It's almost Christmas, again. This year seems to have gone by so quickly, yet so much has been packed into that space of time. Being home isn't too bad, though I miss the warmness of Rawson (my house is very cold), my computer, TV and hifi, and the freedom afforded by living away at University. Home is a nice break, but I don't think I could move back here for good, like some of my school friends did after graduation last year.

I haven't really been up to a lot since getting back - reading, going on the net, chatting to a few people on msn and talking to Adam for at least a couple of hours a night on the phone. He's pretty busy at home, busier than I am here, so he's not getting much of a chance to text me or anything, so I'm having to stop myself from messaging him as much as I'd like to. Another holiday being apart from a boyfriend - I suppose I should be getting used to it by now. He's coming down to visit on Friday, I hope, which should be good. Someone to keep me sane in this house! My parents are taking my Granny back home to Derby on Saturday, so Rachel, Emma, Adam and I will have the house to ourselves - could be.... interesting!!! ;o) I'm sure we'll have a riotous party.... or maybe we'll just watch a film. That sounds more like it.

Christmas Day tomorrow isn't totally planned out. It could be just the five of us and Granny, or my other Granny and Auntie could be coming, depending on whether my Auntie's cold has got better, There are differing views within the family as to which combination of people we'd prefer. Christmas Day is always a little tense because.... well, not everyone gets on amazingly! But there will be some good food and I get to give everyone my presents - I've bought some pretty groovy ones this year.

Anyway, bed and a book calls, and maybe Adam will phone.......?

After one long crazy 15 week semester I am now back home for a couple of days with the family in that lovely hell hole known as Croydon. Well, Sanderstead, Surrey, if you call it what my Mum suggested before i went to University! My dad came down to pick Adam and me up at midday today (Sunday) and brought us both back here for lunch and an afternoon of just doing nothing. It was lovely to spend somet ime with Adam, in a different setting. I told him he's only the second boyfriend to visit my house (at the time of going out, anyway, a couple of other visited once we'd split up) and when he comes to stay next week he'll be the first one to sleep here. Blimey, that makes it seem like I've had loads of boyfriends (as my Granny sometimes implies!) - I haven't, honestly! I never thought I'd ever have anyone telling me I've been out with loads of guys, but it has happened. It makes me laugh!

The last week has been pretty busy, as ever, with my exam (which wasn't too bad), violin stuff, the Xmas FNO and WEDNESDAY.

On wednesday Adam and I went up to London for the day, and had a fantastic time. At 11.40am we saw the first showing of The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers which was absolutely amazing (I can't wait to see it again) and then we went for an all you can eat pizza with Emma (sister) and Jenny, whom we'd seen it with which was yummy. Then we wandered around London a bit, and randomly decided to get tickets for a show that evening, since neither of us have been to a show in London ever (I know, me, a self confessed drama geek, it's shocking). So, we got tickets to Blood Brothers at the Pheonix Theatre for about £20 each and it was AMAZING!!!! We were both on such a high afterwards, and when I think about it now I get all happy. Adam bought me the soundtrack for Christmas and I can't stop singing it. Go see it, you won't regret it.

Anyway, Adam's just called me, so I'm going to finish this thing, and give my sole attention to my lovely boyfriend!! ;o)

I'm a happy bunny. We finished the Christmas online barefacts today and I'm very proud of it all. Funny to think there won't be any more until the middle of January. I've really enjoyed this semester. It should be even better next term, fingers crossed.

My boys, Steve, Rob and Andy have been running around the corridors shooting each other with cork guns. They're so funny sometimes. Rob even lay ontop of the work surface with a plastic bag on his head as "camouflage". It was... interesting... having to yell "it's me!" every time I walked out of teh kitchen in case I was bombarded with cork pellets.

I'm going out to Chancellors Challenge tonight, though it's probably only going to be Sam and me on our team, as opposed to the normal 5 or 6. Ah well, all the more money if we win.... um, well, anyway.....

