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berlin ! ! ! ! ! !

1. find flat in berlin (TICK)
2. find flat in london
3. find job in london

getting headaches from worry again
reminder to self: sometimes life is a bit difficult but there is (almost always) reward for effort.


i was working as a receptionist and i went out on a limb to build a SITE MANAGEMENT DASHBOARD. i left last friday but learnt this week that there are still some problems with it (which i ran out of time to fix). the brief was to create something that could be maintained ongoing; i'm not sure now if it will or can be.

do i need to worry about this y/n (if so i can add to above list)

games (because I will forget where I read this)

wooo ian mckellen and patrick stewart in waiting for godot tomorrow !!!

lots of photos mostly badly cropped
potsdam, university, schlachtensee, botanic gardens, matt, parents, our flat, etc.
you would be forgiven for thinking berlin was the garden of fucking eden if these were the only pictures you'd ever seen of the place.

( photographs )

aaaaaaaaa
me and matt went to the LANGE NACHT DER MUSEEN last night and it was pretty good.
we were waiting for the bus at potsdamer platz for a long time and it was cold and wet
consequence:



i like the picture anyway

ok well i suppose i will make a livejournal entry, since seeing matt reminded me that reading livejournal but not writing is a bit creepy and weird.

circumstances are conspiring against me to ruin the first month (at least) of Year Abroad
laptop charger broken
finding a flat impossible
staying in hostel dorm room (D:)
can't speak a fucking word of german basically
still a bit excited

summer was nice but nothing worth reporting really.

oh hi everyone
this summer is a complete waste of everybody's time so far
i can't even call it relaxing having not earnt the right to relax

i've been designing websites for money. do you know anyone who needs a website, logo, etc designing for money or even for free? nt@knicola.co.uk

anyone who is in nottingham and doesn't totally hate me (finlay), feel free to make plans and include me in them. i am so lethargic.

staying up all night and catching the 6am train home

I got back from China a couple of days ago and now I am ill. My mum made my go to the doctors yesterday and it seems not to be bird flu or SARS. For the rest of yesterday I stayed in bed and today looks to be quite similiar, except my favourite genius-nemesis is bringing a German to visit me. China was interesting. Maybe I'll post a couple of photos later.

My biggest worry at the moment is the stupid flat in Edinburgh - the vendor's solicitor is rubbish and as such we're still waiting for the deeds to arrive with our solicitor. He said it would happen some time this week, and we could have the keys n Friday, but it hasn't so far. Term (Fresher's Week) starts on Monday and my term proper starts the following Monday. My dad took this week off work to go up and furnish and decorate but he has ended up just wandering around the house in his shorts and going to play golf. He can't get next week off, and my mum is back at work then too, so we've got this weekend to sort shit out. Shit like furniture.

I hope you are all OK. I mostly kept up with livejournal over the summer, despite my two epic holidays which I'll tell you all about later if I am still ill and bored.

EDIT: I just read the few previous entries and realised that they are all about how ill I am. What you should infer from this is not that I am always ill, but updating livejournal is something I do when I'm ill. For whatever reasons. (NB Daisy is prohibited from posting comments including the word 'frail' 'feeble' 'pathetic' etc)

guys I am pretty cool right.
right.

Joe and I were in a car accident on the M1 on Friday night, near Rotherham. His car was written off but we are both, luckily, OK apart from whiplash and I have cuts and bruises from where the seatbelt was. He has a new car now. It wasn't his fault- it was raining and dark, and the guy two cars in front of us suddenly did a handbrake turn so we ploughed into the back of the car in front, which stopped suddenly. Pretty scary, but it's alright now.

Just thought I should tell you all about it. I'm going to decorate my room in the long weekend, or what is left of it.

'i'm going to kill you, and everyone you care about'

am I naked in this picture? the answer is no! neither am I dead. It's my new passport photo, so clearly that is how I am going to look for the next ten years. I should have worn my red scarf I reckon.

Here are photos from the black and white film I took a couple of weeks ago at ( Kew Gardens )

I've decided that the only book I am taking on 'euro_____ two-thousand and five' is Don Quixote. Well... maybe. If I feel brave and weighty, which I may not. I'm about to start Anna Karenina despite that fact that I really should be revising.

I've finished all my exams except French and AEA English, it's my last shift at the pub on Friday, I booked my flight home from Budapest, my parents bought me unexpected presents, and I'm going to buy a great pair of walking sandals.

awesome.

ok so I have made the annual summer mix tape/cd (delete as appropriate. at the minute it's a playlist...)

this is it.

