GeoffBrady » holiday

Deep Lincoln

Steve — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 09:52:31 +0000

I spent last week in Boston (Lincolnshire, of course) with my grandparents. It was more pleasant than I had expected, though it was indeed rather warm. There were good photo opportunities in the town centre and in the boat cruise up the River Witham. We climbed The Stump, the 14th highest tower in Britain, apparently.

On returning on Sunday I went about doing something rather silly.

I have long wanted to have a desk in my room. My room is rather small and is rather restricted in its arrangement by a set of rather ugly pipes in one corner. On moving in my grandparents bought me a wardrobe to hide the pipes. I do use it, but it’s still a bit of a pain. So, while most sensible people would perhaps buy a desk and cut out holes for the pipes, I set about converting my wardrobe into a desk. Now, this is definitely something I do not recommend. Trimming the wardrobe door, which has a modern kind of motif, proved to be a tricky job; and it remains to trim the rest of the wardrobe to the size of the door.

Another thing I’d recommend is to get a decent circular saw or a decent electric jigsaw. I had an electric jigsaw and the blade broke, but not before struggling awkwardly and before snapping the blade. I gave up and used a hand saw. The edges are much straighter and my arms feel an awful lot stronger. However, it takes a lot longer.

No Pain No Gain

Steve — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:35:32 +0000

I awoke yesterday to a nosebleed. Nosebleeds are not unusual for me, I get them very infrequently but often enough to realise that I should carry a handkerchief or tissue with me. I am unsure as to whether there is some residual cause of these nosebleeds — are they caused by some hidden complaint? They often occur at frustratingly inconvenient times: a school fête, a birthday party, in bed, …

Yesterday we took down the Christmas decorations. It wasn’t quite the last day of Christmas, but by now the Christmas cheer wears off. I haven’t done any work for university over this holiday, and now I face the stark realisation that I will have to do some. I have two exams for which I haven’t revised for, an assignment to do (and though I am not currently aware as to the deadline, I am fairly sure upon checking it will be for tomorrow) and I should have researched more for my project. My motivation waned over the holiday.

The problem is that I usually have something to look forward to, like visiting friends in Kent. But I don’t have that luxury at the moment. Instead I have an impending rigorously scrutinised application process to undergo in the coming months, with I concede an unlikely chance to be offered a job at the end. It’s not really something I look forward to, yet I have to be confident to stand any chance of getting it.

Lesson of the day

Have something to look forward to. If you don’t have anything to look forward to, make something to look forward to.

A Week In Kent

Steve — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 23:57:09 +0000

Usually when I visit Kent, I describe each day, and what happened. But I don’t think I’m going to do that this time. No. In fact, I’m just going to cobble together the pieces that resound in my head as I type.

The most important task in coming down is meeting the people that made me who I am: those being my friends. I am glad to say I met a lot of those — some whom I was not expecting to see. Another important task is meeting members of my family, and I got to do that as well.

What I didn’t do so well was to be the perfect guest. I’m afraid I wasn’t — I became ill with some cold and managed to amass a collossal headache during the week and as such was probably a bit of a pest to my poor suffering hosts. Thankfully, Pete, Donna and Russell looked after me well.

That was the major disappointment: being ill. If I were better, I might have made better use of my time there, and been a bit more of a help and less of a hindrance.