Rush & crash

1. Recovering from yesterday with episode after episode of 'Sugar Rush'.

2. An afternoon nap. It's been so hot today I couldn't help falling asleep.

3. Pizza and pasta dinner party with Rob, Ali and Rachel. Wonderful company and a great way to spend our last evening in London before heading off to Italy tomorrow!

Regent's picnic

1. Escaping football madness by picnicing in Regent's Park in the sunshine with Miri, Nick and Joe.

2. Drinking on the Southbank with a lovely bunch of London/Brighton friends.

3. Stumbling across a piano near St. Paul's on the walk home. Happily we were with Nick, a talented musician who gave an impromptu performance.

Westminster Abbey

1. An ice-cream at Westminster Abbey while waiting for the family for more touristy fun.

2. Cod and mushy pea fishcakes. We gave up on touristy fun (Westminster Abbey being 15 pounds to get in!) and went for a pub meal instead - an exciting cultural experience, particularly the mushy peas. :)

3. A lovely meal in Chinatown with Mum, Dad, and Miriam.

Surrealism

1. The view from the top of St. Paul's Cathedral.

2. Surrealism House exhibition at the Barbican, especially the Buster Keaton films.

3. Catching up with Nadia. We had a delicious meal at the restaurant above the Design Museum.

Grease

1. Mum and Dad arrived in London and we'll be hanging out for a couple of days before they go back to Munich on Sunday.

2. Surprise gifts - a tripod from M&D, earrings from Miri.

3. Third row seats for 'Grease' at Picadilly Theatre.

Whirlpool

1. Catching up with Romana and Caroline via Skype.

2. 'Whirlpool'. I haven't had that much 1950s melodrama fun since watching 'All That Heaven Allows' last year.

3. Finally catching up with Andrea at our local, and bumping into Mark on the way. It's nice having friends in the neighborhood.

Workshop

1. The return journey from Ej's to uni. Dawn taxi ride along the seafront. Smooth train ride finishing Blake's Songs Innocence and Experience and listening to Television's Marquee Moon.

2. I got a lot out of the PhD workshop on day 2 of the New Materialism conference.

3. The behind-the-scenes workshop by the musicians, music technologists, and dancers who performed at the conference yesterday.

St. Mary's

1. Being introduced to some brain-stretching new concepts at the New Materialism conference at my uni.

2. Nick's gig at St. Mary's in Brighton. Such beautiful music it moved me to tears.

3. Hanging out at the pub post-gig with lovely Brighton friends.

Paradise Gardens

1. Listening to music in the sun at the Paradise Gardens festival in Victoria Park. Music festivals make it feel like proper summer.

2. Xiaolu Guo's 'A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers.'

3. The ability for blood to coagulate and wounds to heal. I cut my arm on a piece of metal sticking out from the wall by the canal on my way home.

Flip-flops

1. Watching 'From Paris With Love' with Rachel. Silly but entertaining.

2. Shopping in Oxford St. I found a nice pair of silver and animal print flip-flops for 10 pounds.

3. Going back to bed and watching more movies - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series.

Straight hair

1. Courgette and blue cheese pasta.

2. Getting dressed up to go out with Miri and straightening our hair.

3. Saved ourselves 8 pounds not going to the event and went to my local instead.

Picnic on Jesus Green

1. This time I didn't miss the bus and Miriam was on it to greet me for our day trip to Cambridge.

2. Feedback from my supervisor on the latest chapter. I'm going to have to spend a few weeks re-writing and re-structuring the chapter now but it'll be much better for it.

3. Picnic on Jesus Green with Miriam and Rob.

Suburban Mayhem

1. Coffee in the sun on Broadway Market.

2. Cooking curry with Miri at my flat.

3. 'Suburban Mayhem'. Watching an Australian film with Miriam gave me a déjà vu sense of being back in Camberwell. :)

Chilli chips

1. Spending the morning reading film reviews.

2. Hanging out with Miriam at her hostel and making dinner together.

3. A lovely evening at Bar Wotever with Miriam, Ali and Rachel.

Innocence and Experience

1. I got the library job! Two shifts a week will lift my income to at least the poverty line. :)

2. Joe came over for tea and brownies and loaned me William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience.

3. Miriam arrived in London and we celebrated at a Spanish restaurant with some delicious tapas and a bottle of champagne.

Lewes

1. A big English breakfast at Olive before setting off on a road trip.

2. A nice drive to pretty Lewes - little traffic, we didn't get lost (even with me navigating us through central London), and the lovely green hills of Sussex.

3. Lots of laughs with Helen's friends in Lewes, belly-dancing and watching the Germany vs. Australia game.

Vedett

1. The Central St Martins Degree Show.

2. Sitting in the sun in the window of Bar Music Hall watching soccer and drinking nice Belgian beer with Rob and Kish.

3. Good company and good movies (The Happiness of the Katakuris and Pepi, Luci, Bom) at Rachel's obscure movie night.

Brownies

1. The well-equipped kitchen in my flat.

2. Baking vegan chocolate brownies. It's been so long I'd almost forgotten how delicious they are.

3. Being surrounded by dogs while reading in London Fields at sunset / dog-walking hour.

Regent's roses

1. A full English breakfast with Mum, Dad and Rob before I had to catch the train back to London. Perfect for a post-big night, pre-job interview meal.

