(no subject)
i've ranged from feeling quite light hearted to being disappointed to being angry today. a whole wide range of emotions!
i did so you think you're funny last night at tattershall castle in london. tattershall castle is a BOAT moored on the thames! how cool is that! SYTYF is probably the biggest new act competition in the country - they have heats all across the country and then have the semi-finals and the finals in edinburgh. my friend emma got to the final last year, but then again she is ace. i had a really, really good time actually. julia - who is the woman who runs it - gave a really good talk before hand. she said that they were "looking for reasons to take people to edinburgh, not to not take them", and that the competition didn't really matter that much, because if you are going to do well in comedy then you will do so anyway. because they don't announce the winners on the night (they choose 64 semi-finalists from all the heats put together), it didn't have the same competitiveness as the other competitions i've done. there were some really nice and very funny other acts on, and i generally had a really great night. my stuff went well, i felt like i put my all into the performance and i got lots of laughs and one small round of applause for a joke, which made me dead happy. it did sort of tail off to the end, so it probably won't be strong enough for the semi-finalists, but it was such a nice night that i don't care. pete, neon and flavia came to watch which was ace of them.
then i got home at about 3am, and the house was absolutely spotless. top to bottom cleaned, it looks like no-one lives here. the reverend is moving back in next week, and he'd obviously done some groundwork. i haven't written about him for a while, but he'd pretty much moved to his girlfriend's house and only graces our presence every sunday at 6pm to watch the simpsons on the cable tv before going again. i've barely seen him for six months, literally. on the table was a note, i'll copy it in full:
"dear guys, this is a plea. i've tidyed/cleaned the downstairs today and it was appalling. i'm sick from the mould, the smell and the dirt and i've spent hours scrubbing, hoovering and shifting your stuff. please keep the house reasonable for the rest of our time here - that means washing up your stuff, hoovering weekly and keeping the bathroom clean (and picking up hair, toilet rolls etc when you've left them on the floor). it's simple and easy. it only gets tough when you leave it for months on end. also, can you leave photocopies of your student cards on my desk asap and have a look at the electricity bill on the table (we'll talk about that soon). thanks. i hate doing this but it's unfit to live in and it's unfair to wait for me to do it. tom."
i have several issues with this note. yes, the house was pretty bad (although not as bad as he describes, i've been washing up daily for instance). but why does it have to be so patronising? i felt guilty enough that he cleaned our mess, but this sort of rubs it in a little too thickly. pete and i had planned to tidy it anyway before martha and him moved in, so by coming a week early to do it he makes it seem like it's all our faults. what would've been wrong with - "hey guys, i've cleaned the house. it'd be ace if we could try and keep it tidy. i need your student cards for council tax and we need to sort out the electricity bill. tom"? honestly. what thought went into "i really need to underline please, otherwise it won't sound condescending enough". and he's done stuff like go through the fridge and throw out food, which includes half a jar of pasta sauce opened the day before yesterday which i was to have for dinner (i currently have 50p in the whole world - dinner is a valuable commodity). he hasn't even lived here for six months, honestly why start off like that?
and then today i had a dissertation meeting, the final one with jon. he had read through the latest draft of my chapter about sin city, and had lots of suggestions but was really positive about it. he said it says some important things about the digital technology. we talked for like an hour, and i felt quite accomplished and really good about it all.
and then he mentioned phd funding. i've applied to the same body who gave me a grant for this year, hopefully to get a 3-year phd scholarship. i've done pretty well this year and have a decent proposal, but he added "we've only had one candidate in five years who has been awarded the scholarship whilst in the process of completing their MA". argh! what am i going to do next year then! yikes, that is quite scary.
up, down, up down.
i did so you think you're funny last night at tattershall castle in london. tattershall castle is a BOAT moored on the thames! how cool is that! SYTYF is probably the biggest new act competition in the country - they have heats all across the country and then have the semi-finals and the finals in edinburgh. my friend emma got to the final last year, but then again she is ace. i had a really, really good time actually. julia - who is the woman who runs it - gave a really good talk before hand. she said that they were "looking for reasons to take people to edinburgh, not to not take them", and that the competition didn't really matter that much, because if you are going to do well in comedy then you will do so anyway. because they don't announce the winners on the night (they choose 64 semi-finalists from all the heats put together), it didn't have the same competitiveness as the other competitions i've done. there were some really nice and very funny other acts on, and i generally had a really great night. my stuff went well, i felt like i put my all into the performance and i got lots of laughs and one small round of applause for a joke, which made me dead happy. it did sort of tail off to the end, so it probably won't be strong enough for the semi-finalists, but it was such a nice night that i don't care. pete, neon and flavia came to watch which was ace of them.
then i got home at about 3am, and the house was absolutely spotless. top to bottom cleaned, it looks like no-one lives here. the reverend is moving back in next week, and he'd obviously done some groundwork. i haven't written about him for a while, but he'd pretty much moved to his girlfriend's house and only graces our presence every sunday at 6pm to watch the simpsons on the cable tv before going again. i've barely seen him for six months, literally. on the table was a note, i'll copy it in full:
"dear guys, this is a plea. i've tidyed/cleaned the downstairs today and it was appalling. i'm sick from the mould, the smell and the dirt and i've spent hours scrubbing, hoovering and shifting your stuff. please keep the house reasonable for the rest of our time here - that means washing up your stuff, hoovering weekly and keeping the bathroom clean (and picking up hair, toilet rolls etc when you've left them on the floor). it's simple and easy. it only gets tough when you leave it for months on end. also, can you leave photocopies of your student cards on my desk asap and have a look at the electricity bill on the table (we'll talk about that soon). thanks. i hate doing this but it's unfit to live in and it's unfair to wait for me to do it. tom."
i have several issues with this note. yes, the house was pretty bad (although not as bad as he describes, i've been washing up daily for instance). but why does it have to be so patronising? i felt guilty enough that he cleaned our mess, but this sort of rubs it in a little too thickly. pete and i had planned to tidy it anyway before martha and him moved in, so by coming a week early to do it he makes it seem like it's all our faults. what would've been wrong with - "hey guys, i've cleaned the house. it'd be ace if we could try and keep it tidy. i need your student cards for council tax and we need to sort out the electricity bill. tom"? honestly. what thought went into "i really need to underline please, otherwise it won't sound condescending enough". and he's done stuff like go through the fridge and throw out food, which includes half a jar of pasta sauce opened the day before yesterday which i was to have for dinner (i currently have 50p in the whole world - dinner is a valuable commodity). he hasn't even lived here for six months, honestly why start off like that?
and then today i had a dissertation meeting, the final one with jon. he had read through the latest draft of my chapter about sin city, and had lots of suggestions but was really positive about it. he said it says some important things about the digital technology. we talked for like an hour, and i felt quite accomplished and really good about it all.
and then he mentioned phd funding. i've applied to the same body who gave me a grant for this year, hopefully to get a 3-year phd scholarship. i've done pretty well this year and have a decent proposal, but he added "we've only had one candidate in five years who has been awarded the scholarship whilst in the process of completing their MA". argh! what am i going to do next year then! yikes, that is quite scary.
up, down, up down.