My course starts on Monday! I got my timetable the other day, and it's intense. It's more work than I've ever done in my life, and about the same teaching hours as when I was doing 11 subjects for GCSEs when I was what, fifteen? It is, then, at the same time, totally terrifying and very exciting!

A lot of people on the course, as in almost all, are at least a year older than me and have done lots of relevant journalistic experience. Which makes me think two things; 1: I must be a genius to have got onto this course (2nd in the country-ish) 2: Help! 

Except that I'm actually fairy confident. It's all stuff that sounds really interesting to me, and that I'm naturally quite good at. Being a bit of a hustler? Got it down. Writing well? Got it, putting people at their ease and talking to them, sorted, working to an intense deadline - my favourite! And everything else too - I'm currently reading a book called 'The Universal Journalist' which is incredible - it just makes me excited pretty much every time that I read it, even though it's just sort of telling you how to be a journalist. 

And even learning shorthand, though it's pretty difficult (read very difficult - you sort of have to unplug all that you know about writing and plug it all in somewhere else) is fun - I feel as though I'm learning a code, and find it very satisfying when I work something out! Sort of like algebra was satisfying? Though I haven't learnt stuff in this way - just having to get it into your brain - since I was fifteen, really. It's quite refreshing to do something different!

One of my jobs at present is, for the School of Economics at the University of Sheffield, to conduct long interviews down the phone, largely about people's financial situations. Though I was told I would encounter a lot of stupid people who kept getting out loans and being stupid with their money, the more it has seemed to be older people who work very carefully, if not wisely, with the little that they have, and their stories are almost heartbreaking. I spoke to a woman today who has raised four children, with, as far as I could glean, little financial or other help from her husband (though evidently she did not begrudge him one bit) and now lives upon the state pension in a council house, and never goes on holiday, doesn't tell anyone of her money troubles (not even her children) and yet seems cheerful and wonderful. And then I think of me moaning that my house is taking ages to come through, and that my lawyers are being slow. 

I am loving Dickens at the moment, and it is at this moment that one of his supremely good characters, who are as ridiculously and wonderfully good as his bad characters are totally and deliciously wicked, should somehow to contrive without discovery to find a fortune left to them and enable them to live in peace and happiness for the rest of their lives. And the son who used all of another lady's money would have a change of heart and fortune and keep her in luxury, and the man whose disability stops him from working would find a remarkable and perfect circumstance.

As it is, the lady I spoke to seemed very pleased to talk to me for 40 minutes at the least, and told me various stories, and she will be given £10 for the interview. I'm not really trying to say anything by this, I don't think, and slowly the Dickens is getting out of my sentence structure, which is probably a good thing,

 It turns out that buying a house is actually quite difficult. A process I began months ago is still only just coming together, which is incredibly frustrating. I've been living with whoever will have me over the summer, which has been fun but the time would be better spent decorating my house, surely! It is pretty unsettling, too, I could really do with just being in the same place for a while. Which is why I've spent the last week in York with my family, which has been great, though I haven't really been getting on with all of the things that I should, like learning shorthand and reading the newspapers and planning all the stuff for freshers week and things. And worrying, a lot, because the whole time I have to be finding blah blah blah bank statement and starting an ISA and signing my life away. Hmm.

I also really hate talking about it, which I have just realised is why I am so bored of this post. I think talking about it makes me feel even worse about it! In better news my uncle, aunt and baby cousin have been staying and my baby cousin Oscar is gorgeous and we have done not much more than stay here and eat food and chill out. Oh, and play some awful family games, such as name a bird/body part/place in America that is not a state beginning with each letter of the alphabet. I've also read some more Eva Ibbotson - who is a magical childrens writer. Her books are fairly gentle but really lovely and exciting and magic and really well plotted - I'm never disappointed by the endings which I often am otherwise. So yeah, worth it I'd say!

