Journeys Ahead!

My new passport has arrived! I've not seen it yet, I just got a text before from home to say that it had arrived. Considering that there was a three day strike of passport office workers this week and that I only sent my application off last Wednesday morning I'm really amazed and surprised that it is back. It was sent to me by special recorded delivery (for security), but then half an hour later I got another text to see that my old passport had arrived back through the normal post. Quite surprising, I would have thought that they burned them after they had expired and you had your new passport, but never mind.

Some time next week I will post side-by-side pictures of the passport photos, show you how I have changed in ten years; the new picture is terrible - the old one was terrible because I was so young in it, but at least I was able to smile in the picture! Under the new guidelines for passports in the UK you are not allowed to smile for your passport photo, meaning that I look like a real misery in mine...

If my thesis corrections are ever confirmed then perhaps I can make some holiday plans for the coming months. I've just finished reading about a happy little trip in "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome; I've heard about it before, and my decision to read this was influenced by the wonderful "To Say Nothing of the Dog" by Connie Willis which I read last year (a great time travel story, and also incredibly funny). It's quite a whimsical little story, and the meandering plot and observations of the narrator really draw you in.

On the train this morning I started reading "The Search for the Dice Man" - the sequel to "The Dice Man" by Luke Rhinehart - which I picked up for £1.25 in a charity shop a few weeks ago. I read "The Dice Man" nine years ago (almost to the day, now that I think about it) and thought it was a very interesting book. I'll let you know my thoughts on the sequel when I've finished it in a few days. Still have a short stack of books to read, but I also have a growing list of books that I've spotted on Amazon that I want to get. Seeing as how I'm probably not going on holiday in the next month I'm debating treating myself to a big stack of summer reading to get my teeth into.

Seven down... Ninety-four to go. Am hoping to get maybe another three things ticked off by the end of the summer. One of the maths things might be within my grasp, and am also probably going to get around to selling stuff on eBay in the next few weeks.

Onwards and upwards...

Yes Man

Yesterday I finished "Yes Man" by Danny Wallace, and it's a book that has really given me food for thought. Having read both "Yes Man" and his previous book "Join Me" I feel like Danny and I would really get on where we to meet in a pub. He has a really positive attitude, and a real determination to stick with things, and those are qualities that I wish I had more of.

Reading "Yes Man" has definitely made me feel better about 101/1001; whenever I tell people about 101/1001 I get a mix of responses between "Oh wow, that's interesting" to a bemused sort of look on their faces - since I first started thinking about this around six months ago I've only spoken to one person who has said, "Oooooh, I think I'll do that!" At times it feels like a really silly thing to be doing, and at times I think why did I put that on my list, I'm never going to get that done! But now I'm thinking Yes, come on, this is great! And all because of seeing what happens when one man says yes to every opportunity that comes his way for six months!

Still not heard anything back from my examiners about my corrections, though have no idea how long it could take. A few weeks? Let's hope...

Applied for one of the jobs in Edinburgh, and added my CV to a jobs site. One more application, then I'm leaving it. Let August 10th come around and then I'm going full steam ahead with the holiday and private tuition plan.

What else? Oooh, well, I've been working on the "stacked 4-tangle" problem that's in my list (and which, when I figure out the answer, I will explain in layman's terms for you all!) this week, and have made a bit of progress. When I submitted my corrections earlier in the week I celebrated by going home and immediately starting my replay of Metal Gear Solid 2, which has brought me a lot of happiness in the evenings this week. Waiting for my passport to arrive... 10 days or so and then in theory I can just leave the country and go travelling!

And as usual, lots of ideas for things that I'm just not writing down... This is something that I need to work on in the coming weeks.

Let's go!

Passport renewal and general excitement

I sent off my passport renewal application this morning! Finished my corrections to my thesis yesterday - I hope, sent them off to my examiners and so am waiting - and decided it was time to start cracking on with some of my 101 things, or I'll never get anything done by the time I turn 30.

Started back on the job application front, looking at three things at the moment; but at the same time I want to do a little bit of travelling in September. I guess I have to set a kind of deadline: something along the lines of if I don't have an interview/job by August 10th then I'm just going to book the flights and be done with it.

Is that last line binding?!?!

I've had four people in total so far say that they would like a postcard! (I crossposted to my other blog and a site that I belong to) Any more takers?

I have my preview ticket for The Dark Knight next Wednesday, and I think I might take this Friday afternoon off to go and WALL-E. It's quite cool that the two films I've been looking forward to the most in the last year are coming out within a week of each other in the UK, although I wonder what that really leaves me to look forward to cinema-wise...

Just finished reading a really interesting book by a guy called Danny Wallace. "Join Me" chronicles what happened when the author placed a classified ad in a local London paper that simply said "Join Me, send a passport photo to this address..." It's brilliant, at first people join with no idea of what they are joining - indeed, Danny has no idea what they're joining! - and then, as events unfold things get stranger and stranger, inviting people who have joined to perform random acts of kindness on Fridays.

I'm about halfway through his next book, "Yes Man," which details six months of his life where he says yes to every opportunity that comes his way. Incredibly brave, very funny and something that pulls on the heartstrings in places. Might finish that this evening, don't think I've got anything else going on tonight. I picked up a few books at a charity shop at the weekend, so have a nice little pile to get through.

"Anna Karenina" stares at me from the shelf saying You said you would read me Nathan... Why haven't you read me? It's been five years... Sigh. I should read it some time this summer.

That's all for today! If I crack on with job applications tomorrow I think I might do something to spruce the blog up a bit.