Celebrating in Trent Park

This was the best way to celebrate. I went today to Trent Park for the first time, that is the campus I will be based at starting September, with my flatmate Fatima. And.. WOW, I love it. We walked from the entrance till the campus, which is about 15 minutes walk, and the view is amazing. Even the view behind the campus buildings is great, with the lake there and green areas everywhere. But the greatest thing that happened today was when we actually saw a dear wondering around, and not just alone, but she had a little baby dear with her as well. How cute is that? :) I mean, both Billy and Fatima told me that we can see some animals there, but I didn't think I will be that lucky in my first visit.

Anyway, I think I will like Trent Park much more than Tottenham. The only downside of Trent Park, though, is that the graduate research room I saw today (if that was the right one) is much smaller than what we have now at Tottenham. Maybe the flat LCD monitors will make it up for us? I don't know, but I know that whenever I just want to read something, I'll sit under a tree (given, of course, it's not raining or freezing cold).

Mai

Q1 ANNIVERSARY: 3 months and counting

Congratulate me everyone, this is my first 3-month anniversary in London.

Why did I choose to celebrate this on a quareterly basis? Well, one month is too short, 6 months is too long, and, more importantly, I get my stipend cheque quarterly so it would feel much better to celebrate when I have lots of money in my bank account :)

And, how am I going to celebrate it? Well, by telling you the following highlights (for lack of other means like partying all night long):

• Best days: Easter vacation, Cambridge conference, and every time I feel good about my work.

• Worst days: most of the first month, the past few days, and every time I don't feel good about my work.

• Exciting things: experiencing snow (briefly, though), entering the world of blogging, sitting on the upper deck of the bus for the first time, discovering Egyptian food in London, finally seeing daffodils, buying my first Egyptian newspaper, going to the theatre, and lots more.

• Weird things: driving on the right side of cars (of course), getting used to seeing unisex hair salons, the strange arrangement of coin sizes relative to their value, and I am sure there are other things I don't remeber now.

• Things I love: the fact that you can hear different languages spoken around you everyday, everyone calling me 'darling' as in 'that will be 2.50 darling', walking around and sitting in parks, walking around in Leicester Square and Covent Garden, and lots more.

• Things I hate: not being able to audio chat with my family on the internet from my room, the separate cold and hot water taps in the kitchen, doing the laundry, having to think what am I going to have for dinner today, the unpredictable weather, living without a TV, and I think that's about it.

• Where I live: lovely Ponders End, and now I can tell you why it is called so: because it is the 'end' of the civilised world as we know it, where you get to 'ponder' on all the things you are missing by living here :)

• People: this is probably the nicest part, all the people I have met so far are really great, friendly, and helpful: all the guys at Middlesex and UCL, my flatmates, and the few Egyptian people of Eurosafaris group.

• What I really want to do: apart from actually registering and getting on with my work, I really want to visit other cities in England and Scotland, and I really want to start cycling again one day.

• What I really miss: mum, dad, miro, niha, and our foooooooooooooooooood.

So, the normal question now would be: am I adjusted to life here now?

Well, mmm... Yes, but not perfectly. When I start using the word 'quid' myself, I'll know I am good to go :)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO ME :-)

Mai

Return of the Mummy

The biggest news today: they discovered a new mummy in Egypt, Sakkara area, dates back to the 30th dynasty. It is described as the most beautiful and the best preserved mummy till now, with colours and golden ornaments and everything. Cool.

Mai

This will always be the day I missed my best friend's wedding, but I've come to terms with it

Yes, I finally came to terms with it. It wasn't easy, though. Today and yesterday were really hard. I tried everything to overcome my misery: I tried working it off, sleeping it off, walking it off, laughing it off and crying it off. It also took 4 phone calls between me and Niha, including one actually during the wedding party just a couple of hours ago, in addition to lisening to every single sad song and music I have. So, the final outcome: I am ok now.

Hopefully, there will be no more *happy* occasions like this soon, at least I know no one will hurt as much.

Ok, I am going to read something now and go to sleep.

p.s.
thanks mum for your support today, even though you got to be in the party and not me :) , and I will be waiting for the pictures.

Mai

This will always be the day I missed my best friend's wedding

I got a call from Niha at 2 am. What did we say? We said, along with Neil Diamond:

Hello again,
hello

Just called to say: hello.
I couldn't sleep at all tonight
And I know it's late
But I couldn't wait.

