I am very very very tired
I am working far too much and all hours of the days and nights
I am getting a cold - slowly
I can feel my brain and my body turning into mush from lack of use
I have to wait 6 weeks for most of my wages
I still havent seen The Dark Knight

But...
I went to Disneyland Paris 2 weeks ago and it was so incredibly magical and awesome it was almost unreal!
I am going to see my best friend next week when she comes over from France! :D
I am going to a massive party Ultimate tournie this weekend and seeing all my uni friends! :D
One month til I start my MA!
2 weeks til I go to a 15thC conference!

There is a light at the end of the tunnel.... :S

 This is very brief because I really should be asleep as I have to be at work in 7 hours...

The last 2 weeks have been absolute S**** I've been working obscene hours in mindnumbing jobs that are turning my mind to mush and my body appears to be following suite cos my bodyclock is so F***** up.  I havent worked less than an 8 hour day since I got home and my usual days are 10hours plus working and all times of the day and night. I finished work at 9.15pm tonight and had to come home, eat , speak to Mum and pack. Tomorrow I am starting at 7am and finishing at 3am. But I am earning lots of money so should be in less debt for my MA... unless I've gone insane by then, which is looking likely atm!!

Although on the plusplusplus side I am off to Disneyland Paris for a long weekend on friday morning. It is for my friends 21st and it should be awesome - I am so so excited about it - I love Disney and we get to be big kids again!! :D So so happy!

But tomorrow will drag more cos of it me thinks... hope I've packed everything I need...meh... bed time... I get to meet Mickey Mouse again!! :D

 - Oh and there was an awesome storm earlier with big thunder rolls and big forked lightening (although no rain...) t'was wicked driving home in it

I am going to my first ever festival this weekend, and going to see Pendulum there. I love Pendulum!

And its right on the beach just down the road from me - literally a 10min train journey :D

The Square Festival

Now, to get wellies or not to get wellies... that is the question.
 
How much does one trust the BBC weather forcast? What does 'light showers' on the saturday really mean?!


P.S. This song and this song are brilliant - LOVE them. You should go watch them and be enthralled

:D

I have only just discovered that LJ has an email type messaging thingy.... And I've been on here for how long?! Haha

Really really really want to volunteer to be a part of this next summer. It looks amazing! :)



And... for the first time in about 2 years I updated/changed my userpics. Wow.

Well am slightly unhappy. I got a 58 (2.2) for my dissertation, and I wish I'd have gotten more for it. But then I did  pick a very hard topic and I did  leave far to much to the last minute due to stress based reasons. At least I know what I need to work on for next year.

On the plus side - I ended up with an average of 60.6% (a 2.1... just!) I am so so unbelieveably happy right now!! I am so so pleased and relieved! I was having nightmares about this all week so it's such a relief! Having to graduate with a 2.2 when I have put so much of my life and myself into my degree and my uni life would have left me in floods of tears.

So BLOODY HAPPY!! :D
I got a 2.1 and I can get into my MA now!! :D

Now I just need to figure out my summer plans... I really really really dont want to go home, but I think I'm going to have to... 

Well... I am much happier :) I have just had an amazing weekend and I am feeling incredibly sore due to over playing at Ultimate, but I am feeling very happy. Was so so nice to see so many of my friends again in one place and it was just what I needed to escape Everything for a weekend :D

I am still job hunting, I now have 2 part time jobs - but they are evening work that are giving me a total of 4 shifts a week between them because it's so dead in Aber now. Hopefully it will pick up as I cant pay rent at the mo it's that bad...
Had an interview that went well I think ,but we will see if I get it. the interviewer had a strange technique where she did most of the talking and over half of it was just a general chat. But it was nice and a good experience even if I dont get it. More vacancies have appeared that I am going to apply for today and tomorrow so I have mor options and am staying upbeat for themoment. I had such a horrible horrible few weeks where nothing went right, but I am so much happier after the weekend and I have several action plans in case things dont work out. So fingers crossed, and I hope that I will stay upbeat for long enough so I can sort all the problems out without almost having a break down again.

On that note... degree results on wednesday... am SO BLOODY SCARED!! :S
Not nervous, just scared... am mentally preparing myself, or trying to.

Well, the ball is now rolling in my new postgraduate life.

It's been a very tough few weeks what with one thing and another, but things are happening slowly. Things are beginning to make a bit more sense now, but they will be tough for a while longer I'm sure. I will write more whn I klnow fopr definite a few more things, I dont wanna risk cursing them just yet.

