I am so bored!! I can't wait to start work on Thursday...who knew there would ever come a point when I would actually be saying that? But I really am bored, and tired of being cooped up in my room but too lazy to get dressed and go outside. Yaaawn...

SO the first ninth of my UK experience has passed. I should, before I move on, apologise for the hiatus. I have been harrassed by assignments and extracurriculars to no end...

Firstly, the assignments. Becaue I am taking some ambiguous arts course I don't have exams till the end of the year. Yaay!! On the flip side; I have enough essays to produce a small book not so yaay. Writing and writing and writing...and it's not like everything else has stopped happening either. Still got classes, still got other assignments and all that. Sheesh! (that's a Kenyan sigh of exasperation)

Juggling between that and leading a new society and being a member of an existing society, plus part time work and just generally trying not to go insane is pretty hard. I rely on miracles to make my day to day needs, which has worked out great so far, so why rock the boat?

On a happier note, I paid my first rent!! I'm so proud of my 20 year old self...you can't even imagine. And, I didn't go flat broke as a result, which means something must have gone right during the term!! I realise that this makes me a late bloomer in some countries but I think for a Kenyan girl that is pretty neat. Unfortunately rent is paid each month and not just when I can afford it so, I now have to get back to the salt mines for December...

Work does not seem to agree with me. I'm finally getting the hang of the hours (even though I forgot and was an hour late this week) but my body is staging a revolt. My feet are sore, my back hurts and I just feel rubbish. But I am so into the routine of push, push, push that after two days of Holiday I am ready to go back. The muscles of relaxation in me have atrophied and I just feel like I'm wasting time and I need to be out there...doing.

Which means for me that I end up eating...and eating...and eating. And spending money I don't have. Ah, its a vicious cycle, when I have money, I have no time to spend it, and when I don't have money, I have too much time to spend it.

Anyway, that was just a random collection of my thoughts from the last few days. I am pretty shattered but restless still, waiting to go back to work.

y'all be good, y'hear?

Hey loyal fan...This is a copy of a message I posted on another forum that unfortunately is not in public access. Its a response to something that was said to something I said...you'll get the gist as you read along.

Ola Elena! Que tal?

He he, that is just about the extent of my Spanish, so I will stop before I embarrass myself!!

You're probably right about what I said about economies, I don't think I expressed myself quite well in that post. What I meant to say was that Economics as we understand them are a creation of the minds. I think that even though the basic concept of exchanging goods and services is innate, and that we would end up doing it eventually. However, all this stuff about building the perfect economy and trying to sustain this model of the perfect economy is hogwash.

Think about it. Almost all governments in the world are slaved to the notion of achieving the perfect economy. In Britain, where they have (I think) the strongest currency in the world, they are not happy, governments are still elected on the platforms of creating a stronger economy or improving the economy. But improving it to what? You are already the best, what more could you possibly want?!

We aim for perfect demand matched with perfect supply to yield perfect prices in a perfectly competitive market and yet economists are the first to admit that because people are not perfect this will never be achieved. They admit that trade cycles are inevitable and the only things that governments and "economies" can do is adjust to them and hope for the best. People study for years on how to adjust to them, but they admit that nothing that they can ever do will ever stop them from happening.

In my brief affair with economics, I remember sitting in a class on economic models and asking my teacher , if we all know that all economies are doomed to failure then why do we keep trying?

I am not against the study of economics, or even trying to create the (unachievable) perfect economy. If anything it creates jobs and makes people think. I am, however, against the notion of trading off something so elusive and unacheivable for the lives of other people, and that is what I meant to say. Why should young men and women be sent to far off country's to kill other people, and possibly die themselves to secure more oil and make their country's economy stronger? Why should mercenaries be trained to topple governments, and then supported in oppressing other people, so that other economies can gain? (Think Angola, Afghanistan, The DRC, ...) (Also Sorry for the African examples that may be unfamiliar to some of you but African History is my thing!)

As for my examples, I'm sorry if they seemed ignorant. I must confess that I know little about Basque country and ETA beyond the claim for independence. I will do some more research before I make more claims, and if you have any websites that you want to recommend please post them or email them to me directly through the icon in the corner of the post.

