"I truly believe that, through a combination of Nutella, old pals and Barbra Streisand, we can achieve happiness and, very probably, world peace."

Beth Ditto loves Funny Girl too! I started my day by screaming along to Standing in the Way of Control while I brushed my teeth this morning and sprayed toothpaste bubbles all over the wall. This is why I like having the house to myself.

Today, in the freezing although nicely redecorated library, I was reading a book about Martin Amis. Part of the argument in favour of him using Craig Raine's martianism (wikipedia informs me Craig Raine comes from County Durham: 100% fact) in Time's Arrow is that 'Martin Amis' is an anagram of 'martianism'. Really? Really? That's your incisive literary analysis right there.

"My idea of hell is a very large party in a cold room, where everybody has to play hockey properly"

This week I watched Eternal Sunshine with Natalie and a bottle of wine. I watched all the deleted scenes too, which were really interesting. One thing I like about the film is how much I dislike both the characters but I do still want them to work it all out: Clementine is just a bit zany and stupid, but Joel eventually comes across as being much more horrible, like when he tells her completely casually she'd be a bad mother. In the final cut of the film you can write that off as him beating himself up about that in his memories and think he's just a bit spineless, but in the deleted scenes he really seems horrible: he was living with his dull, mousy girlfriend (who did look like she was working hard on her thesis at the kitchen table and couldn't come to the beach!) and then ends it all with her over a packed salad for Clementine, who he apparently thinks is way more interesting and will fill his life with excitement.

I read Cold Comfort Farm in one sitting yesterday after I got in from work. It's so good! I laughed out loud on just about every page, and I never realised before that it was actually set in the future. It was published in 1932, so the same year as Brave New World (there are some interesting similarities, actually!). I think I over-identified with Flora a bit much, but there are so many funny quotes: "One of the disadvantages of almost universal education was the fact that all kinds of persons acquired a familiarity with one's favourite writers. It gave one a curious feeling; it was like seeing a drunken stranger wrapped in one's dressing-gown." The advantages of almost universal education also being that I can enjoy it when she pokes fun at writers I don't like very much!

I spent Sunday scraping all the sealant off the bath, and it's all resealed and waterproof and non-mouldy now. I never thought I'd be so excited about having a bath that isn't covered in grimness.

New campaign at work

So the science campaign I'm being moved to is for these people. Other good things about it are that it's calling the UK so I won't have to work evenings again, because that was not fun. But I will actually have to work for 100% of the time I'm at work, which is a bit of a downer, given I've been multitasking on thesis work (and doing the crossword...) at least 20% of the time I've been at work the last few weeks. Ideally, I'd like to work Tuesdays and Wednesdays at VC, schedule all my teaching for Mondays and then have the rest of the week free to work on my thesis. Ideally.