Meandering
Still too hot; obviously the poor excuse for a storm we had earlier wasn't enough to clear the air. I'm measuring probably in terms of weeks now the length of time since I was able to breathe properly; last year it was more acute and culminated in a midnight cycling trip to Chesterton Medical Centre, where the doctor prescribed some kind of antibiotics I think. As I recall, I was pretty much fine after that though whether that was just a coincidence with a change in the weather is of course unclear.
Have been wandering about looking for people or inspiration or food or something. I'm getting sick of paying for food, mind... Walked to Borders but that was a bit much really so I think I'd better just sit in my room tonight. Probably should get some food; as I say I'm not keen on paying lots of money for food every day, and going out anywhere alone strikes me as particularly sad, so I think it's time for super-noodles. I used to think cooking for oneself might be quite cool if one had a posse of kitchen buddies, but of course Christ's doesn't encourage cooking anyway, whereas Alex has ovens and freezers in his Peterhouse kitchen.
Was wondering how people manage to know so many people from other colleges. I suppose there are perhaps five or so people from other colleges whom I might count as friends in that I might speak to them if I saw them, and a couple of others I'd like to count but would assume that the default state should be not-friends.
Frankly I've always found it hard enough to know people even from my own college. The life of a Christ's NatSci is particularly unconducive to social life, I would contend. Still, I think I've tried fairly earnestly over the years to meet as many people as I can, given that most people scare me. Yet, it seems to me that I don't really know anybody; I guess nobody has a 'best friend' at our age but still, I feel that the others are a lot more enmeshed. For example, one of those studenty things is to visit college friends (who are always, in the land of Hypothesia, improbably rich and live in castles - hey, Miranda?) during the vacations, or even to go travelling with them. Yet with the exception of people from school who[m?] I already knew, the only time I've ever seen someone from Cambridge outside of Cambridge was when I passed one of our first-years on the opposite side of the street in Bath last Christmas. I did actually meet her, subsequently, in college, but never spoke to her again on the basis that she either wouldn't remember or wouldn't care who I was. Oh and I once saw someone in a Pembroke splashtop at a motorway service station on the way home at the end of term. But that really can't count particularly as I've never knowingly met anyone from Pembroke.
I think the fact that I basically wasn't around in the first year - where was I, I ask myself? Not with the others, for one reason or another - has hindered the acquisition of friends. College was an incredibly lonely place back then, and even now I feel kinda left out when the others reminisce about what happened in the first year, or get annoyed at me for not knowing who used to go out with whom (hey, Sarah). So a strong word of warning; I strongly caution anyone who hopes to survive at Cambridge without MSN that they could be making a huge mistake!
Where was I? Oh yes, going to cook supernoodles. And need to tidy my room. And do the laundry - though when I checked a little while ago the laundry was very busy, not deserted as I had envisaged. I got my books back from Stoakley's earlier, which is cool. Also bought a copy of the photo from yesterday's garden party, which may have been ill-advised but hey, what can you do.
The CCMS 'garden' (Buttery) party was pretty much as I'd predicted; non-membership of the choir clique pretty much excludes one from interacting with the majority of the music society, at least when one is not 1) an attractive first year 2) a really-not-attractive-yet-somehow-strangely-compelling-to-certain-others graduate, or 3) much more confident than I am. It's like on trains, I'd rather stand than inflict my company on someone sitting next to an empty seat; in most social situations I'd rather sit alone wishing I wasn't there than inflict my boorish, unfunny and unsophisticated company upon others. To be honest when I do make an effort I tend to regret it later because it gives me more things to add to the omnipresent mental litany of 'Things I Wish I Hadn't Said Or Done'. I really am an idiot when it comes to these things, tending unintentionally to insult others or just make a generalised ass of myself. {viz. Ass: 2: A vain, self-important, silly, or aggressively stupid person.}
My jeans all seem to be longer than they used to be. If I was much given to self-delusion I might contend that this is attributed to having lost weight. But I'm not so it must just be that they need washing or something to regain their shape. I'm not keen on being fat but I am keen on food, particularly when bored, so it's only going to get worse. The inability to breathe properly does tend to preclude exercise too, though I'm aware that in everyone else's eyes I just seem an idle loafer.
Also dropped round at Jonny's earlier to find that his excuse for skiving the 'garden' party was that he was playing Go with some other scary mathmos. Being in the presence of genuinely intelligent people, who can talk about maths or whatever in a way that makes no sense at all to us philistines, always makes me feel a total fraudster in claiming to be a scholar myself. I'm so clearly inferior.
Have been wandering about looking for people or inspiration or food or something. I'm getting sick of paying for food, mind... Walked to Borders but that was a bit much really so I think I'd better just sit in my room tonight. Probably should get some food; as I say I'm not keen on paying lots of money for food every day, and going out anywhere alone strikes me as particularly sad, so I think it's time for super-noodles. I used to think cooking for oneself might be quite cool if one had a posse of kitchen buddies, but of course Christ's doesn't encourage cooking anyway, whereas Alex has ovens and freezers in his Peterhouse kitchen.
Was wondering how people manage to know so many people from other colleges. I suppose there are perhaps five or so people from other colleges whom I might count as friends in that I might speak to them if I saw them, and a couple of others I'd like to count but would assume that the default state should be not-friends.
