A bright one

I was definitely concussed and didn't completely notice it until a day in. I didn't go to Genova today and rested a lot, but oh well! Channa and I are going to her friend's new kosher restaurant soon; today is its opening day.

In the process of uploading some facebook photos. Here's a taste of the content:


This is a shot of the Duomo in Florence. Quite spectacular. It was far too large to get the whole thing into a single shot.

***

Well, it's still neck and neck for the When Harry Met Sally Rules of Life Poll as the days dwindle for you to vote! Let's have your opinion too!

Ouch.

Had a lovely day in Florence but just can't write as... the phone rang last night and I was on the top of a bunkbed, and I stood right the way up, quickly, so as to get to the phone, and mangled my head on the ceiling. Needless to say, I didn't get to the phone on time.

Contemplating going to Genova tomorrow. Shall see.

Who was I kidding?

Seriously. I deactivated my account and lasted all of 2 hours before I got all lonely alone in this flat in Milan and went back into it again. Siiiiick!

Still no work done. I have an itching suspicion if this degree was something I wanted to be doing it wouldn't be so hard to motivate myself to do it.

Facebook hiatus.

Self explanatory.

Wouldn't it be marvelous if one could switch on and off life with a de/activation button?

Takes myself to know myself

Have cancelled trip to Rome because I did zero work yesterday or today. I'm doing too much running around instead of focusing on getting a 1st. If without trying I got a high 60th percentile in my other class, there's no reason why I can't do better -agreed? Agreed.

Can still write the rest of the Chanukah article without going to Rome though. I will have to come back when I have actual time and money. You know, when I'm all grown up and responsible. The kind of thing a person does when they have a job and get a holiday and can actually spend money as opposed to finding hostels and free beds to sleep on whilst eating meals that only consist of bread and jam.

Splendid.

Sorting out a Roman Shabbos

Just looking at the fine details for Shabbos tomorrow in Rome. Probably should have done earlier but oh well... Hostel is just around the corner from the station and the shul is maybe a km away, not bad. I am quite excited; it will be so beautiful! There are several Jewish areas in Rome so I intend to go to all of them. Especially the Jewish Ghetto. I am sure its much larger than the one in Venice, and that one was quite spectacular.

Again sitting around doing nothingbut ah well. Erev Christmas we were out late hanging with some Yids. Some things are just universal. Go to the movies Erev Xmas or still in and just be lazy in a group.

Please g-d I will get some work done before Shabbos or I will be seriously stressed out for the entire time until Jan 12th due date. I am 110% the unproductive turtle...

He is quite cute though isnt he?

Doing nothing

As I said... self fulfilling prophecy. Did a whole lot of nothing today while Channa went to the hospital to visit her friend who just gave birth. Well not completely nothing. Did contact Chabad here to get photos from the Chanukah skating event here in Milan on Sunday for my article.

We are meeting up with a friend of hers at the supermarket soon to buy food and then make dinner. Yay, being a normal adult and having a proper dinner gathering! Haha.

Will write part of the Chanukah article tonight and then leave the rest for what I will see while in Rome, and possibly Florence.

But of course the actual work... for my course... haven't touched it. I am amazing.



If I could market something silly like Emily the Stange, at least I could make money from how much I do nothing!

In Milano

I'm just unlucky. Last month it was my destroyed macbook and phone in the toilet, and now I've lost my ipod shuffle. And it was totally an unnecessary loss. I knew it must have fallen somewhere from the gate to the plane but I couldn't go back to check... so I flew away one less ipod than I had intended on...

But anyway, I am determined to not let it bother me and have an amazing trip. I'm reasonably tired, just going to keep going until my battery dies, which will be soon. Speaking of batteries, left my phone charger in N. Manchester and was in S. Manc last night so had to come here for the week without a charger. Lovely. But still, will be a good trip!

Will start writing my Chanukah in Italy story tomorrow. Already have some good ancedotes about the skating party on Sunday.

Ciao!

1 sheep, 2 sheep...

I'm having a bout of sleeplessness. Go to Italy tomorrow though -well excited!

While there though I have 2 assignments, dissertation and 5,000 word phd proposal to work on -brilliant! Oh, as well as a UK Jewish singles article and articles about Jewish camp, Chanukah in Italy... soon followed by Jewish Norway/Sweden and something from Israel as well. For a writer, I really don't love writing quite as much as I should! Not exactly jumping for joy at the prospect of all this work... but at least the articles will pay for Sem in Israel!

