Up in the ivory tower

OK – so before you think I've got ahead of myself academically, I am not actually talking about the proverbial ivory tower. I am LITERALLY in an ivory tower. Well, its not really ivory – more limestone.

I am in study carrel 5, fourth floor clock-tower, Maughan Library, Chancery Lane. I am in the prime location carrel (with sunshine and a view). You have to get here before 9am to score this one – especially as exams are coming up. On the photo above, my windows are the two on the left – second from the top of the tower.

With one week left before a big assignment is due, I have banished myself to the tower. Books and papers surround me, my pencil case is full, no distractions, conditions are perfect for a productive day. But then there is always my blog………….

Below are the views I have. At least I have lovely views from my prison tower.

Can I see some ID please?

Emotions felt, when buying booze, and the cashier asks for ID...

17 yrs old - devastated

18 yrs old - triumphant (as you produce the ID)

23 yrs old - annoyed

28 yrs old - BRILLIANT!!!!

I got asked for ID when buying a bottle of wine at Sainsbury's yesterday - beautiful!

Glastonbury II

After a traumatic morning involving many hours of sitting in front of my computer refreshing the screen, with my landline on one ear, my mobile on the other – my dear friend Groova eventually managed to get us all tickets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There’s going to be about 15 of us, there’s going to be tents, there’s going to be (hopefully a bit of) sun, there’s going to be (hopefully not too much) mud, there’s going to be beer, wellies, music, dancing, and much festivities all round. I just can’t wait.

Below is a photo of Glasto 2005 – hahahahaha – I really hope this doesn’t happen to us :)

Glastonbury

I have a ticket.

Words fail me right now.

I can't believe it.

I have a ticket.

If

With less than 24 hours left before another essay is due in, I have decided to post a poem that I wrote a couple of months ago. I wrote it the day before a big essay was due in. Luckily tomorrows essay is not as big and important, so I am not feeling quite as desperate......... (hopefully you know the original)

If
(with sincere apologies to Mr. Kipling)

If you can keep your head when all around you
Are papers, books and half-drunk cups of tea
If you can trust yourself when doubt enfolds you,
That your argument is contradictory.

If an “outing” is a visit to the kitchen
If a “treat”s a game of online solitaire.
If you fail to recognize you in the mirror
As your red and bleary eyes look back and stare.

If you can stay awake and not be tired,
Or, being tired, don't give in to sleep,
Or, being awake, don't give way to hating,
And yet withstand the temptation to weep;

If you can quote - and not make these your master;
If you can think - and make those thoughts your own;
If you can turn to friends when in disaster
And waste a half an hour on the phone;

If you can make one heap of all the theories
And throw in a few of them - just for show,
And grapple with “reductionist” and “localism”
And decide on whether or not to quote Foucault;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To keep your sanity when reality is gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can bear to read the words you've written
And check the spelling, et al’s and ibid
Put your student number on the top right corner
And remember – omit your name or God forbid!

If you can fill the last possible minute
With sixty seconds' more of your conclusion -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And you’ll have handed in your essay - my son/daughter! (gender emphasis added)

Sizwe Banzi is Dead

Last Tuesday night, some friends and I went to see ‘Sizwe Banzi is Dead’ at the National Theatre.

If you haven't heard of it, the play was first performed in 1972 in Cape Town, written by a white South African playwright, Athol Fugard and two black South African actors, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, who played the two lead roles. They then took the play to London where it won the London Theatre Critics award for the best play of 1974 and has become one of South Africa's most important plays. The play explores the effects that controls such as the 'pass law' had on South Africans during apartheid.

The extraordinary thing about the production we saw was that it starred the original actors John Kani and Winston Ntshona playing their parts, 35 years after the first performance. They were phenomenal. I wonder how many times they have performed the play. They wrote it when they were affected by the oppressive laws that the play addresses. Writing the play was an act of defiance against the cruel apartheid regime and they have seen the play becoming an icon of the struggle. They have also seen South Africa become a democracy. Their performance was full of passion and you can tell that this play is part of them. I feel privileged to have seen them.

As I sat on the top deck of the bus going home after the play, I thought about some of the questions the play generates.

Questions of autonomy. How important is my name? How important is my identity? And for what would I give it up?

Also of freedom. I have had it all my life. I can go where I like. Do what I want. I have never had to question it. But this is not the case for many people all around the world. Oppressive regimes continue. And I shouldn’t take my freedom for granted.

I am going to take the easy option and end this post here. I don’t have any groundbreaking comments to say about this issue. All I can say is that I am thinking about it and where my role lies in the bigger picture. If nothing else, I at least aim to not be ignorant about what is going on and what has happened in recent times.

And if you haven’t seen or read the play, please do. It is brilliant.

You have entered wedding season

About three years ago it started. Wedding season. My friends began to get hitched. From thereon in, things would never be the same. And I don’t mean that my friends changed after getting married, I mean that I had to start planning my life months in advance around the various weddings to make sure I could attend. Now please understand, I am not complaining at all. Considering the last two weddings I went to were in Sri Lanka and Cape Town, it has been fantastic!

Now weddings are great places to observe fellow human beings and probably my favourite part is the dancing. The couple are married, the speeches are over, the guests have been fed, and everyone is finally relaxed and the real fun begins. There’s the shy, quiet guy from table 3 who turns out to be a demon on the dance floor, the old uncle who dances with every young girl in succession. And no matter what people’s music taste is outside of weddings – jazz, punk rock, classical – suddenly everyone’s favourite song is Bryan Adam’s “Summer of Sixty Nine” or any Abba track.

My first video on the blog is from a wedding I went to about a month ago and it is one of my favourite videos. The evening is coming to an end, there are probably only a dozen songs left to be played, everyone has had a few wines and is feeling quite happy with life and slightly tired after a long day. What I love about the video is how each person is in their own little world, doing their own little dance, happy to be in the circle (or not quite in the circle) but not taking any notice of anyone else and the song is an absolute wedding classic. I can watch this video over and over as it just makes me laugh each time. Unfortunately it’s come out a bit dark. Enjoy!!

P.S. When I posted this video on youTube, the site directed me to some other videos of dancing at weddings, and it led me to believe that perhaps the weddings I have been to have been quite tame. Below are my personal favourites. If any of you are at inclined towards wasting a bit of time on youTube, please have a look – you won’t be disappointed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYgTBRbhw0M&NR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPmYbP0F4Zw&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8BtiA13oPQ&NR