A much needed break

I really need this and please don’t even start telling me that I shouldn’t be blogging at these crucial moments. I left the house at 0730 this morning and now it is already 1803 to be exact. And Kak Teh these days is not like the normal Mak Cik Kak Teh, dragging her feet. Now, she struts around with a heavy rucksack on her back, with all manner of literature books and journals weighing almost a ton. Yet, there’s a certain spring in her steps as she jumps on the number Seven and enjoys a quiet bus ride to the uni before the crazy crowd gets in.

Yes, I was here at the uni at eight am and I had to shout out and tell someone. So I sms’ed Jane Sunshine to boast about it. She, the poor dear, was still tucked comfortably under her duvet for she replied a few hours later, after I had booked my computer in the lab and walked around Russel Square looking for a decent breakfast. I had tuna sandwich and coffee at an Italian, while listening to Radio Two in the background.

The computer lab was dark and deserted when I got here. There was evidence that someone must have slept the night there and left early. I felt like the morning shift cleaner. Anyway, I couldn’t take any chances as the adrenalin was fast flowing and so were the words, ten thousand of them all waiting to rush out through my two fingers on to the screen - in which order I don’t know yet, but they are all there, believe me!

(I simply cant work at home. Jasper likes to jump on to the computer table and totally block the screen. Tabby sits on the books and Snowbell pulls my hand away to stroke her.)

The concourse of the university is looking nice with trees in full bloom and there were two Bhuddist monks – a tad early for the conference that they are attending here. It’s a shame I couldn’t enjoy the sunshine outside but there’s a more pressing task I need to attend to. So, I switched on the computer and ignoring the stern warning from my buddy in Aberdeen, I came straight here. My blog. Its just bad habit and I am a creature of bad habit. Too old to change.

Yeah, today I managed something ( a lot really) in spite of numerous frantic sms’es from Blabs who wanted to postpone her flight back to Malaysia and phonecalls from children. Then there’s a surprise call from hubby, who was somewhere in Jalan Mesjid India in search of a barber. He called because he thought I might want to listen to a song by a group of blind singers performing there. And I obliged and listened for a while, imagining him holding up his handphone in the air for me to get a good reception. Thanks AG, that really inspired me. He duly reported on the state of his hair and badly needed a haircut. I told him I badly needed to get on with my work.

I made several trips to the library – which is only a floor away and carried more books and suitably impressed the people around me with the number of reference books on my table. They, needless to say, are no longer at that stage of referring to books. They have drafted their dissertation and are mostly on to revising and editing. Oh well! These young eager students…what do they know, eh?

Oh, what would we do without programmes that offer footnotes, grammar and spell check and word counts? I love it. After every other paragraph I’d do a word count. Very encouraging! But the damn spell check – every time I typed out a sample of my syair that contained sayang or datang, the smart aleck changed it to saying or dating. And then had the audacity to tell me that the computer is not equipped to cope with that much Finnish vocab!

Then, when I hit a certain number of words, I sms’ed hubby : “Hooray eight thousand to go!” (By the way, the phone dictionary does not do Hooray – u’ll have to type it manually)

I visited several blogs – Lydia posted a new one, about her winning tickets to a concert. And at one point I caught her testing photobucket and there was this gigantic picture of Lydia Teh staring at me from the screen. In fact she later told me there were two big ones!

Okay, everyone is leaving and the guard has come to tell us we have only 15 minutes left. I am feeling quite, quite drained. And this only means one thing. I need my supplements. The number Seven goes past Tawana and I badly need an overdose of Thai Laksa.

ps
Several *&^%$£!! hours later.....
Have you ever felt like kicking yourself? The euphoric feeling of having accomplished something yesterday was replaced by exactly that kind of feeling. Apparently, what I had been saving, was not saved on to the computer. So, when I attached the file to send to myself ( to continue the work at home) I noticed that it had only several paragraphs. Uwueeeeeek!
Luckily, luckily, I had the presense of mind to print. If not my prof will never believe that I had done something. I know, cos I have had that kind of excuses from my students before..."Sorry Miss, I did it but something wrong with the computer!"

My Thai Sing Laksa
So, came back last night and drowned my sorrows in four bowls (yes!) of Thai Sing Laksa!