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Friday, December 22nd, 2006
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3:26a - Leätherheäd
Leätherheäd...it's a cross between Mötörhead and Hell's Angels. Well, not really. It (minus the umlauts) is a small commuter town in Surrey, and that's where Dad and I went today to pick up a car.
It wasn't much fun. For one thing, despite getting up early this morning and drinking coffee, commenting on LJ and relaxing for a few hours, I didn't locate my iRiver before we had to go. The mp3 player turned out to be where I thought it was, only cunningly hidden by a sock, which was not mine. I lacked it during the many hours spent travelling today, however, leading to plenty of radio diplomacy with my father, with whom my musical tastes clash slightly. It's not that we like different genres, but we listen for different things when it comes to music. Pianos hurt Dad's ears, and he places a good deal of judgement on how well the singer can sing. I care more about melody. The journey was further complicated by the fog that, to varying degrees depending on place, has blanketed the country. As we approached my Grandfather's new house after a few hours journey South, we could barely see the road in places, let alone what was either side of it.
We got to relax briefly at Grandad's new place, which is strangely akin to his old one, except smaller. We even watched the Weakest Link, for some reason. However, Leätherheäd beckoned, so we headed down the M25 before trying to find a small cul-de-sac in the outskirts of the town. It was bitterly cold, as I found out whilst waiting for Dad to pay the money for the new car (£100...). He did use my Tesco Clubcard to pay for the petrol, though, so I'm not complaining. All the fatigued road travel in the dark did its usual trick of making me feel queasy, so I moreorless snoozed my way back up to Bracknell, albeit to Classic FM playing country music. After another brief talk over another cup of coffee, Dad and I went out into the mist again bound for nowhere other than Hazel House to allow me to pick up a few things I left behind on Tuesday.
Holly was pleased to see us. In fact, we had a brief meal together, based on the fact Dad and I hadn't had a lunch, and I had some cans of soup in the cupboard there. Whilst I was gathering my things and drinking some green tea, Dad had great fun going through the mess in my room. I tried to explain that I knew it was a travesty, but I had been meaning to clean it up the day after my essay-ordeal ended, and, well, that day turned out to be the day I went home. Myeh. It was nice to be back there briefly, though, and espcially to see Holly again, given how she's alone at the moment. She even got me a candle, which I shall light sometime when I won't have a chance of burning down the house.
The journey back was long. Dad put on Radio 4, because music makes him drowsy, and I find it hard to concentrate on the intellectualism over the noise of the car. We did manage to hear the world news, a rather depressing story, and five minutes of a rather unfunny comedy hour, before we stopped at Watford Gap. The Coffee Shop there was open. Most of the legendary service station seemed to be open, actually, despite the small numbers of customers and the occasional creepy sound of a child laughing loudly where there appeared to be no child. We ended up having a cappuccino and a moccha, although I ended up having to finish both, mostly in the car on the final leg back to Nottingham. I had to resort to some minted chocolate to prevent myself feeling funny from too much coffee. We listened to Radio 5 instead, which was easier to listen to whilst travelling whilst rather tired.
That's moreorless been my day. I did just find an e-mail from Anja Peters explaining that the essay travesty last week will not be to my benefit, owing to its root being a malfunctioning printer, which is on the list of 'Excuses not to be tolerated'. I did actually use another printer, but an extremely rude English lecturer shooed me out of the room where it had printed, and my e-mailing of the completed essay to Anja before the essay deadline appears to have meant nothing. It'll only be a 10% reduction, but that's rather annoying, and unless it tips the overall course mark, I shall pretending it never happened. Gah. At least I appear to have had little trouble with the film essay, thank goodness.
I can't believe it's the 22nd already. I feel cheated out of a December, moreso this year than ever before. That's about the extent the series of essay deadlines had on me. Furthermore, due to the City Council being extra-fussy about documents for my Student Loan, I'm technically broke if I pay the rent for the past two months. I'm optimistic it will come through, but I have something against spending 'potential money', so I've not bought anyone Christmas presents yet, even if I had the time to do so. I'll be doing some present-buying over the next few days, but it'll be rather rushed, as usual. I've also got to get some other things done, one of which being my LJ review of the year, given how I'll be spending most of the last three days of 2006 in Germany, hurtling back to Englefield Green just in time for 2007, and I'd like to be punctual.
For a change.
current mood:  exhausted
current music: Mike Oldfield - Far Above the Clouds (2 comments |comment on this)
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