Well, it's about time he blogged, it's been over a week now, I'm getting a bit bored of checking his site and finding nothing new! Yes, um, sorry everyone, I have been very lazy blogwise recently. Too many coals in the fire and all that.

This term is just disappearing before my eyes. I really don't know what's going on. We only have 3 weeks of lectures left till Easter. I think I may have been asleep for 2 weeks or something.

Work is going the same as it always does. That is to say ok, but nothing spectacular. I have been trying to read some of the French grammar book. It's a blinding read. Still looking for information on the terror and forced labour camps in the soviet union. I'm meeting the lecturer this week to sort out a title, and then I've got till the 'vacation' (yuk) to write something dazzling, I think it's 3000 words. But it is in English, so that's good.

I got my letter from gchq eventually, after a 6 day journey from Foxcote to Exeter. It said they will not be proceeding with my application. I hope this means I'm rubbish at French and/or Russian, rather than they've dug up some information about me somewhere. Maybe they bugged my babooshka's flat and heard her say I didn't manage to eat 5 cakes and a bowl of porridge for breakfast. But I'm fairly pleased, as I didn't really want to be retrained into a different language that much, although it could have been good, and I was keener on staying in Exeter for a bit longer rather than going back to Cheltenham. And I'm never going to forget what Desormais means again.

Going to get a car at Easter now rather than May, as I don't have any insurance, so test-driving could be tricky. But I'll be home for several weeks at Easter so my Dad can come too. I have been working out finances again, and the conclusion is I could do with earning some money. But that's ok, because I was planning to do some more decorating at home and maybe work for Andy again.

On Friday evening, Rosie and I helped at the 5-9 age kid's club at Belmont. Not something that comes naturally to me. They had an evening called Trip of a Lifetime, where the kids went round different rooms in Belmont and found out about different countries. Rosie and I were doing Russia. We showed them photos, books, a map, money and answered questions. We also had a samovar which I inherited from Nadia, our Russian Oral teacher last week. She said it was broken and was leaking water, so I had a look at it in the lesson on Tuesday. Basically, it was totally wrecked. The element had cracked and water was somehow draining down this into the bottom where the electrics are. The wires and bolts had all rusted. So she decided to stop using it! She gave it to me, without the power supply. Some of the kids were really well behaved and were shy, and said thank you etc. However, some were not quite so sublime. One of them wouldn't shut up about Roald Dahl. He must have said a sentence with "Roald Dahl" in twenty times when we were trying to speak to them. About 90% of the boys were annoying in some way, but most of them seemed to be happy enough smelling inside the samovar, screaming, running off, and sliding across the floor and into the partition, which was fine in its own way. I have to say the experience was quite amusing in some ways, as I am completely unused to kids really. My particular favourite was when Rosie asked the boys if they could find Russia on the map she had stuck up, and one boy said "Yes. I've got a bigger map than yours. My map is big. It's this big. It's huge, my map. Way bigger than yours. My Dad's got a big map too. His is bigger than yours too. My map's biiiig"

This evening we're having a house roast dinner, as it were. That is to say that Mike, Pete and I are having a roast dinner together. It's poulet. Mike's girlfriend Sarah, and Rosie are coming too, and so is Sarah's friend Ruth. Ruth was the girl who thought my ban in Rosie's house was probably a good idea. Since that ban was imposed, Nat and George have split up, so it's just me banned now, in reality. My own personal ban. Get's you right there. Interestingly for the meal, all the girls are at various stages of vegetarianism. Ruth probably being the most pro, with Rosie's kind of dedicated-old-habit-style a close-ish second and Sarah with the whole if-it-resembles-an-animal-rather-than-a-processed-shape-of-meat-I-don't-want-to-know. So in short the chicken goes three ways. I got it from Tesco. I don't often pick birds up at Tesco. This one was quite classy too. It's medium sized, and cost £3.51 I think. Sounds a lot to me, but I'm not Lloyd Grossman when it comes to food. Mike and Pete are providing the veg and a pudding. It seems no one has thought about drink. I expect everyone will want orange squash or something classy like that! With a straw. No, two straws. Oh go on then, three. Maybe I'll get something else later.

Lecturers are taking part in an assessment boycott, which is potentially very bad for us. It means they won't mark anything related to the final marks, so coursework, essays and exams, until the plans for their wages are changed. Some of the more lazy lecturers seem to think this means any marking at all. This won't affect me if it's quickly resolved, but I'm due to hand an essay in for assessment in 3 weeks, and I guess that could get delayed. I should have stayed in France, their universities seemed much better.

Bye for now.