1. I went on holiday for a week, courtesy of my parents, who instead of a big party for my 21st agreed to send me and Lawrence away to the Lake District. I took very many photographs, some of which will appear on t'internet at some point. More importantly, I recovered from London but at the same time developed a real appreciation for the concept of a reasonably reliable 24-hour public transport system. It turns out that the countryside is dark at night and also that the road between Coniston and Hawkshead is dark and long and bendy. Transport aside, I would very much like to have not come back to London. Alas, there are no jobs in nice places.

2. I did not fail my degree. Having spent the past month or so mentally going over all the silly things wrote about and important things I omitted from my exams, I phoned the department yesterday and found out I got a good 2:1. Which was something of a relief, to put it mildly. More excitingly, I got a first for my dissertation, which suggests that my slightly confused and possibly insane ideas about early medieval political thought are not entirely insane or boring,* and the same for my Charlemagne exam, and I actually got a 2:2 for the paper I thought I'd failed.

3. I have applied for an MA in medieval history at Birkbeck.

4. I have applied for some jobs, and signed up with a couple of agencies. I had one interview, a couple of weeks ago, for a very good job which I did not get. I have another interview the week after next for something which is less good but which I would probably take if they offered it to me because it pays money (which is in short supply at the moment).

5. I have been working full-time in the bookshop. This has involved 80% turning the shop into somewhere people might want to buy books and be able to find the books they want, and 20% slacking off with cups of green tea and being rude about (absent) customers.

6. I have seen two people I haven't seen for about two years, namely poppycocteau and cyrus_ii. Which was nice. Possibly I should see these people again before another two years are up.

7. I have taken on the all-important role of picker-up-of-things-that-fall-upon-the-floor, Lawrence having been off work with back problems for the past month. I was also maker-of-tea until his doctor prescribed pottering about and making lots of cups of tea along with the painkillers.

8. Carlos Tevez has not left us yet. This actually has had nothing to do with me whatsoever, but I am listing it anyway as I am quite pleased about it.

* Anyone who made the mistake of asking me about my dissertation at any point, or indeed reading the waffly bits behind lj-cuts, will almost certainly disagree with this last bit. Sorry about that.

I have of late been attempting to find a Proper Job, by which I mean one which doesn't involve sitting on the floor hunched over a laptop typing ISBN numbers and collecting dust. I have signed up with two agencies, one of whom found me work last summer within two hours of me registering with them, and who this time round have already got me an interview, given me a very helpful talk beforehand, and even offered to walk me to the interview to make sure I found the place. The other have been less helpful. The person I initially spoke to was a Senior Somethingorother and yet seemed to have no idea what sort of requirements certain jobs have (for instance one type of activity in the area I'm applying for quite obviously requires a maths degree, or at least some level of numeracy beyond a B in GCSE Maths), and when I registered as good as told me he wasn't going to try very hard to find anything for me. He has since passed on my details to their branch in Croydon, from which a woman with the voice of Janet Street-Porter phoned yesterday to offer to put me forward for jobs which, it turns out from the email she sent me today, are aimed at 16-year-olds. I suspect, from the conversation we had yesterday, that she skipped the bit of my CV which mentions that I've spent the past 3 years studying a Proper Subject at a Good University, as all she mentioned was that I couldn't expect much because I only had three months experience, with no reference to the fact that I have five years' more education than required. On top of that the job descriptions are written in such a way that only someone already doing the job could possibly understand what they involve, they pay less than I could earn elsewhere, and, probably most importantly, they're offering me car crashes and sprained ankles when what I want is hurricanes and pirates.

Anyway, the point I was really trying to make is that while ranting at length about this to Lawrence* over dinner, I got so irate that I nearly choked to death on a mange tout. And by 'nearly choked to death,' I mean Lawrence was standing behind me about to attempt the Heimlich manoevere when I finally managed to hack up the last green stringy bit. Ew. Job-hunting is bad for your health.

* You think I complain a lot on Livejournal? Only the tip of the iceberg makes it this far. Most of it only gets as far as Lawrence, after which I stop caring enough to post here.

How long should an answer to the why-do-you-want-to-do-this-MA question be?

If there's one thing today's events have reminded us, it's that you should never leave valuable objects unattended - and that in south east London, 'valuable objects' includes ships.

I was forced to go to work sans caffeine today, because Starbucks was inside the cordoned-area around the Cutty Sark. I hope this personal tragedy will be taken into account when they catch the wanker who did it.

Ah, Carlos Tevez. How we love you and your troll-like ways.

FINISHED!

...now what?

4 down, 1 to go. I may have fucked up Political Ideas, but I may have not fucked up the other three so I might still not fail.

...In 12 hours and 20 minutes I will be starting my final final. Eek.

First exam done, four more to go. I am feeling very confident about one of them, having just had a revision-with-coffee session with other people from that course and finding out that I do actually know some things about Charlemagne which weren't in my dissertation. Two others I think I'll be alright on if the questions go my way. But I'm feeling not at all happy about Political Ideas - although apparently it will be on record when it's marked that the tutor was an arse and left academia about halfway through the course, which might help.

I got lots of interesting books for my birthday which I can't read until I've finished my exams. They taunt me from the living room floor when I'm trying to revise on the sofa.

I just met the younger sister of someone I was at school with in my university library. Frankly I think this is not on. I know in theory that I'm not the only person from Shropshire ever to end up in London, but I don't like to be reminded of it. I am a FREE AND UNIQUE SOUL, and people I never had much to do with CEASED TO EXIST when I got away.

In other news I went for a few drinks last night and discovered this morning that it counts as revision, as the pub in question is actually on my early modern Britain bibliography. Take note, universe: this is the kind of coincidence you should provide more of, NOT THE ABOVE.

Today I had two odd encounters while trying to revise Machiavelli in Hyde Park. The first man wandered over to me and said something in an incomprehensible accent. Eventually I got him to slow down: "Is it, like, a trend to read in London?" How do you answer a question like that? Yes, I'm doing it because people will think I'm cool? I mumbled something about enjoying reading and then quickly hid behind my book because he looked like he was about to try to make conversation. About ten minutes later another random man asked to either join me or draw me. I couldn't tell which he was saying, but he looked a bit taken aback when I told him no. Are there not attractive women for these people to go and bother? Or is today Pick On Ugly, Stressed-Looking Student Types day?

I think my scalp might be sunburnt. But on the plus side I might not fail Political Ideas.