Something else

I think I must be becoming one of these elusive 'morning' people. Lately I need to complete anything worth doing before about 8 pm, the time at which my brain seems to put on flannelette pyjamas and tuck itself into bed for the night. Unfortunately my outer self has to often remain present and functioning past this time, which is rather awkward.

I had a segue here involving the word 'strategy', but rewording of the above paragraph has seen the disappearance of that word (feel free to insert it somewhere in your reading). Nevertheless, my point is: I need a freaking strategy to get through the next 5 weeks. I could launch a torrent of whiny explanation as to why my uni schedule is so unfair and has resulted in me having less than the supposed 'minimum' study time before my biggest scariest exam, but nobody cares that much, and that's pretty much the gist of it there anyway. GIST. Remember when that word had could be used innocently in a sentence without bringing to mind academic arguments about what constitutes THE GIST OF NEGLIGENCE? I don't.

Happiness, but with a tinge of something... else:

Being presented with 'a smo gift!' of chocolates while proof-reading and correcting grammar on a Chinese lady's nursing assignment. Happiness, because: CHOCOLATE. The gift made me feel a little guilty and spurred me on to be all the more stringent with my under-the-table editing work. However, I sometimes I have a tinge of doubt when checking these international students' assignments, because, well, how far can I go? Adding a forgotten 's' to a verb, sure, but what about paraphrasing an entire sentence? Do I stop at 'understandable, if oddly-phrased', 'could have a nicer style, but at least sounds like a native speaker' or a level at which I would submit in writing for myself? (which would be 'SUPER AWESOME', naturally). However, the fact that my level of involvement was decided by the presence of Sweet Oz branded chocolate kisses pretty much shows how much thought I put into that moral dilemma tonight.


Being repeatedly asked by the American guy to go out with him and his mates, or to join them while they drank and played cards on the balcony. Happiness, because he's funny and I'm not going to complain about the attention of a cool guy. Something else, because... I'm a little awkward when it comes to balancing this out-of-work socialising with guests, how late could I stay, what with my parents picking me up from the bus stop, clearly I wasn't dressed for going out on town, etc etc. He said he would give me money for a taxi home if necessary, haha. Anyway, one of my friends was in town for a politics meeting and happened to pick me up, so I didn't end up joining him. I went out to the balcony to say goodbye though, and then kind of wished I hadn't because I just wanted to stay out with them as they smoked and joked and chilled out. I'd gone out to join them for a minute as a social gesture, but to be leaving straight away just made me feel even more anti-social. To top it off, the guy is now moving to the other hostel with his friends, because they get a cheaper rate, and I didn't realise until after they had gone that I could have offered them the cheaper rate too! My call! Durr. The main reception girl is much more social than me, I feel, and I kind of don't want to be the cold one. Having said that, normally I have no qualms turning down social offers because the guys are kind of... feral... but this one I actually got along kinda well with. Oh well. He said he'd come back some time to say hi, so maybe if he does I'll shout him and his mates a little deal. They did say they liked the atmosphere of our hostel better.

Hopefully I can get some time off work soon, both jobs. My boss, in a discussion that highlighted many of his typical qualities (confident assurance, managing to avoid making concrete promises, and oddly sexual phrasing) breezily told me to just provide him with the dates I wanted off and he'd be look at 'massaging something into place'.