2. Walking through the rose garden in Regent's Park after my job interview.

3. Got through 'Dancer in the Dark' (not without tears but I'd still recommend it!).

Punting

1. Punting on the River Cam with Mum and Dad.

2. Figs covered in dark chocolate from Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe. Mum and Dad also bought me a Peter Pan / Big Ben tin filled with English toffees. :)

3. Second yummy pub meal of the day with Mum and Dad, and this time Rob joined us. After a couple of shandies Rob got all sorts of secrets and stories out of them!

Cantaloupe

1. Cantaloupe.

2. Riding on the upper level of a red double-decker bus (the number 8 to go shopping with Rob in central London). I don't think the novelty will ever off.

3. Sending my chapter draft to my supervisor while there's a beautiful sunset happening outside my bedroom window.

Trailer

1. Coming across a trailer online for the 'I Spit on Your Grave' remake. It's coming out later in the year and I can't wait.

2. A walk along the canal to a park where I took a break from my computer and did some reading.

3. I'm only a conclusion away from finishing the current chapter.

Indiana Jones

1. Chatting on Facebook with Stef.

2. Finishing 'Village of Stone' in the park in the sunshine.

3. 'Legally Blonde' and more episodes of 'Skins'.

I know I have a chapter to finish - I didn't intend to have a lazy Sunday but I've done so much typing lately that I've got hand cramps!

Accredited Teacher

1. I'm now a accredited teacher! My teaching portfolio passed so I've got a SEDA Award in Supporting Learning.

2. Popping down to Broadway Market for a coffee, breaking up another day at home slogging away on the current chapter.

3. Xiaolu Guo's 'Village of Stone'. I'm going to work my way through all her novels.

Meals with mates

1. Scooby Doo and Shreddies for breakfast at Ellie's place before heading to the Cambridge UL for a cheerful morning's reading about memory and trauma.

2. Sitting in the sun in Parker's Piece with Rob eating pistachio ice-cream. Got to make the most of the sun while it's out!

3. Dinner with Rachel. Although my menu plans were thwarted by the sudden heat (everyone decided to have BBQs today and the butcher was cleaned out), the artichoke salad was a winner.

Sandals

1. Shoe shopping and talking about relationships and watching Glee with Ellie.

2. Marking meeting marked the end of teaching for the semester.

3. Interesting Q&A with producer Andrew Eaton after the screening of 'The Killer Inside Me'.

Elise's birthday

1. I made breakfast for Elise's birthday and joined the family for celebrations in Munich via Skype. Happy Birthday Elise!

2. Catching up with my friends in the School of Art at the degree show.

3. Rob won the Searle Prize and we celebrated with dinner at CB2 and a bottle of quality champagne.

Rainy summer's day

1. Roast potatoes and 'Skins' on my lunch break.

2. Miriam arrived safely in Munich.

3. The first third and the soundtrack of 'Full Metal Jacket'.

Mocha

1. Mum and Dad have arrived safely in Munich and I had a nice chat with them and Elise and Georg on Skype this morning.

2. Miriam's in transit at the moment too - not long until the family's all together!

3. Editing my current thesis chapter while drinking a mocha at my favourite café on Broadway Market. The chapter is about 11,000 words and hopefully I'll have the draft done by the end of the week.

Two English Girls

1. Watching trashy Sunday morning TV with Rachel. A talk show resolved the question of whether sinners go to hell.

2. Columbia Flower Market. Ridiculously crowded but a wonderful market.

3. François Truffaut's 'Two English Girls'.

Popped in

1. The neighbour's cat jumped through the bathroom window. I wish I had a pet so I was happy she popped in to say hello.

2. I bought some carrot cake from a stall at Broadway Market and because it was right on closing time they popped in an extra little tart for free.

3. Watching the Eurovision final and then Halloween 4 at Rachel's house. So much cheesy amazingness and good company.

Hats

Today I missed the bus to Cambridge, got there and found out my bike’s been stolen, had to mark disappointing student essays, and had severe stomach cramps, so it seemed like a good day to get back into 3 Good Things!

Just as bad habits are hard to break, good habits are hard to get back into, but I’ll try to keep it up everyday now!

1. A Skype call from Miriam, Rohan, and Sarah. With glasses of wine in hand, and wearing hats, they performed a hilarious skit for me. I miss them!

2. Lager, hog roast, and cheese at the Cambridge beer festival in Jesus Green. Rob and I decided that was the best place to do our marking.

3. 2-for-1 sunscreen special at the chemist. I know, I laughed at the idea when I first saw sunscreen for sale here, but I actually got burnt in London on the weekend.

Post-Prague Brighton

1. The Mini convention had Brighton filled with Minis.


2. Nick Hudson, Parenthetical Girls, and Former Ghosts gig.


3. Visiting the Brighton Aquarium with Jimmy.

Prague

1. The architecture.

2. The Kafka Museum.

3. Recovering from jetlag at
the Letna beer garden.

Korean air

I think Wed 31st March actually got lost into the time difference vortex but here's 3 good things about the rest of my flight back to Melbourne:

1. I missed the end of 'Whip It' on the first leg but it was the film screened on the shared monitors in the second leg (Seoul to Melbourne) so I got to see the ending.

