Simone

Dear all,

You've not heard from me in a while because Simone, my friend and former flat mate, was here for a few days.

I picked her up from Central Station on Thursday night. She was so happy to see me! I was very happy to see her too. We'd not seen each other for more than a year! Crazy... We went home and had a few glasses of wine and some oat cakes with bluye cheese. Yum! She loved the flat.

On Friday we met Cees, who was visiting for a few days with his girlfriend, and had lunch at the PostGrad club. Then we walked into town and went shopping. Simone bought Christmas cards becauseshe thinks the ones here are so much nicer. Friday night I introduced her to the Loft, the bar that is now above the newly built Grosvenor cinema. She loved it. It's gorgeous and it looks like it has always been there. The we went to the QM, for Cheesy Pop. Had a great night apart from one strange incident that befall me... A random (according to Simone that is my new word) guy was dancing up to me, in the sense that he was rubbing his crotch up against me. Bleh:(! I pushed him away, obviously!, and when his friend pushed him even further Simone and me thanked him. That friend must have told him or something, because suddenly he came storming back and pushed his finger into my cheek. That really hurt, and even if it didn't, I don't want some random guy to touch me! I got really angry and slapped him on the back. He then showed me his middle finger and 5mins later even launched his drink at me, most of which unfortunately landed on Simone... God I was so angry! The rest of the night I was kind of paranoid, as I didn't really remember what he looked like and kept thinking I saw him. Stupid... Anyway.

On Saturday we went to Glasgow Green and we went to to People's Palace and the Barrows. Especially the People's Palace is really good. Hadn't been there, or at least not since I was like twelve. Saturday night Fiona came for dinner. We had some wine and some nice food and chatted away. Simone and her seemed to get on really well, so that was nice. We went to Gong after that and Simone and me left when it closed.

The next day we were supposed to go out with Emma at night, but that didn't work out. We did go out to dinner, to the lovely Spanish tapas restaurant just off Byres Road. Great! The we went to Jinty's for a few pints. The next day I went to my lecture at 12 and Simone met up with her professor. After that we went to prestwick to meet up with Emma. Had a lovely afternoon with her, and her mum even cooked us dinner! They brought Simone to the airport and then I took the train home... Had a very busy night after that, as I had heaps of cathcing up to do. it was worth it though! Gonna try and work hard the next couple of days so that I will have time for Gerard when he arrives next Wednesday.

No plans for Halloween yet. Might go out with some of Derek's friends if they are going.

Talking about Derek's friends...

Iain (I'm assuming you spell it like that) I am really sorry I confused you with Chris! Have met so many new people recently and I have never been a star remembering names... Please forgive me:)!

Anyway, will be logged off very soon! Gonna try and get a contract phone tomorrow, as my old one is very much dying on me, and get new boots, as the old ones died when I was in Groningen. Then back to the grind to do some more work on my IT-thing as well as a lot of reading. Reading week next week, so can read instead of going to all my classes, before Gerard arrives.

Love

What's cooking?

Dear all,

We got a mini-kitchen today!

To give you an idea of what it looks like (this is the one we've got in the house I think): http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/mini-ovens/russell-hobbs-mini-kitchen.asp

We're gonna have to make do with that untill the whole kitchen gets refurbished. Meena kept saying how sorry she is about it all: so sweet! I'm sure we'll manage:)!

Was also doing this stupid IT-thing today. Need to pass an IT-test this year, otherwise i won;t graduate. Have to do the online-course first (which you wouldn't be able to access if you didn't know how to do the tasks they teach you in the first place!), then pass the test. Can't get an exemption:(. Guess it can only do me good really, so I shouldn't nag!

Simone arrives tomorrow night and stays till Monday night. Really looking forward to seeing her!

Love

Jan's birthday

Before I forget... It's my wee (don't let him hear me) brother's 20th birthday today!

Van Harte Gefeliciteerd Jan! Bel je vanavond!

20 already... Wee brother is not so very wee really is he? (not that he's been wee-er than me for a lot of our lives)

Off to lecture now (finally)!

Love

NOOOOOOO!

I just typed a huge entry and then it didn't post it... ARGH! Wouldn't know how to retrieve it, so will just give you a very short rendering of the whole thing...

