Everything that glitters

That is, unless on decides to suck on the internal ink cartridge of a gold gel pen since the ink is not flowing smoothly. Then, lots of things are glittery, many of them having gold-ish spatter patterns as said victim of personal idiocy performs imitation of cat with fur ball. This is especially entertaining if someone else is attempting to cook a gourmet Indian meal and is rinsing their rice in the sink (to remove the starch) so access to water and a place to eliminate the gold is a bit tricksy.

One note: gold ink is hard to remove from your tongue and it also fiendishly forms a kind of outline of one's teeth, where the teeth meet the gums. While this might be appealing in a sparkly smile sort of way, it is not entirely recommended as people tend to laugh at you. (My secret opinion is that they are just jealous.)

Another note: gold ink is slightly sweet. But in a poisonous sort of way.

Today, the morning began (after coffee and an iron that kept leaking onto my shirt) with an interview to be a mentor in local schools. This would be fun. Interview was over rather quickly (making me wonder if it was really worth it to have fought and cursed at the iron under my breath), so I decided to be industrious and go to the Graduate Centre, which was nearly next door, instead of going home and getting onto computer in hermitish sort of way until my lecture this afternoon. After walking up the 15 flights of stairs to get to the Graduate Centre (not really 15, but it is at the top of the building, blast them), I walked under a ladder at the last five steps (eek!) and the fire alarm went off. At which point everyone was ordered to evacuate the building. Back down the 15 flights of stairs.

So, I thought: 'Okay. Well, I could go to Starbucks and have a nice cup of coffee and write some notes... but a) I do not want to unneccessarily contribute to their massive empire at the expense of local business; b) do not want to ride all the way back into town, because if I do that, I might as well go home and hermit until lecture where coffee and internet would be free; and c) it is too far to go to a local coffee house -- gracious, I am getting lazy and British in my horror of distance greater than 10 yards (but, really. to get to a local coffee house, there is naturally no direct route -- pronounced 'root' here -- it would have been either around the train station, up a hill, round through a neighborhood or down a busy road, under a railroad bridge, up a hill, down a really annoyingly narrow road with manic taxi drivers and halal stores). (DING!) Fabulous idea: will go to National Museum and have nice cuppa tea and look like a bored yet fascinatingly intelligent person (also neatly pressed and dressed) who has tea in a museum when nothing else is worthy of her time.'

Alas, was not allowed in museum as a) it is a Monday and the museum is closed on a Monday; and b) I answered the question, 'Are you with the film crew?' in the negative. Silly girl. Oh well. (But wouldn't that have been an adventure had I thought faster on my feet!)

So, I meandered back to my bicyclette parked at the bottom of the stairs (Because, I am a lady...). And as soon as I unlocked the lock, the sky began to pour on my head in a manner suspiciously and disturbingly similar to the manner in which my shirt was soaked this morning -- do we see a theme? Perchance. My reaction was to spastically wheel my bike up the first flight of stairs, prop it against a wall where any thieving idiot would be visible, and flee to the shelter of the museum porch. I think the door monitor thought I was trying to make a run for it so as to be in the film :)

My thought: 'BLAST, blast, blast.'

When the rain stopped, after about 47 seconds, it seemed as if the heavens were trying to tell me to go to the library -- the ASSL -- to return my book and be productive online for a while (and just look at all I've gotten done, ma!). But then, my ID wouldn't work since: a) am no longer a student; b) do not have staff ID yet; and c) cannot get staff ID as have not been issued contract by HR because they are really slow. But the nice man let me in anyhoo. And I paid my fine for those stupid journals this summer which are ridiculously overrated in the fine world.

Mercy, am I exhausted for someone who technically has nothing to do at the moment. Well, slightly technically. So as not to upset persons who may not know yet, my Autumn will be spent tutoring first-years in two weekly seminars related to the module, Intro to Language. This is in the department when I did my coursework last year and I am so pleased that they asked me! Classes begin this week; lectures this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon and then two hours of seminars on Thursday. This pattern to be repeated times 10. Will also be searching for supplemental since will have a bit of an open schedule. That and the fact that the dollar just seems to get worse. So, hoorah!

Also, this past weekend was RIBI LINK Weekend, which is a sort of mini-conference for all incoming Rotary Scholars to the UK and Ireland. They had an international quiz on the Saturday night (!) -- v. fun! Met some really great people, one from Arkansas, one from South Carolina (who actually arrived in Cardiff on Tuesday and went out with E and myself on Wednesday. He was not encouraged to attend the rugby with the mad group on Saturday, as there were other agenda items scheduled... boooo.), three from Japan, AND.... two from Shreveport! How random is that?? 'So, you're from Louisiana, huh? We're from Shreveport.' 'Hey! I'm from Shreveport!' Have pictures, but have not gotten around to downloading from camera yet.

Re: reference to rugby game: Cardiff Blues beat London Wasps (a v. v. good team reportedly -- what I noticed was that they wore black and yellow striped socks) 36-20 on Saturday afternoon. V. fun game! There were over 10,000 people there. Cardiff Blues games are held in the Cardiff Arms Park, which is right next the Millennium Stadium, so I think 10,000 must be pretty close to capacity, although am sure will be corrected if this is small-minded of me. We had excellent standing location and there was lots of yelling. Was tied most of the way through. Nine of us went -- it was the first rugby experience for Diana and Steffi and Steffi's German friend, Seline, who visited for the weekend! Poor Keith (he is from London -- LOOOOOSER!!!! Tee hee. Maybe a trip to Turkey can give him the will to go on.)

For interested persons, Skimble, Jasper and Carrot are all doing quite well. Skimble stood outside the bathroom window and meowed at me while I brushed my teeth this a.m.

And this is just a funny site: Stuff on my Cat (props to Katharine for this one!)

Amrie, out. (actually, my wrist is tired)