I seem to be stuck in this language rut .. once I get an expression in my head I use it all the time. "Fantastic" .. "cool" .. and now "excellent". It is begining to annoy my friends and even me.

So I realise I have been ignoring this for a while and probebly the few readers I do have, have now forsaken me to other blogs ... I would weep but I don't care that much. Never the less I thought I should explain myself to you ..the internet .. my one true love.

So on the 19th of april I had to go to exeter to present a poster on the work I do for my phd .. there was one minor problem ... I didn't have any results (btw. this is a continuing problem now with the up coming IWCE conferance.) so I had to focus and actually do some work . Now those of you who know me intimately now this is quite hard for me. Partly because I am never happy unless I have a few things on my plate .. one thing will bore me ... but mostly cos I am a lazy time wasting <insert expletive>. but never the less, forsaking my reputation as a laziest person on the planet, I went about the work of research for a good couple of weeks only really taking time off to work and to see jen. This stint of hard work stopped on the 10th as that was the deadline for my poster. At which point I stopped faffing around with my code, tried to sort out my visa for austria and the promtly went on a tour of england..well southern england.
One of my mates sophie lives in hitchen which by surprising coincidence is also where jen lives. So this was the start of my great british journey.
I would like to take this oppertunity to say to all aspiring travellers that if you are planning a trip in england the place to start is not hitchen .. it is a hole .. it has some good people .. but it is still a hole ..I got a static page on the side you can read abotu it.
It was fun though. I got to see the places jen hangs out and she took me to a pub with loads of underage rock kids called "the white heart" or something.. I never felt so old b4. We also took a day in cambride wish was fun. I had a full breakfast there that was amazing .. served in a yorkshire pudding ..aww am now getting hungry just thinking about it.
Anyway after the party town on hitchen I went to stay with my aunt in claygate .. well an aunt of sorts .. I am not sure how we are related but I know we are. Around easter I gt quite home sick so it is nice to be around people u can count on as family.. I belive her daughter spent easter with my mum so it was some kind of child exchange programme. I got fed well and looked after. Spent some time with my 12 year old cousin ... wierd the way he is growing up.
During my stay in claygate I went to see a mate of mine in kent and spent the day in dover .. you can see the link on the side.
I also spent a bit of time with my cousin in london .. she is working toward being a charted accountant .. I don't think I ever really realised how cool she is. It was good to see her. In some ways I still remember her as this little girl that I used to see around my house in Zambia.
The last place on my little mini tour was exeter (link on the side) that was cool. Spent some time hanging out with rob ..that was cool.
Anyway so that is abotu everything .. I am sure I missed out bits but maybe l8r I will tell them all.

So I have added a few more pages about the places I went to..
check em out.

So not much to say .. been a little busy with phd and other stuff but not to worry will be adding stuff soon .. including my stupid easter trip all over southern england.
starting with the hitchen link.

it has been a good week ... a little bit of phd work, some ents work .. some exam invigilation and I finally got the new RAG web site up which is great, hopefully it will mean a lot less work for me as it is set up as a wiki. Was ment to spend some time in the rag office with sam showing her how to use it but sadly the university network's caching fucked it. Sam is a nice girl and I have known her for a while but I don't really know her. In fact the longest unrag related onversation I have had with her i think was @ speed dating. Though to be fair I suppose it is mostly my fault. I when I am in work mode I find it hard to conduct trivial conversation, especially when I know I am the one getting the work.

Also now I have done a couple of nights as a tech now and feel pretty comfertable about doing most stuff. It is a good opertunity to learn a new skill. So at lest I am having fun :)

Fruity was a bit shit this week. I have a theory that the only people that will leave thier house for a night out when it snows are the freaks .. did under a thousand on friday and I swear most of them were rude ..and generally didn't seem very nice.

I did have a brief encounter with a first year girl who I met in her second week at uni. She is quite cute. Seems a lot older now then when I first met her, strange that happens so much in first year.

Saturday was alright ... nothing great. I did get a chance to set up a couple of bands. Meh ..was alright.

Today was alright .. spent most of the day bashing shit out for nightline. The hardest part of most of these things is thinking up copy. Then I went to this weird photo exibition thing was alright though .. the people running it were alright so I had fun.

Right .. this isn't exactly a topical post but it had my killing myself laughing so I thought I would just put it out there anyway. During the presidential campaining in 2004 president bush was in an interviev and was asked a fairly simple question:

What do you think tribal sovereignty means in the 21st century and how do we resolve conflicts between tribes and the federal and state governments?

to which he replyed this

GEORGE BUSH: Tribal sovereignty means that, it's sovereign. You're a -- you're a -- you have been given sovereignty and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore, the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities.

and the went on to talk about education and health care.

Now this is funny but nothing compaired to the good reverend Jesse Jacksons reference to it:

BRENT MERRILL: As you saw today at the president's conference, the leader of the free world does not understand tribal sovereignty. What would you do in your estimation, Reverend, what would you do and how would you advise tribes to educate our folks, just exactly what tribal sovereignty is?

JESSE JACKSON: The President explained. You just didn't understand. Sovereignty is sovereignty. You understand? It's like in sovereignity. If you are on a reservation, you have been soverized. Your Ph.D. is in soverbication. You understand? I don't think you understand.

The man is my new hero!

Life has been a little slow at the moment. I think it is just I am finding it hard to get motivated about much, so I just wanna tell you about the things making me happy.

Firstly .. TV .. I cann't belive how much TV makes me happy. TV has become so bad over the years. Reality TV dominates my screen, from pop idols to house hunters to Bruce Noland's stupid show about boxes, but when there is something good on it really does make me happy. Currently it is Sports Night, West Wing and My name is Earl.

My room ... my little place in the world that is my own. Apart from the stuff in here I actually own nothing. This little piece of real estate is the only place in the world that is actually mine and the only place where i feel fully and completly at home.

Chinese food ... noodles, roast duck, roast pork, stir fry veg all of which combined make probably the tastiest cusine you can by in a silver foil box. This week i found Melati City and it is good.. soo good with the peaking ribs ..hmmmmm

Punters and people... I have met some cool people this week while at work. A lovely girl named tessa of whome I only talked to for a breif moment who made an impression just by her sheer simplicity of person. A girl I know who I don't really know ... I think I met her like 3 times and only talked to her twice and she likes the way I dance.

This post is not the most interesting for you I suppose ..but it has made me a little bit happier.

I have noticed recently that I am very procetive over my third world bretheren... In a few conversations over the last couple of days I have fervently defended them , their ignorances and their lifestyle. It is not always that I agree with it. In fact it is more then likely I agree with the attacker but, to paraphrase, nobody attacks my country but me.

I guess no matter how long I stay away or how far I travel I am still a third world child. There are great lyrics from johnny clegg in his song third world child. It has always been a favorite song of mine.