Hello, my friend
hello

Just called to let you know
I think about you every night
When I'm here alone
And you're there at home.
Hello.

May be it's been crazy
And may be I'm to blame
But I put my heart above my head.
We've been through it all
And you loved me just the same
And when you're not there
I just need to hear

Hello, my friend
hello

It's good to need you so
It's good to love you like I do
And to feel this way
When I hear you say:
Hello

Hello, my friend
hello

Just called to let you know
I think about you every night
And I know it's late
But I couldn't wait

Hello.


Mai

Sleepless, dreamful

I just woke up 10 minutes ago, which is really early, and during the past few hours all I was doing actually is dreaming about Niha's wedding. I mean, I am trying hard not to think about it too much, but now it's even haunting me in my dreams. I was absolutely happy in my fairytale dream, but now... :(

Mai

Let it rain, let it rain

So here I am sitting at the graduate center, with piles of papers to read and it's raining, again.

All I can say is:

let it rain, let it rain,
make my pain go away,
in my brain, let it rain, let it rain,
all this pain in my brain, oh, it drives me insane
in God's name all this pain is a shame..

(Nana: Let it rain)

Mai

Relevant TV?

This is an interesting article on NYT today, "Watching TV Makes You Smarter" (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/magazine/24TV.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all&position). The writer discusses the effect of TV drama series (such as 24, The West Wing, The Sopranos) which have multiple plots and an intricate network of characters, on our way of thinking. His point is that today's pop entertainment actually requires more attention from the audience to follow, and this, therefore, is a good aspect both for the young and old generetations. Even (some) reality shows and games, according to him, is making the audience smarter. So, he concludes:"

"The kids are forced to think like grown-ups: analyzing complex social networks, managing resources, tracking subtle narrative intertwinings, recognizing long-term patterns. The grown-ups, in turn, get to learn from the kids: decoding each new technological wave, parsing the interfaces and discovering the intellectual rewards of play."

Well, it is an interesting idea. I think he is actually right, especially when one compares the older shows with the current ones and realises how simple, and not intellectually challenging, they were. The problem is, of course, there are also the more negative aspects of our pop culture (violence, racism, etc.), and, sadly, most of the time you can only have the whole package. But then again I wonder if kids thinking like grown-ups is always a good thing?!!, and of course grown-ups can also waste a lot of time searching for any 'intellectual rewards' in some games.

However, what I like most about this article is the *relevant* use of linguistic terminology I am now using and reading more than ever. The best examaples I think are:

• "the culture is getting more cognitively demanding, not less."
• "think of the cognitive benefits conventionally ascribed to reading: attention, patience, retention, the parsing of narrative threads."
• And this is my personal favourite: "cognitive junk food".

Hey, is Relevance Theory invading the press too? :)

Mai

Alfa, Vita, Gamma

So the best thing I did yesterday really (since I didn't go to the cinema, nothing good was on) was learning the Greek alphabet. I was going through some reading for my study and there was this one word, written in strange symbols, that I really wanted to know what it means. With the help of my Greek Cypriot flatmate, I ended up writing the whole Greek alphabet, capital and small letters (or should I better say upper case and lower case letters (which are mostly very different from each other)) and the corresponding sounds of those letters. Very interesting stuff, the title is actually how you say A, B, C in Greek (but with the g in 'gamma' pronounced more like 3' in Arabic). Anyway, me and myflatmates (or my flatmates and I, or my flatemates and myself :) ) kept studying in the kitchen together with our laptops and Greek music.

Yasso.. :)

Mai

Turn off, turn on

Just 20 minutes after my last blog (u know, the one in which I said I am not sleepy) I suddenly had a system failure. All my senses just shut down and I had to go to bed. I woke up at 9, had dinner, a chat with mum and dad and now I am starting to work.

p.s.
as I was coming home today, there was a note someone put on the wall downstairs. It says: "WANTED: if you are interested in underground/mainstream rock, there is a new project starting, call ...." I have no idea what underground or mainstream rock is, I just know rock.

Mai

Malheureusement..