Frankly I've always found it hard enough to know people even from my own college. The life of a Christ's NatSci is particularly unconducive to social life, I would contend. Still, I think I've tried fairly earnestly over the years to meet as many people as I can, given that most people scare me. Yet, it seems to me that I don't really know anybody; I guess nobody has a 'best friend' at our age but still, I feel that the others are a lot more enmeshed. For example, one of those studenty things is to visit college friends (who are always, in the land of Hypothesia, improbably rich and live in castles - hey, Miranda?) during the vacations, or even to go travelling with them. Yet with the exception of people from school who[m?] I already knew, the only time I've ever seen someone from Cambridge outside of Cambridge was when I passed one of our first-years on the opposite side of the street in Bath last Christmas. I did actually meet her, subsequently, in college, but never spoke to her again on the basis that she either wouldn't remember or wouldn't care who I was. Oh and I once saw someone in a Pembroke splashtop at a motorway service station on the way home at the end of term. But that really can't count particularly as I've never knowingly met anyone from Pembroke.
I think the fact that I basically wasn't around in the first year - where was I, I ask myself? Not with the others, for one reason or another - has hindered the acquisition of friends. College was an incredibly lonely place back then, and even now I feel kinda left out when the others reminisce about what happened in the first year, or get annoyed at me for not knowing who used to go out with whom (hey, Sarah). So a strong word of warning; I strongly caution anyone who hopes to survive at Cambridge without MSN that they could be making a huge mistake!
Where was I? Oh yes, going to cook supernoodles. And need to tidy my room. And do the laundry - though when I checked a little while ago the laundry was very busy, not deserted as I had envisaged. I got my books back from Stoakley's earlier, which is cool. Also bought a copy of the photo from yesterday's garden party, which may have been ill-advised but hey, what can you do.
The CCMS 'garden' (Buttery) party was pretty much as I'd predicted; non-membership of the choir clique pretty much excludes one from interacting with the majority of the music society, at least when one is not 1) an attractive first year 2) a really-not-attractive-yet-somehow-strangely-compelling-to-certain-others graduate, or 3) much more confident than I am. It's like on trains, I'd rather stand than inflict my company on someone sitting next to an empty seat; in most social situations I'd rather sit alone wishing I wasn't there than inflict my boorish, unfunny and unsophisticated company upon others. To be honest when I do make an effort I tend to regret it later because it gives me more things to add to the omnipresent mental litany of 'Things I Wish I Hadn't Said Or Done'. I really am an idiot when it comes to these things, tending unintentionally to insult others or just make a generalised ass of myself. {viz. Ass: 2: A vain, self-important, silly, or aggressively stupid person.}
My jeans all seem to be longer than they used to be. If I was much given to self-delusion I might contend that this is attributed to having lost weight. But I'm not so it must just be that they need washing or something to regain their shape. I'm not keen on being fat but I am keen on food, particularly when bored, so it's only going to get worse. The inability to breathe properly does tend to preclude exercise too, though I'm aware that in everyone else's eyes I just seem an idle loafer.
Also dropped round at Jonny's earlier to find that his excuse for skiving the 'garden' party was that he was playing Go with some other scary mathmos. Being in the presence of genuinely intelligent people, who can talk about maths or whatever in a way that makes no sense at all to us philistines, always makes me feel a total fraudster in claiming to be a scholar myself. I'm so clearly inferior.
posted by Z31 at 7:06 pm
7 Comments:
Bloody hell, I go to *ONE* party at a castle, and I have improbably rich friends. OK so for this party we had to RSVP for security reasons, it was black tie, we drank their home grown and brewed champagne(I'm almost positive that you don't brew champagne but buggered if I know what you *do* do to it) and her dad was a baronet ("he is that baronet". If anyone who isn't me and reads this blog gets that I'll be hugely surprised (also "suicide is itself a crime". Absolute genius i tells you.) but it was her 21st and she's the only one who lives in a castle. And i don't think they're *that* rich anyway. And this is the one and only time I've socialised with people I know from uni outside of nottingham, outside of term time, and well it was a party at a castle, that's like a once in a lifetime thing.
I should be careful with dropping G+S lyrics, Miranda, you never know who[m?] (which appears to be infectious), will intercept them.
I'm pretty sure vinos have mastered the understated, and so the simple 'made' or if feeling slightly pretentious 'aged' would be best for Champagne.
Stephen, apropos the last eight or so posts, and this could go underneath many of them- you're not totally unemployable, but the first step in proving that is to believe it. Much like you say about being as popular as you believe you are, (though of course there are the delusional on both sides of the issue). But your descriptions of yourself here seem particularly unwarranted- you're good company, intelligent, articulate and wise.
And incidentally, those sudoku ratings are really debatable, I think, since they depend a lot upon which of the many methods one elects to use.
TCH
Ah well I'm not clever enough for methods, I just fill in the numbers. But I'd like to point out that I do su dokus in pen. Oh yeah, that's hard-core. Erm, washable pen though, with pencil notes...
Hee, I reckon there must be some method in your filling in of the numbers. Either that or the answer just comes to you, which is another sign of your scary genius.
Or you just put random numbers in and ignore the rules altogether, rather like some guy I heard on the radio once who admitted he filled in The Times Crossword with any words that would fit on his way to work every morning, and then left it on the underground as a curiosity.
TCH
I'm sorry, it turns into a natural reaction. Nearer the show it's worse. (Woo Ruddigore, one of the best libs ever, and one of the best plot resolutions ever. Is genius. Yikes. I think I'm getting a bit scary. It wasn't even my show. Sorry.)
Come to think of it, I suspect writing in possible numbers is pencil is considered poor form, in which case I'm probably not very adept at all.
Unfortunately I'm uncultured enough not to know any G&S except The Pirates of Penzance, or, The Slave Of Duty or whatever it's called. Guess unless you're in it or have seen it it's hard to learn these things.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, I'm sure lots of people manage to have full and happy lives without any influence of G&S, but just in case anyone out there is interested "The Pirates Of Penzance" at the Nottingham Arts Theatre 15th-18th March 2006. It'll be great. Mark it in your diary now. Be there, or I'll deck you.
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