Friday the 13th and other irregularities

I'm feeling much better these days, thanks for asking. Not that I was too worried; I knew it was only a passing thing. "Self-limiting" is the term the medical types use to describe most seasonal viruses and such, I think, and I'm pretty sure that's what I had. Most of the kids in my class have been coming down with assorted bugs for the last few weeks, and I think it may be a measure of my relative health (or my lack of party-hard social life) that it took me this long to finally catch whatever it is that was making the rounds. I'm less inclined to think that the cause was a problem with my eyes, now that I've been reading (mostly sans my reading glasses) for the last couple of days and without headaches or other issues. Go figure.

Randomly:

Yesterday, i.e. Friday the 13th, was rather uneventful. (Note: Mercury will be retrograde from Oct. 28 through November 17... or thereabouts. So dont' get cocky.)

My wonderful friend Helen, who in addition to being an angel of mercy by bringing me all manner of treats and mementoes of home thanks to her job as an Air Canada flight attendant, was in town again a few days ago. After gleefully accepting my latest care package and glancing through its assortment of Fair Trade coffee, Georgia Straight and Vancouver Courier newspapers, maple syprup (yesss!!!), etc., we went out for coffee, as is our "usual" practice when we she is in town (considering she's been here twice in the month that I have lived in London). Afterwards we joined some of her colleagues for drinks and dinner at a pub near her hotel in the rather upscale district of St. John's Wood. The pub had some fantastic and delightfully authentic, spicy Thai food (thanks to the delightfully authentic Thai chef), and I wish I could remember the name of the place. At last I can remember where it was, so if you come to town I can definitely take you there.

Helen's flight attendant friends, it must be said, are decidedly nutty, in a pleasantly friendly sort of way. One of them in particular, Julie, kept us in stitches the whole night. They're a lot of fun, but then I imagine you need a healthy sense of humour when you're a flight attendant. What an interesting and unusual life that must be. They sure have a lot of colourful stories to tell, most of which I couldn't reproduce here for fear of defamation lawsuits.

Two of my favourite recently discovered blogs: Three Beautiful Things and The Mustn't Grumble. Don't ask me how I came to find them -- random coincidence, if you believe in that sort of thing -- but the latter is a kind of guerilla klezmer band (!) with a great name and an even better attitude (not to mention marketing savvy) while the former is an accurately titled, daily recognition of ordinary things that the author finds very pleasant indeed. For some reason I'm particularly drawn to the fact that she's from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, which is near the original ancestral home (so I'm told). I note that she has other blogs which I haven't had time to check out yet -- surprise, surprise. (That I have time to blink these days is something of an achievement, given my current workload.)

A word that crops up many times in my research: regularities. In context, this simply means observable phenomena that happen on a recurring basis. But it just looks like a funny word, doesn't it?

Right now there is a large something-or-other outside my window, probably in the parking lot next door, making a rather persistently loud and unfortunate noise. It sounds like a parked truck, or perhaps a generator. If I feel adventurous I may go outside to investigate. (This is what passes for my Saturday evening entertainment.) I don't want to have to shut my windows to keep out the noise because that would also mean keeping out the fresh air, but it's unbelievably annoying.

My big, fuzzy slippers are quite the hit around the ol' hallowed halls of Harrow (say that five times in rapid succession). They never fail to elicit comment when I wear them to the kitchen, but more importantly they are oh so very comfortable.

I wish I had a camera to take some pictures and post them for you, but I don't. Well, actually, I do have my Nokia 3220 cell -- sorry, mobile -- phone with its built-in camera, but I don't have a data cable for it. And being a student, a 15 pound data cable is a bit of a luxury. More's the pity since the weather has been unseasonably beautiful here. As if you wanted or needed further proof of global warming, it's still been mostly very sunny and T-shirt warm. (At least for us Canucks.) It's like the tropics: it rains torrentially overnight or for surprisingly brief periods during the day, then clears right up so as not to inconvenience anyone. Anyhow, when I go running around the fields adjacent to the Uni and around Nortwick Park I look west and see Harrow-on-the-Hill, which is quite a picturesque little town, in its quaint olde Englishe way. Take my word for it.

I've been sat here at the computer for over 12 hours now, barring food breaks, reading and researching and taking notes. I need to take a break soon. More importantly, I need something sweet for dessert.