So my bro says that using "all things being equal" to make sentences longer reminds him of his french learning years and how he used to write "malheureusement" (=unfortunately) all the time for the same purpose :)

I just came back from campus, and strangely enough, I am not that sleepy even though I just had 4 hours of sleep from 6 am to 10 am. Yeh, it was one of those weird nights again. I don't really mind it, as long as I am getting work done. And I met Billy today and discussed a few things. It was good, especially the part when he said that I am trying to be a linguistic semanticist (for non-linguists: it's a good thing, for linguists: is it? :) ) in my thesis and I was thinking "oh God, I am.. wow, can I actually be one?!". But, you know, now I am all tense since the words "registration" and "time-plan" came up. It's important to have a sense of time, I know, it's just that suddenly the literal meaning of 'deadline' is so obvious..

Anyway, in light of this realisation, here is an outline of my plan for next week:

Saturday: work + (maybe) watch a movie

Sunday: work + have real (Egyptian) food + more work

Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday: work, work, work

Thursday: be miserable (it's Niha's wedding party now)

Friday: recover, work, maybe meet Billy again to discuss things

Isn't it nice to have a schedule? :) Malheureusement, I have to be miserable again this week :(

Mai

All things being equal..

For the last hour I kept trying to get in the mood again.

First I spent like 25 minutes searching the internet for mp3 players, and I discovered that there is something called mp4 players?!! Actually, now I would even settle for mp1.

Then I felt like reading something witty and preferrably related to language (you know, to get me going), so I logged on to Language Log (which, thanks to the link on Billy's blog, I found to be very amusing) and just went through some posts which the log calls 'old favourites'. It was really good. One of the things I just loved was on the post called "Dave Barry, Linguist" and it goes:

Q. Please explain the correct usage of the phrase ``all things being equal.''
A. It is used to make sentences longer.
WRONG: ``Earl and myself prefer the Cheez Whiz.''
RIGHT: ``All things being equal, Earl and myself prefer the Cheez Whiz.''

How *relevant* is that? :)

And now I am listening to Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana"..

So, all things being equal, I should go back to work.

Mai

Mmmmmusic

I actually tried to start working about an hour ago, but couldn't get anything done. I am just not in the mood and don't feel like doing anything. I don't know what's happening, but I am pretty sure Niha's wedding has a lot to do with it. I called her today to say congratulations and how much I miss being with her. She said the same thing too. Since I came back from university I have been trying not to think about it. I tried to sleep for 2 hours, but ended up sleeping for just 45 minutes, I woke up really hungry since I didn't eat anything since 10 am but did not really enjoy my dinner.

Then I started thinking how I missed music today. The only problem I have in working at the graduate centre on campus is that I don't get to listen to music. I have to buy a cd or mp3 player really soon. Maybe this was annoying me too. I stayed at the graduate centre till 5 pm today, I was working since morning and it was fine, but then I started feeling really bored without music. I was supposed to meet Billy but I called around 5 and he was still stuck in some work and we rescheduled for tomorrow, so I just left. BIG MISTAKE. The bus was crowded, the traffic slow so I just got off 2 stops early and walked the rest of the way.

Right now I am listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers "Can't stop"..

Mai

Ups and downs

I stayed in all day since I slept yesterday at about 4 am and woke up at 10 am today feeling very tired. It's probably because of getting soaked in the rain yesterday because I am still not used to carrying the stupid umbrella with me all the time. So I spent the day in my room writing things on my laptop for hours, listening to music all the time, taking breaks in between to stretch my body, and of course snacking throughout the whole thing (buiscuits, quavers, fruit yogurt, chocolate milkshake.. you name it). By the end of the day, I did quite a good part of work, but I am still tired, my soulders and neck are kind of stiff and my right (mouse) hand is aching too.

I also had bits of emotional experiences today. First, when Niha sent me an sms saying how much she misses me tonight. The official signing of her marriage contract is tomorrow, and whenever I think about it I get so miserable. Second, dad emailed me some pictures today of our new house and two pictures of him and mum. I was so thrilled to see their pictures, but then again I realised how much I miss them.

And in line of this series of ups and downs, I also managed to write my first post to London Language (link on the right), the blog Billy set up for Middlesex staff and students of linguistics, and I managed to fail to publish it.

Mai

Doodling

So I managed to discover a new way to waste time on the internet and hurt my eyes at the same time.. it's Kaleidoscope Painter http://www.permadi.com/java/spaint/spaint.html . Actually, this is a link on my bro's blog, and it reminded me when we were kids and used to have those cylinder things which you turn round and see the colourful forms shaping. Maybe what I like best is the part that says this applet "makes it easy for anyone to be a painter" (which makes me wonder too: when will the mouse substitute the painter's brush?) Of course I liked that basically because I can't draw properly and I used to hate drawing lessons at school since I couldn't produce a decent drawing.