2. Bi Bim Bop. This yummy Korean dish is one of the best things about flying with Korean Air.

3. Patti Smith's new book 'Just Kids'. I was the only passenger awake on the flight and I knew I should be trying to get some sleep too, but this memoir of her relationship with Mapplethorpe had me hooked for hours.

Since I'm back in Melbourne there will be a month-long hiatus in 3 Good Things. Check back in May for my return to the UK and my trip to Prague!

Chops and swaps

1. My favourite chef made me an amazing breakfast. Doesn't this photo just make you drool?

2. Personal library swaps with Ej. I loaned him my new Hammer book (finished it myself in a day and it was so amazing and inspiring) and got some Edgar Allan Poe short stories and Kathy Acker's 'Kathy Goes to Haiti' for my holiday reading.

3. Smooth flying with Korean Air and an all you can watch movie buffet.

Stage 1B

1. Leaving the Arbury house for the last time, all packed for my trip to Australia!

2. Made it through the tedious day of compulsory research training (6 hours and I learnt nothing new). Best thing about these training days is that I get to catch up with fellow PhDs I don't get to see very often. I'll miss my uni mates while I'm in Australia.

3. A wonderful evening in Brighton - an delicious dinner at the pub with Ej, a few more drinks with more friends at another pub.

Riverside pubs

1. Sunday lunch at the pub by the River Cam with Ellie, Rob, partners and housemates. So much gravy, so much laughter, so nice to hang out with Cambridge friends for Sunday lunch before heading off tomorrow night.

2. Drinks with my landlord at our local (another pub on the river). We've been meaning to for ages and finally squeezed it in on my last night.

3. Tonight's the last night sleeping on my uncomfortable single bed in this cramped and grimy Arbury house.

LLGFF

1. A 7 pound bus ticket to London which took me direct to Southbank. Off to the big smoke for a second Saturday in a row!

2. Experimental films at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Firstly 'Style Wars', a session which had some amazing films by AIDS and trans activists, and then Barbara Hammer's films in her screening / performance / book launch.

3. Meeting Barbara Hammer and getting my copy of her book signed. She has such amazing energy and creativity and has been an inspiration to me for a long time. Her films, and now her book, are so precious. I'm still gushing. :)

Antichrist

1. I got all my schoolwork in order for my trip and returned my last 10 library books.

2. The Prologue of 'Antichrist' (well aesthetically, ideologically it's problematic) and I managed to get through the rest of the film, though I didn't think much of it.

3. My old housemate dumped lots of clothes and jewelery when he moved out and I picked through it. I got some earrings and rings.

Notes and stories

1. The satisfying feeling of returning 12 items to the library after a note-taking blitz.

2. Miri doesn't have concussion or any problems with her vision after fainting and getting a huge black eye. Looking forward to seeing her soon!

3. Elijah sent me a story in return and it was brilliant. So many twists and emotions and tears in just one page. I could learn a thing or two about economical language from him.

Bus stop

1. Conversation with a stranger/neighbour at the bus stop in Arbury this morning. It made me nostalgic for public transport (although I do really prefer riding my bike everywhere).

2. Practicing my conference paper in front of my supervisor - a fruitful exercise.

3. Dinner with Ellie at CB2.

Swimming

1. The first reader of my novel draft says he's fallen in love with my character JD. He said the last story I sent was 'Amazing! Sooo delicious..... Subtle, suggestive, sexy and intriguing....my favourite.'

2. Swimming for the first time in 6 months. I've missed it and I'm looking forward to going swimming in 50m outdoor pools when I go back to Australia.

3. Finding out that Barbara Hammer has a performance/screening at the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival this weekend. I'll be going to London again this Saturday for sure.

Vegemite toast

1. Leaving school early and having a cup of tea and Vegemite toast for afternoon tea when I got home.

2. 'Ae Fond Kiss'. Enjoyed the film and will show my students a clip this week for our class on realism.

3. Phone call from Ej.

Alexandra Palace

1. Lying in a warm comfortable bed the morning after the party in Crouch End, sleeping in and reading the newspaper before getting up.

2. Lying on a cricket pitch in the park below Alexandra Palace, sunbaking would you believe!

3. Lying on the couch at Ali's mum's house watching Doctor Who with Rob, Ali, and Allan before a delicious Sunday roast.

Crouch End

1. Road trip to London with Rob.

2. House party in Crouch End with Rob's lovely friends.

3. Valentina's intensely chocolatey birthday cake.

An Education

1. I got my conference paper draft finished and emailed off.

2. 'An Education'.

3. Painkillers.

Lamington Stonehenge

1. Budgens (my local supermarket) was open at 8am and amazingly it had all the ingredients I needed for lamingtons.

2. Andrea found me in the library (DVD section) and we went for coffee. I'm glad I'm so easy to find (so predictable that I would be in the DVD section if not in my office) and that we got to have a nice catch up. We might hang out in London on Sunday too.

