Welcome to my perfumed garden

... And ready to go. We have a morning session on what, I know not. And another video, then we're having a picnic. I hope I manage to stay awake.

A hellish night, with a bunch of drunken American students standing in the quad outside my room, yelling and screaming at each other till 4 in the morning - then they came into halls and began banging doors and yelling at each other in the corridors for another hour or so. By 5 I gave in and got up - at least I didn't have to wait for a shower ::G::

I'll miss the course, but I certainly won't miss halls. I feel like I'm getting out of prison today.

... on the permaculture course ::sniff::

Another wonderful day of friendship and learning about stuff. We spent the morning on design, had a fantastic slide and talk this afternoon on Mike's many amazing projects in the tropics. Brilliant and inspirational, and full of anecdotes about the fabulous characters he's met and been involved with in all the many years he's been doing this stuff. I loved every second of that.

Earlier, we were discussing our chosen projects with each other in a class situation - and what a groove that was. It's been one of the best things about the course, for me - that such a disparate group of souls - male and female in pretty equal numbers, raging from eighteen to fifty two, with backgrounds/jobs including a rights-officer from Hackney, a park ranger, a former chicken farmer turned organic gardener, an IT consultant who's giving it all up to do a masters degree at the Centre for Alternative Technology and a maker and seller of crafts, wands and raw food; mostly we're from London, but also Bristol, Lincoln, New York and Gdansk - and we've all got on so unbelievably well! As Judith (the maker of wands, etc) said today - you can so feel the love on this course; we're not only learning from our tutors but from each other as well and if that all sounds terribly hippie-trippy and a little gag-inducing, well, I can't apologise - it's all true and I'll be bloody sorry to leave tomorrow.

The weather promises to be hot and dry, so after the final lecture tomorrow, we're having a picnic - everyone's bringing something we can all share. I caught the minibus to the mini Tesco in Oakwood for the last time tonight, to get some houmous, veggies and crisps. After the picnic, we say our goodbyes and I get on the tube to London for a train to Three Bridges, where I'll be spending the weekend withsuemc and alibongo, amongst others, then home to Withnell on Sunday. Looking forward to getting home and seeing Mark again, but, gosh golly, I shall miss this place and these people.

More sitting around outside, head in hands, waiting for the fire brigade.
Sigh...

Mike passed my bloody essay around the class as an example of excellence. Talk about wanting the ground to open...
I mean, had it actually been excellent, I would have pretended to be embarrassed but been secretly pleased.::VBG:: Since it was actually a fairly mediocre effort, IMO (I mean, I didn't even really answer the question!) I was genuinely embarrassed.Nonononono!!!!!

Anyway... the weather having stayed balmy and gorgeous, we're having an everyone-contributes-something-vegan goodbye picnic, Friday, so tomorrow, after school, I'll have to go to Tesco's and grab some wine, veggies and houmous; taking the minibus into Oakwood for the last time. Sob!!! As Judith - the hippiest, New Ageiest person on the course, said, today; "I'm going to cry for a week when it's over.I don't ever want it to end." I know just how she feels. I feel I've made friends for a lifetime. It's been a fabulous experience.

It's so, so hot this evening - we had all our lectures outside, under the giant cedar tree,  which radically improved my alertness level this afternoon. We finished the day with another fantastically inspiring video from Bill Mollison aka, the God of Permaculture. If you have any interest at all in the concept and practice of sustainability, do seek out Bill's videos. The books are great, but to see the man talking about Pemaculture is just amazing.

MMMMMM! That was the best mango I've eaten since I left Cuba, and I do love a good mango (o: I've discovered the best little shop that sells fantastic fruit and veg and have gone a bit nuts. What with that and the abundance of wild cherries around here - I can't stop eating. I'll be big as a house when I leave. They'll have to crane me out of the window.

It's blustery and wild here today. I was going to stroll into Cockfosters for bagels this morning, but I couldn't be bothered to fight the weather. Instead, I stayed home, in my dim little room, listening to the scary wind in the big trees and wrote my essay;

HOW WOULD YOU USE THE PRINCIPLES AND ETHICS OF PERMACULTURE TO MAKE YOUR LIFE MORE SUSTAINABLE? Think about what you consume and what ecological impact this has. How could you reduce your impact?

...in less than 1,000 words. Did it in 981. Go me. Hee!

What Your Soul Really Looks Like

You are a wanderer. You constantly long for a new adventure, challenge, or eve a completely different life. You are a grounded person, but you also leave room for imagination and dreams. You feet may be on the ground, but you're head is in the clouds. You believe that people see you as larger than life and important. While this is true, they also think you're a bit full of yourself. Your near future is a lot like the present, and as far as you're concerned, that's a very good thing. For you, love is all about caring and comfort. You couldn't fall in love with someone you didn't trust.

Who writes these things? It's full of typos! You're head is in the clouds indeed! tut tut tut! ::G::

trying to avoid hearing the cup final result, because

PEOPLE KEEP TRYING TO TELL ME ABOUT TONIGHT'S DOCTOR WHO!!!

I'm in the university halls of residence. There is NO TV. I haven't seen DW yet, nor will I till next Sunday, when I return home to where my beloved has carefully recorded it onto the HDR for me. So, in the meantime -

I don't want to know the result!!!

Thank you kindly for your co operation (o:

Long, long ago, I had family round about these here parts; all gone now, but the memories...

I found Uncle Arthur's (not my actual uncle, just a friend of the family) old butcher's shop; I remembered the tiles (it's a fishmongers now) - and the Russian tea room and coffee houses were all still there. I found a fantastic Greek/Jewish grocers where I went mental and bought far to much stuff considering I had to carry it a mile back through the park but hey ho... There were things in that shop I hadn't seen in years!

I got a load of gorgeous fruits and veggies, including prickly pears, amazing, amber coloured rasin grapes and my favourite curly Greek cucumbers; a big bag of assorted olives, fried, salted broad beans, pickled baby eggplant, giant mezze beans marinaded in herbs, gorgeous Jewish seed bread - the smell is percolating through the rom, driving me crazy as I type but - best of all -  la piece de resistance - a huge hunk of cheesecake - nothing to do with that fluffy, oversweetened crap that passes for cheesecake in Tesco's, mind. This is the real McCoy; proper, baked in the oven, heavy cream cheese heart-attack-on-a-plate Jewish cheesecake. Man!!! It was £3 a slice and worth every penny. I'm saving it for tonight - I haven't had it in about 20 years. Yum, yum, yum! (o: