Sophie's Socks and Stuff

Morris with sticks

It's been nearly a week since my last post. Unfortunately I don't really have anything interesting to say. Spent the weekend at home with the mad cats and parents which was nice and quite relaxing but dull. I met up with a friend who has recently got a job with a big biotech company after his PhD and is totally loving it. It was great to see him so happy and positive for once as his PhD went really, really badly.

Today I'm feeling quite happy as even though I have horrible dry fat square hands I have been admiring them lots as the nails are coated in a fabulous glittery greeny-blue polish. I also have a mingy spotty face so I've cheered myself up with some dandelion, pinky red lippy and mascara (although I did manage to stab myself in the eye with the mascara wand so I've chucked the mascara as it was a bit gloopy and got a new contact lens). I'm also not wearing the postgrad uniform of trainers, jeans and fleece so I'm feeling quite wonderous and elegant. I just need to do some work and today will be really rather good.

Sometimes being a girl can be great.

Today apparently. Not as much fun as international speak like a pirate day and I didn't get any gifts, unlike my mother who got lots of lovely things (although I think she got stuff as it's her birthday rather than for being a woman)

I seriously hope that this quickly leads on to workable therapies for people with this condition. I suppose it's progress of a sort, lets hope it keeps up.

• Toilets that smell of stinky poo. My office is directly opposite one of the toilets on this floor and someone has just dropped a big stinky poo which is now stinking out the office.
  
• People who smell. I always end up sitting next to stinky people on trains and buses. Once you get a whiff it's impossible to avoid unless you change carriages or get off altogether.
• The dark. It scares me.
• Bananas. That sweet, squishy, smelly texture and taste is just wrong.
• People who are always late. Buy a watch. It's rude and uneccessary.
• Babies and people who assume all women want to look at, admire and hold babies.
• Hangovers. I always mean to be restrained and sensible but I usually end up staying for a few extra drinks and feeling like poo the next day.
• Periods.
• Being sick. I don't understand people who can sick up a load of beer and then start drinking again. If I throw up it's horrible, my stomach hurts for ages, I cry, get sick in my hair and generally feel like I would rather die.
• Intolerance and rudeness and people with no manners.
• Charles Dickens novels. Mostly they are stupid or OK with stupid bits that spoil the rest of the story.
• Horror films. I'm a wimp, especially if something is lurking in the shadows.

I want one. I think I may brave the slightly overwhelming folkiness of Hobgoblin music to ask about them. I did briefly teach myself to play the accordion a bit when I ran the UEA morris side. It was quite fun although quite heavy and not the best design for big boobed ladies!

This is me and my friends at the biochemistry and microbiology annual dinner. Clockwise from top left is Ellie, Lezanne, Kat and I'm the radiant strangely glowing person.

otherwise known as the Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival. It was back at my old stomping ground of UEA so I had to go and it was great fun to dance with the old Yare Valley lot. We had a bit of a practise in our old room upstairs in the union and even though they've changed the union, the practise room hadn't changed a bit. It still had the dead fridges in the corner and the same manky chairs and desks around the edges.

Friday night was quite fun once I'd recovered from my rather serious hangover and mega stressful journey (central trains are wankers and why can't GNER sort out their online booking? What's the point in sending an email booking conformation when the trip hasn't actually been confirmed) The friday night ceildh band were intersting a bit prog folk and the caller was a bit crap. The dances usually started out in the normal folky way but about halfway through the guitars would get all twiddly and the synthesiser would kick in and everything would generally prog out for a bit. Quite a strange experience.

Saturday was the main event. This year I was staying in luxury at my sister's house, sleeping on the floor of the LCR is just wrong. Anyway met up with the Yare valley lot in the city centre and was dancing out with Black Skunk, the new UEA morris side who are meant to be border style but are actually all a bit rubbish and with Bristol Rag who are about the only other university team who have been going as long as yare valley. Unfortunately it was a bit wet although it rained the least or was even sunny when we were dancing. I love morris dancing so much as it really is fun to do and I think it's a pretty great spectacle to see. I was suprised at how much I could remember and now I'm just really sad that there isn't a decent side in Leeds for me to join. I really did feel happier morris dancing at the weekend than I have done in ages and ages and ages. I think it's to do with the combination of wearing slightly stupid clothes, doing very silly dances (and making them even sillier and ruder and over the top) and just skipping about knowing you look quite ridiculous but good.

That's enough rambling about m*rris stuff for now. I'll write more another day.