The closest I can get to this art is doodling, and do you know what I love to doodle? not stars, not hearts, not complicated geometrical shapes.. but houses. Small houses with doors and windows and, oddly enough, chimneys and smoke coming out of them. It's odd because the style of the houses I always doodle looks very similar to houses here and nothing like houses in Egypt. I have no idea how it turned out that way. But I would love to know what does this say about my personality, you know, since some people believe that what one doodles reflects an aspect of one's character. So.. I was in Cairo, I have been doodling English-like houses for years, and now I am in London.. hmmm, interesting.. sounds like a plan :)

So this is it guys, this is my advice to you: doodle your way to your dreams :)

P.S.
checking my dictionary, I found that 'kaleidoscope' originally comes from the Greek word 'kalos+eidos' meaning 'observer of beautiful forms', while 'doodle' comes from the 17th century German word 'dudel- in dudeltopf' meaning 'fool' [I know what you're thinking :)]

Mai

New spirit

So all I have been thinking about lately is: when is the next conference to attend? :) You can probably tell I really loved it. But, back to reality, and I have to carry on with my work, which I will be approaching with more enthusiasm and, hopefully, more interesting ideas.

Quote of the day:

"death is a displaced name for a linguistic predicament" (Paul de Man, 1984).

It's kinda gloomy, isn't it?

p.s.
I asked around in the conference about the duality of royal titles between England and Scotland, and no one had a decisive answer. But Deirdre mentioned something about there being a worry that one title may offend the last 3 people who care on either side.. :)

Mai

First post-conference night

So you might have expected that after such a long day, I would come home, empty my bag, have a quick dinner, take a warm shower, spend some time on the internet and go to bed. Well.. everything was true till the 'go to bed' part.. because I didn't. After I finished blogging and checking the loads of emails I have in my 4 accounts, I got dressed again and went out with Fatima and Aisha to the movies. You know, I was in this excited state of mind that I just couldn't stay in my room or sleep. We just came back about 15 minutes ago (we went in Aisha's car of course otherwise I would have never went out that late). The movie was Sahara.. such a crappy bullshit story like I couldn't believe.. starting with a heroic WHO doctor who wants to stop a plague without even wearing a mask (Penelope Cruz), through the crazy and sexy treasure hunter who then changes careers also to try save the world from the poisoning of the Atlantic ocean (Matthew McConaughey), but of course they are both united in their quests through their love for the poor African people, and of course we had to have the classic scene of the white man cheering and the little black kids joyously cheering back, plus the all-favourite scene of the Arabic-speaking tribesmen who know nothing but riding horses and fighting each other, and finally the two heroes finish off by firing a 150-year old cannon. Ta ra... life is good, everyone is happy and the couple celebrate it on the beach.

The best comment at this point would be the sentence I heard one old man saying to another old man as they were walking down the street in Cambridge yesterday: "The world is going crazy Tom"!!!! (yeh, he literally said that)

Ok, i am off to bed now.

Mai

Cambridge news, in detail

Ok.. I am back. I miss blogging, and sorry about the briefing last time but that was a real crappy internet cafe and I couldn't spend more than 15 minutes in there. Anyway, here are the details of the trip.

I arrived in Cambridge on Wednesday, bought a map of the city centre, walked from the rail station till Peterhouse where i was supposed to get the key for my room, dumped my handbag there and went straight out again. I kept walking around for hours in this very nice and cosy city. I loved it. I mean, I didn't really know what to expect in Cambridge, but I did not think it would be that beautiful. Although I have been a city girl all my life and Cambridge may not have the liveliness of Cairo or central London, I defenitely think it would be great to have the chance to live in Cambridge for a while. And there are some very nice clothes shops there too, though expensive so I didn't buy anything. I just got something for dad (it's a surprise), a calendar with pictures from Cambridge, and 3 short introductory bed-time books. It's actually a very interesting combination: the first is entitled "The Koran" (it's always nice to know how other people see it, although I am not very comfortable with the K thing), the second is entitled "Atheism" (it is also nice to know about the other end of that scale) and finally the third, which I get for free, is someting I have always read bits and pieces of but never the complete thing: George Orwell's "Why I write". Anyway, that day I spent the rest of the evening in my lovely room eating some takeaway sandwiches and reading the first two pages of one of the books before falling asleep.

