This post is very late; but very late is better than never, right? And I’m in a good mood, feeling ahead of work for once (Locke: you may be a godsend to future moronic libertarians, but at least you were concise) and having had a moment of ‘awwness!’ earlier today in the sun, standing on a bridge over the Cam, looking at the punts go by and thinking how lovely and beautiful it all was. That and I was sipping a chocolate milkshake at the time. So without further ado, my answers to the shuffle music quiz, since I last did one almost two years ago. I’ll skip the ‘rules’, since I think you all know them by now… 
If someone says ‘are you okay’ you say?
Losing Team – Dru Masters
How would you describe yourself?
Stillness in Time (Jamiroquai) – Calvin Harris
What do you like in a guy/girl?
Oedipus – Regina Spektor
How do you feel today?
Cartoon Heroes – Aqua [Ahem!]
What is your life’s purpose?
Give Da Jew Girl Toys – A plus D
What’s your motto?
The Return of the King – James Galway
What do your friends think of you?
Hanging on the Tablaphone – The BBC National Orchestra of Wales
What do your parents think of you?
Future Pleasure – Keff McCullock / Ron Grainer / Dominic Glynn
What do you think about very often?
I’m Telling You Now – Freddie and the Dreamers
What is 2 + 2?
Far Out / Where’s Your Head At / Engine Trouble – The Cut Up Boys
What do you think of your best friend?
Tied Up Too Tight – Hard Fi
What is your life story?
Our House – Madness
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Friday Night, Saturday Morning – The Specials
What do you think when you see the person you like?
[I’m actually going to cheat and skip the first thing that came up 
]
Madame de Pompadour – Murray Gold
What will you dance to at your wedding?
Blue Rondo a La Turk – Dave Brubeck [would be rather challenging]
What will they play at your funeral?
Perfect Day – Mixed Feelings
What is your hobby/interest?
Tomorrow Tomorrow – Elliot Smith
What is your biggest fear?
From God Above – Hillsong United [now this I’m not cheating at!]
What is your biggest secret?
Gypsy Woman 2006 – Sami Dee & Freddy Jones Vs. Crystal Waters
What do you want right now?
Fans – Kings of Leon
What do you think of your friends?
39.1 Degrees Celsius – Joel Goldsmith
What will you post this as?
International Jet Set – The Specials
Somebody reassure me, please, that I’m not the only one to have to-do lists with ‘blog!’ on them? I know I’m not the only one addicted to to-do lists in general, but they really are scattered everywhere: in text files on my desktop, on my phone, through Outlook flags, in notepads and even scrawled on the backs of receipts. The big problem is that they encourage you to mingle the short- and long-term, so ‘do washing’ will appear alongside ‘visit Manchester?’, the latter being impossible to cross off without lots of planning, effort and numerous new sub-to-do lists. Oh dear: pop psychology conclusions in neat bullet points on the back of the postcard, please.
A quick run down of the past week (because these summaries are ever so fascinating to read): Thursday saw lots of panic about whether anyone would brave the snow to come and see Richard Rex talk to the Caius History Society (they did!). Friday had the annual, wonderful history dinner which included me saying ‘Twilight..?’ hesitantly before the shouts of ‘misogyny!’ rang out loud and clear. From Saturday (Valentine’s Day! 
) Lucy visited and stayed until Monday morning, where I realised that she was much, much better at working in my own library than I was. And finally, yesterday I wrote a bit of a rubbish essay on Hobbes – if you ask me it was nasty, brutish and short – before my mum came to wipe away the memory by taking me out to dinner 
Oh, and I had a whole rant that’s been developing over the week but is now fading down in intensity. So I will only say this – directed at no-one in particular – the ’13 year old’ dad story? What does it say about modern society, modern parenting, modern values? The answer is nothing 
There’s nothing ‘to be learnt’ from one, single, brilliantly executed story of a relatively atypical but hardly unusual event. As I say, it is a great story, and it ticks boxes for tabloid journalism like you wouldn’t believe, with the perfect blend of unity (“god, how awful”) and division (“I blame the…”) along with gripping visuals and loving manipulation of children. But it tells us nothing. Our teenage pregnancy rate, the one that’s the highest in Europe? That also doesn’t ‘tell’ us anything in particular but does at least hint at many disturbing things. Not such a good story, though. Did I mention he was 13?
Don’t worry Tash, I did love it!