3. Rob liked his Stonehenge lamington birthday cake and we had a nice evening celebrating with uni friends at the pub.

Falling persons

1. Spending the day at Cambridge Uni library researching 9/11 and finding lots of interesting ideas for my next chapter.

2. A pretty sunset on my ride home (and that it was after 6pm).

3. How problematic 'Fatal Attraction' is - it'll be easy for my students to analyse in our class on ideology tomorrow.

Regarding the pain of others

1. A chocolate muffin from Rob, a gift to cheer me up after having to empty my bank account to pay uni fees.

2. Susan Sontag's 'Regarding the pain of others'.

3. Watching 'Notting Hill'. An irritating romantic comedy was a good distraction from my personal financial crisis and reflections on war photography.

On Photography

1. Posting off the penultimate installment of my novel.

2. An email from Ochre.

3. Susan Sontag's 'On Photography'.

Hidden ending

1. Talking to Miri for almost two hours.

2. Staying in bed until 2pm talking on Skype, watching 'Skins' and Haneke's 'Hidden'. I couldn't remember what happened at the end of 'Hidden' so I thought I'd watch it again - turns out the reason I couldn't remember it is that there is no ending!

3. Resisting the temptation to buy Patti Smith's 'Just Kids' while browsing in FOPP. I'm dying to read it but hoping I can find a copy for less than 16 pounds.

Milton Country Park

1. A decadent weekend breakfast while watching the end of the epic 'Lust Caution'.

2. A long ride on the cycle path by the River Cam, fantasizing about living on a narrowboat. The wind picked up so I tried to take a shortcut home and came across...

2. Milton Country Park. A pretty park with dogwalkers and lakes with beautiful ducks and swans. I had a hot chocolate at the visitors' centre, sitting on the balcony overlooking the lake.

Spring

1. Watching a little bird flutter around in the back garden while eating my breakfast. I don't think I've even been so excited by the first signs of spring before.

2. Cinema Journal vol. 43 iss. 2. The reflections on teaching 9/11 sparked new ideas for my next chapter.

3. A junk food binge.

Idiots

1. Getting to school bright and early and talking to Elise over breakfast.

2. Another class taught, just 3 to go for this semester. My supervisor has offered me Masters teaching this time next year!

3. A interesting discussion of a not very interesting film ('The Idiots') in MA class.

Chirping birds

1. Being woken up by chirping birds rather than the sound of rain. It must be spring! I wish they weren't such early risers though - 5:45am! I watched some bits of DVDs then fell back to sleep until midday.

2. Getting my flat tyre fixed at the bike shop for just 3 quid.

3. 2-for-1 deal on baked beans at my local supermarket.

Candy bar

1. Another good meeting with my supervisor. The best part being that we set my next deadline at the nice distant date of 1st July.

2. Ticking all the boxes at my annual monitoring meeting. Hopefully no more boring uni bureaucracy for a while.

3. 'Alice in Wonderland'. I wasn't a big fan and I'm not going to bother with 3D films for a while, but it was a nice change from the films I usually watch.

Sex is Comedy

1. A hug. They're few and far between in Cambridge.

2. Salsa class. I'm really into it now but sadly tonight's was the last beginners class. Apparently now I've graduated to intermediate. :)

3. 'Sex is Comedy'. A bit too close to real life, it almost wasn't funny. :)

Swings

1. Playing on the swings at the council estates on my way to buy the newspaper.

2. Wi-fi at the Picturehouse bar. Sat there for hours doing research and talking to Mum, Dad, and Georg on Skype.

3. Juliette Lewis in 'Strange Days'.

Strawberries

1. Staying in bed all morning watching movies: 'A Scanner Darkly' and 'Hard Candy'.

2. Strawberries on my cereal.

3. A big bruise, love from from my bike. It's going to come up pretty colours.

69,255 to go

1. Talking to Romana on Skype finally! Somewhat awkward because I was in a shared office (couldn't get the gossip I've been dying to hear!), and because being seen but not seeing the person I'm talking to makes me self-conscious. :) But so so happy to hear your voice and to hear you had such a wonderful time in New York. Was actually overwhelmed and had a little cry when we hung up.

2. Got my motherhood chapter finished and sent off to my supervisor in time to go to the pub at 5pm. 10,745 words down, 69,255 to go.

3. Celebrating a fellow KETTLE scholar handing in her PhD with pizza and cookies at the pub.

Meringue donut

1. Sleeping in until 9am.

2. I wrote 100 words. Not much but better than nothing.

3. With our combined charm (or Rob's charm and my Australian accent) Rob and I scored a free donut from the cafe at uni.

Page Turner

1. The IT guy at uni getting me hooked back up to the internet. You can Skype me now.

2. Food shopping with Rob - we got all the 2-for-1 deals. A random but cheap shop.

3. 'The Page Turner', an interesting revenge film, will probably get at least a mention in my thesis. Good find from the BFI - thanks Dad!

Slate

1. All skipping school and going for a bike ride. We were going to go punting but the river was flooded.

2. Lunch at a pub in Grantchester. My food was served on a slate.

3. Teaching 'Pan's Labyrinth' to another tutor's class. I liked the students, especially how talkative they are.

A happy story

1. Blue skies! Sunshine! All day!

2. Managing to write a (relatively) happy story for Elijah and posting installment #3. So happy to get a message from Elijah and to hear that he's enjoying it so far.

