisy at the moment what with all the freshers being excitable 18 year olds... I do feel kind of like a granny, being a fourth year and therefore having to work while they play.

Lectures start on Monday. I can't believe that with a centralised timetabling system I didn't get any clashes... that's too good to be true so I'm fully expecting it all to go wrong :) I have so much faith in our department!

I should keep this blog updated more now I have internet, I really didn't like doing it on dialup because it's so slow and didn't really want to work for me.

Not much to say about uni yet, it's good to see people though. I hadn't seen Sophie and Helen for two years, so it's quite interesting to catch up with them. And the most exciting news of the day is that I have finally written one of my essays, woot! Just another 2000 words in Russian to go ... it's my own fault and I expect no sympathy (although if you want to give me some anyway I won't say no :) ).

Oh, and another, rather random thing is that I now have a problem with Thunderbird. Here are the details...

The history:
I had Gmail working on Thunderbird a couple of years ago, but got rid of Thunderbird (and therefore the Gmail POP access) for a variety of reasons. Now I'm using Thunderbird again (version 1.5.0.7) and have set it up to download Gmail messages using POP. I've followed the
instructions on the help centre site .

The problem:
I can't download or send email, as the server times out. The other account I use through TBird (a uni account) works fine.

I have:

• changed my servers to googlemail rather than gmail
• checked all the settings (including making sure that gmail is using its own servers rather than my university's)
• since I'm on a network, changed the "direct access to internet" to the automatic proxy configuration URL given by the university
• checked that TBird is authorised by ZoneAlarm to access the web and act as a server
• unlocked my account using the CAPTCHA form
• made sure that the settings in gmail are correct (I hadn't changed them from when I had TBird two years ago

Any ideas? I'm stuck, and the forums weren't helping this time .

That's all for now, I'll write more as interesting things happen.