Absence makes the heart grow fonder

There has been quite a serious intermission between my last post and this, and for that I must apologise. My only excuse is a little something called ‘Finals’, which - thank god - are finally over. But this also brings a sense of an ending with it. I may not have to face deadlines, examinations and issues with illegible handwriting in the immediate future, but I have also lost a large part of my day to day life. What will I do now I no longer have to hit the library at 9am every day, what will I do without my weekly assignments and thousands of words to type? What will I do without having to learn Latin or Ancient Greek anymore? The answer - give myself yet another task and no break. Sounds about right.

I have taken it upon myself to read vociferously since finishing, but have decided that I’ll leave Homer and Horace on the sidelines for a few weeks at least, trying something much more modern like ‘Chaucer’ or lighter like ‘Dostoevsky’s Crime & Punishment’. I also hope to start learning Italian soon, not least because I am heading to Florence in September, but I also feel there is a certain obligation to do so. It is a country I have visited often and have never been able to manage more than a ‘ciao’ and ‘grazie’ here and there. So that is my immediate task. I also have a show going up to the Edinburgh Fringe called ‘Shot in the Dark’. It did a run in Cambridge in Michaelmas term, so it’s only a case of refreshing my memory of the lines, which is rather nice, but it should be lots of good fun - do come see it if you happen to be anywhere near Edinburgh, or you fancy a trip to the land of the Scots!

I have thrown myself into celebrating and socialising since I finished - making up for lost time one might say. So since I have been back my mum has taken me to Cirencester for a spa holiday, we’ve had BBQs and drank champagne, we’ve been to the races and dined out in style. Oh, and we also went to a steam engine rally. One of the less exciting days out, but nevertheless entertaining. Perhaps for all the wrong reasons. Watching someone with a sooty beard shovel coal into a hot furnace, when it’s already 30 degrees out, not my idea of fun.

Speaking of days out, our most recent one consisted of a day at Windsor races. A minibus was organised from the village at 3:30pm sharp, and we pootled on down to her majesty’s backyard and had an uproariously good time. Needless to say the combination of alcohol and betting resulted in hefty losses throughout the group, and at the end of the day I don’t think any one of us was up on our bets (and being unemployed and a general delinquent I had no such money of my own to bet so my case was even worse! I had lost someone else’s money!). But our dampened spirits were fast reignited as the evening entertainment began - Cuban music & dancing. A few of use proceeded to embarrass ourselves and take to the dance floor. Dad picked up a rather drunk man who couldn’t get enough of his hip action, and I befriended a lovely Italian named Fabio, whom said drunk man (presumably his friend) kept insisting upon me marrying - “he is only 5ft 5” he cried “but he has lots going for him”. Needless to say it was an eventful night, and sadly the coach came to whisk us away before the story could develop any further. Much like Cinderella, except I left no glass slipper, as only plastics were allowed in the ground, and I think that would have resulted in rather a few blisters. I wasn’t prepared to take that risk, not even for the romance - call me a cynic.

I hope that now my commitments are less pressing and I have a vase expanse of time opening up before me, that I will be able to keep up the blogging at a more consistent pace than I have done previously. Time will tell.