Thursday was the first day of the conference. I was very excited about it, although I have to confess, a little bit intimated about being among new people. The reassuring thing was meeting the UCL people and sitting next to Tim during the first half of the day. Then I met Coralie and Danijela from the online course and got to know each other, and also talling with Rachel who is working on the Arabic language. The presentations were amazing, I was so impressed with all the scientific stuff and how they all interact with pragmatics. I met Billy who just arrived at the last tea break but didn't stay. The last presentation, though, was a bit problematic. The speaker is from Tel Aviv University, and I didn't have any problem with that in general, but I felt uneasy about one example she used involving the assassination of Sheikh Yassin (plus I wondered why she kept on prononcing sheikh with a final /k/ instead of the Arabic sound that is also used in Hebrew). Anyway, this was followed by a wine reception, which was also no good for me, so I left. I walked around for a while, then thought to look for an internet cafe to check my email and maybe blog a little. So after asking around, and (ironically) been asked for directions too, I found that small horrible suffocating place. The best part was when I found Billy there just finishing up, so I used the computer after him. The outcome of course was the previous brief blog and a general state of dehydration. So I thought to make it up for myself and have a nice dinner this time. I went to the restaurant just opposite the place where we are staying, the food was great but there was one BIG problem: I was lonely. Once I stepped in there and the waitress asked me: Table for...? and I said: One.., it dawned on me: this was the first time in my life I dined in a restaurant all by myself. I didn't like it very much. I went to my room, phoned Niha (I desperately wanted to talk to a friend) and then went to sleep at 12. I woke up at 3 am, started reading in Orwell's book, went back to sleep 5 am only to wake up again at 7:30 am.

Friday, the second day, was much better for me, despite the 5 and a half discontinuous hours of sleep. For one thing, I was better adjusted to initiating conversations with new people, for another, Billy was there and it was great chatting with him throughout the day, and generally, besides the intereseting presentations, the social bit was bigger. Initially, I wasn't planning on going to the conference dinner (you know, I thought I am a student and should act like one and not go to a 30-pound dinner) but, after the lonely-table-just-for-one experience I decided to go, especially that there were extra places. Generally, the food was not so great but it was the company that made it very enjoyable. After dinner, some of us went to a pub and that was very nice too.

Today, sadly, was the last day. The presentations were very interesting too. It all ended at 3:30, everyone told everyone else 'nice to meet you' and it was time to go home. Deirdre, Robyn and I went to get our bags and caught the 5:05 train. We had a nice chat on the way. I returned to lovely Ponders End. The worst part was when I had to come back to my tiny little room again.

Now, i don't want to get all linguistic on you, but the experimental stuff in this conference was really cool. I just want to mention two very general outcomes from this conference:

- I will never look at "some" and "all" in the same way again. :)

- Now I want to lay my hands on a bunch of kids and another bunch of adults, call them my subjects, get them all wired up, and start experimenting :)))

Mai

Cambridge news

Very quickly because it is suffocating in this internet cafe, Cambridge is great, very different from London. The weather is not bad either and I had long walks yesterday and returned to my room (much bigger room compared to my room in Enfield) beat. First day of the conference today was great, I got to know about so many different things, of course I was for the most part absolutely clueless (except maybe when Grice was first mentioned and I thought yaaaaaay here is someone I know), but I also thought it was too early in the morning to start talking about neurology and testing brain activity (which was the first presentation). But the best part was meeting people, all the guys from UCL, Billy, two virtual colleagues from the online course, some new people and of course seeing a few people who I just read their papers before so it was nice to put faces with the names too.

Ok, now I am really suffocating.

Mai

Happy

Contextual Assumption 1: I am going to Cambridge tomorrow

Contextual Assumption 2: I am going to the Czech in June

Contextual Assumption 3: Someone else is paying

Contextual Implication: I am in a very good mood today

Background music:

You can like the life you're living,
You can live the life you like
(Forget the part about Harry and Ike)
And that's good, isn't it grand, isn't it great, isn't swell, isn't fun.. isn't it..

Oh yes it is :)

Mai

Royal question

Why are Charles and Camilla called Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall in England and The Duke and Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland?!!#&!*!x!?

