Blahhhhhhh...

...everything kinda sucks right now. Caught whatever dread disease has been going around, my life is fraught with whiny undergrads and marking, and a thesis and two papers are looming threateningly over my head. Also looming threateningly over my head is the giant pile of boxes my room has become - although that is actually a good thing, as I FINALLY managed to get everything out of storage with the help of the postdoc. I think it's screwing up my feng shui, though! Going to bring all my old clothes into the lab and attempt to fob them off on Nicola the Kiwi or alternatively any other girls I can think of.

Had a great visit with Del over Reading Week. Too busy, as usual. We spent the first weekend in TO, where my friend Melissa gave us the grand tour. 2 x brunch (the second in a metal-bar-turned-brunch-place... quite the ambience, with the massive bald, pierced, tattooed waiter and the murals on the walls), 2 x local showcase gigs, wandering around the neighbourhoods and a trip out to the Distillery. (Which has a sake distillery in it, who knew?!) (Also SOMA chocolate... SO GOOD!) Then in Guelph for one night before haring off to Ottawa on a roadtrip with Kiwi Nicola. Ended up eating stew with her mates (Metis dude, Kiwi girl, giant baby apparently called Taane - TAW-nay) and also eating goose burgers for lunch at theirs the day before we headed out. Never would have occurred to me to make burgers out of geese, but there you go.

We stayed in a jail... Del always works hard to find the most random places to stay. Did not top the boat in Barcelona Harbour, but it was a good effort. Room was gorgeous, and after a few drinks (for me) with Nicola's mates and a long trip in the wrong direction due to being told the wrong way to turn out of their cul-de-sac, going round most of Ottawa's one-way streets at least six times and being honked at by multiple cabs, a lie-down was well deserved. Turns out the whole time we were basically one street over from the hostel, but due to the one-way system (ARGH) and the way the roads are labelled, we had no idea... sigh.

Anyway, managed to make it in the end (I was pretty happy Del is calm about this sort of thing) and spent the next day eating beavertails, walking around and checking out the Museum of Civilization. The drive back was horrific, including as it did the 401 through Toronto in the afternoon. Thus, we took it pretty easy the rest of the week and just went into the lab to work. (Woo-hoo! Lucky Del!)

So yup, now life is flat, stale and unprofitable. Nothing but endless writing/marking/teaching/answering seven million questions until I somehow manage to make a supreme effort and get everything ready for defense... which is looking further and further away. Blah.