Revolutionary Rants

New Labour have lost out in two further by-elections over night. One to an independent, in Wales, and the other - a safe Tory seat - to, you guessed it, the Tories!

The sun is blazing here in North Devon. Fantastic. It is Chicken’s half day, too, so he’ll get to enjoy a bit of it. And, we built our pub bench last night, so we could, should we desire to, sit outside for our tea. We’re off for lunch in a bit, too, with my bro’, Alex.

It will be quite a busy weekend, what with the England match tomorrow - for which I shall produce nann breads and tarka dhal - and then some old friend visiting from Ireland. We meet them (for the first time, for me, since the end of my first year at univeristy, and for Chris the first time ever!) for shopping in Barnie tomorrow and then Sunday lunch followed by a trip to the wilds of Exmoor or something similar. And in between we shall enjoy plenty of relaxing ,we hope, and possibly sit at our pub bench a bit…

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It is back to the thesis now, slowly but surely. Reading Nozick himself now, which is - as with most philosophical tomes - rather heavy and boring. Luckily I have Yorkshire tea to keep me going.
The house is nearly there, with jsut the sitting room needing a bit of cosmetic work.

The pub bench for the garden now has two coats of varnish, one to go (hopefully later, Nozick permitting).

Best of all, the sun is peeping around the clouds again. Always cheers me up!

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I have just finished the new P D James, The Lighthouse. Usually James is my favourite of the crime writiers I read and I especially like the Dalgliesh books, so I was really looking forward to reading it. Sadly, I found it a little bit disappointing. The writing was still excellent - in particular in the world of crime writers, naming no names (ahem, Elizabeth George, ahem) - as always managing to be hugely discriptive without using many words, but the plot, thqat lacked James’ usual brilliance.

Dalgliesh seemed half out of it and, as I have always found his officers - Kate Miskin and Benton-Smith - rather unbelievable as characters go, I found their vaugue developments rather annoying. The set-up of the novel was exciting and swept one along, but then, once the murder was commited the scene - an isolated island - left one feeling the lack of suspects. It all ended up rather Agatha Christie, including the conclusion of the story.

Shame, really… Not a patch on The Murder Room.

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Despite my heritage I am for the first time attempting to cook Irish stew today. Before you all cry ‘but, you are a vegertarian Jess!’, it is my Dad’s organically reared, free-range, joyously lived lamb that I am using. So far it is proving very difficult. Large hunks of neck are cooking away, and I hope the meat will come off during the process.

We shall see…

Chris and I had a bad alarm accident today. Our clock radio is an annoying beast, which only has a 12 hour clock, supplying the post-twelve pm hours with a dot to indicate they are ‘PM’. We had managed to set the 7am alarm for 7pm. Not good. Still, Chris managed ot hurry in at 9am and will work through his lunch, so not too bad I suppose. A bit of a shocker though, to wake up at 8:19am!

All the furniture is now up. Chris did the wardrobe as apparently my shouting was not helpful at all…

We enjoyed the game (well, I did and Chicken played on the computer!) yesterday at my brother’s, and then all partook of a BBQ. Well, my Dad and I had BBQ peppers (lovely) and everyone else had BBQ meat! It is so nice to be based near the family now, having someone to watch the footie with a spend a long Sunday afternoon in the company of.

We are in love with our house - it is just so nice to have an upstairs!!! Strange it should be so exciting, but after being students for years and years it is… We are also liking Devon, and even though it is raining today I am still delighted by the fact you can hear seagulls crying out almost everyday. I always wanted to live near the sea!

I am missing Yorkshire accents loads though, I still can’t get to grips with being called ‘my love’ when it should be ‘duck’ (Mansfield) or something similar! Even more scary, my nephew and niece have started calling woodlouse “chiggy pigs”!!!!!!!!!

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I have just had a very pleasent sandwich at Chambers in Barnstaple. I liked it there, good service and food. Now I am going to be sad and have a cup of Yorkshire tea and watch Coach Trip (so bad it is almost good, in its own weird kitsh way…).

The wardrobe is waiting for Chris and I to build up in our room, and the shelving/bedside tables are growing… slowly. Very. The screws are too short, in my opinion.

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After my success in building all three pieces of the ’scroll package’ yesterday (shelves, TV table and coffee table) I am today faced with a much more fearsom character: the three pieces of bedroom furniture!

I even got my head around the fact that the instructions to the coffee table omited an entire step and that some screws did not have holes to screw them in to, but this is another matter. Rarely have I seen such a plethora of small pieces of identical pine (which all stink, by the way, or something relating to pine but not quite), never held so complex looking matching canvas coverings…

I shall report back later whether I have been successful in my Crusade-like endevors (hey, I had to have a reason for mentioning a lion in the title, didn’t I?!).

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A rather odd thing to post about, but anyway… For the first time in my life I am actually constructing flat pack furniture, and it is on my own. Chris popped home from a busy day at work for a quick cheese and ham (boo-hiss) sandwich and assisted briefly with the ’scroll bookshelf’ from our new ’scroll set’ from Argos, but other than that I have built all on my own! I am strangly uplifted and proud of this.

Which is a good thing because it is keeping my mind off the fact that, also for the first time in my life, I own my own furniture - well, half own in anyway, as, even more scarily, the other half is owned by the adult person I share my life with…

God, feels like a flash back moment in Lost, better stop before I find myself robbing someone, or a bank, or even more likely, nursing someone back from the dead…

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Just to say briefly (there is still a lot of unpacking and a lot of building of shelves and wardrobes to go!!!) that CHRIS GOT A FIRST CLASS DEGREE!!!!!!!!!

One slight slip up on an exam did not prevent a highly deserved First for Mr Boot. Now we both have one - how show-off-ish is that?!

Well done to anyone else who get their degree today - in other words congratulations Andy and Dan!!!

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We are moved!

It was a long, hot journey in our van down the M6 and M5, passing crashes, over-heatings and avoiding the clog between Taunton and Wellington, but here we are.

Chris is now at work, and there is much unpacking still to be done, so this is short and sweet. More later, if your lucky!

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I will post again soon, but we are incredibly busy just at the moment. We have moved the move forward to this weekend, and this, along with an entire day of interview on Friday is proving heavy going…

Must pack, be back sometime soon (a.k.a next week)!

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