Today we went Brimham Rocks in North Yorkshire, which are some amazing natural shaped rocks that are massive and you can climb over etc, and my father responded by becoming for a while a metaphysical poet, and speaking with heightened language. He has accepted a challenge to write ten poems by the end of the year. And my Mother is going to do NaNoWriMo, so it's going to be very literary all round. 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_39_Clues I am trying to work out whether I think that this is a cool thing or not. It sounds vaguely reminiscent of Lemony Snickett in the villains and characters and just the fact that it is attempting to find the answers. Basically, it's a series of kids books that are to be written by different authors and follow orphaned kids attempting to find the treasure that their Grandmother has left them at the end of a thirty nine step treasure hunt. Not only can kids read the books but can sign up to the internet site and find the clues and answers themselves and win prizes. I think it's cool. I think - I'd have to read them to know. I haven't seen them in the UK in bookshops yet, though, so it might be a while before we get there. I don't think I'd buy it, but it's a cool concept I guess.

And you can really tell that I'm putting off applying for jobs etc because I am a. Reading random wikipedia articles (Annie Oakley > Calamity Jane > The 39 Clues) and blogging about it...

I really really hate job hunting. I never feel as though I could really offer them anything or that I'd be any good, which is of course ridiculous because I'm very capable and professional and personable, but as soon as I think about jobs I forget all of that and think I'm a talentless nothing. Ugh. I think maybe it'd be better if it was a job that I actually wanted to do properly - like a graduate job, but things in cafes/offices etc just make me feel very nervous!

I had a sort of interview yesterday, though, at a place that I'd really like to work, a sandwich shop called grace and flavour, which is a good name to start with and has a really nice friendly feel. They can only offer me part time work, though, and I need rather more than that. But I could maybe get another job too.

At the moment I'm a little obsessed with Easy Virtue, the film and it's soundtrack. It's really good!

I am going to LOVE being a journalist! I'm just writing a news piece in preparation for my interview next week - and I LOVE it! It's terrifying to call people up, horrible to stress about whether people are going to get back to you in time, petrifying to wonder if you're getting all of the information right, dreadful that all the other papers have the same story but AMAZING!

It's just so exciting to be exploring what's going on, hearing different angles, knowing the inside story, talking to loads of people and making a real life story out of it.  

I can't wait!

So, I possibly won't get an answer to whether I can do the journalism MA for another month - ANOTHER MONTH! That seems so mean, like, I need to sort my life out for the next year! I can't really believe how big a deal this whole graduating thing is. Like. I need a job/life/house sort of thing. At the moment I'm sort of catapulting between being excited and quite happy about it, like, it's an adventure, I can deal with it, and completely numb and quite terrified. I'm in a happy stage right now, as you can probably tell. And in this stage it's quite easy to say, well, I know that it will work out one way or another.

In the meantime, I should be writing essays. And sorting out all sorts of other things. So, farewell!

There are spoilers, but there's nothing much to spoil and I can't remember how to cut text - don't read it if you're intent on watching the series!

Oh my goodness, I just watched the last episode of Robin Hood, and it was HORRIFIC! I literally couldn't believe what I was seeing! It didn't help that I was crying my eyes out the whole way through either. I simply can't believe they ended it like that! Like, throughout the series it was the typical no-main-characters-actually-go-bad-or-die thing and then suddenly in the last episode every string isn't tied so much as cut off incredibly abruptly! I can't cope with so much exposition! And death! And sadness! And historical inaccuracy(probably)! And Sir Guy being bad? Lame. And. Oh. Well. It was very dramatic.

They ALL have better hair. It is a very good thing.


(that's about all that is different.)

BBC news website tells me today:

"This year will be the worst time to graduate in two decades, a survey of employers suggests."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7828279.stm

thanks, world! Eh, I'll be fine :)

On Amazon my default address starts 'Lady Anna Macnaughton.' On other things I am variously Dame, Corporal... all sorts of things. Which is fine (I think?) for those websites, where a machine probably prints the sticker and puts it on my post. It arrives, gives me a second's amusement and then is forgotten.

The problem is when I use amazon marketplace or somesuch thing, where real people actually write the envelopes etc. I mean, if i actually had a title I WOULDN'T use it because it'd be poncy, and a I worry for a second that they might think that.

Then again, I suppose it could make their day. My housemate went to collect a package for me from the post office; who were very interested to hear that she lived with a Lady - sadly she disillusioned them.

I have started, mainly on seori 's recommendation, watching BBC's Robin Hood. The first episode is hilarious - some of it just SO BADLY ACTED. But Robin is very charming and Guy delightfully loomy and smouldering, so I suspect I shall continue to watch it. I didn't think that it could get worse than Merlin.... 

