In which Demi has slept all day and now can't sleep.

Since my current illness rendered me unconcious for the majority of the afternoon, followed by a slobby evening of Sex and the City with the housemates since our going-out plans were scuppered by said illness, I am now feeling both groggy and unable to sleep. Fabulous.

No better time to blog, clearly!

[I do feel quite bad actually, since my updates this term have been sporadic at best.]

So, what's been happening in the world of Demi? A lot of my time has been devoted recently to my role as PR rep for our Uni magazine. Pretty much as soon as my essays were handed in my attention was directed at selling as many tickets for our first launch party of the year as possible. The very first issue of the year was assembled over the summer holiday, so this was a chance for the new contributors, as well as the editors, to celebrate putting together an issue together.

Nikki, my co-manager, and I eventually settled on what most people agree to be the best cocktail bar in Nottingham, Coco Tang, as our venue. If you're ever in Nottingham, I would DEFINITELY reccommend a drink there. Their unique cocktail recipes range from tasty treats, such as the Haribo and Krispy Creme inspired recipes (the Toblerone is to die for - including a little chunk of the sweet itself balanced on the glass edge!), to delightfully whimsical sippers such as a Dirty Cinderella and the gorgeous Cherry Blossom Martini - all served in a super sexy underground bar reminiscent of the prohibition era.

Evidence that I need to start working out again!! But my stomach aside, I think this is a cute photo of me and my co-manager :)

A couple of hiccups aside, the night seemed to be a success, with lots of people from the mag thanking me for such a good night, which made me feel a lot better. Next up: distribution of the latest issue. Submitted to the printers a week behind schedule, we're now getting sliiiightly antsy, after some of the pages had to be re-printed following an ink bleed. Our posters, proclaiming the new issue to be out the end of November, are now essentially worthless, as we are STILL waiting on the delivery, and people are starting to ask where it is, and whether they've missed it. Not good. We'll just have to be totally on.it. when the issue finally gets delivered.

I'm also starting to worry about graduate applications for PR. To London or not to London seems to be the main question, followed swiftly by to go travelling next year or to put it off for a bit, and wait until I have some more experience. I've got a while to think about it, and sift through which cases make the most sense. Also, freaking out somewhat at the weird creative questions they're throwing into the applications: Describe yourself in rhyming couplets. What would the title of your autobiography be? Apple, hero or villain? - discuss. WHAT?!

Next problem jostling for attention in my head is our latest release of essay questions, due in January. While that might seem forever away, I've had two years of experience now as to how little work I manage to achieve over Christmas, what with everything that goes on. See this post for evidence of my essay misery from last year. The bad news is that I have even more words this Christmas than I did last year - 10,000 words compared to last year's 8,000, but at least I have no exams to revise for.

SO, my master plan is to have all of my reading and planning done before I leave for Christmas, and to have at least started one of them. Fingers crossed it'll all go according to plan. I get the results from my mid-term essays this week, and I am preeeeetty terrified, as my Arthurian Literature essay was shoddy at best. I felt like emailing my tutor and apologising, because it's such a bad representation of what I know and enjoy about the module! Gahhhh.

So, essays at the forefront, yes? Not quite, since I still have two weeks of reading to finish up as well. I've really loved my modules this term, especcially my Post-Millennial literature module, where we've looked at the effects of 9/11 on literature, at genre cross-overs, at style experimentations - and all of it written in a fresh, modern prose a million miles away from stuffy 19th Century writing. Yeahhhhhh post-modernism. I've absolutely loved reading What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt recently. Something about it really stuck with me, and I'd thoroughly reccommend it.

I've also had a mini book-swap with an English Studies friend of mine, where we've swapped short stories that are both, coincidentally, being adapted for films in the coming year. I received The Woman in Black, which I've already heard terrified reviews of. My friend A. refused to return to the second half of the play, having been too freaked out in the first half. I'm not good with scary films, and I'm not sure I've ever really read a scary book, so this should be... interesting. I gave her The Great Gatsby, which is pretty much my favourite book ever :)

In film news, we've signed up for a trial of Love Film, so hopefully we'll get to keep on top of seeing all the films we want to watch! I recently caught London Boulevard on my laptop version of Sky Movies the other day as well, which I surprisingly loved. I thought the dialogue was sharp and witty, the characterisation excellent, and that it was much more than your standard London gangster film. ALSO, I had no idea how amazing Colin Farrell was at accents! I think I've fallen a little bit in lust with him. Weird, I'm like 10 years later than everyone else, right?

I think it's the eyebrows that does it...?
Source: http://magiclanternfilm.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/farrell.jpg

Next up, to 'lull' me to sleep, is The Fighter, which I managed to miss in the cinema. Hopefully I haven't overly built up my expectations, like I did with Black Swan.

Off-loading over... Have a good weekend everyone :) xo.