I'm going to shoot off and ring home now, with some happy news. :o)

I've almost finished my final piece of coursework this semester, and with it my first final year module is in the bag (if I pass that is)! I've spent so long on my Beethoven essay that I'm pretty much fed up with it now, but luckily it's finished even though it's not sue in til Thursday. I'm going to start doing stuff on the online barefacts edition tomorrow. Have come up with a few things but need lots more and lots of help from Rich. I'm still really scared of messing it all up.

Tomorrow's student council (complete with free mince pie) which I must remember to go to. We're voting through the new constitution so fingers crossed that goes alright. I've been asleep for the past few hours, and slept in until about 11am this morning, so I doubt i'll be able to sleep properly tonight. Adam's lying on my bed flipping channels between something on STDs and a film on the end of the world - interesting! I think we're going to watch some Friends videos soon, or maybe a film. I need to watch "Enemy at the Gates" with him - one of my favourite films, and one of the few I own on DVD.

A guy on TV has just said he tells people he's had pubic lice as 'an ice breaker', Bizarre. I'm off to watch some mindless TV and revel in the knowledge I've finished my coursework for at least a few weeks. :o)

Let me introduce the new...... politically active Sarah!

Yes, today I attended the March for Education in London, along with several thousand (up to 20,000) other students from around the country, to protest about top up fees, fees and student finance isues in general. Only 12 of us went up from Surrey (why, oh why is everyone so apathetic here?!) but we had a really good time. It was tipping it down with rain so we all got very very wet (Charlotte and I had tide marks on our trousers about a foot high!) but we marched, shouted and waved to save our life. We waved at all the office workers, pedestrians and general people we could see, and chanted "what do we want? a free education! when do we want it? now!" many many times. I spent the whole day with Adam, Charlotte and Toni, as we got seperated from the others, and we did the whole march, right from Malet Street to Kennington Park, where we decided to take a break and grab something to drink and eat (crisps) from a pub.

And I watched the news tonight to see that Tony Blair might have made some sort of back track on top up fees. Wa hey!

I really really enjoyed today, spending time with some great people and really doing something about a cause that everyone talks about but not many people here do much about. Come on Surrey students - get passionate about things! You only live once, make sure you go out there and make it worth it.

I've been less than good at updating this thing recently, but now I should have a little more time on my hands. I'm currently beavering away at my final essay of this term (not counting the jazz project due in after the holidays) and am 1,000 through 3,000 words of my first draft. I have a tutorial tomorrow at 11am with Steve to discuss it, and I kinda want to have finished all 3,000 words of my first draft by then, so he can look through it, tell me what's crap and I can redo it. I got a good 2:1 for my first piece of Early 19th Century Studies coursework (the only piece I've got back this term, actually) so let's see if I can keep it up. I'm pretty pleased with how the academic stuff is going this term - I'm managing to fudge my way through without the powers that be realising that I have no idea how to do a music degree - though I need to get myself sorted out over the holidays and do some composition. Violin practice also needs to be increased. But since I've been spending many many hours per week on barefacts, I think it's fair to say I'm doing a pretty good job at organising myself at the mo.

Next weekend I'm doing an all day session for DAVE - the Union individual development training programme, and by the end of the day I'll have my silver award - woo hoo! There will be under 10, if not under 5 people who have got that, so it's quite groovy. The sessions are fun (though getting up at 10am after a Union night out isn't!) and you get lots of sweeties. A couple of weeks ago Adam, Ian and I did an all day session to get the final credits for our bronze award, and it was good fun - I really enjoyed spending all day with a group of people I'd never met before, as well as Ian and Adam.

On Wednesday I'm going up to London with an (as yet quite small) group of UniS students and sabbs for the National Demo Against Top Up Fees which should be good fun. It's a pity cos Emma has a rehearsal for her final concert up in Cambridge that afternoon, or else she would have come on it too and we could have met up. Her term finishes at the end of this week - I can't believe it - we don't finish til December 20th!!

I'm editing the final version of barefacts this term - a purely online version (so I can have lots of colour - woo hoo!) - so, any ideas as to what you'd like to see in a fun Christmassy barefacts would be really welcome. Just drop me a line and I'll love you forever!

But for now I must push all thoughts of that to the back of my head, and get on with the hard stuff - a comparative essay between the final movements of Beethoven's 6th Symphony (pastoral) and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique....