Last weekend I spent more time in Birmingham (which is still as horrible as I remember it) for Power Up 2007, run by Friends of the Earth. It was a good, albeit short, time away from Manchester—the workshops were informative, the food was great (as is always the case at FoE events—why can’t classics conferences with much bigger budgets manage to get this right?) and I met lots of new people because it wasn’t an event targeted at FoE members. Having said that, I was still recognised by several members of staff, probably because I’ve been to so many conferences/events now.
On the MA front, I’ve got my two Latin exams out of the way. The first one went quite well, as I’d worked really hard on memorising all the endings for the various declensions, so I think I will have passed that without too much trouble. Unfortunately the extended paper (which I had to take as an MA student) this week was horrible – not only did the translations not make sense but translating to/from Latin required the use of vocabulary that we hadn’t got to in class. Thankfully Tom felt the same way (as did Ben and Jonathan about the Greek), and we ended up bitching about it over lunch in the union afterwards. I nearly shoved Ben down the union steps for referring to me as a socialist (please tell me I’ve not gone that far left!) when he saw a poster for an SWP event though. 🙂 I still haven’t got a topic for my dissertation, which is beginning to worry me somewhat, although I’ve got some books out of the library to look at so hopefully some inspiration will come to me.
Today I’ve spent nine hours packing up stuff in the Manchester FoE office ready for when we move next week, which is the main thing occupying my mind at the moment. I’d forgotten how much effort it was to pack everything, though with the help of several other people we managed to get most of it done—the only problem now is physically moving the material across Manchester (I can’t hire a van as I don’t have a driving licence). The Royal Mail also can’t redirect our mail because we share a letterbox with other organisations, despite the fact that they can do this for residential addresses, which means spending more time informing everyone that we’ve moved. I will be so relieved when this is all done and we’re in a shiny new office with better facilities and proper security.
There’s nowt wrong with being a socialist – or even anarchist 😛
At least, one that’s not aligned to pointlessness like organised political parties (Respect/SWP I’m looking at you)
Complain about the exam if lots of you found it hard – it may have been set at a too-high level. And seeing as you/others may be paying for the MA it’s your right to complain about standards /student welfare advice mode
Speaking of anarchists, I seem to remember getting a higher score than you on one of those memes a while ago. 😉
I don’t want to grumble too much about the exam because I need to stay on good terms with everyone in the department until I have my degree in writing. I don’t want to cause trouble this close to the end of my degree.
Oi lefty
your not a socialist at all your just an extreme communist who makes stalin look like a pussy cat! 😉
When have you got to move by? I might be able to help.
We’re moving this Saturday, that is assuming I can find a removal van and someone to drive it!
I shall ignore the earlier part of your comment. 😛
Ok – sorry cant help as still very much at uni uni at that point
Why would you want to ignore that comment Paul?
“Why would you want to ignore that comment Paul?”
Because I refuse to rise to the bait of you calling me a extreme communist. 😉
This is juvinile shit isn’t it – When I lived in Manchester we used to long for the students to go home for the summer, because that was when the real parties happend and only a few of the students who stayed on or had a clue about life outside of their cosseted Fallowfied retreats would come, and they were known and respected – As for Socialism, you haven’t a clue so tied up with your freinds of the earth Liberal secterians, Green revolutionaries my arrrrse!
chuckle I’m sure there must be people scanning for the word ‘Socialism’ because whenever I mention it there’s always an amusing (though delayed) comment which often tries to be offensive but usually fails to do so in any kind of way which involves wit or style.