I'm hungry, but not to worry, my mother is cooking for me.

So I am at home, as promised, and have only just recovered from what was easily the WORST jet lag of my life. This is because I flew from London to Singapore to Sydney to Canberra (where I stopped off for an 8 hour interview) then Perth. So I left Tuesday evening and got into Perth Thursday evening. No sleep in between. It was hell. But the good news is I made my interview, against all the odds. This meant taking a taxi, running, not checking luggage and being very rude by pushing in front of people. But i made it! Just. Then I had to sit through hours of aptitude tests and psychological evaluations. Since I am probably crazy, I doubt that I will get the job. Hopefully they will let me know if I am a time bomb waiting to explode insanity all over the world though. That would be top.

And now I am home, back in the familial embrace, being fed by my mother, and mocked by my father. Ah, the wonders of home. It's nice though. The odd thing is that it is around the same temperature here as it is in London. Hmmm....

Another interview on Wednesday (tomorrow). Fingers crossed!

Once and never again

Today is a big day, and I feel like it's the start and the end of a lot of things, but maybe I'm putting too much on one day and being overly sentimental. After all, isn't life just a collection of things happening one after the other? Can you ever really point to one day and say that it was definitely important? Isn't it the whole? Anyway, whatever I don't know.

Today was my final exam. Yep, I am no longer a lame, boring student type. Now I am just unemployed. Hurrah! Well, I still have my dissertation to do, which is due on the 1st of September, after which I am just unemployed. So glad exams are over. But a little sad too. I exam bought a UCL jumper to commemorate the moment (they are cashing in on my nostalgia, bastards).

Today is also my last day in my lovely flat. I am really sad because it is an awesome flat, and i like living here with Jo. Best moments have been sitting on the sofa watching movies with friends, worst moments have been EVERY INTERACTION with the hoover, and coming home from Australia to find the flat was 3 degrees. Shudder. It has been a great year, and I have loved living here, but now it's time for the next chapter I suppose?

Today is also the day I head off to Australia. Leaving very soon, then I have a job interview on Thursday then back to Perth. Truth be told, I hope I don't get the job. I hope I find a job here in London so I can stay for a few more years (maybe forever). But maybe that's just the nostalgia speaking?

Either way, it's a big day. And now, to cap it all off, I get to head to the airport for a 24 hour flight, then get off and go straight to an interview. Woo hoo. Good night all, and happy birthday mum :)

I have so very little time to reflect

Life has kicked the pace up into overdrive, which sucks as I quite like life when I can sleep.watch tv/ enjoy some relaxing time. I am studying like crazy for my final exam which is on Tuesday, then I am flying out on Tuesday night, heading back to Australia for a job interview! Yay! It's with hte government, and the timing is pretty tight, as I will be getting off my flight and basically running to the interview! So praying there is no delay in my flight or else I will be screwed. But at least I will be home and i am secretly so excited to have an excuse to go home for a vacation and do nothing at all!

Sadly this also means I have to do the following:
1) Be prepared for my exam Tuesday morning;
2) Move all my stuff out of my flat this weekend;
3) Store it somewhere....;
4) Pack enough clothes to survive in Perth but not so many I need to check a bag at the airport;
5) Pray that I make it on time to my interview;
6) Work all day every day Wednesday, Thursday, today.....

Sigh! So I am now living off coffee and Mars Bars and looking forward to this time next week when I will be safely ensconced at home with my cat!

Lists...

So I am sitting here, knee deep in legal philosophy (good news, as before I was neck deep, so I am clearly starting to tame the mess before me, although the fear remains that the topics I am studying will be the few that questions are not asked about in the paper) and I have decided to take a short break and compile a list of all the things I will do once exams are over, to motivate me.

1) Go to the Tate Modern;
2) Go to Green Park with a good book, some sandwiches, and just chill all day;
3) Beat H. L. A. Hart and Ronald Dworkin out of my head by any means possible;
4) Find a new job (I will, I will, I will)
5) Move flats;
6) Catch up on movies;
7) Eat my weight in popcorn;
8) Learn how to make sangria;
9) Go shopping for the perfect summer dress;
10) Befriend the prince of a small seaside monarchy, who has a yacht that he would like to invite me to spend some time on.

Well, that's all I can think of right now. At least most of these are achievable. And I can't wait to do them. :) Less than two weeks left!

So I am meant to be studying...

But really, I think more than three hours per day on one subject is too much. It surely stops being productive? Anyway I started studying for this exam two days ago, and I can now say (with very little confidence) that I think I will probably know enough to pass (provided my lecturers don't mind a little waffle)(it's philosophy though, surely this means they love a little waffle?).