Yup, I’m just back from finally seeing Slumdog Millionaire with Oliver and Owen at the Picturehouse, Paper Planes still ringing in my ears. It’s the film that absolutely everybody has told me to go and see and I don’t have much to add to the many, many blogs I’ve read about it already, really. It’s a great film, wonderfully made, with a plot that you know is going to end on a fulfilling, heartwarming and somewhat sentimental note but – y’know – sometimes that’s not a bad thing. I can’t always do grim. It was also the perfect time for me to see this kind of film, at the end of a long essay-writing day where I’d handed it in about ten minutes before the deadline. At the point in the weekly cycle you suddenly get filled with a rush of satisfaction and contentment (the tiredness kicks in tomorrow) so it was lovely to relax and let the cinema wash over me. I am curious about how the film has gone down amongst the Indian public generally – is the depiction of the slums sensationalist, voyeuristic, unfair? I don’t know, and I’m not really in the mood for digging deep into the politics of it at the moment to be honest. It was good.
“Good afternoon! You’re listening to Drivetime LIVE on SpoutRadio with me, Angry McNab, on the show that hands over control to YOU and lets YOU say whatever’s really on YOUR mind. So let’s go straight to the phones, where our first caller is waiting: a Nick Michael from Florence. What’s on your mind, Nick?”
“Afternoon, Angry, afternoon. I just wanted to phone in to tell you how SICK I am with politics in Italy at the moment…”
“Oh it’s disgraceful, isn’t it?”
“It really is, Angry, it really is. But you don’t know the half of it, Angry, y’know cause I live in Florence, see, so I see it all close-up…”
“A ring-side view, would you say Nick?”
“That’s it, exactly, a ring-side view Angry, a ring-side view. And y’know, it really makes me mad because all we get is weak governments, Angry, weak governments and weak states…”
“Bit of trouble with the Spanish, I hear?”
“Oh yeah, I mean, trouble like you won’t believe, Angry..”
“And why do you think all this is happening, Nick?”
“Well if you ask me, Angry, if you do ask me I’d say it was because we have just LOST CONTROL of our military matters, y’know, just totally lost control and the situation’s terrible because of it. I remember, back when I was lad, like, when he had strong republics with a bit of fire in ’em, y’know? A bit of fighting spirit is what we need, Angry, if you ask me because we’ve just LOST it at the moment.”
“I’m glad you’ve brought this up, Nick, I really am, because we get a LOT of calls on this topic at the moment, Nick, an awful lot. In fact, I think the phonelines are going as we speak, y’know, because this is something that really gets you going and what I hear, over and over again, is that what really gets your goat is the use of mercenaries in all of this.”
“That’s it, Angry, that’s totally it, because y’see these mercenaries are just USELESS, y’know? Untrustworthy, just out to make a profit, y’know, out to look out for themselves and their business and no one cares about us in all of it, Angry, no-one seems to give a damn about us…”
“They say, Nick, the princes say that they need mercenaries because it’s just not gentlemanly to raise an army anymore. That’s what they say. What do you think about that?”
“Oh but doesn’t that just SHOW you, Angry, does that just show you how USELESS these people are? I tell you, I pay my taxes, I pay a lot of taxes, Angry, all us hardworking people do and we don’t even get a proper army to show for it. I tell you, it just makes me so mad sometimes, as I said, it really does.”
“And I think our listeners are with you on that one, Nick, they really are, so thank you very much for your call there, really sparking a debate on that one here. Right, time for our next caller, and it’s a Mr. Lipsius…”
Today (well, yesterday) was just one of those happy, fun days you have without particularly special or exciting happening. (It’s probably got quite a lot to do with food, actually.) It was Oliver’s birthday, so we gathered in his room in the morning to present cards and gifts. I felt slightly competitive after Abi and Oliver pulled out all the creative stops on my present last year, so naturally my card had to be in extended video form… but never mind, it all went down well. Then it was off to the Copper Kettle for English breakfast before heading to Caius library to work. And I know this will sound ridiculous to everyone but me, but as I was sitting there, just reading (Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy) without bothering to take notes – sun streaming in through the window on my face – I actually caught myself feeling like I was on holiday. After all, don’t you read a lot on holiday anyway? Machiavelli isn’t exactly stereotypical beach material but he’s a lot more palatable than the others thus far, and I felt strangely relaxed despite the essay deadline looming round the corner.
Despite said reading I am still slightly behind, due to having volunteered on the shadowing scheme this year, but it was a pleasure to do and I felt I should repay the debt anyway. Basically, you’re assigned a state-school (or some other target group) Sixth Former who ‘shadows’ you for a couple of days, in order to give people a taste of everyday Cambridge life and dispel some myths at the same time. I joined up a fair amount with my two fellow Caians who also had shadows this week, so got to know three shadows show them around together, despite the picturesque if cold snow! It seems to have gone pretty well, and I for my own personal touristy checklist I can also say that I’ve (a) been inside King’s chapel and (b) seen a Footlights performance now. Success!
Helen on It’s (waiting) time.: “Fabulous news, congratulations to you both! X” Jun 8, 21:51