Mai

It's all about Egypt

Yeh.. it's all about Egypt today. First, as I was walking this morning to a shop about 35 min. walk from my room, I discovered that there is a street called "Suez Road", wouldn't it be nice if I lived there? :) Then, I met a nice group of egyptians in Hyde Park (some whom I already met on the Windsor trip, plus new people as well) we stayed there for a while enjoying the very nice weather then we started discussing where to go for dinner.. and guess what? I suggested to go to dear "Meya Meya" restaurant, especially that, oddly enough, none of them had been there before despite the fact that their living-in-London period varies between 1 and 7 years. And so we went, and I once again enjoyed the tasty egyptian food and movies.

You know, I feel strangely vitalized when I spend a few hours talking in Arabic, and of course the food helps :)

p.s.
correct me if I am wrong, but if BCE (= Before Common Era) and CE (= Common Era) can also be called Before Christian Era and Christian Era, and they have the same starting point as BC and AD, so why exactly do they exist? And what is Common about that anyway?

Mai

(Im)mortality

If you have been checking the news for the past 30 hours or so, it's all about a wedding and a funeral.. ironic, isn't it? And I now know that Wordsworth's poem "Ode on Intimations of Immortality" (from which I quoted lines a couple of blogs earlier) will be recited at the royal wedding, which is an excellent choice of course.

While I was watching the live coverage on BBC, it turns out that apparently it's bad luck to dress in green on a wedding!!! (maybe just for the Irish as someone said)

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, today marks the second anniversary of the fall of Baghdad and there were great demonstrations, while some are disputing whether or not the Israeli president shook hands with the Iranian president at the Pope's funeral!

Mai

Analyze this.. or that

Ok.. now I am excited about being able to access the site again that I am not sleepy anymore. You know when sometimes you keep on humming or repeating a certain tune or song, this is what I have been singing (by a very flexible extension of the concept 'sing') for the last couple of days:

Things have come to a pretty pass
Our romance is growing flat
For you like this and the other
While I go for this and that..

These are the opening lines from the "Let's call the whole thing off" song (and now you will probably think I am obsessed with it). And I can't help thinking how interesting is the use of the demonstratives in those lines, well since that's all I have been reading about lately.. All in all, from the linguistic point of view, this is a very 'relevant' song :)

Mai

Teeth and heroes and... irritating messages

So today I encountered my first problems with Blogger, which is typical of any free site, as I have been trying to log on since 2 pm. And I can say that having to read the stupid 'the page cannot be found' message ranks right there with things that irritate me the most together with white chocolate, dirty shoes and Eminem, among others. Anyway, this is what I wanted to say:

A toothache started to bug me at about 9 pm yesterday, I tried to ignore it but I ended up not sleeping until 4:30 am today only to wake up, for a mysterious reason, at 9:30 am very tired. And it was raining, again, so needless to say that I saw more rain here in 2 days than probably 2 years back home.

Anyway, I watched the Pope's funeral on the internet, which was such a historic event that made me think our generation is so lucky to witness so many important events in history thanks to modern technology. The sad thing, of course, is that most of the important events involve death, war or natural disasters. Then I followed up on the bombing news in Cairo. Then I wanted to read anything less depressing, at least to distract myself from the toothache which was still there. Every now and then, I try to brush up on my Spanish language skills by browsing Spanish newspapers and sites. So I did just that. I read an interesting article in El Mundo comparing between Don Quijote and Superman in terms of the human need to believe in heroes with extraordinary qualities in all times. Personally, I would prefer a noble knight with a sword on a horse (it doesn't have to be white by the way, that is the horse) as hero than a man in an ostentatious costume flying around.

And, on another Spanish newspaper site, ABC, there was a poll about who is expected to win in the upcoming clash between Real Madrid and Barcelona. And, yes.. almost 63 % voted for Real Madrid. I know someone will be very happy if these expectations came true. Actually, me too.

Thank God my toothache is gone now, so it's time to get back to work before I start feeling sleepy.

p.s.
news update 1: this was written about 3 hours ago, so now I am actually sleepy.
news update 2: it is raining, again.

Mai

Psycho

Did you ever wonder what kind of music serial killers listen to? Well, wonder no more. If there is one favourite song for every serial killer psycho maniac out there.. this is it: Drowning Pool "Let the bodies hit the floor". I wish they would really drown in the pool one day.