3. Dinner with Rob, Ellie, and her lovely friend Natalie at CB2. We've practically moved in to that café.

CB2

1. Finding a sachet of hot chocolate powder that only requires boiling water. (I couldn’t have a morning tea or coffee because I was out of milk).

2. Meeting up with Rob and Ellie for coffee. We spent nearly four hours at the café, catching up on each others’ gossip and making plans for our new Grad Soc.

3. Watching a collection of short films made by famous directors before they got famous. Film nerd joy.

Party

1. Lunch and a walk along the river with Ellie. The sun was shining and the rowers were out (throwing each other in the river more than actually rowing).

2. Gate-crashing an 11 year-old’s birthday party.

3. Another Loch Keepers’ Cottage house party living up to its reputation.

Lovely Bones

1. Susan Sarandon in 'The Lovely Bones'.

2. Maribel Verdú in 'Pan's Labyrinth'.

3. Marianne Jean-Baptiste in 'Secrets & Lies'.

Peterborough

1. Finally getting home about 2am after falling asleep on the train back from London and ending up in Peterborough.

2. Only having to teach for 1 hour.

3. Chilling out with Julie Taymor's 'Titus' in the library this afternoon.

V&A school excursion

1. Finally finding Ej in the labyrinth V&A.

2. The jewelery gallery at the V&A. Such a joy to explore it with art/design/fashion nerds. :)

3. Hours in a pub in Soho with Ej and his lovely school friends.

Lemingtons

1. A big shop at a big Tesco's with Rob. It was a mission to find the ingredients for lamingtons but customer service hunted down the very last bag of coconut for us.

2. Dinner party at Rob's with Ellie and Helen. Delicious vegie lasagne and 'lemingtons' for 'pudding'. The strange British folk insisted we eat the 'lemingtons' with spoons. :)

3. Making plans for a London adventure tomorrow!

Titanic

1. A lunchtime nap which made my headache disappear.

2. The snow eased up by 3pm so I could ride to uni for a couple of hours work.

3. The hilarity of our beginners salsa class trying to master multiple spins and the 'titanic' combination.

Kettle's Yard

1. Modern Times exhibition at Kettle's Yard. Great exhibition and great little gallery.

2. Traditional Sunday lunch at the pub.

3. Spending 4 hours in the pub with Rob chatting and not drinking.

Damages

1. Riding into town to a café for the newspaper and a hot chocolate.

2. News that Damages season 3 starts on BBC this week, and that Katalin Varga is released on DVD on Monday.

3. Daylight after 5pm. Hopefully a sign that the end of winter isn't too far off.

A Single Man

1. 3 more hot cross buns for breakfast.

2. An email from Ochre.

3. Couches in the Arts Picturehouse bar. The movie, 'A Single Man', was pretty amazing too.

Hot cross buns

1. Hot cross buns.

2. Booked my flight to Prague.

3. Rob and his friend Ali popped by my office and we went for coffee.

Acolytes

1. Sitting in the park with the sun on my face, breaking in a new journal.

2. Cambridge Central Library. Considering how much I frequent libraries, it's surprising that was my first visit.

3. 'Acolytes', a great film for my research. It made me homesick for Australian films, so I was happy to then discover that in a month's time the London Australian Film Festival is on!

Pancakes

1. Another easy meeting with my supervisor.

2. Pancake Tuesday dinner at Aileen & Graeme's.

3. Seeing my Blowing Smoke films with an audience for the first time.

Salsa & shorts

1. Posting away another little piece of my novel. And stocking up on stamps while I was at the post office so I don't have the mad rush to get there every Monday.

2. Salsa class. Who would've thought I'd enjoy dancing classes so much? :)

3. A screening of Super8 short documentaries at St John's College.

Female Trouble

1. Sleeping in until 3pm.

2. An unexpected Valentines message.

3. Double feature of John Waters' 'Female Trouble' and the 1948 ballet film 'The Red Shoes'. A strange combination but both great films.

Hugs & house party

1. The Times. Haven't read the newspaper in ages and it was a lovely luxury.

2. Hugs from Gemma.

3. Rob's house party. It got messy by the end of the night but I met a few lovely people in the meantime.

Red Road

1. Finishing typing up the novel bits I wrote in Italy to L7.

2. The training I had to go to at uni this afternoon wasn't entirely useless (almost but not entirely).

3. 'Red Road', the Andrea Arnold film.

Present Laughter

1. Teaching. My students are getting the hang of semiotics, and did a good semiotic analysis of a couple of Bergman scenes. It made me proud. :)

2. Taking another afternoon off, this time to go to the theatre. Ellie, Rob, and I went to see Noel Coward's Present Laughter at the Cambridge Arts Theatre. We were by far the youngest people in the theatre. :)

3. My landlord bought me a new desk chair. It means I can work from home more often now because my old lopsided one was the main thing making me ride through the snow to work at uni.

Interobjectivity

1. Halloumi and spinach panini. As good as yesterday's lunch of a falafel and salad roll.

2. Free screening of 'The Wolfman' at the Picturehouse. It's a terrible film but the good thing is that it was free, and that Rob and I could laugh about it afterwards.

3. The concept of the phenomenology of interobjectivity started to make sense to me.

L'Humanité

1. Riding to school in the snow. It's better than riding to school in the rain.

2. Drinks with staff from my department after our reading group.

3. 'L'Humanité', the Bruno Dumont film.