The party on Friday was great! So many people came. Met lots of new people. Was very happy that some of Derek's closest friends also popped by. Had Donna's phone number and had told her to bring everyone along, but i wasn't expecting them really. Then I opened the door and Donna, Peter, Chris, Joe and Liisa were there! So nice. Finally got to meet Joe and Liisa. Strange with Derek not there... Got asked lots of questions about Mond (as they call him...long story), about Denmark etc. Sweet!

Went to the QM after the party with a few people. I spent most of the night talking to Iain. He showed me pictures of his South African girlfriend and told me about his adventures and we had quite a few vodka-somethings. He was quite wobbly at the end of the night, so I decided to walk him to his busstop. Meena must have gotten quite worried and called me to ask where I was. I answered that I was fine and that i was just waiting at the busstop. This obviously didn't make any sense to her... She also told me the next day I sounded very Scottish. Weird. Know I sound more Scottish now than I ever did, but didn't realise it got worse (better?) after a few drinks...

Today Meena, and me a little bit too I guess, had a dissaster day. The gas-man (Scottish Gas) told us that the fire in the living room as well as the cooker are unsafe to use! AAH! Meena is on the hunt for a new cooker rght now. After all the problems with the washing machine Meena was so angry/sad that this also had to happen. The poor thing even felt guilty towards me! OIf course it's not her fault. Hope it's all back to normal soon. Will have to live off instant soup, salad, take-away and microwave food for a while I guess!

Anyway. That was the short version of my story... Will copy it now, just in case it doens't work again!

Love

Party!

Have lots to tell you about the past week, but it's all boring and nagging, as it involves BANKS again... Will just leave it to your imagination...

After I go back on Sunday I went out to dinner with Fiona to celebrate my graduation (she insisted;)). We had dinner at the wee Italian on Ashton Lane. Lovely food. No pizza's, just nice pasta and other dishes. Then we were supposed to go for one cocktail at The Loft, but we hung around for ages, and eventually ended up in The Clinicon Dunbarton Road... Oopsy. Got home at 2am... BAD! Ah well, I was good for the rest of the week!

Tonight Meena and me are throwing a belated birthday/flat warming party. Really looking forward to that! Have to go now. Get logged off in 4mins... AAH!

Love

23... and Master of Arts

Dear all,

It's strange to be 23... especially as that means I am now (for a few months anyway) 2 years older than Derek ;). No, of course it feels just as good, or bad, as being 22.

Yesterday I graduated! Yeah! I now officially have a Master of Arts degree! Wierd... I am now just as educated as my dad. So strange to think of it that way. Should I be looking for a job?? Thankfully I have another degree to study for, and even then I might study on...

Me and Dee graduated after one another, which was really special. We've been such good friends for all these years (we met in first year), and finishing with her was great. I was so proud of her when she got her Cum Laude! Fantastic! One of my teachers said I was always the "heart and soul" of the class, whcih was very nice to hear. It's a shame I only knew about graduating like 2 weeks ago, otherwise I would have been able to invite more people...

The party afterwards was very nice. It was more Dee's party than mine, but that was ok. Afterwards I went out to dinner with mum, dad and Jan, at the Mexican on the Poelestraat. Great food and lovely "frozen Margerita", yummy!

Went out the night with Dee, Alan, Jorieke, Theodoor and his new girlfriend. I was missing Derek so so much... Was hard to enjoy myself. Had been looking forward to the night out for so long, and then it was not what I expected. That was my own fault though. It was nice to take the time to talk to Dee and Alan, catch up with what they've been up to.

Wish Derek had been there... It was just one of these important moments in life... You think you won't be moved, but then they hand you the "bul" (degree certificate) and I was ready to burst into tears! Terrible. Know he was there for me in spirit! Can't wait to talk to him properly on Sunday! Fibnally after two weeks of no talking, just texting, and one week of very short way too expensive calls.

I'm off! It's time for my birthday dinner. Mum made "dumpling" for desert: YUMMY!

Love

Birthday!

It was very weird to celebrate my birthday yesterday without Derek, without Dee and without real friends generally... Made me a little bit sad. Derek did call me in the morning, and he was the very first person to congratulate me, which was very very nice. Meena and Andrew (her boyfriend) were really sweet to me also. We had dinner together and they even got me a wee prezzie and a victoria spunge with candle! So sweet. Then we went to the PostGrad club for a few drinks. Toby (a physics student I met a while ago) and Kirsten (who also does ScotLit) also came and bought me drinks. Lisa (a Californian girl that does ScotLit) was also there, but she was preoccupied with other people.