Also, I've been having a scarily productive day. I didn't start work until 10, it's not 2.30 and I've written 2000 words of an essay, done some washing, half-tidied my room, made and eaten a healthy AND delicious lunch and watched almost the whole of the first episode of Robin Hood. The world seems wrong, somehow...

As my father sometimes does, today he woke up in an adventurous mood and decided that we were all off on a day trip to Filey; a little Northern seaside town near Scarborough. The journey there was amazing - I've never seen such frost; the trees were covered and incredibly beautiful. We played as we went one of the few tapes of music my Dad likes - one we got in France, of a French panpipe band playing British folk songs; which is very bizarre with the strange pronunciations. And after watching the BBC's 'Little Dorrit' this time I could only imagine these French voices coming from Blondois; who was played by Andy Serkis. It was, nevertheless, entertaining, and with all of my family's pale skin and long blonde hair I felt very Celtic.

For my birthday (can I believe I'm 21? No.) I am getting a MACBOOK! I am extremely excited- apple are taking a long time to deliver it though. I'm also getting Enchanted and The Dark Is Rising (BOOKS not film) sequence finally - I miss reading it lots, and my friend finally and quite rightly got annoyed with my very long-term loan of it from her. But now I can read it once more. It is always in the Winter that I want to read those stories and Arthur stories - and when I miss having an exciting Shiver storyline to be playing and wondering about!

It is possibly a good thing however, as I have three essays to do... though I've managed it so one of them is on Peter Pan and another on Alice in Wonderland, Dorian Gray, Jeckyll and Hyde and the Goblin Market, so it's not too bad.

I feel like doing some book reviews but can't be bothered at this very second.

Seasons Greetings to you all! (can you say that for New Year?)

I have had an excellent christmas, including an amazing wedding in Sweden. Sweden was AWESOME - I saw a real life FROZEN LAKE! It was only about 3cm thick though, so no walking on it. But it was lots of fun.

THe MAIN PURPOSE of this post is to say THANK YOU to seori for my Christmas present! I read it on the coach down to London and then on the plane to sweden and LOVED IT - I was amazed that I hadn't read it before! SO SO GOOD! Thank you so much!

In my house we have a homeless man living in the cellar. His name is Matthias, and he is improbably from Italy, from where he had to escape after fraudulent behaviour. He's actually a millionaire, but obviously can't spend his millions because he would be found. We get a bit annoyed sometimes that he can't at least contribute to bills - but then he hardly uses anything living in the cellar. He DOES however leave piles and piles of washing up, without even an apology. He is the only possible explanation for this washing up.

One good thing, though, is that it means we can leave Josephine, our invisible baby, at home because Matthias can babysit. She's a good baby, probably a couple of months old now. Sometimes she can walk and talk but mostly not - once she learned to fly which was quite impressive. Matthias also acted as a bodyguard for my housemate when she went to see our old (real) fraudulent landlord who had been trying not to give our deposits back. It's a pretty exciting life.

In other news, I had the best Thanksgiving ever! I didn't actually get time to make anything special for it (because I was writing the essay that I'm avoiding editing right now...) but my Mum provided an incredible meal on the theme of 'orange' which was delicious! My sister and I had a great time doing stupid things then saying 'Happy Thanksgiving!' as though it were a tradition, or when my Dad did something chuckling at each other and saying indulgently 'Oh, he does that every Thanksgiving...' I loved it, though, such a nice thing to have - I thought 'Wow, it feels like you have two Christmasses' so that was pretty exciting. Well done, America, good holiday - I have a feeling I'll be celebrating it again! Thanks to everyone who suggested foods - I shall remember for next year!

Good evening everybody!

Now, I am trying to make HOLIDAY FOODS! And I need help!

So, firstly, I might be going to my first Thanksgiving, as my cousin married an American this year and now lives in Boston so we might be having a family dinner in their honour... bizarrely enough.

SO if we DO have this thing I want to take something that's a. traditionally thanksgivingy b. cheap to buy ingredients c. easy to transport - it'll be coming on the train d. not too time consuming to make - any ideas anyone?

ALSO - does anyone have a good fudge recipe? I can find loads online but have no way of telling if they're any good, and don't really want to try them all out. I have a sugar thermometer though!