I was just wondering, at what point does a regions claim for independence become legitimate and not just a group if unhappy people trying to upset the government? Why does East Timor gain independence after such a short time when Taiwan has been agitating for it for ages? Why does Eritrea get freedom but Western Sahara remain tied to Morocco? Does it have to be violent before it becomes worth listening to? If so, how much violence before it becomes too much?

In terms of news coverage, I find that the best thing is 1. know the history of the story. The story behind the story is often more interesting than the story itself. This means some extra work for you but the thing with world history is that patterns tend to repeat themselves all over. People are all the same inside...

2. Read/watch/listen widely. I check feed from Reuters, Yahoo, The Beeb (BBC), a Kenyan newspaper (The daily nation ; www.nationmedia.com ) and CNN. Web logs (blogs)are also a good place to get information although they can be a bit risky.

3. Get the news but do your own analysis. The people who own media corporations usually have their own interests at heart, and even though we may not see it, there is usually a lot of lobbying and censorship that goes on in the background. Don't necessarily watch analysis programmes unless they are actually interviewing people who are in the news. A good one for this is Hardtalk on the BBC World service, and Larry King on CNN.

I know it sounds like a lot of work, and I have to confess I only got into this routine because I took History for my national exam, but it really helps you develop your own impressions about what is going on in the world, and once you get into the habit, it just flows naturally. I never leave the house before I look at my news feeds, even when I am late. Plus it kicks in nicely in exams when you need examples to back up a claim.

Finally (phew!) I think its really great that we are thinking along the lines of one life at a time. Its the best approach and to that one person, you've made a world of difference.

Wow, what a long boring post...I wonder how you ever made it this far??! Your life must be just as dull as the one of the person who wrote it!

What do you, my one reader, think? Let me know.

So its cold. Not just pull on a jumper cold, like in Nairobi, but more "Good gracious, do lecturers really expect me to go out in this weather??!!" Cold. I am beginning to forget what 26 degrees centigrade felt like, even 12 degrees here is cause for minor celebration. Wierdly enough though, it is nothing like the cliches that they show on postcards or anything. The grass is still green and even though the leaves have fallen from the trees, there's still enough left over for the trees to look like...well...trees.

Another season that's changing is in my country. We are in the throes of a monumental referendum. I am so nervous half of the time and I keep logging onto the Kenyan newspaper websites www.nationmedia.com to find out what exactly is going on. I am praying for peace above all else, because Kenya unfortunately has a history of electoral violence. Even though it never directly interfered with my rather sheltered suburban life, its was still cause for enough concern.

There is also the changing season within myself. I feel like I am finally coming into my own, and finding my way in this place. I am still broke, horrendously so, but I don't worry so much about it. We have navigated into familiar waters; deadlines, essays, research papers - these are all things with which I have considerable experience. I feel more confident, and I have found a rock on which I can biuld my university years on.

I have also discovered an unusual skill that is coming in handy in my new larger yet strangely more crowded flat. I have learnt how to switch my intellect on and off. When people patronise me I rarely notice, and when I do I smirk on the inside and just let it slide off. It comes in handy because I can communicate on their level and still communicate on the level I feel I am at without patronising or looking down on people. Which from that statement sounds like a double standard, but think of it as a teacher in a nursery school..get the picture?

So yeah, the seasons are changing. Funny thing with changes is that they're rarely bad or good. They just are, know what I mean?

What is the single most stupid thing you have ever done? And I don't mean in the metaphysical "not taking all the chances I had" sense, I mean in the everyday "no, hon, putting the cat in the microwave was not a good idea" sense. Can't think of anything? Let me help you out.

In the last week I have forgotten to go to work. Three times. That is three separate incidences when I have completely forgotten to go to work. Today, I was supposed to work three hours, from 5 to 8, and I completely forgot until about 10:30. I have absolutely no valid excuse; its not like I was doing something else, I just completely forgot. I mean the thought of working was not even within 50km of the atmosphere of my mind.

Has this ever happened to any of you or am I just a freak of nature? Am I just exhausted or is this a sign of things to come? Am I going to grow into one of those mothers who leaves their kids at school while they sit at home, thinking "I know there's something I'm supposed to be doing but I just don't know what it is!"? Am I just not cut out for the nine to five? Should I start looking into alternative employment?

Argh! Its so frustrating! I blame the weather. Its messed up my entire thought process. What do you think?