Well, barefacts would be over for a semester..... if it had actually been distributed around campus yet. We've run into a few problems trying to find someone to drive the van who doesn't have lectures/coursework/work to do, so I'm leaving it til Monday. Should be ok, though, as people have 7 weeks to pick them up in, as opposed to the normal 7 days.

Work's been crazy over the past few days, even though there's no barefacts. I've really felt like I'm 'being a sabb' with all the issues that've been coming up - quite exciting really. I really need to get organised and make a list of everything I need to do over the next few weeks. in 3 weeks it'll be the last day of term and I'll have 2 1/2 weeks off - yay yay yay!

We're going out tonight to Old Orleans for Hasan's birthday, and as luck would have it, Neil also has a 'date' (well, he claims it isn't, Ben and I think it is) there at the same time! Should be entertaining....

There was a bomb scare at Cambridge this morning (where my sister, Emma, is at uni), with threats that 2 bombs were going to go off at 2pm, one in the Uni and one in the town. It was all a bit scary, and I talked to my mum and Emma online across 2pm, and luckily nothing happened. Seems to have shaken everyone up a bit though, understandably!

Right, it's almost the end of the day, and I'm off to enjoy my first free weekend in a while - bye bye!! :)

I'm only a couple of hours away from finishing the last barefacts of this semester, and 2003. it's absolutely crazy - I am half way through my issues of barefacts for my sabbatical year. I can't quite believe it.

Well, it's been a rollercoaster term. I've had my ups and downs in terms of the job, but overall it's been pretty good, if a little stressful (understatement of the year)! Through all of it I've been amazingly lucky to have Ben supporting me, and I hope I can support him as much as he has been there for me, during his exams over the next few weeks.

It's four weeks until Christmas Day, and we have 3 1/2 weeks left of semester. I'm getting 2 1/2 weeks off work over Christmas (if booking my holiday days goes to plan) and I absolutely can't wait. It's going to be amazing, spending time with Ben and not worrying about getting to work by 10am or getting barefacts done by every Wednesday afternoon. Only 16 working days left - wa hoo!!

I'm listening to Christmas songs on the mac right now, and feeling all festive and happy and in love and wonderful. It's a great feeling. :)

Just wanted to pop on a quick entry to say that despite work being more than hectic right now, and Ben being bogged down under inhuman amounts of coursework, that I'm a very happy bunny, mainly because I am going out with the most wonderful guy in the world. I really am so so so happy with Ben, happier than I've ever been with anyone before. I love him so so much.

Ben, you're amazing. You make me smile, laugh and give the most amazing hugs and kisses ever. I love you more than I thought it was possible to love someone. x x x x x x x x

I wish I had more time to update this thing, but unfortunately I can't see that happening until at least July 2004! I haven't even had time to restart the sabb weblogs on ussu.co.uk since they mysteriously died a few months ago.

I seem to be getting into work between 9 and 10am each day, and then leaving any time between 6pm (very rare) and 4am (slightly less rare) - crazy stuff. We only have 3 more weeks left on barefacts before Christmas, and at last we seem to be settling into a routine that works quite well. I have Chris, Ben, Neil and Pete all trained in laying up, and they're gradually taking more and more pages off my back. All I need to do now is phase in the new Friday 5pm article deadline, and all will be sorted... It's getting to be quite a problem when I have 4 willing volunteers all of Monday and no articles cos most of my section editors insist on sending theirs in at, or even after 5pm! It takes on average an hour pwe page (laying up, designing etc), so do the maths, and work out how late we normally stay on a Tuesday night!

Last weekend Ben and I went up to Cambridge to visit my sister at Christ's College, and had a wonderful time going to formal hall, a cocktail bar and then on a nice touristy wander round the town. Since I visited all those many years ago in 1998 I've only been up once, a year ago, so we had a great time. Ben had never been there before, and was suitably impressed by its other worldliness! ;o)

Today we've returned from a weekend at Ben's home home near Salisbury, which was grrrrrreat. His family are absolutely wonderful, and we had a great time going into Salisbury, watching an amazing fireworks display and making the most amazing coconut/vanilla/banana/cream cocktail in the world. T'was pretty cool.

So, we're now almost into week 10.... phew! 3 more weeks of barefacts, 3 more weeks of lectures for Ben, and then we can go and do all sorts of exciting things (like see LotR RotK when it comes out - whoopee)! Ah yes, and there's the small matter of Ben's final year exams, but I'm sure he'll do wonderfully.

Ben - I love you. X x X x X