Listening: Linkin Park Hybrid Theory
Reading: Harlan Coben Drop Shot

Nothing to report. Spent the time creating yet another site, instead of updating the ones I already have! This one is a clique supporting originality, freedom of expression and fair play in the LJS community and is run in conjunction with Heather of Artistic Chardon. Check it out at http://ljs.artisticchardon.com and let me know what you think =)

Last night, whilst watching (very) late TV, I learned the following things:
1. Only 1 in 40 women have naturally blonde hair
2. The blonde gene is recessive and at the current rate of population growth, natural blonde hair will disappear in the next few generations
3. After a woman's first pregnancy her hair colour permanently darkens by a few shades (weird)

Listening: The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Reading: Harlan Coben Drop Shot

I am no longer completely broke, so a round of applause for that I think. To celebrate, I took yesterday off lectures and helped my American housemates make Thanksgiving dinner. When I say 'helped' what I really mean is, I went and bought the alcohol and then watched TV (interspersed with watching them cook) whilst drinking said alcohol. I am a helpful person indeed. Incidentally, Thanksgiving dinner is a huge affair. They were cooking for HOURS and there's enough food left to feed us for at least a week. Hannah made 2 mince pies, 2 apple pies and 1 pumpkin pie. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnip and bacon, squash, green beans and almonds, gravy, peas... I think that's it! Amazing stuff. I got to eat lots of new foods (sweet potatoes - good, squash - ok, mince pies - evil) which was interesting! Plus, we made hand-turkeys and Pilgrims and American Indians out of construction paper to decorate the walls. A good time was had by all *g*

Finished The New Girl and Nancy which was good in a DFB-type way. I love the sarcasm she injects into her characters. EBD would never condone sarcasm, especially in a prefect! But Nancy is just a bit too honourable for comfort, if you know what I mean...

Also finished The Marlows and the Traitor which was great. Antonia Forest should write more books! I WANT MORE! She's such a talented author and the more I read, the more I like her. Which is how I feel about Nicola. The more I read about her, the better she gets =) And the worse poor Lawrie gets. She's such a sap sometimes. The villain of the book was intriguing. The way he seemed to watch things with an air of detached amusement fascinated me completely. To the point, in fact, that I wished I watched events unfold with an air of detached amusement! It's always good to have something to strive towards, right?

On a different topic entirely - many thanks to all of you who take the time to leave comments. They're all very much appreciated!

Listening: Foo Fighters One by One
Reading: Dorita Fairlie Bruce The New Girl and Nancy

After a huge amount of procrastinating on Sunday, I finally finished those two essays I had to hand in. They were both on theoretical viewpoints of landscape composition, which was all fine and well, but the questions were badly worded. Plus, they weren't challenging in the least. I'm not saying that I'll get good marks for them (I most likely won't), but there was no real thinking involved. There was no room to say what you thought about various theories, no room to dispute them. What's the point of writing an essay where you just reel off other people's ideas? I think that's probably why I found it so difficult to actually sit still long enough to write the damn things!

On brighter news, The New Girl and Nancy and The Marlows and the Traitor arrived yesterday! Woohoo! Also, I've finished the St Clare's Fanlisting - Midnight Feast. Please check it out and let me know what you think =)

Listening: A Perfect Circle Mer de Noms
Reading: Keith Basso Widsom Sits in Places
Rugby: Australia 17 - 20 England

I cannot believe that England are the World Cup champions. My brain does not seem to want to process the information. I got out of bed nice and early to watch the match and managed to wake up most of my housemates with my frantic yells at the television! The game itself wasn't very good right until the last few minutes before full time, but once the Australian kicker (Elton someone?) got those last 3 points and the game was a draw - amazing stuff! The extra 20 minutes had me on the edge of my seat pretty much wishing someone would break Jonny Wilkinson's legs *L* I almost had a heart-attack when he got that last jammy kick. Damn him! Ah, well. Congrats to England (grudgingly) and commisserations to Australia! They've named Wilkinson player of the year, apparantly. But, let's face it, his form has been pretty scrappy lately. Especially in the World Cup. I can think of plenty of other players who've played better. On the other hand, Wilkinson did win England's games...

Right, back to my actual life outside of rugby (sadly, such a thing does exist!). We had our last field trip of the semester on Friday. We went to Roscommon to look at Medieval sites, and frankly, it was mind-numbingly boring. Came home, got a take-away, went to bed.