And it's nice moving on as it feels like I'm moving forward with my life. But it's quite scary and ever so sad.

Has been the best three years of my life. I have loved being here and living this life and there will always be a place in my heart for Aberystwyth. I keep trying to write a epitaph or something to sum up my feeling and all, but I cant find the words, or if I do then it's stupidly longwinded. Shall work on this.



Buuut:
Eurovision was absolute class this year! And one of my friends has donated us 700 plastic ball-pool balls. Is wicked! :D

It's a scary thought that my undergraduate degree will be completely over come 5pm tomorrow...
It's even scarier that I'm failing to concentrate on revision today.

Ah, wait, correction. It'll be over by lunchtime wednesday. I stil have a seminar report to write after this blimin' exam.

T'is till scaring me though. My life will change completely in a few weeks time and I dont like the thought. I cant quite get my head around it, and by quite I mean at all.

*sigh*

(for anyone who cares)

March 26th: Plaster Came Off! Told to keep it up to stop swelling and told to wait for physio.
Got new appointment with doc in 6 weeks.

April 1st: Was down to one crutch outside, and none in the house. First physio appointment. She was really impressed with the amount of movement I had, gave me exercises to strenghten it and told me I could start swimming and cycling.

Was off crutches completely four days later (I realised that I didnt need them and was just using them cos I was scared. So told myself to "man up" and got rid of them. Success!) Went swimming and cycling amost every other day. Started to feel like an ankle again, but it felt worse when I didnt get it moving.

April 17th: Second physio appointment. Gave crtuch back. She was please with movement again. Given exercises to get my balance receptors back, told I could start running wearing thick soled trainers.

(Which was good cos I had actually accidentally burst into a run the week before at Ultimate training... haha)
Realised I had as much movement with my bad ankle as I do with my good one. With the balance exercises it got strong really quickly and they became much easier. Still gets stiff first thing in the morning and still gets swollen, but that's understandable and the physio said it can take up to a year for the swelling to go down cos of gravity.

April 25th: Went to a weekend Ultimate tournament... and I was impressed with how well it survived. I played over half of every game**, it didnt hurt as much as I thought it would and the only things I was limited in were jumping and running at full speed very well (I was almost at full speed tho!). And today it feels fine, no worse than it usually does. So t'is good! :D

The only odd thing is that the skin round my ankle is completely numb, and if I prod it I get a wierd feeling in my little toe. And it's a proper frankenstien-esque scar!

May 1st: Third Physio appointment.
May 7th: Appointment with doc.

**3 games a day between 90 mins - 120 mins each.

So if you want to make my dreams come true, you'll be a lighthouse keeper too! We could live in a lighthouse, it's the white one by the bay - eh hey, won't that be ok... Ya da dada da"

***********

"Painting Religion: A Case Study of English Medieval Wall Paintings in West Sussex"

Final draft of dissertation: 17678 words! Not including front sheet, bibliography, contents, picture list, and appendix (which is mostly pictures).

It was supposed to be 12000 words tho... whoops! But my friend spoke to his tutor who said that as long as everything you'd written wasnt waffle, was insightful analysis and was useful for your diss then the word count didnt really matter. So fingers crossed!

I'm relieved it's over, but I am really going to miss doing it. So I suppose it's a good job I have lots of work to do for the next few weeks then! My undergraduate degree is all over on the evening of the 13th of May. T'is a very scary thought... But as I've got a conditional offer for a MA in Medieval Studies here, it's not too scary a thought atm :) I just need a 2.1 and to sign a form saying how I will financially suport myself. I have incentives to work harder than ever in my remaining studies and over the summer now!

Final draft of chapter 4 = 3944 words and 29 footnotes! :D

All I have to do now is...
Front Page
Contents Page
Images List
Complete Bibliography
(All very simple things, but damned tedious ones)

Introduction
Conclusion
Final Editing and footnotes
(Less tedious but harder)

And I have to get it bound tomorrow lunchtime at the latest. It all sounds lots, but it's loads of little things so it's all gravy :)

Final draft of chapter 3 = 4035 words and 26 footnotes :S

Hmmmmm.....

Final draft of chapter 2 = 3995 words and 21 footnotes :S
I still have editing to go on this but at least the writing has mostly finished for that chapter!