Salsa shines

1. Postcard from NZ from Eleven! Such a lovely surprise this morning.

2. Putting the first two chapters of my novel in the post, releasing them to their first reader.

3. Getting giddy at salsa dancing class trying to master spins.

Super 8 my brain

1. Breakfast with Miri, and then Elise & Georg too. I wish donuts could be transmitted via Skype. And daily hugs.

2. Typing up 4000 words or so of my novel (written in Italy) while listening to Patti Smith.

3. 'Super 8 my brain', a screening of Super 8 horror films at the pub, with a folk music gig at the interval. :)

Glee

1. Breakfast with Elise and Georg. I wish pretzels could be transmitted via Skype.

2. Another 500 words. If I can continue at this rate my thesis will be written in 150 days. :)

3. 'Glee' season 1, episode 4. I haven't had a fix of laughter, or television, for ages and this episode was particularly funny.

Divine Horsemen

1. Riding home in daylight. Knocked off early because 500 words was a fair achievement and it was a sunny afternoon.

2. The Cafe Project. Such a cute venue, it's like being in someone's loungeroom. Someone with good taste in art and films and a political conscience (I went for the screening of Maya Deren's 'The Divine Horsemen').

3. Facebook chatting with Beat & making travel plans.

Skammen

1. The fire alarm went off just as class was about to start which got me out of teaching (well just for 15mins because it was only a test).

2. Rob's graphic design portfolio. He showed it to me and Ellie over coffee this afternoon, which I think will become a regular Thurs afternoon occassion.

3. Close-ups of Liv Ullmann in 'Shame'. (Beautiful film but I must stop watching such bleak films and reading bleak books!)

Shh

1. My paper's been accepted into the Revenge conference in July.

2. Bumping into Tom in the library. My friends know they can find me in the DVD section. :) We got shushed by a librarian.

3. My supervisor's paper on 'lost girls' and Joyce Carol Oates.

Craftivism

1. Craftivism exhibition at Arnolfini.

2. A little chapter on the eidos of revenge I found by chance while hiding from the rain in the Bristol Library.

3. Dinner at a Chinese restaurant with Dad and his colleagues back in Wimbledon.

Bristol

1. A 5 hour walk around Bristol, even though it seemed to be all uphill. :) I climbed to the tower in Brandon Hill Nature Park and up the Zig Zag from the river to the suspension bridge.

2. Taxidermied animals at the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, especially the creepy little bats.

3. Making the most of the 24hr blockbuster buffet at the hotel - Julie & Julia, Inglourious Basterds, and The Men Who Stare at Goats.

Sherborne

1. Elizabeth & Byron's hospitality.

2. Walking tour of Sherborne with our local guides.

3. Cerne Abbas Giant.

Stonehenge

1. Waking up to Benji finally being on Skype, 'Closer' being in the letterbox, and then breakfast with Dad.

2. Crepes and buskers in busy Oxford.

3. Sunset at Stonehenge.

Precious

1. Having trouble concentrating on psychoanalytic film theory I was gazing out the Cambridge UL window and saw it begin to snow again. (I thought we were done for the winter but apparently not).

2. A bleak but amazing double feature: 'Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring' and then 'Precious' at the Picturehouse with Rob.

3. Kitchen cleaning blitz before Dad comes over for breakfast tomorrow. Even housework is fun when I'm listening to the Go-Go's on my iPod.

What is theory?

1. Taught my first class at my new uni. Film Theory 101.1 went smoothly.

2. Coffee with Rob. Hatching more plans for overcoming researcher isolation (because I'm not so keen on life drawing or more dancing classes).

3. Attended the first MA class on New Extremism. Lots of interesting ideas likely to feed into my PhD.

Amazon

1. Online book shopping. One for me (Closer), one for the PhD (Interrogating Postfeminism).

2. Lunch with a couple of my new officemates.

3. An interesting research seminar at uni on human interest stories and the online 'public sphere'.

Mini-percolator

1. Mum's recovering well after her car accident and Miri is over in Perth taking care of her. It was nice talking to them on Skype this morning.

2. My new single shot coffee percolator. Impractically small but so cute!

3. Finding a comfortable spot right next to the heater on the quiet sixth floor of the Cambridge UL to read for a few hours.

Trainspotting

1. Quality new boots. I'm sure these ones will last me more than a month. :)

2. A fellow Australian befriended me at salsa dancing class.

3. 'Trainspotting'. Can you believe I'd never seen it? I was putting it off for about 10 years. It made me feel old, and sort of sad, but it's a great film.

Movieum

1. Taking photos of the amazing views from the London Eye with my new camera.

2. Dad and I stumbled across the London Film Museum, which I didn't even know existed. Happily Dad was as keen as me to spend a few hours there. The Chaplin exhibition was especially good.

3. First visit to BFI Southbank. Peter Campus video art, and a few goodies from the filmstore.

Avatar

1. Coffee & the weekend newspaper.

2. Dinner with Dad in Wimbledon. Good company and good food. :)

3. 'Avatar' in 3D. Very 1990s Hollywood, and pulling focus in 3D doesn't work, but otherwise better than I expected.

