Clickety

What I don't understand is, why do female agents wear high heels when they know that most probably they will have to chase some perpetrator into a dark, deserted car park. First of all, it's very risky to run in high heels: you might very easily twist your ankle. Second of all, it makes a lot of noise, and you want to be quiet and not catch the perpetrator's attention before your own agent Mulder gets there. Third of all, you might inadvertently step onto some alien body fluid that will corrode your newly-bought suede court shoes into a state of complete hole-ness. Maybe this is something they should bring up in the Federal Agent High School.

Searching

I need to rediscover my self-esteem. Right now it has gone missing, leaving me in a state of discombobulation (there, Mama K, I did use your word!). A person who cannot compile a timetable is not clever enough to be a university student!

I have done nothing useful today, but now I'm going to take on that pile of important papers and file it properly. Before I watch another episode of The X-files.

Settling down

Today I returned home from a nearly three-week holiday in the country. Three of my pot plants had taken heavy damage from lack of water; I will see if I can save them! Otherwise everything was fine in the flat, it was tidier than usual and I blessed myself for having been conscientious enough to do the dishes before leaving.

Some lovely things about my holiday:

- sitting in front of the fireplace with chocolate

- watching the stars in the frosty night sky

- playing boardgames with friends

- listening to our cat purring

- reading a good book

- receiving so many wonderful presents

- watching dvds together

- doing nothing at all

I especially liked the last entry. Alas, now I have to start doing something - but not before tomorrow. Today is still holiday.

Stars

After the rains in the first half of December, we were treated to an unexpectedly cold and frosty second half. Christmas Eve was a wonderful day, with clear skies and a fantastic trick of light my father called 'double suns': three balls of radiant light side by side in the sky. I have missed the light so much that it's been like an early Spring to go for a walk in relatively bright sunlight - albeit the day lasts only for a few hours.

The other day I went for a night time stroll - it was maybe 10pm - to catch a glimpse of the New Year Eve's fireworks. I saw some of those, but what really took my breath away were the stars: the gloriously vast, delicate, and brilliant lacework of the high heavens... (I don't know anything about stars or constellations - the only one I recognise is the Great Bear that we call Otava - but they carry an intrinsic sense of mystery which never fails to fascinate me. I hope that some day I will have the chance to see the starlit sky spanning above the wide open spaces in the Great Plains - just like in films!)

I'll be home for Christmas

- and not only in my dreams! Tomorrow will be my last day at work, and on Saturday morning, early, I will finally take the bus to my mum and dad's. I can't wait.

It's been a hectic month, this December. My to-do list for the past few weeks was miles long, but now I think I've reached the end of it (until I remember something I've forgot so far). I'm still not quite there in the jovial holiday spirit: it feels as if I can't relax until after I'm packed and on my way to the countryside, and even then there are things I can worry about if I wish to (and make no mistake, I shall). But at times my heart soares and I hear The First Nowell in my head...

Happy Christmas!

Familiar

The other day I saw this girl in the bus I take to the university every day. She looked so familiar that I thought I must have seen her before: maybe she's on some course with me, or the friend of a friend, or maybe she goes to the same aerobics classes?

After some hard thinking, it suddenly dawned on me: she's the cashier at the local grocery store and I see her almost every day! It's sad, somehow, to realise how little attention you pay to people in customer service and how the transactions you have with them are so automatic you don't even think. (But maybe now I don't have to worry about whether people who came to the dry cleaner's I worked at last summer recognise me when they pass me on the street.)

Scheduling conflicts

I hate making time-tables. Normally I'm very good at organizing and keeping track of things, but when it comes to arranging courses my systematic skills come tumbling down. I might have ideas as to what would be interesting, suitable, or compulsory, but when I should jot down the course codes and write my name on the right lists, I forget everything. And if, by any chance, I should remember, then all the courses I thought I would take are concurrent (next term Monday from 10 to 12 seems to be the only appropriate time for any course, regardless of section, or indeed, faculty).

I withhold the right to not graduate within the designated time.