the good, the bad and the whiny

another cold day today. Looks like the last petulant tantrum before winter finally decides to stop bugging us and let spring take over.

talk about cruelty to animals: seems like someone's been putting pirahna(s) in the thames river. (http:/www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/02/20/offbeat.london.piranha.reut/index.html)

returned to london this afternoon. Must say that I had a really enjoyable time in oxford. Chilling in coffee republic, walking down (and up) high street, admiring the beautiful flowering (sakura?) tree outside university church, strolling through the university park, eating special chips, watching mtvs and other tv programs, using a lightless bathroom etc etc..

visiting oxford (and this goes for cambridge too) always makes me regret not applying there. Yeah I know: the grass is always greener on the other side. Well in this case, not only is the grass greener; there's more grass too, in pristinely-maintained college quads and huge playing fields, and also lovely rivers, beautiful countryside scenery and terrific architecture.

guess at this point I should provide the mandatory defence of the place I'm actually studying in, and thereby prove myself to be a rational, well-adjusted, considers-all-pros-and-cons deep-thinking intelligent human being. Unfortunately only one thing that immediately springs to mind when I consider what I like about UCL: slackness. Where else would I be able to switch off for most of the year, work hard for one month before the exams, and still end up with a first for said exams? Oh, and which also thoughtfully provide reading weeks so that I can go to places like oxford and cambridge and wonder aloud about how much nicer those places are. Great place, ain't it?

okay, resentful outburst over. We now return you to your regular scheduled programming.