Still going to go waaaay over the word limit, and apparently there's not anything obvious I can cut out. Oh well!

I'm so tired though, and my eyes are going funny from staring at the screen...

Final draft of chapter 1 = 3336 words and 37 footnotes :S
I still have editing to go on this but at least the writing has mostly finished for that chapter!

Oh, and in the time since I last posted I have rearranged my structure - I now have 4 chapters (added a new chapter 1, so the previous 3 mentioned have all been shifted down a number)

The only problem is that I'm going to go waaaaay over the word limit. I just hope they dont mind too much! I've heard they dont... *crosses fingers*

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7344381.stm ...Ever so slightly ironic.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7344279.stm ...And very funny, but sadly true.


...I'm going to see Jimmy Carr shortly!

The first draft of chapter two of my dissertation is complete at 2720 words... :S

7441 done, 4559 to go... Then we start the mass editing.

The first draft of my historiography section of my introduction is complete also. (Albeit in paper form as I got fed up of staring at word documents)

Should really write up my bibliography and get it out the way now so I dont forget and then remember last minute and panic....

And my tutor helped me sort out and made me calmer over the silly amount of niggly worries I had. She is really pleased and excited about it, is looking forward to reading it, and said that due to what my diss is on I would be a good candidate for a masters. So fingers crossed for my applicantion eh! :)
My friends are having a competeition as to who can read the most sources for their dissertations. They're on 60. I dont have that luxury of that many sources. Sometimes I wish I'd picked an easier one - but then I also know that I wouldnt have been happy with it if I had.

And altho that's all really good things - it does also add just a teensey bit more pressure on. T'is bloody typical. Removing one lot of worry and replacing it with another!

Heh.

Bed now.

The first draft of chapter three of my dissertation is complete at 2098 words... :S

1 day and 1 chapter behind schedule :(

The first draft of chapter one of my dissertation is complete at 2623 words... :S

I decided that as I am doing a dissertation on medieval church wall paintings, I really should brush up on my biblical stories. I borrowed 'The New Jerusalem Bible' off my friend. The problem is that the gospel I really want to get hold of isnt actually in the Bible - it's called the Apocryphal gospels and is a fifth gospel that was popular in medieval times. I have searched on Amazon for it - but I dont particularly want to pay for it as I'm rather poor - and it appears to be something that is surrounded in controversey as a substantial amount of the books have 'secret' or 'notorious' in the title. It's just another version of the stories about Jesus and I dont understand why people have sensationalised it, also, it is interesting to note that a lot of these books were published in the USA or are being sold by peoiple in the USA.

***********

My Easter weekend was wonderful. I saw my Mum for the first time since January... although this made me realised that I am not going to see my Dad and my brother for about 6 months which saddened me muchly. While my Mummy was up we basically did nothing all weekend and it was amazing, so relaxing and I didnt have to think or do anything urgently for once and it was just lovely to see her again. I do miss my family even though I love uni. I got re-taught how to knit at easter too, which is cool cos I'm knitting a fluffy lilac pashmina thingy for my prom-dress, it's also a strnagely relaxing and therapeutic exercise so I like muchly. One of my best male friends came up for the weekend too and we discovered lego star wars on the gamecube. T'is great! It's designed for children so it means I can actually play it! I also now have so much chocolate that its ridiculous, but good :) I will nibble whislt doing all my crazy amounts of work.

*********

I came out of plaster two days ago. I have a crazy huge frankenstien type scar on my ankle now and it does look quite awesome. My ankle is much more sore now and walking takes even longer though :( Damned half way mark feels like I've gone backwards. There's nothing protecting it now sp I have to be really careful how I move on it or put weight on it else it hurts stupidly muchly. And I'm more worried about going out with it, but at least I'm a lot closer to being able to play sport than I was!

*******

Also - two adverts that I like (which is bizarre as usually I hate all adverts...) and think you should check out are the new M&S one with Erika Eigen's "I wanna marry a lighthouse keeper" song. The song just makes the advert cool. And a summer Cadbury's one with a Gorilla playing the drums to Phil Colins's "In the air tonight". The combination of the Gorilla and Phil Colins makes it awesome.

******

Off to finish my paragraph of my diss and then go watch Rome. I Love the Rome series. (I also have a slight crush on Brutus...) You must watch it. It is a great piece of artwork. It is amazing and leaves me going "Wow..." after each episode.