Got up on Saturday for the rugby, fully intending to spend the afternoon writing an essay. Sadly, I was too het-up over the whole rugby thing and just headed to the pub instead =) The drinking was interrupted by a brief trip home to get changed and continued in force that evening. A good day, really.

That brings me up to today. I've basically spent the day cleaning and washing in an effort to not write my essay. I am now admitting defeat. The bloody thing is due tomorrow, so I really should battle on *sigh* It's so hard to be a student *L*

Listening: Coldplay Parachutes
Reading: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer The Highland Twins at the Chalet School
Rugby:

I have finally finished my Malory Towers fanlisting - what a miracle! Feel free to check it out at http://homepage.eircom.net/~cacophany/malory and let me know what you think.

I have another field-trip tomorrow (just a day one) and it's just started raining *wail*

Listening: Nothing
Reading: Drop Shot Harlan Coben
Rugby:

I have spent the entire day working on an essay. Yay, for I have finally found some motivation! I spent most of yesterday making notes and managed to write it up today. Everyone else seems to have gone way over the word limit and gone into much greater detail, but that seems to defeat the purpose of having a word limit. This is the first essay I've done here so I'm not sure what kind of marking there is or what they're looking for, so keep your fingers crossedt that I don't fail miserably! Now I have to get started on the next one.

I finished Shadowmancer, that book by A. P. Taylor, last night. Has anyone else read it? One of the quotes on the back said that it was one of the biggest events in children's literature since Harry Potter, but that seems like an exaggeration. The whole thing is a thinly veiled religious exercise. It really detracts from the plot. The characters are actually quite enjoyable and so is the background storyline, but the whole 'we are going to defeat the devil in god's name' thing was quite annoying. I found a similar thing in the His Dark Materials trilogy. Great books, but the relgious element got in the way occassionally. Not nearly as much as in Shadowmancer though...

Listening: The Cooper Temple Clause Kick Up the Fire, and Let the Flames Break Loose
Reading: Drop Shot Harlan Coben
Rugby: The shit hath hitheth the fan-eth

OK, I forgot to talk about several things yesterday.

1. Charles II - the BBC drama. Did anyone else watch this? I'm not entirely sure about what I actually think about it. It was good, but I'm not sure it was compelling enough to make me watch again next week. I mainly watched it to see Sean Biggerstaff (who plays Oliver Wood in the Harry Potter movies). He was only in it about twice and looked amazingly different in the dark wig. I was shocked! His character seems to have died of smallpox though, so that's that over with! I absolutely hated Charles' mistress. What a complete and utter cow. And an unattractive one at that...

2. The rugby. As I said, the shit hath truly hitheth the fan-eth. Australia beat New Zealand which is a very bad thing, as I wanted Australia to get their collective ass kicked so KB would stop gloating *g* And then England beat France *wail* It's a world gone mad! England don't deserve to win anything. Their captain is a thug, not beyond disrespecting the Irish President just to play mind games. Nor is he beyond random violence. Unfortunately, thanks to the field-trip I only got to watch the first 10 minutes of the game, but jesus, it was already rough. And may I just say that the first French try was a triumph. So, now that my two favoured teams have failed to reach the final, I am once more stuck. I absolutely refuse to support England. I refuse. Therefore, by a process of elimination I must support Australia. Damnit ;)

You know how I mentioned my antibiotics? Well, just after I uploaded yesterday's entry, I got a call from the Health Centre kindly informing me that they'd given me a drug that wouldn't target my infection and asking if I could come in to pick up a new one. So in I trouped and there were no explanations, no apologies, no nothing. I was very annoyed. I've just taken over 3 days worth of a medicine I didn't even need....

On brighter news, The Cooper Temple Clause made it to number 37 in the UK charts with their new single, Blind Pilots. This is good, but it should have been better. The Coopers are an amazing band and they deserve to be much higher in the charts. Yes they do!

Listening: The Cooper Temple Clause See This Through and Leave
Reading: Drop Shot Harlan Coben
Rugby: The shit hath hitheth the fan-eth

A whole week since I've posted. Bad me. Basically, a lot of last week I just could not be bothered with the Internet. Everyone gets periods when they'd much rather not be online and last week was mine. Plus, I had to do some research for a presentation I had to give on the latest field-trip.