In other news, I have got a new flat! I have never seen inside it, but the price is right ("whatever you can afford"), it's nearby (five minutes form where I live now, so five minutes closer to the tube stop!) and it's short term (my life is so uncertain that I don't know if I'm moving back to Aus in September or if I'm staying here, and it's tough to find a flat when you don't know a) if you will be finding a full time job any time soon, b) what said job will pay and c) if that job will be in this country) so these are all big pluses. The downsides are 1) I haven't seen inside the flat so it could be horrible, and 2) I have no more excuses for being late for church as it is the flat above the church, and 3) according to one of my (non-church) friends, the only reason they offered it to me is so they can check up on me. But really, I'm so not the rebel of the church. Not really....

Besides that, the only exciting thing I have heard about lately is the planking craze that is ripping around Australia, people dropping into planks at all times, planking in all kinds of inappropriate locations, planking IRRESPONSIBLY. It's the few that ruin it for the many, I tell you. No one here has heard of planking, but I am on my way to starting a plank society. Hey, hooligans are here too. We just call them hoodies.

That's it, that's all I can think of. Here is an inspiring message to get you through until the next blog: there is a high chance that there is a deadly meteor heading to the earth right now. Enjoy life until we are all blown into smithereens, or Ben Affleck agrees to fly a rocket into space to save us.

Exams are lame

I really had hoped that my blog would be able to add to the wisdom out there, take it's place amongst the great names of bloggers as being someone who had something NEW, INNOVATIVE and EXCITING to say, and so if that is what you seek then skip this entry as I fear that it will be somewhat redundant for many of you.

Exams suck. There just are not words for how much. Especially exams that are worth 100% of your grade. I mean, really? A years work, packed into two or three hours of desperate writing, when most of us haven't written with pens in years and are therefore woefully out of practice? Ack.

Anyway, I am half was through exams, two down, two to go. My next one is not for just over a week, which is VERY VERY good because I have done zero (zilch, zip, nada) study for it. Which I admit is probably bad. But this week hopefully I can learn a years worth of work adequately...... Then after the 31st, done. Finito. I will be a free woman, able to do anything I like (as long as while I am doing anything I like, I can finish my dissertation). It will be very nice to be free.... I think I will put off getting a job for a few years and enjoy the slothful life!

May day, mayday, it's been and gone

Well, it really has been a ridiculously long time since I last updated my lovely blog. I have been very busy, but this is hardly an excuse for those of you who go on every day, despairing as you seek news of my adventures, misadventures and adventurousness in general. So I apologise, half heartedly, as we all know May shall be as bad as April in terms of me finding precious time to blog.

Yes, exam season is upon us. I have one tomorrow, for which I am reasonably well prepared, one on Tuesday for which I am extremely ill prepared, and then tow later in the month for which I have done ZERO hours of study. So I am somewhat nervous, and am relying on my lovely, large brain to pull some kind of trick wherein it produces all this information that I don't recall learning at the last minute. Brains have been known to do that, no?

Anyway, the main reason for my long absence was the MOOT. Yes, I went off to the Hague to participate in the international rounds of the moot, and the good news everyone, because I don't like to build undue suspense, is that we WON. Best overall, most points overall, best oral argumentation for the respondent... yes, it was a regular sweep, and now that it's over I can look back and be pleased. While it was on, I was stressed, worried, not eating (I can't eat when I'm stressed and worried), not sleeping (see disclaimer for not eating) and having semi-regular freak outs. Finally, the preliminary rounds were over, and I was feeling quite confident I would not have to be in the finals, so was relaxing with a well deserved glass of wine, thinking about eating dinner later on (as my stomach had unclenched) when I was told that I would have to be in the final rounds the next day. Great. My stomach clenched once again, my glass of well deserved wine was whisked away by my coach, and we spend the rest of the night studying (although, as one of the speakers, I was sent to bed at 12:30, and got to lie awake in be instead, dreading the next day). The finals are more nerve racking than the other rounds because rather than the opposing team and the judges watching you, you have everyone who was involved in the competition, and all the judges (many of whom are potential future employers) watching you. And the judges in the final round are ICJ judges. So I was a little worried. The boys had to pull me off the tram in fact. And then I was shaking. But, at the risk of sounding arrogant, Joe and I blew them away, leaving the Dutch team in our dust, quaking and crying about the English (Australian) invasion. Well, not quite. But it was a unanimous decision by the judges (last years team only won by a vote of 2:1).

Well, that's quite enough boasting. After the finals we went out into the quiet streets of the Hague to wreak some havoc. Highlights were: a man with blue hair telling me about neo-Marxism, me and Joe betting the trophy in a game of pool with some Serbians, then losing the game of pool and having to flee and Sam going to a club wearing sandals, then looking shocked when people spilt beer on his sandals. Good times. Then of course, caught the train back to sunny London, in time to find out that some kind of big thing had occurred here that same weekend. Some kind of wedding? 2 billion people watching at home? And then, of course, Osama died. So all this has meant we are not front page news as expected :p.

But it's over now. I was hoping to have like a week to veg out and let my brain break apart, but exams are upon us and I have not done nearly enough work due to the moot. So back to it! I'll try and write sooner than two weeks from now, promise.