I just got the nicest comments back from my tutor...

She finally coughed up with my essay (the first copy of which having met with an accident with a shredder), and along with its sequel it was full of really ego-flattering comments like "Splendid", "Marvellous", "Tremendous", one to two pages of typed commentary for both of them, some interesting points on what I had to say, a suggestion that I start reading up on post-colonialism (I'm not sure exactly what post-colonialism is but I think I really ought to check it out, somehow) and finished it all with:

"I hope you'll go on with English - you'll maybe want to do the Post-Colonial theory course - and I hope you'll consider post-graduate study in English? I want to read more of your work."

This is like, amazingly awesome. It's been 6 hours since I read it and I'm still grinning about it.

I just wrote a really long and interesting post about my birthday and then the internet connection failed and it was all lost...

So I'll leave everyone with the news that I had a good birthday.

Also these words from my Latin teacher:
felicem tibi
natalem diem!
felicem, O Steph,
natelem diem!

My Essay Got Shredded ...

... and my tutor still hasn't marked the replacement, despite having had it for a full week.

I like getting feedback. I like someone who knows more than me suggesting how I could have argued my point better, or mentioning other sources that I'd find interesting, or even just telling me what they liked. I'm presumably going to get it back next Wednesday which will make it a full month since I handed the damn thing in in the first place. Man, this is annoying. There's nothing worse than feeling like you're throwing finely crafted words out into empty air. Phooey.

Well, Now I Know How It Feels To Be In The Middle Of A Car Crash...

The word 'middle' used advisedly. My brother and I were in the second car at a red light when someone piled into the back of us. I have a headache and had a sore neck. (Turns out my side got the biggest dent.) The latter got me a visit from an ambulance and a fire engine. I think the fire engine was marginally closer or something, but they both figured that if I was wondering around non-disorientated after 20 minutes the odds of me being concussed or having a broken neck were slight. So they asked me some more questions, poked at my neck a bit and offered me a ride in the ambulance if I wanted to have an x-ray. 3 hour queue. To be honest, my headache isn't that bad. It probably helped that I was cracking jokes and asking for a lolly pop. That was the entertaining part.

The non entertaining part was hanging around a closed petrol station for another hour waiting for the police to turn up. When we eventually re-called them, it turned out that the ambulance had said that there was no emergency and they'd taken us off their visit list. Without telling us about it. Bastards. Presumably someone else gets to deal with the abandoned car of the driver who started it all and which, when we left, was blocking the petrol truck from leaving.

Man, I'm tired. And I didn't even have a book to read.