The latest field-trip was a trip to Armagh/Louth where we visited lots of sites in the Ring of Gullion. We saw some really interesting stuff like Navan fort and an amazing inscribed and decorated stone, but we also had to look at yet more heaps of rocks on top of mountains *sigh* I have now seen the highest tomb in Ireland, oh yes. It was on top of Slieve Gullion, in case anyone is interested. The fact that as I was almost at the top I stopped breathing, shouldn't wear down my enthusiasm... I seriously couldn't breathe at one point, which was very frightening. I'm not the fittest of people anyway and I got caught up in a cycle of heavy breathing and before I knew it, I was gasping for air. My lecturers panicked and made me lie down (on the wet ground, which I'm not supposed to do as I have a kidney infection - I finally got my test results last Wednesday evening and picked up my wonderful antibiotics on Thursday morning) until I recovered. Then one of them suggested that we go back down the mountain and approach it from the other side the next day so nobody got ill. Now this was when we were about 50 metres from the summit and I did not like the idea of climbing the damned thing again the next day, so I said I was fine and we battled on. And I was fine. Some people gave their presentations - we'd all been given a different site to talk about - and down we went. My presentation was on The White Stone of Dorsey and went reasonably well, although I got really nervous for some reason. No one cared anyway, so it didn't matter =)

While in town last Wednesday getting my antibiotics, I was naughty and bought myself things. I got some new tacky 80s earrings from TopShop (have I mentioned my love of tacky 80s earrings before?), a nice grey cord coat which is really warm and a skirt from Dunnes Stores, and a pair of boots from Sasha. A good day was had by all really. That was also the day I realised I'd forgotten my Mums bithday though, so that was bad!

Today I have to start work on one of my essays. I have 2 due in just over a week and I haven't done anything on them yet. There was no choice in the titles and the ones we were given have absolutely no appeal for me, so I'm finding it hard to get motivated. But now I know that I have to make a start or I'm just going to fail!

I promise more regular blogging from now on =)

Listening: Evanescence Fallen
Reading: Shadowmancer G. P. Taylor
Rugby:

I am absolutely wrecked. I had to get up early this morning to go pick up the results of my test (the one I had done at the doctors on Thursday), so I haven't managed to catch up on my sleep. The whole thing turned out to be a waste of time anyway. Basically, when I was there on Thursday, the nurse told me to come back on Tuesday morning. So I get there on Tuesday morning and the secretary tells me that the results won't be back until 3pm. Guess when my lectures are? That's right: 3-5pm.

After my aborted attempt to find out what's wrong with me, I headed in to town to do some food shopping on my pathetic budget. Came home, made lunch, did my laundry, went to lectures. The end. *L* None of this sounds tiring, I realise. The main reason I'm so tired is I've been working on a Malory Towers fanlisting and it's just taking aaaaaages. The layout was no problem (I already had it made for something else), but the content is time-consuming. I always try to put up more than just the basic fanlisting details, but it can be annoying sometimes.

Thinking back to yesterday evening - I finally decided that I should actually go to Cardiff before Christmas. My parents decided that they'd buy the tickets as my Christmas present and we booked them yesterday. I decided on 11-17 December and I can't wait! I get to see those brave few who are still there and go shopping and just have a generally good time. Huzzah!

Listening: Evanescence Fallen
Reading: Shadowmancer G. P. Taylor
Rugby: *sob*

I have not disappeared. I swear. I was planning on visiting my boyfriend in Belfast this weekend anyway, I just went a bit early =) I had to go to the doctor on Thursday morning and I decided that if I was finished in time to catch the 11am train, then I'd go then instead of waiting until Friday or Saturday. Of course, I didn't think for a second that I'd actually make that train! But I did, so Thursday saw me peeing in a pot for a nurse (hurrah) and then boarding a train to Dublin and thence to Belfast.

I had a really nice weekend, overall. It was great to see Steve again (even though we argued just before I left) and I managed to forget that I had essays I should be writing and lectures I should be attending... *g* Plus, I got to buy lots of books from charity shops! Woohoo! I bought me a hardback Nancy Drew (wich I have to say, isn't as good as I remember it), the new Nicholas Sparks, a Harlan Coben, the American 'Chamber of Secrets' ('cause it's got great chapter illustrations), 'Shadowmancer' and the original British versions of 'The Vampire Diaries' 1 & 3 (I'm a cover fanatic. I tend to buy the same book over and over again if it has different covers. This is a particular problem when it comes to LJS and the Chalet School).

But the rugby! Dear god, the rugby! Like the good fan that I am, I got up to watch the 7.30am Ireland v. France game. I am absolutely gutted that we didn't win! Just think, two more points against Australia and we could have played Scotland - we always beat Scotland. After the Australia game quite a few people said that Ireland didn't have another game like that in them. I refused to believe the naysayers, but they were right *sigh* Still, I cheered up during the Wales v. England game when Wales actually trashed England in the first half. Amazing stuff. Had me wishing I was back in Cardiff! But of course, England triumphed in the end, as they usually do. Now I have to decide whether to support Australia or France...