I took part in a ridiculous filmed skit thingy for North Leeds children last week. It's called the Maccabean Murder Mystery and it's filmed by myself, produced and edited by Neil Clarke (also make a couple of lovely one-liner appearances). Take a look:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IgfcQ-JWIbQ

This was actually my filming and youtube debut. Borrowed a proper camera from LSTV. Getting the hang of shooting is pretty much the last thing I've to learn properly in order to be hired in any department for print, radio or television. It's really good to know how to film because stations like to cut costs and are happy to find reporters who can set up a camera themselves. It's also an excellent skill to have if there be aspirations of making a documentary. I've thought about bringing a camera with to Ghana and producing a side project while I'm there. I was inspired by a guest lecturer from London to do so. Let's see if I can finish my assignments from this past semester first before getting too ahead of myself though!

Do you agree?

So far its practically neck and neck: 2 votes agree and say men and women can't be friends because "sexual or emotional thoughts do arise", and 3 votes disagree and say they can be. It could be the scriptwriters for When Harry Met Sally were, unbeknownst to them, doing much more than writing a script, but actually telling the world the truth of male-female relationships?

Crystal puts it quite crudely, but does it not make sense that a male and a female just cannot be friends as a same-sex friendship is; excluding homosexuality from the picture? When two girls become good friends, what factors come into play? "She's a lovely girl" "We take the same course", etc. Whereas between a man and woman, there is some sort of chemistry at play, even just within a friendship. True, many of these friendships work, and its nice to have the "opposite opinion" on things, but how many other times have you heard of "it just happened, didnt mean for it to", due to a moment of vulnerability -just like what happened when Sally was crying over Joe in the film?

I stand behind "agree" 100%. It's due to... just how easy it is to cross the line; that is why Judaism has so many fences. Two minds just have to be in the same place for one second, and you're both goners. . . but feel free to disagree, and we can debate further!

Polling up

Quite disappointed with the last poll; only one response! So, since the response was 100% in favour of option two, I can proudly proclaim that we are Dancers, not Humans. We have made Hunter s. Thompson proud.

In the spirit of having just watched When Harry Met Sally, I have created a relevant new poll. Straight out of the mouth of Billy Crystal; do you agree?

Shavuah Tov

Hello from Manchester, been a lovely Shabbos. I will have to make a habit of leaving Leeds on weekends second semester in order to stay sane. Fly to Italy on Tuesday, looking forward; although a shame it falls on the night that both Manc and Milan are having their rather large Chanukah parties.

Haven't written in my actual journal in a couple weeks again -damn you modern technology and your influence!!

This week's Independent link:

http://jewishindependent.ca/Archives/Dec08/archives08Dec19-07.html

An Amsterdam travel story. Also wrote a more political piece but it wasn't put online. Have several articles coming up in the next couple of months so will try to update here if only to put up the links.

Feeling slightly lethargic as I sit here Motzei Shabbos in essence doing nothing.

Been too long...

So, basically, I worked at JACK FM for another month -which was the initial reason for my no longer writing on here... and it was AWFUL, I quit, and I didn't get back into this again afterward. However, I was reminded of it by a guy I met down in London a couple of weeks ago who, when I said I'm a writer, said I seem like someone who most definitely would keep a blog. Shame I let it go so long without an update. This semester just went by so quickly, I can't believe it. As cliche as that sounds, it really still feels like things are just starting up but already I've had my last class until Jan 26th and I'm off to Italy soon for Chanukah.

I still love Leeds, but I've seen there's much more to the country -especially in regard to meeting people who are not students. Student life here is great, but I'm getting tired of it. I went to London two weeks ago for Shabbos, and Manchester last week and both were amazing. I need to get out of town more often. I met some lovely girls from Manchester and hope to get there often. Never before in the Galut have I had such a Shabbos experience.

I went to a PhD meeting today. I must be off my head to even be considering it.

Hopefully this won't be a one off update and will happen more regularly now.

And hmm... let me go and find a photo that well represents something I have been doing recently...

Ok so I tried to upload a photo but my internet isn't being agreeable at the moment. Hopefully next time.

Have a Good Shabbos! :)