Bad stage whispers. Magic is forbidden and punishable by death.

'Where did you put that SECRET MAGIC BOOK THAT I GAVE YOU?'
'This is NO TIME TO USE MAGIC.'
'Sometimes I do wonder whether your MAGICAL TALENTS were given to the wrong person'

Finally I have constant access to the internet once more. From my very room I can access almost any information that I want, I can watch tv, films, download music, read essays.... it's like rediscovering it all for the first time. It's brilliant.

I've been having the most crazy time back at uni ever but am loving it! Probably the most exciting (what am I saying? It's all exciting) thing I'm doing is Refreshers - a thing that the student team at my church has organized to go out at about 11pm until 2am and give out hot drinks and refreshers bars outside clubs, and generally be friendly to people and show them that people care. It's been incredible so far - people are so happy to talk and amazed by the whole thing, you get on a complete buzz when you do it - until we all pack up and are back in the minibus, at which point we have to be very careful not to snap at each other!

I've also decided (!) in a sort of way what to do with my life! Or the next bit of it anyway. I'm going to apply for an MA in journalism, which is incredibly exciting. And a little daunting, but awesome. It feels like I'm making real steps towards... I don't know, life I suppose! So I wrote a piece for the student paper (much as I wanted to phrase it all in 'A.C. seems to find H.R. irresistably attentive...' I didn't), admittedly on an incredibly boring subject but nevertheless it's in there, and that's a start. What I'd love to do most is write book reviews for a career. I mean, man. That'd be awesome.

I know not what else to say. It's impossible really to attempt to keep these things up to date with your whole life, but it's sort of essential if you want to make comments and expect people to understand at all where you're coming from.

OH! Probably the MOST exciting thing is actually that I'm going to my best friend's (term used from habit - we've been friends since we were four, though we don't see each other that much any more.) wedding in Sweden to be a bridesmaid on the 27th December! It's going to be a crazy 3 day trip or something, but awesome! I'm trying to book flights at the moment.

I just had a haircut! It was good fun. I sadly failed to tell the hairdresser a completely false story of my life in a terrible accent because I went with my friend - who looked shocked even when I told her that I am always tempted to give fake names. My hair is more curly now, which is nice.

I'm having an amazing time - this year suddenly I live really close of all of my really close friends which is completely awesome, we sort of part at 2am and meet again at 11 and spend billions of time together, which is so so nice, and just what you want in the summertime!

Humm. I finished the Doris Lessing book, 'The Golden Notebook,' which was excellent, and then read some interviews with the author that made it even more excellent, by making me consider it in a different way. So I reccommend that.

I went to an Oxfam bookshop (second hand books sold for charity if other countries don't have them...) and bought another book by her - and while I was there fell briefly in love. Volunteering there (attractive quality #1) was a very good looking guy (#2) who looked a bit older than me (#3) who started intelligently talking about Hardy (#4) when I was trying to remember which I needed to get. Sadly, I live nowhere near the particular store and therefore am unlikely ever to see him again. It was a fun 10 minute romance!

Tomorrow I set off for the Czech Republic, to Prague in particular. I am incredibly unprepared - I haven't really taken the trouble to understand the currency, learn any of the language or anything, but I'm fairly certain that these things will fall into place. After interrailing it sort of feels ridiculous to plan hugely; it all works out in the end.

I spent most of today on the train reading Doris Lessing's 'The Golden Notebook.' I'm about halfway through and it's fantastic. It has put me in a very pensive mood. Even though I have yet to finish it I would heartily reccommend it to anyone. So, what with my reccomendation and the Nobel Prize for Literature, what excuse has anyone got?

My sister came to stay with me in Sheffield Saturday to Sunday. It was lovely - at home for the most part she is too busy playing the part of the misunderstood teenager to actually enjoy my company, but we had a wonderful time. Part of which was a 4 or so hour monopoly game with some others of my friends, which, bizarrely enough, I won. I haven't so much as completed a game of monopoly before.

I haven't been in the South for several months. It does feel quite strange. Just little things, like getting off the bus and saying thanks, not being replied to except by a slightly hostile silence. I never really believed that it could be possible for the whole of the North to be more friendly in general than the whole of the South, but from my limited experience it is.