What's a girl to do?

Listening: Today FM (Radio Station)
Reading:
Rugby:

So, today I woke up to find that someone had come into our building and shoved a Christian newsletter under the front door of our flat. I have no objections to people being Christian, but I do object to them sending me magazines that I don't want. I really hate it when people try to shove their beliefs in your face. Guess what the front page story was? An article extolling the evil behind tarot cards... nice.

BTW, I'm currently writing an angsty Harry Potter fic, centering around Oliver Wood. Does anyone fancy giving it a glance over? Although, it is very much in its infancy, currently.

Listening: Rammstein Live Aus Berlin
Reading: Marvel Sentinel #8
Rugby:

The field-trip to Cork is nothing but a fond memory and a collection of bruises...

On Friday morning we were picked up by the most ridiculous bus I've ever seen. It was tiny, old and all the windows had holes in them. Despite the fact that we couldn't all fit in at one time, they still made us pay for it *grumble* NUI Galway seems to take the piss when it comes to money matters. Anyway, due to the crap bus, some of us got shunted off to travel with the lecturers. I ended up travelling all by my lonesome with Stefan (tall, blonde and Swedish, rather than shortish, dark and Italian), one of the Neolithic lecturers. It was actually quite a good journey. We talked about lots of random things, including my possible dissertation topic, so I feel like I have an idea of where I'd like to take that. Always good. On the trip down, we stopped in two places. First of all, we went to Lough Gur in Co Limerick which has lots of prehistoric settlement, most of which you can see via the safety of a footpath, which made a refreshing change! Next we went to Ross Island, Co Kerry where we saw some Bronze Age and some 19th Century mines. We kinda got caught in the middle of the forest as it got dark, which was quite creepy as it was Hallowe'en =) And, of course, everyone kept hiding behind trees and jumping out to try to scare people. On the final leg of the journey, Billy (the other lecturer) managed to get two punctures so we were delayed on top of a very windy mountain until the bus came back to pick us up (Stefan having stopped to see if he could help). So, after this too eventful day, we finally made it to Glengariff, Co Cork around 9pm.

Saturday dawned with a downpour, but we didn't get started until around midday as Billy and Stefan were off trying to get Billy's car fixed. This meant that we got to watch the rugby! OH MY GOD! Did anyone see Australia v. Ireland? What an amazing game. Definitely one of the best of the World Cup so far. And, sorry KB, but Ireland should have won! Ah well... After the rugby had ended, squashing our spirits, we made our way to the Mount Gabriel Bronze Age copper mines which are located on a mountain covered in blanket bog. The result was a very cold, wet and squishy climb! Everyone started to loose interest in the doings of those clever Bronze Age miners as the wind and rain got worse and worse. And just as we thought we were headed home, it was announced that we still had a couple more sites to visit. At the third stop after the mines, Billy told us all that we were supposed to be the cream of archaeology graduates but we looked more like sour milk! How right he was *L* Everyone was soaked to the bone, despite wet gear, freezing and hungry.

The weather on Sunday was much better, even if the wind did keep up. This time we were off to the Barrees valley, on the Beara Peninsula to look at... well lots of random prehistoric crap really. We were kept out all day, despite the fact that no one had taken any lunch with them. Again, tempers frayed and things just got worse when Billy once more announced that we had anoter three sites to visit. Beautiful views though!

The final day of the trip was on Monday when we visited the 19th and 20th Century mines at Allihies, Co Cork. I actually found them to be the most interesting part of the trip, but that may have been related to the short amount of time we spent at them in comparison to everything else =) Then we had the 7 hour journey home... it's probably best not to talk about that!

So, to summarise - Number of *insert site type* seen:

Neolithic Settlement sites - 3
Medieval Settlement sites - 2
Bronze Age Mines - a bazillion
19th Century Mines - 2
20th Century Mines - 1
Wedge Tombs - 5
Boulder Burials - 2
Ogham Stones - 2
Stone Circles - 3
Bronze Age Settlement sites - 3/4
Iron Age Settlement sites - 2/3
Unusual Geological Formations - too many

This entry may seem really negative, but don't get me wrong, I had a really good time! You just get a bit bored climbing mountains in the rain to look at yet another pile of rocks. Plus, spending 4 days with people you've only known for a few weeks can be a bit trying *g* Only another three days till the next field trip - woohoo!