Transmasculinities

1. Talking to Benji and Ochre who were at the Transmasculinities exhibition launch when I woke up this morning. Ouch was I homesick today and so badly wishing I could've been at the premiere of my films, celebrating with my beautiful Melbourne friends.

2. Day 3 of the teacher training course was the most useful. I got some good feedback and ideas through the peer reviewed micro-teaching session.

3. The young Clint Eastwood in 'The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly'.

Butchered

1. An easy meeting with my supervisor. She seems impressed with what I've written so far.

2. I overcame my phobia about going to the hairdresser and got myself a haircut. She totally butchered my hair and it doesn't suit me at all, but the good thing is that I overcame a phobia... or maybe the good thing is that the phobia has been reinforced and I won't be wasting money on haircuts for a very long time... or maybe the good thing is that my camera is broken so no one in Australia can see it. :)

3. I met a few new PhD students at a Faculty Welcome Evening and then caught up with Rob over some delicious Chinese food.

Teaching and learning

1. 'Wallander' over breakfast again. Almost late to school but it was a great episode.

2. Teacher training. The first day of the three day course was a bit generic but I got a little bit of good advice out of it.

3. Text love to and from my dear friends Romana and Ej.

Christology

1. Deleuze's book on masochism. So engaging and full of interesting ideas relevant to the films I'm writing on at the moment. Read the whole book in one sitting.

2. Vegetarian cottage pie and chips in the library tea room. Along with a latte macchiato it was just the refueling I needed before delving into a book on Christology and redemption.

3. A successful friendship 'blind date'. Cathie set me up with her wonderful friend Aileen and we had a drink at the Portland Arms tonight.

Sentenhausen

1. Burnt 'Blowing Smoke' DVDs for my actors and posted them off. I'll keep a lookout for other screening opportunities, but other than that the project has been completed!

2. I went to visit the shared postgrad office downstairs from my current office and had a cup of tea with a fellow PhD student. They've got a spare desk I can use while my usual office transforms into a bookshop (for the first few weeks of semester), and even more exciting is that they've got a kettle.

3. Salsa dancing class. Ellie roped me into it but I had a great time so I think I'll go regularly. Dinner at a friendly little pub afterwards.

Percolator

1. Coffee at my local pub. Gemma took her percolator to Norwich and I was dying for a coffee today. Not too many options in my neighbourhood and I ended up at a suburban pub / sports bar, drinking sweet nasty coffee while everyone around me drank beer and watched the rugby. I felt rather out of place amongst the regulars (all men about 30 years my senior) but it was a nice daily fix of absurdity and caffeine.

2. Gemma loaned me a spare mobile phone, which is great because mine has now died completely. She also loaned me a colorful rug which has brightened up my room. So I forgive her for taking the percolator.

3. A long Skype chat with Elise. I had a nice chat with Miri yesterday and twice this week with Mum & Dad. Now I just need my friends to get Skype!! The face-to-face chats are lovely.

Light show

1. Second episode of second series of 'Wallander' with breakfast. I'm hooked.

2. Gemma came to visit. We went to the Picturehouse and saw 'The Road', cafe and pub-hopped for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

3. We also swung by the light show at King's College, the finale of Cambridge University's over-the-top 800 year celebrations, and the projections on the building facades were mesmerizing.

Wallander

1. Took those shoddy leaky boots back to the shop and got my money back no trouble.

2. Coffee with Ellie at uni. Hadn't seen each for a month and it was nice to catch up.

3. Discovering the crime series 'Wallander'. Kenneth Branagh is great and the cinematography is beautiful.

Premediation

1. Getting the lowdown from the coordinator of the introduction to film theory subject I'll be teaching this semester. All seems pretty straightforward.

2. A very interesting talk by Prof. Richard Grusin on 'Premediation, Affect and the Anticipation of Security' at uni today.

3. Watching the interview with the director on the DVD extra features of 'Lady Vengeance'. He quite simply stated what the symbolism was about and his views on revenge, affirming what I'd spent a long time trying to decode myself. :)

Blow wave

1. I used my new hairdryer for the first time and it dried my overgrown hair in record time. Thanks for the Xmas present Elise & Georg!

2. Making friends with a couple of postgrads in my department at the academic writing course. Being terribly homesick and isolated means making a new friend is more than a Good Thing, it's a chip in my loneliness and a preservation of my sanity.

3. I got a few useful tips about how to structure my thesis at the training day.

Home grimey home

1. Sleeping alone for the first time this year. Counts as a good thing because I'm referring to not having to share a dorm room with 8 backpackers who snore, switch on the light at ridiculous hours, struggle to find their alarm which is waking me up, leave mess everywhere, etc.

2. Drinking coffee and chatting in the kitchen with my new housemate Matt for about 3hrs this morning. I am super sad about my first and closest Cambridge friend Gemma moving to Norwich so at least the guy moving into her old room is friendly and interesting.

3. The beautiful birthday video Benji made for me with cute messages from Jaigur, Josh, Tanya, Elijah and Munkee. It was the sweetest gift and so lovely to see them all.

Nudo Per Stalin

1. The conversation starter in the middle of my face. I was too shy to talk to the pretty American sharing my breakfast table at the hostel this morning, but she kindly broke the ice. 'Did that hurt?'