Mai

Geek speak

This was a particularly informative article for me "Geek speak confuses net users" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4413155.stm) and I was actually confused. It's about internet jargon especially related to security issues, which makes it all the more important to know. But I did discover that 'I don't speak geek' as I only recognised 3 of the 9 terms mentioned in the article (virus, firewall, spam). I knew that 'spyware' and 'rogue dialler' are defenitely bad stuff, though not how bad; I had no idea what 'keylogging' is; I wondered what 'Trojan' war or Homer have to do with computers; and I just thought that 'pharming' and 'phishing' are either a new way of writing or a typo of 'farming' and 'fishing' and still they made no sense to me.

So, I guess this just confirms that in our family, I am the computer geek and my big bro is the computer freak :)

p.s.
call me traditional, but today was defenitely not my defenition of spring weather.

Mai

Singing linguistic differences

This is one of the most interesting songs I have ever heard. It's called "Let's call the whole thing off" and it is a duet of the great Ella Fitzgerald and Loius Armstrong. It's about ending a love relationship because of.. well, linguistic differences in pronouncing some words. The examples from the song include the different pronunciations of 'either', 'neither', 'potato', 'tomato', 'laughter', 'after'..

I think as long as my partner and I speak the same language, that's enough. This doesn't sound desperate, does it? :)

Mai

Thanks dad

Today, dad dedicated this song to me: (Tom Jones)

If you go away, on this summer day
Then you might as well take the sun away
Or the bird that flew in the summer sky
When our love was new, our heart were high
When the days were young, and the nights were long
And the moon stood still
If you go away..
But if you stay, I will make you a day
Like no other day has been, or will be again
We will talk to the trees, and worship the wind
Then if you go, I'll understand..
Leave me just enough love to hold in my hand
If you go away..

Thanks dad, you are the best dad ever.

Mai

Back to.. the future?!!

The future is my work; my work is my study; my study is my thesis; my thesis is my proposal; my proposal is my readings; and my readings have been on hold for quite some time. So.. it took me two days to shake off my depression and get in the mood again, but I am back. And I had William Wordsworth to help me by saying:

Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.

Mai

Exploring London: Day 9 (THE END)

Ok everyone.. this is it: the last day of my Exploring London mission which Sita and I embarked on since the 25 th of March 2005. Today we went to one of the famous antiques open markets in London: the Portobello Road market. It was very nice, i know mum would love it, it had everything from antique table sets to clothes to food to dogs. I just had a look on everything and decided to buy later, but I had to get something of course so I bought some cds.. not for me actually, but for dad and miro (I hope you will like them).

Then we went once again to Covent Garden and Leicester Square, walking around, and since today is a Saturday there was also a nice open market in the busy square sworming with people, singers, mime actors, and performers of all kinds. And I had an ice cream from Ben & Jerry's.. yummy.

We came home, Sita packed her things then we went out again and we were at Victoria station by 8 o'clock, we had a bite at Burger King and waited for her bus. They started boarding by 9:35. We said good byes and I began walking to the tube station again.. completely miserable.

On my way back, and until now, I had like a million things to think of, but the only thought that ended up overwhelming me is: I am living the awful sense of loneliness all over again.

I have no idea how I am going to spend this night.. I hope that talking with my family tomorrow will help.

Mai

Exploring London: Day 8

At last.. today was sunny. And we spent the day in the lovely town of Greenwich.. yes, today we were exactly on the GMT line and we took pictures to prove it too :) It was really great , we visited the Royal Observatory and I just know, dad and miro, you would have loved it with all the astronomical and scientific stuff. I loved the way they ordered the events and the matching items on display chronologically to tell the story of the development of astrology and time calculation. And I can now confirm that Cairo lies exactly on the latitude of 30 degrees and 1' North and the longitude of 31 degrees and 13' East :)

And for your information, GMT was decided to be the basis of International Time Zone System in 1884 at the International Meridian Conference that was held in Washington DC (I am surprised the Americans didn't insist on having it on their land :) )

The park around the Observatory is great too and a lovely view, we sat on the grass for a while, walked around town and then took a long ride on the bus to Holborn tube station (Sita wants to enjoy sitting on the upper deck of the bus whenever she can). It was great, and thank God the weather today was beautiful.

Now.. it's only one day left and I'll be all alone again. In the observatory today in the section on measuring time, it was written that St. Augustine said 1500 years ago when asked about time "I know if no one asks me. But, if I want to explain it.., I don't know." Well.. I'll tell you what time is.. time is the thing that flies by when you are feeling good.

God help me in passing the coming times..

Mai