Mid-August musing

I'm back for a second post. That proves the addictiveness of blogging!
When you're home alone, on a sunny August day in a rural English town, your mind is going to wander. Mine is currently revolving around the need to find a house to live in next year for uni, the need to read books for next term, and the need to get my fitness back up to scratch.

I love London, and I'm wishing that I was there right now. But it's my inability to find a property to merely live in which is running my nose into the ground. I have contacted landlord after landlord, yet to be either told that their property is let or not get a reply at all. It's not quite infuriating, but it is annoying that people like this don't have the courtesy to reply when their agency assures that they will. I'm currently looking in the NW1 area, having been told that anywhere further than Camden is a no-no. Fair enough, a nice walk in the morning will do me good. But then again, not having seen many NW5 properties substantially cheaper, maybe my friends have a point. Hope I can find something in the near future, before it gets drastic.

Now the books. Books, books, books. Obviously it's a given that university study entails reading lots, but it's something I'm having to work my way into. My mum's set me a target of an hour a day to read André Gide's Les Faux-Monnayeurs (I study French and Spanish), and I'm keeping to it, albeit with difficulty. The text is elaborate, and with new vocabulary coming up so frequently, it's tough. But the scene is being set quite nicely. The main character is called Bernard, and the first chapter pictures him running away from his home in Paris. If I can get into it, I reckon it will be a cracking read. Speaking of Paris, it's been a while. £49 Eurostar ticket and £20 a night accommodation should be a win.

Academia aside, there's also a great responsibility, albeit a lesser one. I'm a runner and consider myself quite competitive. I had a brilliant cross country season (Oct 08-March 09) and got some good results. From April everything went downhill. I started getting ill, again. Amoxicillin came to the rescue. I got back into it by June, only to be told that I had lost my coach because of his delinquency. I won't say any more than that. Then, on returning from New York, came another bout of illness, which put me off training for two weeks, and directly on return I pick up a knee injury. Fairly superficial, but still frustrating. I hope I'm up to scratch for October, I was elected president of the UCLU Athletics club and I can't let anyone down!

On a general note, Alan Johnson caught my attention this week, on his comment about ID cards. He said that one of their major selling points is that they would be welcomed amongst the collection of cards that people hold. I laughed.