On Saturday I did have a small party. Fiona cooked me dinner, and Susan, Jemma and she gave me nice prezzies. We had lots of wine and went out to the Oran Mor (church place at the end or Byres Road). Had a really good time!

Derek is doing better and better and should be getting back to work tomorrow! Great. Glad he can finally go back and catch up. Also glad that means we can e-mail, chat and call again. He called me from his British mobile on Monday night and 15min cost about £15! AAH! Was good to finally talk though. Texting is so limited if you really want to convey some kind of message. He is also planning to come to Glasgow in the middle of November for a long weekend. I'm dying to see him again! Especially after his accident I realised how much I miss him.

Busy weeks ahead! First I'll fly to the Netherlands tomorrow for my graduation on Friday and to celebrate my birthday on Saturday. Fly home again on Sunday. On Friday the 15th me and Meena are throwing a party; combined house warming and birthday party for both of us. Will be nice to meet some of her friends and have her meet some of mine! Simone arrives on the 20th and willl stay for a week. Really looking forward to seeing her again. She leaves on the 26th and on the 3d of November Gerard arrives. Really looking forward to seeing him again as well. Can't believe last time I saw Simone was more than a year ago, in October 2003, and last time I saw Gerard was in early December of last year! Crazy! Gerard stays for a week and hopefully Derek then arrives on the 12th or something. I don't know when I will do the studying! Might have to use my Christmas break to do an awful lot of catching up... I can plan how and when I do the work anyway, so it should be ok.

Tonight I'm going out to dinner, to a Mongolian restaurant in the Merchant City. Meena and Andrew are taking me there. It sounds very different and exciting, so I'm really looking forward to that.

A last thought: I HATE (my) BANK(s)! I ordered like 30 books, course books that is, on Amazon, but half of the orders fell through because my bank claims my credit card details aren't correct (in half of the cases only, don't ask me why...). I changed my address to my parents, but I think something went wrong in their administration. This means I might have to do some, if not all of, the searching and ordering all over again... SIGH! ARGH! So annoying...

Anyway. Gotta go!

Love

Courses

I picked my courses today and signed up for them. I'm doing Scottish Literature level 2, which focusses on ScotLit from the Middle Ages in the first semester, and on 16th to 19th century in the second semester. I will also be doing papers 5, 7 and 9. 5 is on Renaissance and Reformation, 7 on Scott to Carlyle and 9 on the Modern Scottish Renaissance (1920's&30's). Unfortuately my favourite stuff is taught next year (these are courses from the 2-year Honours course, and half is taught now, the other half next year). This means I'll have to study that by myself. That's fine though, as I already know a lot about it anyway from studying for my dissertation. I will not have to do the honours or level 2 exams or essays, but in stead I will have to do three 3500 word essays over the year (NOTHING!) on my favourite period, which in my case is 20th century, and 2 exams, one on Medieval literature and one on the 18th century-Victorian period. I will be able to focus on my favourite parts and will be allowed to ask for exam questions on a certain author or theme, and to write my essays on whichever author or theme I prefer. This means I have a lot of freedom to order my studies the way I want, which is great. I have however decided to just enrole in the honours and level 2 courses and attend most of their lectures and seminars to give me a backbone of my course. I was also given a list of all kinds of interesting seminar and lecture series, for instance one in Scottish Studies and one on literary theory, that I can attend if I feel like it. It's all very exciting!

Yesterday I had a meeting with my fellow Scottish Literature Postgrads. It was really interesting and it was nice to meet people with the same passion for Scottish Literature. There are people from all over the world, Chile, Japan, US, Netherlands (yes, a fellow countryman) as well as a lot of Scottish students. We went to the Postgraduate Club (excuse me, I should say Research club as it as called now) afterwards, whish was really nice. Talked about Scottish Literature all night and was treated to lots of pints. I got about 7 new phone numbers! Lots of new people to meet and things to do. We wanted to go to the QM after that, but unfortunately they wouldn't let us in as it was just after 1am (the curfue). Actually quite glad I went home after that, as I had a meeting with my supervisor today!

Tonight I'm going to see The Tempest at Gilmore Hill. Fiona got tickets. Good to go to the theatre, as I haven't been in ages.

I haven't joined the swimming club yet... Bad! Not sure if I really feel like it. I have joined the Stevie though, and will go swimming a lot.

Home now, as I'm starving!

Love