Velvet Waltz

So draws to an imminent close the second year of this pulsating bastard they call a degree. To think and take in all at once the stuff that can happen during the first 66.6% of an undergraduate degree could be enough to cause total nuclear melt down.. only, you know, in your own head rather than in some dubiously secretive yet cripplingly financially destitute former Russian state.

Handed in my final essay for the term yesterday, but I've still got a 4000 word SF essay for when we return, as well as my Creative Writing portfolio. Time is moving very quickly indeed.

Salsa came in the forms of both wonderment and absolute bollocks over the last month or so. On the good side, I was re-elected treasurer for next year with 62 out of 62 votes (I'm pretty sure it was the Dominos I'd ordered for everyone that really swung it) and we ended the year having had some of the most successful socials the society has held, and also up a couple of hundred quid. Christ knows what we'll spend that on.

The bollocks came in the form of the stress and organisation, then failure of the 7-date UK tour we had been planning since January. Unfortunately, when it came to the crunch, people just didn't seem that interested. Sad but true. However, of the few of us that were keen, one member kindly offered us to stay in her dad's apartment in Barcelona during the same period as well, seeing as we'd all be free anyway. And seeing as it's basically cost us what the tour would have done each anyway, that's that. Barcelona it is! Never been to Spain before, quite looking forward to the break from it all now..

For our final SF seminar this week (where Kayte, Luke and I had to present on Nicola Robson's Natural History) we made and distributed Tin Man-style headgear in keeping with the augmentation/cyborg themes of the novel. We insisted that everyone where the helmets in order for the presentation to fully work; they complied and all was well.

Been taking quite a few portraits of friends (ones leaving, ones staying, ones already gone) over the last couple of weeks. Because of the speed by which everything comes and goes at university, I've felt compelled to document it all as much as I can now. Here's some shots (an ongoing project now):

Zaffie

Chiara

Kenny

Mils

Kenny & Francesca

When I say that things here move too fast and too many to really understand what it going on, I truly mean it. There is so much symbolism, every day. All day long at times. And when it isn't that, it is something else. It is quiet, and this is the time to make lists:

Daylight list (year two) -

The hill, sitting on the bench or the grass ..the potential of it all.
Sometimes the coffee is made well ..a good start to things always.
Laura Veirs 11minutes, Arts the Beat Doctor, 21 minutes
'A sensitive and original approach to the subject' ..nothing to get too involved in. Thank god.
I'll walk you home if you want
Cookies? Rounds slags, more like ..because they go down too easily
Those are my demands ..Fair enough. I think we can appease you.
Does my guitar keep you up? .. We're just lucky you can sing
Saxondale.
Then Partridge. ..One more before bed?
Remember the baseball bat guy? He sat on our sofa.
Killing Joke invented everything. ..What, even the Ped Egg?
Random yet affectionate text regarding recipient’s previous geographical location,
followed by hyperbolic reference to the passing of time.
Amusing and ironic retraction of affection.
Iconic representation of a kiss.
Kazuo Ishiguro doing a reading locally .. couldn't make it, but the informing was an act of absolute kindness
New found patience ..never too late, remember this

Night time list (year two) -

Cold in the morning ..but warm by the evening. You know this.
The bricks are everywhere in the morning ..but rebuilt by the evening. You know this.
Someone's parents dying .. what can I do? What can I do here to be brave and to love and listen?
Is this guilt? ..this is pretty big
This must be regret ..come on now positive
10/90 seriously ..come on
Alice in Chains, Jane's Addiction, Soundgarden, Deftones, Helmet, Kerbdog 4 hrs

There is so much symbolism.