01. Dire Straits - Money For Nothing
This is a cop out, to be fair, because it reminds me more of about the summer before last than anything else (and not in a particularly good way) but it has the world's greatest summery intro. p.s. Dear Mark, you know it would have been a better song if the lyrics were what I initially remembered them as ('you get your money for nothing and your kicks for free')

02. Yes - City Of Love
'you guys are really loving Yes these days'. Yes! Well, since yesterday at least.

03. David Bowie - Changes
The adverts for the election coverage reminded me that this song is awesomeeeeeeeee. The verses aren't all that summery though (so.)

04. Jeff Buckley - Eternal Life
So far these are all well obvious choices, damnit. Finlay, this album will remind me of you forever :) (ESPECIALLY CORPUS CHRISTI CAROL HAHA)

05. AC/DC - Back In Black
I guess I am compensating for my deliberate omission of any Beach Boys by putting on a load of summery rock. This is a perennial favourite.

06. Van Morrison - Gloria
I don't get this. I prefer the Patti Smith version, but every else seems to adore this one, and I guess it reminds me more of summer (last summer, mainly). Also this is easier to sing to- the only thing I miss is that first line.... 'Jesus died for somebody's sins... but not mine'.

07. Buck 65 - Wicked and Weird
OK, I concede that rapping can be good in english. All Buck 65 needs is a decent breakfast and he'll be back at it, dirty and reckless. Driving in the summer is awesome, especially long a way. This song is about driving in the summer. P.S let's go on a road trip.

08. Talking Heads - And She Was
there's something about synthy songs (this isn't a particularly synthy song, but it is a bit) that I can't resist in summer. Wait, who am I kidding? As if i can resist synth in winter??

09. Pulp - Sorted For Es and Whizz
It makes me sad that I'm not going to any festivals this summer. Hopefully I can stand in my garden with this on loud and I will feel like it :( but probably not. (cf. Crapstock)

10. Bjork - Human Behaviour
This song is leading me to rediscover Bjork. I wonder why it is that I find Bjork's wailing uplifting and cool but I find Tori Amos so unbearable. Perhaps it's because Bjork is Icelandic. Oh, and hot.

11. The Pixies - I Can't Forget
Ok so I was going to put Leonard Cohen 'I'm Your Man' on here, just because I like singing to it, but then I remembered a) that the Pixies are playing Carling b) that the Pixies are great and c) that Leonard Cohen isn't really summery and so I replaced him with this Pixies cover of I Can't Forget.

12. The White Stripes - Jumble, Jumble
Once again, a last summer song. Sometimes I think my taste in music is kinda respectable, and then I look at my audioscrobbler page and see that the White Stripes are my top artists. In order to save face I will now state that the first album is the best. See how much cooler I seem now?

13. Bauhaus - She's In Parties
I wish. Oh wait, no I don't wish, but this is still a DARKWAVE CLASSIC and if you don't like it then I don't like you. I think Bauhaus would be ashamed of their inclusion on any summer mix. Most people probably don't get why this kind of music reminds me of summer. It's hard to say really. I suppose because it's the kind of thing that should be played on a tinny radio in a car on a hot day. Hmm. I expect that didn't help you, did it?

14. Belle & Sebastian - The Boy With The Arab Strap
We are moving now more towards summer evening music. For me this mainly constitutes shoegazing indie. Start as you mean to go on.

15. Grandaddy - The Warming Sun
See? I really adore Grandaddy's music, but I can't listen to them without a faint smile after I learnt that at least one member (not sure which, but I'll go out on a limb and say the bassist) is a fat middle aged guy who is probably also an honorary member of the beard of the month club. And the rest of them wear trucker caps without a hint of irony.

16. Bob Dylan - Idiot Wind
What else could compensate for the inherent uncoolness of chubby indie guys but Dylan? This song will probably remind me of Ian for a long time.

17. Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road
Sometimes I like to think of mix tapes in a literal sense, and imagine all the artists, say, stuck in a lift together. I wonder what Bob Dylan would have to say to Bruce Springsteen? 'so, Vietnam, huh?'. Thunder Road (is one of Nick Hornby's 31 Songs, for anyone who cares) is a good summer evening melancholy song.

18. Paul Simon - That Was Your Mother
This song has some of the singular most skank lyrics of any song ever. Alright, maybe not. 'That was your mother, and that was your father, before you was born, yeah, when life was great'. Oh, for anyone who doesn't know, this is Paul Simon. He was in Simon and Garfunkel too!

19. MC Solaar - La Vie Est Belle
Yeah, I wish this kind of hip hop didn't suck so much in English, cause it makes great summer music. I suppose it wouldn't be as good if I could tell what he was saying. Something about girls and guns, autant que je sache.