2. I went to both the Libreria del Cinema and Fandango bookshop-cafés and they were both closed. I had been looking forward to going but it was a good thing because bookshops are dangerous enough for me, let alone bookshops full of cinema books. :)

3. 'Nudo Per Stalin' exhibition of photos from the 1920s and 30s. Such a good thing that I just stumbled across it, that I'd caught it on its last day (and mine), that it was open on a Monday, and that it was free.

Couch

1. Being stranded in a foreign city and running out of everything (cash, clean clothes, painkillers, phone credit...) except blank journal pages means I'm getting a lot of writing done.

2. Not too many puddles in the streets of Rome today, which is a good thing because I still haven't bought new boots and I went for a long walk up to Piazza del Popolo.

3. Couches in the hostel. I don't have a couch at my place in Cambridge so it was a joy curling up on the couch with a good book ('The Lacuna').

Apocalypse Wow

1. Free printing at the hotel. I printed of the current thesis chapter and got some work done, assuaging my guilt about still being on holiday.

2. Apocalypse Wow art exhibition at MACRO Future. I was in awe of the artists' wild imaginations and especially liked Nicola Verlato's pieces.

3. Viva La Liberta exhibition about the fall of the Berlin Wall. An effective blend of news footage, artifacts, photographs, and art installations.

Fiumicino

1. Eggplant for breakfast. It's a new concept and I like it. The buffet at the airport hotel had every breakfast food you can think of and more. Except kimchi.

2. I thought I was stranded in the middle of nowhere, but I went for a walk and discovered the airport hotel is on the edge of Fiumicino, Rome's port town. It reminds me a little of Brighton and of Newcastle, warm associations to comfort me in this strange sense of limbo.

3. Spending hours sitting on the pier then on the beach reading. It was quite eerie - quiet except for planes taking off and the strong winds, and the bright grey sky was exactly the same colour as the ocean. As the sky darkened the water turned green and I left just in time to miss the rain.

European Drawings

1. Bernini's sculpture 'Apollo e Dafne' at the Borghese Gallery. The Caravaggio Bacon exhibition was good too (well the Caravaggio part more than the Bacon, and I don't really understand why they were paired).

2. The current exhibitions at MACRO weren't all that inspiring but I came across a beautiful little contemporary gallery down the street with an exhibition of European Drawings, some of which I really loved.

3. There are worse places to be stranded than Rome, worse things to happen than being forced to stay on holiday for another 5 days. :) My flight was cancelled due to snow at Gatwick.

Bellissima

1. Peaceful stroll through the cemetery behind the Piramide looking for Keats' grave. Cats live in the cemetery, and also in the Roman Forums, and there's dogs in Pompeii - beautiful public pets.

2. The boys from the kebab shop around the corner from my hostel calling out 'Ciao bella!' or 'Bellissima' to me every time I pass to go to the gelati shop for another cup of pistachio. :)

3. The mosaics at Museo Nazionale Romano.

Pompeii

1. A long but enjoyable train ride to Pompeii via Naples. Beautiful scenery along the coast.

2. Wandering around the ancient city of Pompeii for hours, which wasn't at all what I expected. It's similar to the ruins in Rome, only it's a whole city and even better preserved.

3. The clouds. Dramatic and beautiful and didn't release rain. I wish my camera could've captured them, but at least it's still working well enough to capture the ruins. The sunset with those clouds as I left the site was spectacular.

Basilica

1. St. Peter's Basilica was impressive, the queue was relatively short, and it was free.

2. The holes in the soles of my new boots (I have been doing a lot of walking) gives me an excuse to buy a pair of Italian shoes in the Saldi.

3. Jeanette Winterson's 'The Passion'. It's making me want to pop up to Venice while I'm in Italy.

Papal lollipop

1. The sun was out again today, perfect weather for exploring ancient Rome. I went to the Colosseum and the Forums and as I was sitting resting a tour guide started a free English tour in front of me. Jason reconstructed the ancient caput mundi around us for the next hour.

2. Pantheon. Despite being packed with the tourists, the incredible square/circle human/god symmetrical design does indeed bring a sense of harmony. Or that could be the effect of three weeks on holiday. :)

3. Finding a rainbow lollipop with the Pope's face on it in a gelati shop. I had to buy it.

Triumph of Divine Providence

1. Lying under the ceiling fresco 'The Triumph of Divine Providence' at Palazzo Barberini.

2. After days of rain the weather cleared up today so I went for an 8hr walk to the Villa Borghese gardens, through the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, and down to Piazza del Popolo (which I got a film nerd thrill from because it's one of the locations in 'My Own Private Idaho').

3. While in Germany the Xmas markets closed back on the 24th Dec, Rome's was still on today in the beautiful Piazza Navona. No gingerbread or glühwein‎ but an amazing guitarist busking.

Florence to Rome

1. 2009 is over. I reflect on it as a cruel year of separations, heartache, and false starts. 2010 will be better.

2. A pleasant train trip from Florence to Rome. A nearly empty carriage, my iPod, and beautiful scenery.

3. Finding shelter at a closed food stand on Via XX Settembre to sit out of the rain. I couldn't help going exploring in Rome when I arrived, despite the rain all day.